- The reason for the project Generally speaking, young people are in a less favourable social and economic position than other age groups. There are many reasons why youth unemployment is high. The most noticeable reasons are: lack of experience and internship programs, imbalance in demand and supply in the labour market, education system based on theoretical knowledge with a little practical knowledge, lack of entrepreneurial climate... The main objective of this project is to motivate young people in the age group 18-30 years to self-employment and help them in the start-up period through a professional assistance programme. In conversation with many young entrepreneurs who started their small businesses they highlight that the biggest problems for them are: lack of knowledge in start-up management, financing, accounting, bureaucracy and confusing procedures, lack of marketing knowledge, patenting and company formation problems, market approach strategy. Opportunities for their entrepreneurship exist, however, there is not a support system or experts and resources available to assist young potential entrepreneurs in assessing their ideas, motivating and supporting them and giving them tools in order to succeed in their start-up phase and during the toughest first year of business, at least. - The basic starting point The performance of SMEs & their economic success depend a lot on the ability of the managers & directors to develop & test new products & launch ideas into the market. In most cases this is done in an ad hoc manner, lacking any form of systems &/or processes. Europe 2020, EU's growth strategy, is looking to develop the EU to become a smart, sustainable & inclusive economy. These three mutually reinforcing priorities should help the EU & the Member States deliver high levels of employment, productivity & social cohesion. Entrepreneurship Acceleration Scheme for Youth (EASY) has a role to play in achieving this strategy. - The main aims & objectives of the projects The main aim is the transfer of innovation & the establishment of a training programme in 3 new countries, 4 new languages & across different sectors. The development of an international e-learning manual will also be a big help for trainers & users, compiling the most important things to know & to learn. The multilingual aspect of the project is of high relevance as well supporting the offering of training programme for the first time on a European level. The idea would be to transfer this methodology to partners´ institutions to teach their young entrepreneurs to “systematize the entrepreneurship”, that is, they learn how to be an entrepreneur & minimise the need to return to partners´ institution each time they have a potential idea to launch into the market. - The characteristics of the consortium that will implement the proposal This is a small but perfectly formed consortium, containing the organisation who developed the methodology & a mix of academia, VET institutions & development agencies working with the youth and entrepreneursip. Adding in their wider networks The project is geared to being widely disseminated to, & exploited with, (1) VET institutions, & (2) business leaders/future leaders who are, or could be lifelong learners. We are looking to support them to upgrade their thinking by gaining the tools & skills for “systematic youth entrepreneurship”. - A general description of the tangible & intangible outcomes The series of activities that will be undertaken can be listed as: • Transfer & testing of the tools & training for the analysis of the entrepreneurial capacities of organizations. • Localisation, design, development & testing of a training programme (modules) to address the identified shortcomings in the partner countries & partner client sectors • Writing a publication of a methodological guide. - The impact envisaged Short term impacts: • A Entrepreneurship Acceleration Scheme for Youth training programme further developped and transferred to 3 new countries & into 3 new languages + English, • at least 50 participants on the conference in Poland. In longer term the project supports: • Development of new companies, • New job opportunities & the offer of new services, social values, • The possibility of the exchange of experiences, • A European training programme & platform that can be used by each EU country (not just the 4 partners), drawing on the expertise of the consortium wide staff.
Enterprise Acceleration Program for Youth - 2017-1-PL01-KA205-037837, under the Erasmus + Program Cooperation for and exchange of good practices - a strategic partnership for young people, was carried out between 30/09/2017 and 29/03/2019. The Partners of the Education, Health and Development Foundation were: Business Innovation Brokers S. COOP. - EIBAR from Spain, the Institute of Social Innovations from the Czech Republic and Gaia Ökológiai és Vidékfejlesztési Alapítvány from Hungary. Implemented activities: - "effective knowledge and transfer of RSBP methodology to various partners." This result was achieved not only because of a week of joint training for employees of the consortium's institutions in Poland in February 2018, but because there is evidence (questionnaires and report on the adoption of the RSBP methodology) by the staff of each institution), which states that the internal methodology distribution was conducted with the participation of employees of each institution, moreover, trained staff used the methodology with entrepreneurs and contributed to the creation of training materials (Result 1) - materials available on the platform http: // www. easyproject.info/) - "testing the RSBP methodology in a different context with potential entrepreneurs". The trained staff of each institution applied the principles and tools of the RSBP with its potential entrepreneurs (about 50 per institution), and they provided feedback to their teachers about this test, the platform on which the training materials are found, and thus the feedback was used to adjust methodologies to their specific contexts and needs. Of course, this is a continuous process and in the next years RSBP will be stabilized and adapted material available on the platform http://www.easyproject.info. - "increasing awareness of the need to prove to young people the experience and tools of social entrepreneurship". Again, according to information provided by potential young entrepreneurs (12 people between 18-30 years old), who took part in Blended Mobility in Spain and a summary conference in Poland, which gathered over 80 participants, we can say that we were able to motivate young people people to self-employment and help their group acquire the required skills to become an experienced entrepreneur thanks to the professional help of staff trained with RSBP. Summary of project achievements: - four entities involved in the project implementation were able to establish cooperation with the social innovation ecosystem in their regions and provide knowledge about the transferred RSBP methodology and the main project achievements (including online platform, training materials.); - similarly, a group of potential young entrepreneurs (50 as an average per entity) was informed and participated in various seminars, information workshops, training sessions and final recapitulation events organized within 18 months of the project and the group (concerning young people) had the opportunity to take a closer look at the methodology and successful experiences during the trip to Spain. What's more, the durability of the project was secured because several employees from each institution were trained on the RSBP issue during Joint Staff Training, which took place in Sucha Beskidzka and was passed on to the rest of the staff; - summary conference in Poland at the end of the project was a key stage to measure program achievements, over 80 people followed detailed results and project plan, we can conclude that the impact of the project was as originally expected. In addition, material from the conference in the form of recordings and presentations of participants is available on our online platform and every person can play it. In longer term the project supports: • Development of new companies, • New job opportunities & the offer of new services, social values, • The possibility of the exchange of experiences, • A European training programme & platform that can be used by each EU country (not just the 4 partners), drawing on the expertise of the consortium wide staff.