Globalisation has made the world more complex and uncertain: crises in other countries can quickly have worldwide repercussions, as the financial crisis of 2008 shows. It is therefore necessary to equip Europe's citizens with entrepreneurial skills which enable them to react more flexibly to rapidly changing circumstances. A main focus is on the ability to put one's own ideas into practice and creating social value for our society. Given the global challenges the world is facing, it is essential to encourage the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in Europe in order to develop sustainable solutions to global problems (e.g. climate change, etc.) without being left behind by non-member states. The EU Commission's strategy is formulated in the "Small Business Act" (2011) and "Entrepreneurship Action Plan 2020", which aimed at supporting businesses and proposed entrepreneurial education in schools, universities and VET (vocational education and training). Today, SMEs are considered the most important source of employment, creating millions of new jobs in Europe every year. After the EU Commission especially disadvantage groups like migrants shall be encouraged to start a business. According to an OECD study (2010), it is especially migrants who show a higher entrepreneurial spirit. This is not least because this target group is often faced with legal difficulties as well as limited job and career prospects. Self-employment is usually a good alternative on the path to finding work. Also, many migrants already have experience in self-employment or a high innovation potential and are good at developing ideas, as they had to adapt to what were sometimes the most adverse living conditions. However, the educational measures they participate in give little or no consideration to this topic. The focus is usually on taking up paid work with social insurance or starting vocational training. The MigrEntrepreneur project (MigrEnt) aims at presenting best-practice examples of entrepreneurial learning and start-ups of migrants or refugees, integrating successful approaches into educational measures. In cooperation with other European partners and local institutions, (Chambers of Commerce and Economic Development) are presented best practices from different sectors and fields of work. By exchanging ideas and methods the project aims to find common points how to make it possible to empower migrants, provide them with skills, which are recognised also in other states, if they plan to move. Integration through entrepreneurial learning is one approach followed by the partnership. Furthermore, the project combines different sectors and improves a sustainable cooperation between the youth sector, VET and the economic sector. Through organization of 5 transnational project meeting and one Teaching Activity, the project is delivering following benefits for partners and the wider network: * enrich and enlarge the competences of the (partnering) institutions and the staff members such as an enlargement of knowledge * improvement and professionalisation of established training programs * input and new ideas for designing new trainings flexible enough to adjust to national specific conditions * empower and acquire migrants (participants in training programs) with entrepreneurship competences * provide the target group with better (self) - employment opportunities * strengthening the entrepreneurial potential of the target group of migrants * through teaching entrepreneurship participants will be empowered also in their personal life, e.g. they are empowered in problem solution etc. The project will also deliver a sustainable documentation concluding a collection of best practices with an evaluation regarding their adaptability and implementation possibilities in other local/regional or national contexts and concrete ideas of implementation, which can be used by other institutions. In the long run the project can contribute to a better integration of migrants as it is strengthening their employability potential and their self-employability. This target groups faces a lot of challenges regarding job integration, but on the other hand they are bringing a lot of creativity and entrepreneurial potential in. Studies are proving a higher readiness to start a business. Starting new businesses will lead on the long term also to more vacancies, which will finally strengthen the economic conditions. Further, the project aims at improving the transfer of entrepreneurial skills into VET systems and/or special training programs, which can promote the innovativeness not just in the partnering regions and states but also in Europe.
The objectives of the MigrEntrepreneur project were to strengthen the (self-) employability potential of migrants, such as a strengthening of the economic conditions in the EU by providing citizens with key competences (entrepreneurial skills). Further objectives were to contribute to a better integration of migrants through strengthening their employability potential. These larger objectives were accompanied by concreter ones like enlarging the competences & knowledge of (partnering) institutions and staff members, improvement & professionalisation of established training programs, designing new trainings fitting to national specific conditions, empower migrants not only with entrepreneurship competences but also in their personal life as teaching entrepreneurial skills will lead also to better flexibility and problem solution. In the long term one objective is to improve the transfer of knowledge and methods between the sectors of economy, VET-systems and youth work and establish entrepreneurial learning in a better way in the existing formal and non-formal education systems.
Globalisation makes the world more complex & uncertain: local crises can quickly have worldwide repercussions, as we experienced over the last years (pandemic and recently started war in Ukraine). It is therefore necessary to equip Europe's citizens and economies with entrepreneurial skills, enabling them to react more flexibly to rapidly changing circumstances. According to several studies (OECD in 2010), it is especially migrants who show a higher entrepreneurial spirit. This is not least because this target group is often faced with legal difficulties as well as limited job and career prospects. Self-employment is usually a good alternative on the path to finding work. Also, many migrants already have experience in self-employment or a high innovation potential and are good at developing ideas, as they had to adapt to what were sometimes the most adverse living conditions. However, educational measures give little or no consideration to this topic. The focus is usually on taking up paid work with social insurance or starting vocational training. Therefore, action should be taken to strengthen entrepreneurship within mentioned target group. These include the integration of entrepreneurial education into educational measures.