GO-CIRCULAR project proposal means to be a follow-up of Youth Re Working Rural project (https://youthreworking.eu/), project aiming at fostering youth entrepreneurship and local development in rural areas through co-working and spaces reconversion. GO-CIRCULAR innovates and complement Youth Re-Working Rural, levering of products and results achieved and enlarging its area of action. Project’s main objective is to promote employment and entrepreneurship in European rural areas by empowering young people with the capabilities to create co-working & start-up incubators exploiting potentialities offered by circular economy, with concrete examples in three specific areas: furniture, agro-business & building/housing, as these economic sectors represent strategic fields for European smart economic and social development. Project’s specific objectives are: - to promote employment and entrepreneurship in European rural areas by increasing young people capabilities to reconvert empty spaces to host co-working & start-up incubators, exploiting potentialities offered by circular economy; - to promote youth skills and competencies for the development of co-working spaces & start-up incubators focused on three specific areas: furniture, agro-business & building/housing; - to equip young people with relevant circular economy skills, that are at a cross roads between citizenship competencies and entrepreneurial competences; - to foster youth capabilities to operate at transnational level for developing joint concrete circular coworking projects. The project will be implemented by a complementary partnership composed by 6 organisations from 4 different EU countries (Slovenia, Norway, Denmark and Italy). There is a good balance between not for profit organisations dealing with education and training addressed to young people and companies that have implemented successful projects in the field of circularity. Project will involve directly in training activities at least 100 young people, aged between 20 and 29 years, living in different rural areas, interested in the topics covered by the project (entrepreneurship, coworking, start-up, circular economy and sustainable economic development) and in personal development. Specific attention is given to NEET. By participating to the project, young people will see their opportunities for self employment and employability improved, thanks to the relevant skills gained for exploiting potentialities offered by circular economy for co-working and start-up incubators development. Direct involvement of relevant stakeholders (such as spaces owners, business angels, public administrators, schools, youth workers and NGOs, companies investors and trainers) is achieved through the creation of Local Development Open Groups, evaluation of intellectual outputs and projects developed by learners during C activities, participation to the Virtual Community and exploitation purposes. The GO-CIRCUALR Project, in order to materialise its objectives and produce its deliverables, comprises a set of intellectual outputs and C activities, supported by management activities and dissemination and exploitation activities that will ensure the use of its results even after the project has ended. C activities will constitute the core of the project as they will allow groups of young people to put ideas into practice; by creating business ideas for circular coworking spaces and start-up incubators & physical prototypes. Moreover, project foresees the production, use, evaluation and promotion of 4 intellectual outputs: IO 1 - Training programme for co-working & start-up incubators managers in the era of circular economy, IO2 - Manual for business idea development & prototyping, IO 3 - European Qualification Framework of the co-working & start-up incubator manager in the era of circular economy, IO4 - Compendium of prototypes: including youth’ workplace business projects developed during c activities. IO 4 will be the most relevant product for assuring the sustainability of the project. All intellectual outputs will be uploaded on the website and made available to target groups, partners, associate partners and external stakeholders during and beyond the life of the project. Circular co-working spaces prototypes will remain visible to external stakeholders interested in further investing in circular co-working models. The dissemination activities will be designed ad hoc for the new virtual generation and to assure transferability and sustainability of products and results. Instragram, You Tube and the Virtual Community will be the core of the dissemination strategy. Partners commit themselves to further invest in co-working creation and improvement and to create a bridge between young people and potential investors to make sure that, at least some of the idas developed, could become real coworking and start-up incubators spaces in the next future.
Go-Circular intended: - to promote employment and entrepreneurship in EU rural areas by increasing young people capabilities to reconvert empty spaces so to host collaborative working environments, exploiting potentialities offered by circular economy. - to foster youth ability and autonomy to operate at transnational level for developing joint concrete projects. - to equip young people with relevant circular economy skills, that are at a crossroads between citizenship competencies and entrepreneurial competences. - to develop innovative models to shape circular co-working spaces and setup competitive circular entrepreneurial ideas with a focus on the furniture, agri-business & building/housing industries. - to back the standardization of good skills performances among youth in EU rural areas. - to boost international cooperation (beyond the partner countries) in the youth field, contributing to the achievement of relevant EU objectives. - to favor EU-level peer learning between youth and trainers. - to boost local territories entrepreneurial capability and environmental awareness.
The project was rooted into evidences from Eurostat, OECD and ILO showing worrying data with respect to youth unemployment rates in Europe and the impact of this in terms of growth and cohesion of EU societies. Young people face specific challenges in the transition from school to work (being new to the labour market, they often meet discriminations and are less likely to find decent jobs); geographical barriers represent one of the major factors affecting that transition, pushing youth towards brain-drain and migration to big cities. At the same time, people are always more and more sensitive about environmental issues and are asking for more ecological solutions. This new sensibility is bringing new strengths to the concept of circular economy. Go-Circular intended to tackle those challenges boosting self-entrepreneurial skills and the referred mindset by exploiting potentialities offered by circular economy, with concrete examples in three specific areas: furniture, agri-business & building/housing. These economic sectors represent strategic fields for European smart economic and social development, offering important investment opportunities in term of circular reconversion.