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Maker education tools to improve entrepreneurial skills for disadvantaged youth groups

2020-1-BE05-KA105-0028322020Youth mobilityfinalized
Countries: BE|CY|ES|LT|HU|SK|TR|PL · Grant: €14,807.4
Entrepreneurial learning - entrepreneurship educationAccess for disadvantagedYouth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Objectives

We are aware that the European youth has incredibly high their opportunities and competences over the past decades. However, there is still growing threats hampering youth participation and engagement in the creation of peaceful, inclusive and cohesive societies. 1. Youth unemployment rates are generally much higher, even double or more than double, than unemployment rates for all ages. 2. According to Eurostat, in 2014, the at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion indicator (AROPE) rated for young people aged 15–29 was 29.8 % in the EU-28, corresponding to about 25.9 million young people. 3. Regarding marginalization and radicalization, the data from the EUROPOL report entitled "European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report” explains that when coming to youth, religious violence accounted for only 10 of the attacks out of 2,176 total attacks, or 0.5% of the attacks. Separatists accounted for 70% of the attacks with 1,516 of the 2,176 attacks. Similarly, Right-Wing extremists, another focus, committed 6 attacks over the 5 year period, or 0.3%, while left-wing extremists often thought to have “collapsed with the Soviet Union and the Cold War in the 1980s”, 84 committed 164 attacks, or 8%, which is ten times the amount committed over the five year period by the right-wing and religious groups combined. During our fall General Assembly of 2019 and following the urgent need to equip youth workers to better reach and engage disadvantaged youngsters the GA decided to work on the definition of a project that will reflect on innovative methods to skill disadvantaged youngsters with entrepreneurial skills while preparing youth workers on the same methods. Inspired by the European Commission publication on the "Overview of the Maker Movement in the European Union" the Consortium" decided to use the principles of maker education proven to be an effective way to develop the entrepreneurial skills and mindset of youth people, as a key element to foster an easier and more prepared inclusion within their communities. By focusing on maker education, as a learning approach that allows learners to imagine, design, and create projects that align the content of learning with a hands-on application (basic requirement to boost entrepreneurial skills), the different activities of this program are mainly focusing at the achievement of two main goals: 1. Equipping youth workers with competences and methods on maker education that will prepare them for better empowering disadvantaged youngsters, and 2. Preventing and tackling youth unemployment, risk of poverty and exclusion, marginalization and radicalization among the local youth communities by directly defining activities that will successfully reach and empower disadvantaged youngsters, boosting their entrepreneurial skills and raising, thus their changes to social and labor market inclusion. Specific objectives of this project fall as follows: 1. Explore new ways to include maker education, methodologies, and tools within the scope of youth work and non-formal education. 2. Boost youth workers' professional competences on maker education methodologies, and tools applied to their work with disadvantaged youth groups. 3. Boost youth workers' professional & personal competences as to better comprehend, understand and emphasize with the disadvantaged youngsters they work with. 4. Develop activities based on maker education to be implemented with disadvantaged youngsters directly targeting at boosting their entrepreneurial skills as a pre-requisite to boost youth employment and avoid the risk of poverty, marginalization, and radicalization.

Project partners (8)