Europe needs to stimulate creativity and entrepreneurial mindset in young people in order to be able to respond to current societal needs. It wishes to encourage innovative business start-ups and foster a culture that is friendlier to entrepreneurship as well as to the growth of small and medium-sized business. A perceived lack of capabilities remains one of the most frequently cited barriers for people to start a business: this is a particular challenge for young people entering the job market, who have to rely more on education to gain relevant knowledge and skills. According to the latest statistics (OECD 2018 report) more than half of the young people aged 18-30 years reported a lack of entrepreneurship knowledge and skills while mentioning as well the insufficient opportunities to learn these. Reinforcing entrepreneurial education in schools, vocational education institutions and universities has a positive impact on the entrepreneurial dynamism of the EU economy. The statistics confirm that students participating in any form of entrepreneurship education are three to six times more likely to start a business at some point later in life than those who did not receive such education. The European Commission has therefore recently emphasised the need to embed entrepreneurial learning in all sectors of education including non-formal learning. The project " Now, I know how " comes with a proposal to react to the above mentioned educational, economic and societal needs, setting as its aim to develop, describe, test, evaluate and disseminate an innovative training approach with a view of fostering entrepreneurial mindset and creativity as well as enhancing competitiveness and employability of youth. The approach is innovative in several aspects concerning the training method as well as the curricula: ultimately, it enhances effectiveness and leads to learning outcomes which make young people significantly more competitive, employable, able to solve the societal needs and ready to make full use of the advantages of the EU single market. The first project activity consists in carrying-out a training "Now, I know how!", for 29 students from three different countries and their accompanying teachers, structured in 2 experiential learning modules of 5 days each and an online learning part divided in group classes and individual career guidance and follow-up. Experiential modules will take place in Italy: the "Made in Italy" brand, reflecting a long history and tradition of highly skilled work, top level craftsmanship and entrepreneurial projects of different sizes, will be used as a case study and paradigm which will allow to retrieve a know-how that can subsequently be transposed and developed in different cultures, fields of professional activity, based on the student’s individual aspirations and potential. Contrary to the traditional teaching approaches for young people which tend to prefer homogeneous groups of students, for “Now I know how” diversity will be a goal - diversity, be it in terms of educational background of the students, culture and nationality, their life experience or age, will systematically be exploited in order to enhance mutual enrichment and team dynamics. In this carefully prepared context, students will have the opportunity to experience how lifestyle, creative mind-set and responsible personal development precede and determine any successful innovation, business project, professional choice, deep knowledge or ability to provide key solutions to issues in the society where they live and operate. In the framework of the second project activity, a structured on-line forum discussion will be taking place, allowing students and trainers to follow learning progress, identify specific training needs, points and themes to put more or less stress on, thus making the training approach truly tailor-made and individualized. Participating organizations themselves will share their know-how and will identify best practices leading to success in training young people. A handbook and video material, as a third project activity, will be prepared, describing the pedagogical approach applied, explaining its making and showing its value through concrete outcomes achieved. It will bring a sort of full story report of the "Now, I know how!" experience: from different angles, the pedagogical approach will be exemplified in its innovative dimension. The material will be disseminated in the educational sphere as well as to stakeholders and wider public, through different available channels. In order to pursue discussions further, present the project results, intensify its impact and open the way to potential new cooperations, two dissemination events are foreseen, a conference in Prague (Czech Republic) and workshops in Dobrich (Bulgaria), reuniting experts, stakeholders, policy makers, students, teachers, entrepreneurs and professionals.
• Creating a project in a partnership of 3 different organisations, each of them with its own educational aim, expertise and path, while spotting and exploiting synergies, points of complementarity, achieving mutual enrichment and providing inspiration to each other’s work and further development. • Developing, implementing, testing, evaluating and describing an innovative training methodology, addressing successfully the identified needs. • Achieving impactful learning outcomes for the students: enhancing their employability, stimulating creativity and entrepreneurial mind-set, equipping them with skills and competencies necessary to succeed in any kind of professional activity in the globalised world. • Putting forward a concrete proposal on how to contribute to the solution of the above mentioned societal needs in the field of entrepreneurial skills acquisition and enhancing creativity. • Increasing awareness about the necessity to develop one of the key competencies, entrepreneurship knowledge, skills and attitudes, seen the lack of available capabilities on several levels. • Facilitating the discussion on entrepreneurial and leadership education and developing new cooperation schemes with the objective of tackling competitiveness and employability of youth. • Enhancing the readiness of youth to engage professionally within the EU single market. • Reinforcing cooperation with partners coming from other countries, fields of education, training and socio-economic contexts. • Gaining experience with the implementation, monitoring and follow-up of international EU projects. • Open a path to maintain the project’s results for the future through dissemination and launching new co-operations.
The aim of fostering entrepreneurship competences and creativity is best supported when taking place in a variety of learning environments, building partnerships between schools/learning/other educational institutions and businesses. With this purpose in mind, the “Now I know how!” partnership was created. The synergy between three different organisations – a grammar school (Czech-Italian section of the secondary school Ústavní from Prague, Czechia), an NGO concentrating on young organic entrepreneurs (Black Sea Center of Excellence, Dobrich, Bulgaria) and private training and consultancy company (Foilservice, SME, Marudo, Italy) – brought its results for each partner in terms of acquiring knowledge of each other’s working environment (especially taking into account the powerfully changing societal context), best practices, focus and target groups, cooperation with local, regional, international authorities. The Gymnazium, Praha 8, Ustavni 400, coordinator organisation, applied for the Erasmus+ project as an educational institution to let a selected group of its students experience an innovative pedagogical approach focusing on the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills and, more in general, development of skills necessary to face successfully the job market and the world of work (and even more). The section of Gymnázium that was involved in the project was the Czech-Italian bilingual one, therefore a particular value (motivation factor) added was represented by the “Made in Italy'' brand used as a background and paradigm of the training, as well as the fact that experiential modules took place in Italy: students could learn about its culture, roots, history, directly on the ground and sharpen also their language skills. The Black Sea Center of Excellence, as an NGO whose main goal is to increase the youth awareness and involvement in modern economic development of Bulgaria in harmony with nature and environment, has seen in “Now I know how!” an opportunity to gain more experience and implement the innovative approach to entrepreneurial study among local community in the region of Dobrich, Bulgaria. Thus, a group of young people with different background but common desire to start their own business have been given the chance to get both theoretical and practical knowledge from “the spring”, meeting with well-known and successful Italian entrepreneurs and sharing ideas with their partners and peers from Czech Republic and Italy. For Foilservice, the “Now I know how!” project represented a precious opportunity to further develop its prior experience with innovative training methods. The original wish was to enlarge and diversify audience and outreach, and this was the first opportunity to design and carry-out a training project with participants coming from Bulgaria and Czechia, while building on the experience already gained in terms of: tailor-made training reacting to the needs of specific participants as they unfold, alternating training methods, using Made in Italy as a paradigm and background for entrepreneurial learning, focusing on lifestyle and personality development within the whole duration of the training, encouraging and actually structurally using diversity within the curricula of the training rather than forming homogeneous groups (“Now I know how!” involved not only a group of students of 3 different nationalities, but also a large age cohort, 16-30, which practically means two different generations. Here, a lot of effort in terms of developing the group dynamics was invested this time). It was also the first training that structurally involved online teaching. Further, the “Now I know how!” project helped to bridge the gap between the educational sphere and business: grammar school students in particular had none or very little occasions prior to the participation in this project to actually meet, discuss and interact with entrepreneurs, young and mature ones, and this opportunity was particularly appreciated. The project also brought inspiration in terms of embedding innovative features in training of young people (see for instance the example of Cinelogy, described in the handbook, chapter Module I, from various points of view). Last but not least, all partners wished for enrichment between participants of different age, experience and culture to take place, wish that came true fully. As for the needs, they were as follows: • Need to stimulate creativity and entrepreneurial mind-set Europe needs to stimulate creativity and entrepreneurial mind-set in young people in order to be able to respond to current societal needs. Through an ongoing pandemic triggering significant societal changes this need was more acute than ever before, there are challenges that will need to be faced by the young generation - the most adaptable one, able and eager to learn, ready to grasp challenges and opportunities. From this perspective, the “Now I know how!” project provided young people with a timely stimulus and answer to various situations they were going through: tailor-made training, prepared jointly with partners, focusing on entrepreneurship and creativity precisely through topics related to lifestyle and personality. So, starting from oneself, rather than acquiring skills and knowledge that risks to become obsolete more quickly than ever before. It is to be noted here that, despite the need to face a great degree of organisational uncertainty, both experiential modules taking place in Italy (September 2021 and May 2022) – necessary and essential to achieve the learning outcomes envisaged by the project together with the online learning – were maintained. Thanks to the effort of all, logistics was adapted so as to meet all required safety and security standards in a health crisis. EXAMPLES: Alongside with all practical activities, in particular workshops (masonry, cooking) inserted on the programme of the training modules, please see: Module V of the book, Floor to “Now I know how!” students Many students mention as salient points of their experience the outcome in terms of personal development and/or change of perspective in career options to consider. Module V of the book, Self-knowledge Which summarises the experience of applying a learning tool, typical in CEO’s training in Switzerland, to young people. • Need to encourage innovative business start-ups and a culture that is friendlier to entrepreneurship Europe wishes to encourage innovative business start-ups and foster a culture that is friendlier to entrepreneurship as well as to the growth of small and medium-sized business. A perceived lack of capabilities remains one of the most frequently cited barriers for people to start a business: this is a particular challenge for young people entering the job market, who have to rely more on education to gain relevant knowledge and skills. According to the latest statistics (OECD 2018 report) more than half of the young people aged 18-30 years reported a lack of entrepreneurship knowledge and skills while mentioning as well the insufficient opportunities to learn these. The statistics confirm that students participating in any form of entrepreneurship education are three to six times more likely to start a business at some point later in life than those who did not receive such education. The project “Now I know how!” provided young people with an opportunity to acquire entrepreneurial skills at a very early stage (as early as 16 years old), which had the impact, first and foremost, of gaining an idea about what entrepreneurship actually is and what it entails, so as to be able to consider it among the choices they consider. Through interacting directly with entrepreneurs/business founders and leaders themselves, young people could actually “touch with hand” the whole issue: who entrepreneurs are as people, how is their personality, what is the motivation that keeps them going, how it develops through different phases in life, what are the goals they pursue in the society and what brings them happiness, satisfaction and self-actualization. From there, a wide range of cases were represented in our group of students: those who started a business shortly after the training, those who changed their perspective and enlarged the field of possible choices, also thanks to career guidance, those who certainly wish to start looking for a job as a first step, those who could decide that entrepreneurship is not really for them as they have other wishes and dreams. EXAMPLES: Module V of the book, Case study “Now I know how!” (Adriana Ullah, 16 years old) A comprehensive overview of the learning path from the point of view of a “Now I know how!” student: from the first steps upon signing up to the training to actually founding her own brand as a result of the experience. Module V of the book, Case study “Vito Lomele” Provides an interview with the founder of several start-ups (JobRapido, FiscoZen) whom Adriana mentions in her story. Module II, III, IV of the book, Case study “Guido Martinetti (GROM spa and MURA MURA)” Focusing on motivation and self-actualization through business activity. • Need to reinforce entrepreneurial education in schools, vocational education institutions and universities Which has a positive impact on the entrepreneurial dynamism of the EU economy. The European Commission has therefore recently emphasised the need to embed entrepreneurial learning in all sectors of education, including non-formal learning. The project "Now I know how!" had the prime objective of reacting to the above mentioned educational, economic and societal needs: it developed, described, tested, evaluated and disseminated an innovative training approach with a view of fostering entrepreneurial mind-set and creativity as well as enhancing competitiveness and employability of youth. It served as a source of inspiration for enriching school curricula with galvanising and impactful elements, both in terms of content and training methods: ultimately, the “Now I know how!” training approach enhanced effectiveness and lead to learning outcomes which make young people significantly more competitive, employable, able to solve the societal needs and ready to make full use of the advantages of the EU single market. EXAMPLES: Module II, III, IV of the book, Case study “My first business activity while still going to school: Arianna Pozzi” With a focus on starting at an early age, how to learn, what is available at school and what is missing. Module II, III, IV of the book, Case study: “Music, from passion to profession, Enrico Saverio Pagano” Focusing again on the link between knowledge and skills, theory and practice, motivation, what was a useful source for learning. Module V of the book, Three fundamental premises of professional practice Lecture on the essentials to know and learn in order to approach any professional activity successfully.