The problem of youth unemployment is a global issue. In January 2020, 3.17 million young people (under 25) were unemployed in the EU. The youth unemployment rate was 14.2% but general unemployment rate was 6.2% in the EU. There is a huge gap between general unemployment rate and youth unemployment rate. Youth employment has become a long-term problem in the EU. The problem has become more serious and complicated as youth unemployment can lead to social exclusion and unrest. Youth unemployment problem which is one of the popular topics that EU prioritizes, improved levels of skills for employability and new business creation for the needs of young are going to be considered in whole project. There are several reasons for youth unemployment: besides the general situation in the labour market, important factors are education and training systems, labour market and employment policies, but also the stratification and distribution of opportunities in society. This project aims to develop a transnational strategic initiative which focus on contributing to achieve the Europe 2020 objectives of smart, sustainable and inclusive economic growth. An innovative, practical and dynamic system will be created to facilitate the transition of international students (IS) from education in host country (where they get their university degree) to world of work in their home countries and to promote sense of initiative and entrepreneurship for both IS and national students (NS). Firstly, in this project (with IO-1 and IO-2) information packages for the target groups of this project, namely IS and NS, will be prepared. These information packages consist of two parts; 1) a practical guide to create international marketing network designed for both target groups and SMEs (IO-1) 2) a useful toolkit to increase sense of entrepreneurship and to promote participation in labour market in their home countries for IS and in international markets for NS (IO-2). The consortium will develop new training materials to improve the level of key competencies and skills of young people to be entrepreneur and start a new business. In addition, these trainings will include some ITC parts, in order to gain increased level of digital competence to become more employable. In other words, the project aims to contribute to skills, qualifications and career paths of the youth and create new opportunities for entrepreneurship. Besides, this project will also try to overcome the unhappiness and the social problems of the young people which could become seriously hazardous to many human beings. In accordance with the aim of this project, a unique consortium structure is constructed. A youth organisation, a university, a training academy and a labour association would be creating a great synergy to implement this project and its outputs. The project will produce Open Education Resources in the field of basics outcomes from major of Business Administration and Economics, E-learning Courses in the field of entrepreneur to encourage youth, and training toolkit to gain important skills and qualification. Second, an online platform (with IO-3, IO-4 and IO-5) which will serve as an innovative and dynamic system to match the national SMEs which actively seek for foreign markets with the relevant well-educated and competent IS. Online platform will offer work-based learning opportunities for IS and NS. They will learn how to create business in their specific field with the help of host country professional firms, namely national SMEs. Besides, IS can easily access the technical information on goods and services produced in host country to sell foreign student’s home country will be designed.
For any country, IS (target group of NMI) possess great potentials; IS are potential entrepreneur and able to create international marking linkage for national small and medium enterprises (nSME). nSME are active in production and potential for rapid economic growth and generating employment. nSME have limited capacities to reach international markets. Thus, they are restricted to domestic markets and their growth potentials are bounded. NMI proposes an innovative way to match potentials of IS with resources of SMEs. To alleviate youth unemployment, NMI created systematic collaboration between IS and nSME on creating international marketing network. NMI fosters employability of IS directly and national students indirectly (through increase in production of nSME) and support building entrepreneurial mindset which are stated horizontal priorities of KA2 Action. NMI also addressed social inclusion issue which is also horizontal priority of KA2 Action. It generates positive effects to tackle discrimination and segregation. NMI will change attitude of public towards IS. Instead of a burden, public will consider IS as partners who expand their business and contribute to their welfare. Therefore, NMI promotes social inclusion of IS.
In EU and Türkiye, youth unemployment is more severe than general unemployment. In January 2023, it was 14.2% although the general rate was just 6.1%. Therefore, more actions are needed to mitigate youth unemployment which became long-term problem in EU. International mobility of students has been increasing. In 2022 globally there were 6.4 million international students (IS) and it exceeds 300,000 in Türkiye, 120,000 in Netherlands and 630,000 in UK. After graduation, IS prefer to join work-life in host country where IS get university degree because of job shortage and lack of sources to start new business in their home countries. Thus, IS worsens national youth unemployment in host countries. IS are treated as the most disadvantageous group to be an entrepreneur. IS cannot access to sources required for start-ups in host country. Their home countries do not have enough sources to support innovative activities, either. IS are not able to turn ideas coming from university education into action without external supports. NMI Project aims to alleviate youth unemployment. Its purpose is to promote sense of entrepreneurship for IS and facilitate their transitions from education to work in their home countries, not in host country.