ENTREpreneurship Practices in VET [ENTREPVET] EC Digital Education Action Plan 2021-27: COVID-19 crisis shed light on the key enabling factors for effective digital education and training: connectivity and suitable digital equipment for learners and educators; teachers and trainers that are confident and skilled in using digital technology to support their teaching and adapted pedagogy; leadership; collaboration and the sharing of good practice and innovative teaching methods. Europe 2020 Strategy recognises entrepreneurship and self-employment as key for achieving smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan: Section 4.2.4. Unemployed, in particular, young people: Given the significant number of unemployed people across Europe, entrepreneurship support schemes should be put in place to encourage business creation as a route out of unemployment. Few business development support schemes target unemployed youth specifically. Supporting Youth in Entrepreneurship report (2014): a variety of barriers: • Lack of awareness of the potential for entrepreneurship among role models results in a lack of encouragement or even negative social attitude • Education and training programmes generally do not do enough to nurture entrepreneurial attitudes and skills • Lack of prior work and entrepreneurship experience is detrimental to business start-up and entrepreneurship performance • Limited business networks and business-related social capital have consequences for business start-up and obtaining legitimacy We will: • create a VET digital curriculum focusing on developing entrepreneurial mind-sets (E.G. recognising and acting on an opportunity) • encourage attitudinal changes ENTREPVET will promote the following entrepreneurial qualities: • Possessing the knowledge and professional practice to run a business: through meetings with banks, trade, successful entrepreneurs, and professionals • Skills and attitudes: Young people may have the determination and enthusiasm to run a business but may not have the appropriate skills-set and leadership qualities • Meta-qualities: to be developed through action learning sets; developing the ability of learning-to-learn; and identifying self-weaknesses for subsequent development • Enhancing the means to practise entrepreneurship and filling gaps in social and financial capital • Identification of wider cultural and social networks; connecting youth with knowledge networks Our target group are young people, 16-29, who are, or at risk of being, not in education employment or training (NEET). Partners will meet in Month 2 to agree upon a draft curriculum to be presented to local VET stakeholders and NEET focus groups for feedback and review. Each partner will engage with a minimum of 5 local VET stakeholders and successful entrepreneurs, and engage with young NEET focus groups (minimum of 5 youths), and use the Plymouth Development Tool for Vocational Training (PDTVT) to underpin the curriculum development. We will use non-formal education methods to train 28 VET trainers/educators, from the UK, NL, Greece, Turkey, Romania, and Italy, at a short term staff training event (C1) held in the NL in Month 12. The 28 will return to each work with 10 young people (280 in total). Partners will recruit 5 young people to participate in a blended training event (C2) hosted by WSX Enterprise in Fareham (UK) in Month 16. Each partner will create a local community VET entrepreneurial hub to support the 35 young people who will create peer networks and co-create 7 pilot project solutions to address local challenges (IO3). The young NEETs will continue to network with each other during the project. Each partner will support their local hub via the VET stakeholder networks and recruit appropriate support for each locally piloted project. The young NEETs will be prepared and inducted during Months 13-15 before the C2 event. Induction will form part of the blended training curriculum agreed upon at the meeting in Athens, Month 9. 7 Partners: UK: WSX Enterprise and Make A Dream Publishing Ltd NL: PROWORK Greece: ALLI Turkey: MUSEV Romania: BUCOVINA Italy: DMLAS Partners will meet 6 times during the 24-month project. At project end, each partner will host a local multiplier conference event, to a minimum of 30 attendees, to promote and disseminate the results and outcomes of the project. We will develop training resources that include 6 training webinars hosted on the internet. The project website and resources will be available for a minimum of 5 years post-project. We will look at mapping the co-created curriculum to the EQF at level 3 at the project end. Partners will also liaise with their local accrediting bodies for possible accreditation. We expect 30%+ of the young people to move into further training/employment or self-employment and 60%+ to improve their socio-economic and mental well-being (WEMWBS evaluation) following upskilled VET educator support.
ENTREPVET looked to create an innovative, motivational, entrepreneurial training package, based on Digital and Entrepreneurial Skillsets to be made available to teachers, educators, VET trainers, and staff working with young people. It will comprise key concepts and skills designed to enhance motivation and self-efficacy in people that are low in self-confidence and ambivalent or fearful about embracing change, in line with the 2021-27 Digital Education Action plan that builds on the 2018-20 priorities to: "1. make better use of digital technology for teaching and learning; 2. develop digital competencies and skills".
The number of young people (16-29 yrs) Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) remains sizeable in the EU with percentages in the cities involved in this project well above 5% (except the Netherlands - 7%). A significant proportion of these young people left school early and struggle to find sustainable employment. There is a mismatch between the education system, the labour market, and the realities of vulnerable youth. For some young people, this leads to demotivation, loss of self-confidence, and eventually school dropout and unemployment, posing long-term negative consequences for their future and society. Existing solutions are fragmented, focus mainly on cure, and do not lead to closer collaborations between key stakeholders or substantial system changes. Supporting Youth In Entrepreneurship (SYE) (OECD/EC report 2014): "Despite having a preference for self-employment, not many youths are able to sustain themselves in self-employment. Nearly 15% of people working in the EU are self-employed. The self-employment rate for youth in the EU is just over 4%."