We wanted to achieve the following objectives: to promote employment and entrepreneurship in EU 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 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; - to promote the learning of CE related subjects through creative and innovative teaching methodologies and training tools - to develop a training curriculum and schemes in the subject of CE - to develop a business self-assessment tool regarding the adoption of CE practices for further training (VLE and blended learning).
The new Circular Economy Action Plan ‘For a cleaner and more competitive Europe’ is a key priority of the EU stating ‘the transition to a more circular economy, where the value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible, and waste minimized, is an essential contribution to the EU's efforts to develop a sustainable, low carbon, resource efficient and competitive economy’. To boost Europe's development, the economy must transform so today’s goods and wastes will be tomorrow’s resources. Circular economy is a solution to grow EU's competitiveness by protecting businesses against resources’ scarcity and unstable prices, initiating new business opportunities and more sustainable ways of producing and consuming, creating local jobs at all skill levels and opportunities for social integration. According to the Eurobarometer 40% of young Europeans emphasize the importance of changing behavior through environmentally friendly initiatives. Our project addressed these needs by developing youth initiatives and pilot training to improve the economic situation in the partners’ countries by creating their own businesses and realizing innovative ideas.