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Green Jobs, Green Environment, Green Society!

2023-1-ES02-KA152-YOU-0001132682023Mobility of young peopleongoing
Countries: ES|LV|TR|IT|HR · Grant: €29,244
Green skillsInclusion of marginalised young peopleEntrepreneurial learning - entrepreneurship education

Objectives

Protecting the environment is one of the most important issues of our time. The limited natural resources, the increase in the world population and the decrease in biodiversity play an important role in the formation of concerns about ecology. While the tendency to consume more products creates environmental damage, many businesses try to raise awareness of the consumption of natural resources. Increasing environmental awareness day by day increases the need of societies for ecology-friendly entrepreneurs. Green entrepreneurs provide the hotbed for starting and sustaining a green economy by providing green products and services, introducing greener production techniques, boosting demand for green products and services, and creating green jobs (ILO). The main difference that distinguishes green entrepreneurs from traditional entrepreneurs is that green entrepreneurs want to create a business model that is economically profitable, environmentally conscious, and creates social value. Given that, green entrepreneurs can make a significant contribution to eliminating unemployment, poverty, and environmental problems. Moreover, green entrepreneurship can form an integral part of the fight against youth unemployment due to the low entry-level requirements for young people in many sectors and their generally strong interest in innovative business solutions and sustainability considerations. In addition, the creation of new firms allows equal access in terms of gender and is not limited to urban areas where traditionally larger employment opportunities exist. Green entrepreneurship can also provide new employment opportunities to workers who are set free during the restructuring towards a greener economic model. Additionally, green entrepreneurs operate in eco-friendly ways due to their personal intrinsic values and motivation and are thus intentionally being environmentally conscious in their business. Thus green entrepreneurs can be considered as environmental problem solvers that are also acting as social change agents to change the practices and consumption habits in society (Schaper, 2016; Farinelli, 2011). This project idea has come as a need and aims to tackle the environmental problems and increase the employment opportunities for young people regardless of their gender and whereabouts through green entrepreneurship. What is more, small and medium-sized enterprises form the backbone of most economies proving high levels of employment and contributing extensively to the growth of the GDP and an increase in their number ensures sustainable economic growth. Given that, participants in this project will come from countries that along with the environmental problems they have a high percentage of youth unemployment according to the latest statistics of (April 2022 from the EU Commission) such as Spain,Turkey, Croatia, Italy, Latvia. Each partner country in this intervention will send 7 participants of cohort 18 to 30, plus 1 group leader 18+(8 in total) and the activity will last for 7 days plus 2 traveling days and will be hosted in Terrassa, Barcelona, Spain. Participants will be with and without fewer opportunities unemployed and out of the labor market young people and the group leader will be someone who has previous experience as a group leader or is a youth worker. The main objectives of this project are: • To facilitate the interaction and cooperation between youngsters without and with fewer opportunities, unemployed or out of the labor market to conceptualize joint green entrepreneurial projects; • To encourage the spirit of entrepreneurial initiative among youngsters with and without fewer opportunities aged 18-30 years old unemployed or out of the labor market, coming from Spain,Turkey, Croatia, Italy, Latvia; • To raise awareness on the importance of environmental protection and how green entrepreneurship helps to tackle environmental problems and bring social change. To develop entrepreneurial skills and mindset for unemployed and out the market young people. To promote EU values, active citizenship, social cohesion, and inclusion ; To increase the self-confidence and esteem of unemployed and out-of-market young people to find a creative/innovative solution to get back to the market and actively contribute to their community. • To promote the importance of green entrepreneurship as an integration means of unemployed and out-of-market young people. • To create a space for exchanging green entrepreneurial ideas and solutions for environmental problems.

Project partners (5)