ARTrepreneurship
Start date: Oct 1, 2016,
End date: Apr 30, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
CONTEXT & BACKGROUND With ARTrepreneurship we are seeking to address the issue of Youth Unemployment and to promote Entrepreneurship Education as a way out of it. The project is a continuation of successful local and international trainings organized by SEAL CYPRUS to promote Entrepreneurship among the youth. In February 2016, 4.381 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU-28. High youth unemployment rates do reflect the difficulties faced by young people in finding jobs, especially females and youth with disabilities.At the same time there is a lesser appetite for entrepreneurship in Europe compared with our main competitors. Only 37% of the EU citizens prefer to be self-employed or an entrepreneur to being an employee (51% in USA and 56% in China) according to the DG for Enterprise and Industry. OBJECTIVES Main aim:To improve competences linked to the professional profiles of Youth Workers, Youth Trainers and Youth Leaders with an emphasis on the Key-Competence of “Sense of Initiative and Entrepreneurship”.Objectives:A. To develop key skills and competences of Youth Workers, Youth Trainers and Youth Leaders in Non-formal Entrepreneurship Education andB. To reinforce the capacity and international scope of organisations active in the youth field to promote Entrepreneurship with educational activities and initiatives to address the needs of young people. NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTSThe training is going to bring together 30 participants from 10 countries-Cyprus, Albania, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, United Kingdom and Ukraine.Participants of this project are Youth Workers, Youth Leaders, and Youth Trainers active in the youth field and willing to build their skills and capacity to develop quality initiatives and educational activities to promote entrepreneurship. They all have diverse backgrounds and levels of experience in the field of entrepreneurship. Priority will be given to people who hold a disability status, to those who are as registered as unemployed in their Public Employment Service and to those who have low income based on their income-tax return certificate. We know that 5 of the participants are going to be people with disabilities. (More detailed description has been provided in part E. Participants' Profile). ACTIVITIES & METHODS The project includes the 7-day training course and 10 days for personal learning commitments, peer learning, online work, etc. We will use:-Non-formal participatory methods (team building activities, energisers; world café, live library, case studies, brainstorming, “speed-dating” with successful entrepreneurs, presentations, info-sessions, simulation games, reflection groups, buddy system etc);-Learning by doing;-Learning by experience;-Improvisation theater;-Creative learning (through drawing, textiles, photography, music, etc.);-Mentoring, to support participants to develop their project ideas and guide them in their further learning journey.RESULTS AND IMPACT Participants are going to improve their skills and competences certified with Youthpass.The training will develop and broaden the understanding of entrepreneurship, its dimensions and relations with the labour market. Participants of the training will be able to support their organisations in addressing unemployment and promoting entrepreneurship.The presence of 5 people with disabilities in this training will have an enormous impact on the participants and will empower many young people. This project ARTrepreneurship is going to have an important impact beyond the participants. Through their involvement, the people involved in all the phases either as project managers, staff members, board members or volunteers will develop a wide range of leadership and management skills.Partner organisations are expected to extend the international dimension of their work, to learn about non-formal methods of entrepreneurial education, to strengthen their relationships with their stakeholders. The training will provide an opportunity to establish sustainable partnerships for further cooperation and projects.As a result of this project, the participants and their organisations will be prepared to encourage entrepreneurship among youth in an efficient way, as well as to organise quality projects within Erasmus+ Program of the European Union and beyond.On the long run the project will bring benefits to communities, which participants are coming from, as well as an international community, since after the training participants are going to implement transnational initiatives based on the network of organisations which became a part of the training.