“Entrepreneurship through hiking” is an 8-day (excluding travel days) youth exchange project based on an innovative approach of combining non-formal education in the field of entrepreneurship and (un)employment with outdoor activities (in particular hiking). Our aim is to provide practical entrepreneurial skills and knowledge, encourage youth mobility and develop sense of entrepreneurship among youth coming from rural and urban areas of 6 participating countries (Latvia, Germany, Netherlands, Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine). Our target group is the rural youth facing economic, geographic and social barriers aged between 18 and 30. The project will be implemented from 15 to 24 of September 2016 in Tsakhkadzor - a spa town and a popular health resort in Armenia.With this youth exchange we aim to boost peer to peer learning of participants by providing an informal platform of self-expression and stimulating each participant's involvement in everyday management, organisation, evaluation and assessment of the whole youth exchange. The project meets the objectives of “Erasmus +” Programme as it fosters mutual understanding between young people in different countries, promotes European cooperation in the field of youth and contributes to developing the quality of support systems for youth activities and the capabilities of civil society organisations in the youth field. Positive thinking and breaking of the prejudices, stereotypes, entrust towards people from other countries serve as basic values of our project.“Entrepreneurship through hiking” will allow focusing on the emergency of providing necessary entrepreneurship competencies to young people who were never employed and will be a space where those who recently lost employment can review and improve their competencies. The added value of mobility will also be a strong point.Additionally, by organizing several hiking tours participants will get practical lessons regarding rural tourism, management of events, basic skills of first aid and the ways of using rural/urban areas and places of interest as a source of eco tourism. We believe, that outdoor activities and non-formal, natural atmosphere in fresh air will have a positive impact on participants’ learning process.Objectives of the project:- Encourage active citizenship and develop sense of entrepreneurship;- Provide necessary information about the micro economical youth opportunities (micro-credits, international donor organisations, business angels, crowd funding campaigns, etc.); - Provide basic digital, first aid, managerial and financial competences needed for rural tourism business; - Explore the possibilities of the Erasmus + program as a tool for youth employment, mobility and entrepreneurship;- Identify the competencies that can be obtained through European non-formal learning projects and their certification by Youthpass;- Gather and develop resources and strategies to promote the communication and linguistic competences;- Increase cultural awareness; stimulate tolerance, mutual understanding and boost intercultural interactions between participants.Youth exchange will be based on non-formal education. Different methods such as outdoor education, co-operative games, individual work, small discussion groups, plenary work, hiking tours, group dynamics, personal challenges, theoretical input, etc., will be used in our project. We highly value the experience and expertise of each participant and based on this approach one of the main objectives of our group leaders and participants will be to create a safe informal learning environment where every participant will teach and will learn from his peers and will organize and manage his learning process based on his needs.