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Initiative to foster Social Entrepreneurship Exper..
Initiative to foster Social Entrepreneurship Experience for Youth
Start date: Nov 1, 2014,
End date: Oct 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The I SEE YOU project is an initiative of 8 partners from 7 countries (AT, ES, IT, SK, IRL, RO, UK) addressing the critical issue of youth unemployment (YU) in the European Union placing a special emphasis on migrants.
YU has become one of the most pressing labor market issues in Europe since the economic crisis. Entering the labor market poses major challenges for young people in many European countries such as Spain, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, UK, Ireland and Austria, which manifests itself in a high YE rate. An even higher unemployment rate is faced by migrants and minority group members, who have to battle social exclusion. Many European and national initiatives or programs aim to tackle the problem, however, focusing on isolated aspects and with limited success.
A key way out of unemployment for many young people is entrepreneurship. 40% of European youth have indicated an interest in self-employment, as it provides them with independence & self-determination. They are highly interested in IT-focused as well as social businesses, which are observable trends in many European countries. Studies show that many young people lack skills, networks & received inadequate entrepreneurship education. Nurturing entrepreneurial attitudes and skills is in the focus of I SEE YOU.
I SEE YOU aims to offer a flexible, integrative approach to train & capacitate young people to become skillful social entrepreneurs in IT by developing the capabilities & skills of young unemployed people (18-24) with an affinity for IT & interest in creating their own social businesses. I SEE YOU provides core results: targeted activation, training modules, international collaboration, creativity workshops, business model & plan development, mentoring and a business simulation tool. A special focus will be put on migrants / minority youth. The first year of I SEE YOU is dedicated to the activation and capacitation of youth through trainings and intercultural experiences, while the second year will focus on implementing the acquired skills by writing business plans and using a social business simulation tool in a competitive setting. The youth will constantly be accompanied, mentored and brought in contact with key stakeholders from the business world (start-up centers, Business Angels etc.) to establish valuable networks for their future.
The main activities are:
i) Development and Execution of Entrepreneurship Trainings based on 10 essential key competences
At least 105 participating young people from 7 countries will be capacitated (over 500 will be reached through dissemination).
The OERs will be translated and made available in all 7 project languages
ii) Mentoring of business creation process
7 Creative Workshops (transnational teams of 15 young people)
7 business plans connected to social entrepreneurship & IT
iii) Creation of a Social Business Simulation Tool
Allow youth to apply learned concepts in a virtual setting
iv) Involvement and Capacitation of Migrant / Minority Youth
At least 35 migrant / minority youth members will participate in the project (over 100 will be reached through dissemination).
A Migrant / Minority Inclusion Strategy will be developed and distributed to decision- & policy-makers
v) Community building / Connecting youth with youth and key stakeholders
Building transnational teams to foster intercultural skills & create a European identity
Involvement of multipliers (start-up centers, labor market agencies etc.) and financiers (Business Angels)
All produced outputs will be provided as OERs to the public and disseminated according to a detailed strategy
The project will implemented by a consortium with a strong background in EU-project management and a wide range of expertise from developing a needs analysis to training providers, migrant support experts, IT game developers and business creation support organizations.
The impact of I SEE YOU will be created through massive dissemination and multiplication of activities. The participating youth will be capacitated and their skill sets on entrepreneurship increased, which will enable them to open their own business. If they do not follow an entrepreneurial career after the end of the project, they have gained all relevant competences enabling them to act as intrapreneurs and will therefore be in high demand and possess a competitive advantage at the labor market in the IT sector. Key stakeholder benefit from the freely available OERs and business simulation tool that they can incorporate into their own offers and present to their clientele for further education. Long-term benefits will be achieved through:
- the cost-effective replication of the integrative, holistic approach that will contribute to lifting youth out of unemployment and into dynamic and viable jobs
- the availability of multi-lingual and game-based OERs
- the international community established among European stakeholders