-
Home
-
European Projects
-
Youth Entrepreneurship for Sustainability
Youth Entrepreneurship for Sustainability
Start date: Oct 19, 2015,
End date: Mar 18, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The Social and Solidarity Economies offer an alternative to traditional capitalism which can also tackle problems in society. Youth Entrepreneurship for Sustainability (YES) project aimed to provide an opportunity for youth workers and young people to share their experiences and culture, investigate social problems and offer solutions through the Social and Solidarity Economy.
The project attempted to raise awareness of social entrepreneurs, contribute to the non formal learning sector and provide opportunities to network on a European level.
The project showcased the Social and Solidarity Economy in Sheffield, the UK and across the 5 partnering countries and brought together partners from Turkey, Romania, Estonia and Sweden & the UK to further their partnership and commitment to entrepreneurial education of young people.
The objectives of the project were: (1) to develop the involved organisations’ facilitation and entrepreneurial training skills for the training ”Three pillars of the Entrepreneurship for Sustainability: Leadership, Social Innovation and Business fundamentals”; (2) to foster an entrepreneurship mindset and to develop entrepreneurial competences for 40 young people (Each organisation will recruit a total of 5 young people for the youth exchanges (a total of 40 participants) for the youth exchanges Solidarity Entrepreneurship & Sustainable Development and Social Entrepreneurship & Sustainable Development); (3) to raise awareness about the importance of the entrepreneurship and business in the process of sustainable development.
The main activities of the project were: (1) the Learn & Share - Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development Training , 1st November 2015 - 6th November 2015, 10 participants from 5 countries; (2) the Solidarity Entrepreneurship & Sustainable Development Youth Exchange, 29th November 2015 to 4th December 2015, 20 participants + 5 group leaders* from 5 countries and (3) the Social Entrepreneurship & Sustainable Development Youth Exchange, 13th December 2015 - 18th December 2015, 20 participants + 5 group leaders from 5 countries.
For the training, we used a variety of non formal training styles including the Active Learning model to approach the three pillars of Entrepreneurship for Sustainability: Leadership, Social Innovation and Business Fundamentals.
For the youth exchanges, we used informal and non formal methods to stimulate the participants’ entrepreneurial mindsets through study visits, movies, workshops, simulations and debates with social entrepreneurs from Sheffield and the UK. Participants were given opportunities to share their experiences of SSE and encouraged to bring their ideas to life and set up projects and propose innovative ways for entrepreneurialism to meet social objectives.
The Leadership topic will include Otto Scharmer’s Theory U, empowering beliefs, skills in leadership. Social Innovation topics were addressed through a thinking map and a variety of creative and multimedia workshops. For business fundamentals we chose the business model Canvas. For the internal reflection, we used Learning Mandala method to plan, reflect upon and record the learning process in a creative and interactive way. For the overall evaluation and for participants’ and youth workers’ individual record and accreditation of the project we used the YouthPass.
The project successfully integrated social enterprises, cooperatives and third sector organisations from Sheffield into the recruitment, supply chain and experiential learning process.Youth Entrepreneurship for Sustainability project engaged 15 charities, social enterprises and cooperatives during the project, including bringing in over €11,500 to sector.