Workshop 'How to START UP for Young People'

A one year project “How to START UP for Young People” is financed by European Commission within Erasmus Plus projects and will be devoted to fighting against unemployment among young people, especially from vulnerable groups, poor background and fewer opportunities.

The international team of professional experts and trainers who have designed the project will train and teach young people entrepreneurship, leadership skills and knowledge how to START UP their own small business and match their education with labour market. On this purpose the project will involve 8 participating countries in total, where the unemployment problem is the highest in Europe such are: Greece, Italy, Croatia, Portugal and France (5 from EU Programme Countries) and Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine (3 from Easter Partnership Countries).

Why this project is so important? Because the problem of high rate of unemployment among young people is one of the major and even N1 problem (especially in participating countries) that young people face today in Europe, a problem that needs a solution. For example in Greece, according to World Bank Statistics, the rate of unemployment among young people is 47.% every second young person is unemployed, which is the highest among participating countries, followed by Italy – 36.6% and Armenia 35.1%.

The project will be implemented totally with 3 main stages (2 Capacity Building Activities + 1MobilityActivity). Workshop, Exchange and Evaluation. Workshop and Exchange will be implemented in Armenia; the last part of the project evaluation with leaders will take place in France in October 2019.

The first stage will be Workshop in Yerevan, Armenia, 8 working days, from March 30 - April 7. Youth leaders, workers and decision making bodies of NGOs from 8 countries 24 in total will participate in this workshop. Each 8 countries will be presented by 3 delegates specialized in the topic of unemployment, youth inclusion, leadership, entrepreneurship. During working days, the professionals will discuss the problem of unemployment in each participating country; each country-delegation will present a detailed presentation about the problem in their country, what their home countries and organizations do to support young people. Professional experts specialized in the topic of entrepreneurship will be invited to transform to youth leaders the necessary knowledge and tools in the process of helping young people to START UP.

As a result of one year project Electronic and Printed Guide Book “How to START UP for Young People" in 8 official languages of the participating countries will be prepared. Professional web page www.startupyoungpeople.com will be prepared with all information, materials and contacts of experts. A video film about project and results will be prepared. This project will no doubt be a beginning of continuous cooperation between countries and experts in the topic of the project the main aim of which is and will be to help young people living in Europe.

The coordinating organization is “Educational and Cultural Bridges” NGO, based in Armenia. The organization was founded in 2013 and has implemented numerous projects on local and international level. The detailed information about the organization, projects and partners can be found on the official web page of the NGO: www.ec-bridges.com.