Summary

Objectives

The project “Entrepreneurship is the answer” is a two-stage international youth exchange project which aims to gather young people and group leaders from 4 countries, with the aim to empower the young people with entrepreneurial attitudes and mindset.

The Youth Exchange programs were based on non-formal learning methods and principles, inter-cultural dialogue and communication in including group discussions, interactive presentations, participant’s lead workshops, teamwork, etc. Youthpass tools were used throughout the project to help young people reflect regularly on their personal learning journeys and become more aware of their own learning. The methodology of the project stimulated active participation and sense of initiative and involvement of the learners. It created a learning space with better self-awareness and awareness of the needs and goals of the groups of young people they worked with to enhance the results of the learning process and to give birth to high-quality projects led by the participants in the future. They were asked to bring food, sweets, cultural items, musical instruments and other promotional materials about their countries and share with other participants.

We provided a space for high-quality non-formal and informal learning where young people developed new skills and abilities. The non-formal education methodology allowod participants to interact and share their own experiences and thoughts and avoid passive listening. Participants undertook their own analyses and reflection on competencies acquired during the exchange. The project was based on non-formal learning methods and principles, inter-cultural dialogue and communication of including group discussions, interactive presentations, participant’s lead workshops, teamwork, etc. The methodology of the project was to stimulate active participation and a sense of initiative and involvement of the learners. It created a learning space with better self-awareness and awareness of the needs and goals of the groups of young. people they worked with to enhance the results of the learning process and gave birth to high-quality projects led by the participants in the future.

The program and flow of the Youth Exchange was shaped by the participants themselves as they prepared, took part in activities and took up certain responsibilities. Consequently, these young people gained many new experiences from which they learned a lot. Youthpass tools were used throughout the project to help young people reflect regularly on their personal learning journeys and become more aware of their own learning. Lastly, the individual and collective learnings of participants were documented in their Youthpass certificates which they received at the end of the project.

Objectives of the first exchange:

• Explore the concept of unemployment and achieve a common understanding of youth employability

• Analyze the current situation of young people today, especially the youth with fewer opportunities in rural and urban areas and understand their hopes, dreams fears and barriers for their personal development

• Exploring obstacles and barriers to youth employability and ways to overcome them

• Identify innovative tools and best practices and methods which can be transferred to working reality

• Form teams from participants to do research and observation in their local communities after they return in order to find useful insights and opportunities for value creation, entrepreneurship and employability

Objectives of the second exchange:

• Gather insights, learning, inspirations and experience of participants from their local communities and translate them into concrete project ideas

• Equip participants with knowledge and skills in the field of project management in order to enable them to develop quality youth projects

• Identify existing resources for the young entrepreneurs and share know-how on social enterprises to link youth with business and entrepreneurship

• Promote Erasmus + Programme and explain how young people can be involved in it

• Develop concrete business ideas and entrepreneurial initiatives

• Develop concrete projects to be applied under Erasmus + Programme

• Develop and publish an online catalog of business ideas.

The project activities were based on non-formal learning methods and principles, inter-cultural dialogue and communication in including group discussions, interactive presentations, participants' lead workshops,

teamwork, etc. Youthpass tool were used throughout the project to help young people reflect regularly on their personal learning journeys and became more aware of their own learning The methodology of the

project was to stimulate active participation and a sense of initiative and involvement of the learners.

Implementation

The project activities allowed the participants to explore the subject of entrepreneurship, its challenges and opportunities. The second stage of the exchange project, which took place in Bulgaria gathered insights, learning, inspirations and experience of participants from their local communities and translated them into concrete business ideas and quality youth projects to be carried out under Erasmus + Programme.

Stage #1: Youth Exchange

Location: Svishtov, Bulgaria

Date: 19 - 27 of July 2021

Total participants: 44 (including the group leaders)

CHAMPIONS FACTORY in Bulgaria acted as the hosting organization, as each partner had responsibilities to announce, advertise, select and prepare all participants for going abroad and all courses and requirements. All partners of the project ensured the validity and presence of all participants' personal documents, insurances, European healthcare cards, the financial possibility of the participants etc. The partners had to organize all travel details - ways of traveling and reaching the accommodations, venues etc. In the most convenient way for the participants. There were scheduled plans and transportation for sightseeing and other activities outside the training program, ensuring the safety, convenience, requirements of all participants.

Stage #2: Youth Exchange

Location: Svishtov (Bulgaria)

Date: 30 August - 7 September 2021

Total participants: 44 (including the group leaders)

The Youth Exchange were based on non-formal learning methods and principles, inter-cultural dialogue and communication in including group discussions, interactive presentations, participant’s lead workshops, teamwork, etc. Youthpass tool was used throughout the project to help young people reflect regularly on their personal learning journeys and become more aware of their own learning. The methodology of the project stimulated active participation and sense of initiative and involvement of the learners. It created a learning space with better self-awareness and awareness of the needs and goals of the groups of young people they worked with to enhance the results of the learning process and gave birth to high-quality projects led by the participants in the future.

Participants:

Our project putted a strong accent on the inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities from the following categories:

• Geographical obstacles-young people not in employment, education or training (NEET)

• Young people from broken and or poor families; young and/or single parents; orphans

• Disadvantaged youth living in deprived rural and urban areas

• Social obstacles - discrimination; limited social skills or anti-social or risky sexual behaviors

• Cultural differences - young immigrants/refugees; descendants from immigrant/refugee families, young people belonging to a national or ethnic minority.

Apart from the intangible results (knowledge and experiences gained by the participants, increased skills and improved cultural awareness), Participants created the following tangible results:

• Developed concrete business ideas and entrepreneurial initiatives

• Developed concrete projects to be applied under Erasmus + Programme

• Developed and published an online catalog of business ideas and success stories of youth

After the exchange activity participants engaged their organizations/groups to apply for mobility projects and European youth projects related to entrepreneurship and empowerment of youth.

Results

The impact on our participants were:

• Improved learning performance; The program and flow of the Youth Exchange were shaped by the participants themselves as they prepared, took part in activities and took up certain responsibilities.

Consequently, these young people gained many new experiences from which they can learn a lot. Youthpass tools were used throughout the project to help young people reflect regularly on their personal learning journeys and became more aware of their own learning. Lastly, the individual and collective learnings of participants were documented in their Youthpass certificates which they received at the end of the project.

Young people acquired the following competencies which are applicable in career and work-life (the list is not exhaustive):

• Enhanced employability and improved career prospects

• self-confidence

• leadership

• critical and innovative thinking

• ability to manage personal and social relationships

• Increase social awareness and critical thinking contributing to better self-esteem

• ability to reflect and articulate the educational nature of youth work (by engaging with Youthpass)

• intercultural competences

• an open mind

• curiosity

• teamwork

• project management

• understanding the others

• communication skills

The individual and collective learnings of participants were documented in their Youthpass certificates which they received at the end of the project which they can use during job interview or when seeking new educational opportunities.

The desired impact on participating organizations:

• Increased capacity to operate at the international level and improved management skills and internationalization strategies

• Reinforced cooperation with partners from other countries to motivation to continue doing more Erasmus+ projects together

• Motivation to increase the allocation of financial resources (other than EU funds) to organize EU/international projects. The success of this project can lead towards more funding for projects related to

• entrepreneurship and self-employment

• Increased quality in the preparation, implementation, monitoring and follow up of EU/international projects

• Innovative and improved way of operating towards their target groups, by providing more attractive programs for young people and volunteers in line with their needs and expectations

• Increased social credit (positive image) and attractiveness of the organizations which will enable them to recruit more members, young people and volunteers in their ranks

• Improved processes of recognition and validation of competences gained during learning

• Ability to produce more effective activities for the benefit of local communities in economically disadvantaged parts of the country.

Apart from the intangible results (knowledge and experiences gained by the participants, increased skills and improved cultural awareness), participants created the following tangible results:

• Developed concrete business ideas and entrepreneurial initiatives

• Developed concrete projects to be applied under Erasmus + Programme

• Developed and published an online catalog of business ideas and success stories of youth

On Micro level the project had an impact at different levels. We hope that this project will be an ideal basis for our boards to draw conclusions and develop policies within our organizations. This enabled them and other decision-makers within our organizations to develop a better understanding of international projects and European Cooperation.

On Macro Level (National and European) we mainstreamed the experience and results of the project in the following way:

• Inspiring others to take on European projects through spreading the word: By seeing our successful project, other organizations will know that it is possible to use Eramsus+ Programme to tackle the problem of unemployment and will be motivated to engage themselves too creating spinoff effect and waves of impact.

• Creating interest and incentive for donors to provide more funding for youth projects targeting unemployed and disadvantaged youth in our countries: As we showed that our project had a big impact on young

• We contributed to enhancing the impact of EU funded projects in our region as we demonstrated all the good results we achieved and the products we developed within Erasmus+ funded projects demonstrating