<< Background >>A lingering problem of brain drain and its main cause, high youth unemployment, has been well known in the South of Italy, Spain and Greece for a long time. In the rural areas and small towns such as Molfetta, far away from industrial and financial centers, a job market is slow, the offer is limited or it just doesn’t match young people’s needs, dreams and interests. Based on the Italian National Report EU Youth Dialogue, 77,6% of interviewed young people think they don’t have access to high quality jobs, that guarantee equal working conditions (Youth Goal#7).While in this case a perfect response would be some entrepreneurial activity/starting a business/self-employment, the available data ‘’often indicate that youth are very interested in becoming self-employed. Recent surveys show that almost half of youth would prefer to work as self-employed rather than working as an employee. However, very few youngsters work as self-employed.’’ (OECD)In order to find out what our and our partners' local youth think about entrepreneurship and to explore their needs when facing this issue, we did research in the form of a questionnaire, with open and closed-end questions. We gathered 217 responses from young people from Puglia (IT), Canary Islands and Extremadura (ES) and Dytiki Ellada (GR) aged 14 to 29. Based on public data and questionnaire answers (total 217) we identified 3 major needs that will be addressed by our project :- A need for knowledge, skills, competences – this was the most important need, expressed in the questionnaire. It will be addressed by providing a youth friendly learning experience created in collaboration with the young people themselves. The aim of it is to give them an opportunity to learn, in their own way and at their own pace, the crucial steps that make part of a journey such as starting a business. The ''interactive'' part means that the participants won’t be just passive viewers and users, but rather ENGAGED, by testing, providing feedback, answering questions, doing tasks, reflecting on material provided, putting in practice what they’ve learned…- A need for support, company, mentoring - this need will be approached from two sides: 1. The project foresees a training for youth workers in order to skill them up and enable them to provide much needed support and mentoring to young people, when it comes to developing ideas, searching for opportunities, facing challenges, and especially in case they fail. 2. Except YW, the project acknowledges also the importance of making connections and network between peers, participants themselves, who can support and complement each other. Therefore it will favor building CONNECTIONS between participants, youth workers, established local young entrepreneurs and other target groups.- A need for inspiration, motivation, emotion–an answer that appeared repeatedly in the questionnaire was a wish to be more self confident, brave, courageous, audacious which we translated in a screaming need for EMPOWERMENT. In order to meet this need the project will strive to convey this idea of creating a value-oriented business or activity, based on one’s own passion, interest, knowledge and means available, by establishing relationships and cooperation, instead of competition, and trying to fix some of the problems, large or small, in their community (or further). Other than that, it will involve making inspiring videos with young entrepreneurs who managed to overcome the challenges and take the plunge.<< Objectives >>The main aim of this project is to enhance the likelihood of youth in partner countries to start their own business (but also some other type of initiative, e.g. NGO, blog, free-lancing, self-employment, social enterprise, web portal...), as a sort of a ‘’passion project’’ or ‘’a business of love’’, through development of innovative personalized learning experience to support it, and by taking 360°view of the youth and applying both traditional (business model Canvas, business plan etc.) and modern (design thinking, effectuation theory, lean startup) entrepreneurial approaches. Objectives of the project are to:-develop an engaging and fun youth-tailored learning experience for boosting business management skills and entrepreneurial mindset, which includes: 1. an interactive e-course with a forum, 2. building networks and peer learning, 3. support from the youth workers, motivating and guiding participants in their learning process.-raise awareness on the benefits and importance of starting a business to fulfil a need for meaning and purpose (by developing one’s hobby, interest, passion, or solving problems in their community) through a series of inspiring videos of local entrepreneurs to whom they can relate and build connections. -equip YW and peer organizations with methodology, tools, skills and knowledge in the field of digital youth work and new approaches in entrepreneurship (such as ‘’effectuation theory’’).- work for and with young people in tackling challenges connected to youth entrepreneurship.<< Implementation >>All the activities in this project are intertwined and there is a clear flow of the activities and project outputs that lead to the completion of the project objectives and the final goal. The order of activities is well established, so that each work-package and result of it, will provide an input for the next one. - Development of IO1: research of Key entrepreneurial competences crucial for starting a business and entrepreneurial approaches and practices used by YW, training centers, etc..., and their effectiveness. This will give us (and the sector) a sound foundation and insight which will be used to actually create a learning experience that is based on real needs, facts and information. - The training course, C1, will be created taking into consideration research results. It will skill up YW of partner organizations with entrepreneurial skills and tools (modern and traditional, digital and non-digital) and build competences that they will apply in their future work, but also to carry out following activities within the project and successfully deliver IO2, IO3 and IO4, and the YE and Local activities. - IO2- a clear innovative methodology and guidelines for YW for organizing entrepreneurial activities, programmes and training for young people, which will encompass non-formal learning methods and practices (taking into consideration IO1 and YW's feedback from TC). It will provide the YW a well-elaborated and systemized knowledge to use in the following phases and after the lifecycle of the project. - During the period of IO2 development, C2-Job shadowing is planned to take place. It will lead to exchange of good practices and incorporation of new ones between InCo and Radio Ecca, organizations with a similar overall mission, but very different experiences.- IO3 - e-learning course is the crucial tangible result of the project, as it will be created based on all previous project results and sound knowledge, and real needs of young people expressed via questionnaires. It will lead to the enrichment of partners' training offer and work in the field of youth entrepreneurship, and provide young people a high quality learning platform to foster their sense of initiative and entrepreneurial ideas.- Local labs/workshops which will serve us as an occasion to, again, directly involve youth in the decision-making, apply IO2 and get the valuable feedback in order to finetune it. It will be organized in each partner country, involving 120 youngsters in total, after which partners will make a reunion to exchange feedback obtained through questionnaires and evaluation and reflection sessions. - C3 - Youth exchange will involve young people and YW from all partner countries. The participants will have an opportunity to test all previous project results, and especially IO3 - e-course, and propose final improvements, before we start with the dissemination. They will also engage in plenty of non-formal activities and develop their ideas in international setting, collaborating with their peers from other countries, get inspired by young entrepreneurs from Italy, Spain and Greece.- IO4 - A series if inspiring videos of local young entrepreneurs will be inserted in the IO3 and will be used as a audio-visual material when carrying out these types of training in the future. It will lead to the empowerment of young people, motivation to look for role-models in their environment and raising awareness about importance of supporting small businesses and young entrepreneurs in our area. - TM and online meetings will ensure a successful collaboration and strong bonds between partners, project monitoring, completing project objectives in time and providing high quality results. - ME and dissemination activities will allow target groups outside of our partnership to become familiar with the results, adopt some of them and propose ideas regarding the future development and exploitation.<< Results >>PROJECT OUTPUTS - Direct results of the project are following:-IO1 Research – the first output is research of key entrepreneurial competences and existing practices in teaching, promoting and facilitating youth entrepreneurship and best practices. -IO2 Methodology for YW and trainers – based on the results of above mentioned research we will create a set of methods and guidelines, proposing digital and non digital tools, to be used when creating entrepreneurship training or programmes for youth. -IO3 e- learning course – entrepreneurial online course developed based on thorough research of needs, existing and innovative practices, created with and for young people.-IO4 series of videos- it will be made with local young entrepreneurs who will answer the most common questions and doubts youngsters have. The main aim is to inspire young people by stories and testimonials of people they can relate to, instead of usual examples of worldly famous brilliant and rich entrepreneurs. It is also an opportunity to promote local small businesses and sustainable practices. PROJECT OUTCOMES- Expected effects of project outputs:Directly:- 144 young people from 3 countries enhanced their entrepreneurial and other skills through direct participation in project activities.- 10 Youth Workers/Trainers from partner organizations are equipped with skills, knowledge, methodology and digital tools to support young people's entrepreneurial aspirations.- 5 partner organizations built their capacities to collaborate with organizations from different sectors, transnationally, to implement digital content and ICT into their work with target groups, to support better entrepreneurial programming and schemes in their area.- 12 Local young entrepreneurs un partner countries achieved increased visibility of their businesses and initiatives.Indirectly:-Youth in rural and remote areas are provided a means to obtain competences, ideas, support – Thanks to the interactive e-course, support from youth workers and opportunity to interact and connect with their peers, young people, and especially those from rural and remote areas, will develop: 1. Entrepreneurial competences (seeking opportunities, transforming ideas into actions, networking, setting objectives, information seeking… ); 2. Ideas (based on their passion, hobby, interest, problems in community, available means and knowledge …); 3. Support (provided by trained youth workers). Although these are necessary for an aspiring entrepreneur, such competences, ideas and support are useful for any profession and personal development;- Young people are equipped with digital and non digital tools for starting and running a business- besides theoretical knowledge, participants will have examples of useful tools to put in practice what they have learned, for example apps, exercises, software etc. for social media management, email marketing, making videos,…- Young people will have access to useful information on opportunities, programmes, calls, financial resources, local, national, European- course will provide a section dedicated to promoting and informing young people about opportunities available for those with entrepreneurial ideas, so that they can continue to develop them even if they don’t have resources;- Established relationships and network between participants, local young entrepreneurs, youth workers – the project emphasizes importance of networking and collaboration instead of competition;- Youth workers and sector in general is provided with concrete systemized knowledge obtained through research, methodology and digital content to better support aspiring entrepreneurs-to-be and foster entrepreneurial culture in their areas.