The EU-Project “Future Young Entrepreneurs” (Erasmus +) - Future Young Entrepreneurs                                            

The EU-Project “Future Young Entrepreneurs“ (Erasmus +)

 
Being an entrepreneur is a personal challenge and great opportunity. Entrepreneurs let visionary ideas become real, drive the economy and development of their countries, create jobs and endlessly thrive for the wellbeing of their families and communities. The EU-funded project ”Future Young Entrepreneurs” helps school-to-work-transition by providing business mentoring and first hand practical work experience for young people from India, Indonesia, Malawi, Netherlands, Romania, Vietnam and Germany. The project is planned and managed by Goethe-Institut e. V. read more...

The EU-Project “Future Young Entrepreneurs” (Erasmus +)

 
In some parts of Europe, more than 40% of the young people do not find a job. Worldwide, youth unemployment is expected to reach 14% in the years to come. The project "Future Young Entrepreneurs" supports students with a brilliant start-up idea to fight this trend.
Background

Media reports describe the young generation as threatened or even lost, many young people face an uncertain professional future. On the one hand, academic education is well promoted, on the other hand, young entrepreneurs and skilled personnel are missing in trade and commerce. When it comes to founding a company, there is hardly any country in Europe with a youth as uninterested as the German one. There are however other EU and non-EU states that also demonstrate a lot of scepticism. A survey showed that more than 70% of young people did not want to become an entrepreneur (European Parliament, 2014). Often, the endeavour appears to be too complicated. The result is a record low in years.

Motivation

Entrepreneurship is a personal challenge and a great opportunity at the same time. Being an entrepreneur means making your own creative ideas happen. It also means creating jobs and doing something for the common good. These are the exact reasons for our motivation to launch a transnational project on entrepreneurship among young people in exchange and in cooperation with companies and educational institutions worldwide.

Targets
  1. Promoting and training qualified newcomers with an entrepreneurial spirit
  2. Helping young people during the process of vocational orientation
  3. Providing an insight into vocational, economic and social structures
  4. Improving job opportunities and future prospects for the participants
  5. Fostering cooperation and partnership among educational institutions and companies
  6. Establishing international networks for the promotion of entrepreneurship among young people
  7. Sustainable creation of jobs

Whether profitable business endeavours or social entrepreneurship: We want to provide a platform for a large number of young people in order for them to discover entrepreneurship, develop and implement their own ideas in an international exchange while they are still at school. Practical experience is invaluable in this context. Going through the different stages of your own entrepreneurial endeavour is essential e.g. fundraising, planning and implementation of marketing measures, clarifying legal questions. While taking the first steps as a Future Young Entrepreneur, the students will be supported by experts in this field. This experience can be game-changing in a young person’s educational and professional life.

Programme

The project is comprised of two phases. The theoretical preparation phase provides students with the necessary know-how on developing ideas (design thinking) and writing business plans, on intercultural communication in business contexts and on presentation techniques (pitching) in three workshops (modules). Partner companies (mentors) accompany the further development of the students’ business plans after the first workshop has taken place. If possible, the students also participate in a digital business simulation.

The best ten students of each country then compete in the second phase of the project with their individual business plans. These students will travel to a workshop-week in Germany, where they will present their business plans and try to prevail with their innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in an international competition. The jury, made up of young entrepreneurs and successful representatives from the start-up scene, will finally award the best Future Young Entrepreneurs.

The projects runs for two years (1st of March 2015 – 28th of February 2017) and is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Project map

Download: Flowchart of the project
(PDF, 1MB)


Participants

The participants are young people aged 15 to 18 from India, Indonesia, Malawi, the Netherlands, Romania, Vietnam and Germany. Except for the students from India and Vietnam, all participants are enrolled at schools or partner schools of the international network “Schools: Partners for the Future” (PASCH). PASCH was launched by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany in 2008. For further information on PASCH, please visit: www.pasch-net.de.

Visionary, young, creative and international…

…are our participants from: Germany, India, Indonesia, Malawi, the Netherlands, Romania and Vietnam

Colegiul National Bilingv "George Cosbuc"
Stedelijk Lyceum Kottenpark
Amity International School
The Olympia Schools
Bambino Private Secondary School
Madania School
Gymnasium Olching

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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication (communication) reflects only the view of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.