A one year project “How to SART 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).

 

The second stage of the project – Youth Exchange will gather in Armenia young people from 8 countries. Each country will have 4 participants and will be leaded by its National country team leader. The professional Team leaders have already been in Armenia during the first part of the project Workshop, which was successfully implemented from 30 March – 7 April 2019 in Yerevan, Armenia. The leaders of exchange will guide the youngsters on their way to learn, share with each other and develop their competences and knowledge.  

Why this project is so important? And why the team decided to implement it? 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. The last part of the project evaluation with leaders will take place in France for 2 days at the end of October 2019. 

During the youth exchange the international team of participants will have opportunity to share with each other the situation of unemployment in their countries, will discuss in team what are the main obstacles on the way of finding jobs in their countries, share their culture and traditions. The team of leaders in their turn will give skills to young people how to START UP, what steps should be taken? How to create a successful business model? How to find financing? and much more. During the project the participants will also learn about Erasmus Plus Projects, the possibilities that the European Union gives to young people today.  

The participants will also have interesting guest speakers and will visit such organization as TUMO Technological Centre, UWC Dilijan School, START UP studios, get acquainted with successful young entrepreneurs. The hosting organization will also take participants to cultural visits to Sevan and Dilijan to get acquainted with local culture.  

          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 has already been 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.

 

  -   Press release