Erasmus+
KA1
2015
Countries involved.
Portugal, Greece, France, England, Spain
Promotion of cooperation and innovation within the specific field of solidarity youth entrepreneurship
PATHS: for Solidarity Economy and Youth Entrepreneurship in Europe, is a strategic partnership between 5 European organisations, the University of Coimbra (Portugal), Citizen in Action (Greece), ASSOCIATION DES AGENCES DE LA DEMOCRATIE LOCALE (France) and Youth Discovery Ventures Ltd ( England) created to promote cooperation and innovation in the learning of young people within the specific field of solidarity youth entrepreneurship.
This project arises from the analysis of the context in which the organisations develop their activity and their previous experience in this field. The conclusions of this analysis, which support the need for the project, are:
1. Youth entrepreneurship is configured as an alternative to unemployment and as a way of emancipation that facilitates their active participation in society.
2. Entrepreneurship projects based on solidarity economy approaches (orientation innovation) have a significantly lower mortality rate than competitive-based entrepreneurship projects.
3. Both in youth organisations (non-formal education) and in academic institutions (formal education) there is a manifest interest in promoting entrepreneurship among young people but, at the same time, there are different obstacles that make it difficult. Two of them are: 1) the absence or inadequacy of training resources that promote active learning adapted to the specific needs of young entrepreneurs; and 2) the lack of specific training in the education of entrepreneurs and in the stimulation of youth entrepreneurship initiatives by youth workers.
4. Entrepreneurship is not going to be a passing fad but a background current that will mark the future of our society. In this sense, if the organisations that work with young people want to develop an effective activity in the training and dynamization of entrepreneurs, it is necessary that their training processes be previously improved and that specific training resources be created for said activity.
Taking into account the previous conclusions, the PATHS project has been developed for the promotion and exchange of good practices between organisations and the development of innovative practices in the field of education and training of young entrepreneurs, whose specific objectives are:
1. Encourage cooperation and networking to promote solidarity youth entrepreneurship.
2. Strengthen the capacity of organisations that work to promote youth entrepreneurship through resources, materials and tools that improve the quality of their activities and their results.
3. Promote the development of specific competencies by the workers of the organisations involved (trainers, trainers, youth workers) in the field of promoting youth solidarity entrepreneurship.
4. Contribute to the promotion of entrepreneurship among young people as an alternative to unemployment and, at the same time, as a way for their emancipation and active contribution to society.
The result of the project has been the development and production of didactic material for trainers of trainers and a training curriculum for youth and solidarity entrepreneurship.