The overall aim of our project is to increase the sense of initiative and entrepreneurial competences of young people, especially those with fewer opportunities, so that they can better achieve their goals in the labour market and as active citizens. To achieve this, we aim to develop and introduce an innovative methodology known as “Experiential Entrepreneurship Labs” (EELs). EELs are an emerging methodology that develop young people’s critical thinking and solution-focused learning, helping them turn ideas into action.
The large-scale issue that the project addresses is growing youth unemployment and young people’s sense of disconnection from society. Latest figures show the youth unemployment ratio rose from 15.1% in 2019 to 16.8% in 2020 (Eurostat) and integration into the labour market will be increasingly challenging for many young people given the complex economic and political situations of today’s world. As a result, young people risk losing faith in their future as “growing alienation and frustration are amplified by the prospects of an insecure future and increased mistrust in public institutions.” (Pantea, Diroescu, & Podlasek-Ziegler, 2014). Against this backdrop, there is an urgent need to better equip young people with the transversal skills they need to flourish and be resilient in a fast changing world. Entrepreneurial competences have the potential to achieve this.
The EELs project has four target groups:
- Young people aged between 16 -25
- Youth educators
- Youth serving organisations
- Youth, Education and Entrepreneurship Stakeholders
There will be several outputs of the project that include:
- A State of the art research review
- A Collection of Good Practices
- A Toolbox of Digital tools to support the implementation of EEL
- A set of Open education resources
- A digital badge recognition system of learning