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The project “Start-up Explorers”
Association Focus is a partner in an innovating project under KA2 – Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices -Capacity Building in the field of Youth.
The project “Start-up Explorers” is a project initiated by 6 non-profit organisations (3 European and 3 Latin American) to encourage the cooperation between European & Latin American NGOs and skill up human capital from NGOs (youth workers) by providing quality entrepreneurial education instruments, supports the employability of NEETs and enhance the international dimension of youth activities.During the project we will facilitate the exchange of knowledge and best practices between youth workers who works in different entrepreneurial ecosystems, create training curricula in entrepreneurship education for young people, discover how to facilitate the youth transition from school to work and adult life. In the same time, youth workers can help young people to make informed decisions, after they see the big picture: the advantages and drawback of entrepreneurship. The NGOs involved in the project will develop a new tool for experiential education in the field of entrepreneurship with a 4 steps cycle project:
1 – design a NFE curricula focused on 21st Century skills, to be tested in an intensive training course;
2 – organize a capacity building workshop to simulate an incubator for social start-ups;
3 – based on the processes and know-how gathered in 1st and 2nd step, the youth workers, with the guidance of a game designer will create an interactive board game to be used by youth workers to explain the start-up process from idea to implementation to young people through an workshop; The board-game will be translated in 7 different languages, including English
4 – organize demo-workshop to test the board game with new youth workers, NFE trainers, teachers and young people. During the project we stimulate the international exchange of good practices and relevant experiences to develop modern tools for entrepreneurial education of professional people from NGOs.Objectives of the project
The aim of the project is to support youth workers in developing and sharing effective innovative methods in entrepreneurial education to reach out NEET youth and improve by March 2020 the entrepreneurial skills, attitudes and competences of 18 youth workers to support the capacity building of youth workers and youth work in 3 European and 3 LAC countries. This main objective can be reach by designing 3 different safe learning environments (1 TC and 2 capacity building activities) where they can focus on innovation, creative and start-up processes and share their know-how focusing on personal and professional skills development. They will discover the feedback culture, based on collaboration and powerful questions and how to create opportunities to meet the NEET youth needs. Nevertheless, they will design interactive learning based games experiences to help young people to gain skills, know-how and confidence, necessary to create sustainable business and social enterprise models that connect local needs and resources. We will encourage them to use the new curricula created for the A2, the model from A3 and the tool from A4 in daily activities. In order to reach our aim, the project will have the following specific objectives:O1: To create a network of 18 international youth workers and prepare them to become multipliers of entrepreneurial education through 1 TC and 2 capacity building activitiesO2: To foster the inclusion and employability of 590 NEET youth from 6 countries organizing local workshops and using tools based on learning through games and non-formal education developed by the youth workers trained previously
O3: Raise awareness regarding the importance of entrepreneurial education in formal and non-formal educational environments and promote developing and learning opportunities for NEET in the field of entrepreneurshipThe major milestones of the project are:
1. January 2019: 3 days Kick-of seminar (Italy) (A1)
2. February 2019: March 2020: The Communication campaign of the project (6 countries + European and LAC)
3. February 2019 – March 2020: DEOR campaign
4. May 2019: Training course for youth workers on entrepreneurial skills (Romania) (A2) 3 pax per country
5. June-July 2019: Design of the toolkit with the methods used in the training course, translated in 7 languages, including English and promoted at European and LAC level
6. October 2019 – Capacity building workshop – incubator of social projects (Uruguay) (A3) 3 pax per country
7. December 2019 – Collaborative seminar to create the board game (Argentina) (A4) 3 pax per country
8. January 2020 – Create the platform to promote the board game and the toolkit in English language
9. January-March 2020 – Multiplying local workshops for local NGOs, teachers and NEET using the board game and the toolkit (6 countries)
10. March 2020 – Evaluation of the project, preparation of the final report
Project consortium:Coordinator: D.G.T. Association
Bulgaria - Association Focus-European center for development
Uruguay - Asociacion Uruguaya de Difusion Delespanol como lengua extranjera
Argentina - Asociacion Civil Red de Accion Climatica
Peru - Brigada de Voluntarios Bolivarianos del Peru
Italy - Civitas MiletoThis project is funded with support from the European Commission. This publication (communication) reflects the views only of the author and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.