www.elex360project.com

BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT

A lingering problem of brain drain and its main cause, high youth unemployment, has been well known in the South of Italy, Spain and Greece for a long time. In the rural areas and small towns such as Molfetta, far away from industrial and financial centers, a job market is slow, the offer is limited or it just doesn’t match young people’s needs, dreams and interests. Based on national surveys previous to this project and on the Italian National Report EU Youth Dialogue, 77,6% of interviewed young people think they don’t have access to high quality jobs, that guarantee equal working conditions (Youth Goal #7). While in this case a perfect response would be some entrepreneurial activity/starting a business/self-employment, the available data ‘’often indicate that youth are very interested in becoming self-employed. Recent surveys show that almost half of youth would prefer to work as self-employed rather than working as an employee. However, very few youngsters work as self-employed.’’

As a response to that, the 2 years Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership Project ELEx 360°: “360° Entrepreneurial Learning Experience” was conceived, with the main aim of enhancing the likelihood of youth in partner countries to start their own business (but also some other type of initiative, e.g. NGO, blog, free-lancing, self-employment, social enterprise, web portal…), as a sort of a ‘’passion project’’ or ‘’a business of love’’, through development of innovative personalized learning experience to support it, and by taking a 360° view of the youth and applying both traditional (business model Canvas, business plan etc.) and modern (design thinking, effectuation theory, lean startup) entrepreneurial approaches, also to benefit Youth Workers in their daily practices.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES & RESULTS

Throughout 2 years of project implementation, ELEx 360° Transnational Partnership set the following Project Results (PR) and outcomes to be achieved:

• PR1 – 360° Research on Key entrepreneurial competences and the best entrepreneurial training practices: consisting in the research of key entrepreneurial competences and existing practices in teaching, promoting and facilitating youth entrepreneurship and best practices, by involving directly in this phase experienced Youth Workers as well as Youth.

• PR2 – 360° guidelines for Youth Workers- Blended methodology for facilitating entrepreneurial journey: based on the outcomes of the above-mentioned research a set of innovative methodologies and guidelines will be created, proposing digital and non-digital tools, to be used when creating new entrepreneurship training curricula or programmes for youth.

• PR3 – 360° e- entrepreneurial learning course: it is an entrepreneurial online course developed based on the thorough research of needs, existing and innovative practices, created with the participation of and, for young people and youth workers. The goal of this PR is to provide youth with the basis for engaging in – and promoting – an entrepreneurial project. Complementary to the other PRs, the e-course is taking a 360° view on young entrepreneurs to-be and their actual needs as identified on the previously developed PRs.

• PR4 – Inspiring series of video-stories featuring local young entrepreneurs: A series of videos, that will be recorded with local young entrepreneurs who will answer the most common questions and doubts youngsters have.

• C1 – Train the trainers – Training course on entrepreneurship for Youth Workers and Trainers in partner In Italy: designed for 6 Youth workers from Partner Organizations’ Staff: Italy, Spain and Greece).

• C2: Youth exchange in Spain – a 5 days encounter and training for 24 Participants (Youth and Youth Leaders) from Italy, Spain and Greece.

Multiplier Events in each Country (E1-E4): Partners will organize a set of 4 final dissemination events to reach at least 130 attendees in total among the identified Project Target Groups & Stakeholders.

TARGET GROUPS

The development of the project ELEx 360°: was planned and will be organized in a way that the participation of the following target groups will be consistent in any phase of the project:

· Young People from 17 to 26 years of age, from rural and remote areas in participating countries

· Present & Future Youth Entrepreneurs

· Youth workers & Youth Leaders

· Trainers, Educators, facilitators working with youngsters

· Partner Organizations and their Staff

· Youth Associated Partners

· Business Hubs, Development Agencies, Business Incubators

· Youth Centers & Education departments of local/regional/national stakeholders

*Additional target groups will be identified and targeted alongside the project implementation and any other interested parties can also benefit from the freely accessible results and findings of the project ELEx 360°.