During February 15th – 23rd, 2020 in Kucove, Albania has been held the first activity of Erasmus + cofounded project “Straight way to integrity and self development of youth with fewer possibilities”. The project was organized by Albanian organization NSGK, in collaboration with its partners Polo Europeo della Conoscenza – Europole, Italy; NGO Iuventa, Serbia; Udruzenje Mladi Volunteri, Bosnia and Herzegovina and LDA Sisak, Croatia. 40 youth workers and youth with fewer opportunities from these organizations and countries joint in the training “How to be an Entrepreneur”.
The activity developed in 7 days where youth workers and youth with fewer opportunities engaged in informative session, brainstorming, energizers, work group and role playing to increase their knowledge and skills in social entrepreneurship.
The activity started with a short presentation of the project followed by group building exercises. At the end of the evening it was organized a simulation of a market of NGOs, where groups of youth from every country presented its own NGO activity, aims and mission.
The training continued with explanation and concept of Non-Formal Education, and its usage in participating countries to improve youth employment/self employment and inclusion of youth with fewer opportunities. Youth also gained knowledge and skills in empowerment strategies for young people with fewer opportunities.
Session “Who is a successful entrepreneur” introduced youth with the characteristics needed for them to succeed in their new entrepreneurship. Youth and especially social entrepreneurship, its concepts and methodology of establishment were deeply exploited and youth were engaged in practical work groups to better absorb knowledge and develop skills.
Youth also visited the Municipality of Kucove and were received warmly by the Mayor and the European Integration Unit in the Municipality. They joined an open discussion with the Mayor about the youth development policies at local/national level, youth employment and entrepreneurship in Albania, measures by Mayor for inclusion of youth with fewer possibilities in employment and social start ups.
At the end of activity youth were engaged in working group to organize local activity focused on best ideas of social entrepreneurship of/for youth with fewer possibilities. Besides the evaluation of training, all participating youth expressed ideas for future joint projects. All youth and youth leaders received Youth Pass certificates and enjoyed the last intercultural evening.
During this activity youth gained not only knowledge and skills in social entrepreneurship and inclusion of youth with fewer possibilities, they also gained intercultural, interaction skills valuable for their work in their own organization. The outcomes of the activity were 40 young leaders to foster social entrepreneurship in their countries and at EU level, using non-formal methodologies and online-learning tools for advancing local social entrepreneurships.
Tools and manuals of non-formal methodology and social entrepreneurship can be found at the following links:
https://www.coe.int/en/web/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://publications.jrc.ec.