Associazione Culturale Pitagora is pleased to introduce the Partnership Building Activity “Networking for Entrepreneurial Development” (NED) which will gather a total of 18 youth/social workers from all partner organizations in Sassari, between 24-30 November 2019 (7 working days plus 1 travel day) for networking and sharing of knowledge, experience and information delivered through Non Formal Education methods. The proposed PBA directly links to the Erasmus + priority and Europe 2020 strategy when it comes to a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The project will encourage and develop pilot projects coming to foster youth entrepreneurship and facilitate the entry of youth on the labour market. Also, the PBA itself and its outcomes aim to promote European Values and well-being of its people. The past few years have been challenging for the global economy. Instability has been high, economic growth has stagnated, and employment opportunities for youth, in particular, have suffered. Accordingly to International Labour Organization findings, 64 million young people are unemployed and an even higher number are underemployed. Overall, the unemployment rate for young people is two to three times higher than for adults. According to Statista of May 2018 the unemployment rate among youth in the participating countries is 31.9% (Italy), 33.8% (Spain), 20.8% (Portugal), 10.9% (Poland), 17.9% (Slovakia), 16.8% (Romania), 10.7% (Latvia). Achieving an employment rate of 75% among people aged between 20-64 years old is one of the main points on the agenda of Europe 2020. This makes youth employment is part of EU employment policy, within the wider context of the Europe 2020 growth and jobs strategy. In order to promote youth employment and entrepreneurship, the EU and its member countries are acting to encourage entrepreneurship of young people. Youth entrepreneurship is a key tool to develop the human capital necessary for the future, and as youth organizations are representing those young people, we find it very important at this stage to raise awareness and promote entrepreneurship not only among young people but among youth organizations as well. Entrepreneurship and self-employment are pathways for young people to emerge from unemployment. Engagement in the wide variety of personal and social development activities that it offers help for young people to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are frequently said to be needed in the labour market. These include teamwork, communication, leadership, flexibility and responsiveness. They also include creativity and innovation, which involve defining problems, coming up with ways of dealing with them and sticking to a chosen course of action. In this way, entrepreneurship contributes to closing the gap between the competencies acquired by young people and the needs of the labour market. Although its value is recognised at policy levels, non-formal learning is not widely understood, and it is often well down the list of priorities when it comes to funding. This situation needs to be readdressed by a concerted effort from the social partners, and from stakeholders at all levels. The proposed Partnership Building Activity aims at bringing together youth organizations from 8 EU member countries in order to set cooperation and develop projects coming to promote and educate young people in entrepreneurship field and to boost their employability. As a consequence, we are looking into addressing the needs of the NEET youth. Set project objectives are: – sharing good practices and developing at least 4 new projects by the participating organisations with the aim to meet the needs of NEET youths to increase their entrepreneurship skills and employability; – providing concrete information about the entrepreneurship development (concept, business plan, resources, risk etc). – developing promotional tools and follow up activities in regard to entrepreneurship awareness and employability opportunities targeting the NEET youth in the local communities of the consortium partners – fostering cooperation among program and neighbouring countries, with a focus on rural entrepreneurship – developing and extending the Network of NFE professionals working in the field of promotion of youth entrepreneurship and employability. NED is linked to national E+ youth priorities in enhancing youth employability through the acquisition of skills and competencies and developing entrepreneurial sense and initiative in the youth. The proposed project in accordance with set objectives is seeking to address the need for entrepreneurial awareness and education; cooperation among organization and countries to foster inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities in economic and social life; contribute and encourage the entry of youth on the labour market.
