Enterprise+ project: Strengthening the entrepreneurial spirit in youth

Enterprise+ project: Young and old professionals cooperate against youth unemployment

 The Enterprise+ project, create in 2014 by work scientists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany), in the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme, runs out in August 2017. It allows young entrepreneurs that are starting their own business to create new jobs for people in the same age bracket. The main aim of Enterprise+ is to combat unemployment among young people in Europe.

The project, co-financed by the European Commission, targets people between 16-25 years old of partners countries, which are: Greece, Spain, Lithuania, Hungary and Bulgaria.

These young professionals are helped by experienced executives, called mentors, during their start-up projects. The mentors and talent scouts are trained in each country where they will be implementing the measures in the research project. They share their experience and their professional knowledge and skills, helping them to develop their own entrepreneurial strengths.

How they do it?

The researchers operate with schools and job centres from all five participating countries.

In the first step, the experienced executives with the aid of a tool developed in Losleger project that enables them to detect the young professional´s strengths and entrepreneurship potential and how to make it visible. Thereafter, mentors and entrepreneurs work out a business plan with experienced managers in a workshop based on the German Founder´s Prize for school-leavers.

Following this process, the young managers receive a certificate that show their results. In addition, a potential company founder can then submit that certificate to banks, venture-capital funds or public funding institutions in order to apply for start-up capital.

Mentors and talent scouts

 They play an essential role in the project. 50 mentors and 50 talent scouts were trained to participate and help young entrepreneurs in Enterprise+ project. Talent scouts include jobs centre employees, teachers and consultants of professional chambers. Around 80 former managers come from the project partner “Alt hilft Jung”.

“The feedback between mentors and their charges. It is important that mentors arouse the young people´s interest. Our objective is to have the partners in the participating countries initiate projects that will perpetuate that exchange”, Martin Kröll (head of Enterprise+ project) said.

 “Entrepreneurship Education in Europe” conference

 On the 1st and 2nd of June 2017, a conference on the topic of “Entrepreneurship Education in Europe” took place at Ruhr-Universität Bochum where experts discussed about the different experiences and strategies developed during the project and how to implement them throughout Europe.