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Description
Challenge: Despite significant investment, young people in many regions still face systemic challenges to start, grow & sustain a business. This is intensified by the lack of documented evidence & learning on what kind of entrepreneurship support is most effective in different contexts, and a scarcity of tested & scalable models.
The main objective & expected results: to pilot the TbP Model and provide direct services to the target group in Greece, Italy, Spain and Poland;gather evidence and improve results and social impact of the model; to mobilize stakeholders and advocate for additional support for model scaling.
Outputs include research conducted report incl. data & evidence developed; TbP Model tested & improved; new assessment system proposed & used; methodology toolkit prepared; knowledge transfer workshops implemented; conferences organized. Accordingly, the main expected outcomes are:
- increased number of underserved youth return to training/education; found employment; and/or started entrepreneurial activity;
- organisations use the knowledge base of what works, where & why;
- increased number of stakeholders are aware of the TbP Model
Target groups/end beneficiaries:The project targets underserved youth (25-30yrs) who will benefit from dedicated & highly specialized financial & nonfinancial business development services, resulting from evidence-based research.
Transnational added value: interchange methodology & techniques, exchange of best practice and co-creation will lead to a transnational, repeatable & scalable support methodology proposition.
Measuring success: An appropriate system of assessing results, outcomes and -whenever possible- impact, with a focus on relevance, effectiveness, sustainability & cost-efficiency developed.
Expected sustainability: Results are expected to enable organisations mobilise public, private and philanthropic investments and advocate for better planning of EU funding, thus contributing to a better ecosystem.
Summary of project results
Despite significant investment, young people in many EU regions face systemic challenges to find a job or to start, grow & sustain a business. This is intensified by the lack of documented evidence on what kind of support is most effective in different contexts, and a scarcity of tested & scalable models. To address these challenges, “Young Entrepreneurs Succeed – YES!” aimed to pilot a methodology, the Trust-based Partnership Model (TbPM) as we call it, and provide direct services to vulnerable young (19-30 yrs) in GR, IT, SP & PL; collect evidence & improve results & the social impact of the model; and advocate for model scaling.
As a first step, the project partners analysed the NEETs phenomena in the 4 countries as well as gaps in existing service provision. These country reports confirmed our project’s assumption that there is a need for scaling existing instruments in terms of depth (adding new locations), reach (adding new target groups) and scope (adding new instruments). They also served as the starting point of YES! Theory of change & for the development of an appropriate system of assessing results, outcomes and -whenever possible- impact, with a focus on relevance, effectiveness, sustainability & cost-efficiency.
The project had set to work with NEETs providing training, coaching & volunteer mentoring services with the aim to increase the number of underserved youth that return to training/education, find employment; and/or start their entrepreneurial activity.
In addition, the project partners used their experience in knowledge transfer and peer learning activities, to enable organisations mobilise public, private and philanthropic investments and advocate for better planning of EU funding, contributing to a better ecosystem to tackle youth unemployment. Research and Impact assessment fed the knowledge creation component of YES!.
The project managed to engage some 3800 NEETs of which 3382 successfully completed at least one of our interventions. We organized more than 160 trainings, offered business and employment coaching to 1353 NEETs, and mentoring services to 450 of them. Two out of three beneficiaries found a job/created their own business, actively engaged in job seeking or are in the process of starting their business. The thinking space and resource section of the project website, hosts more than 200 learning modules, working papers, selected success stories and publications in journals and conferences.