The EC has published a document featuring 36 pioneering projects in the Youth in Action programme that have nurtured the development of entrepreneurial skills among young people. The EU strongly promotes entrepreneurship as a key competence that can boost competitiveness and growth. Instilling the ‘spirit of entrepreneurship’ in European citizens from early on in life is being increasingly encouraged across Europe, as youth unemployment rates in most of the EU Member States are soaring. Entrepreneurship and self-employment are seen as increasingly important pathways for young people to emerge from unemployment. The ‘Young people and entrepreneurship’ good practice document also features many examples of the social entrepreneurship model, primarily aimed at contributing to the general good of society.

The projects featured in the good practice document vary from young people creating a local theatre or a school magazine to running activities for young refugees or launching a town bike scheme. The common feature of all the projects was ‘entrepreneurial learning by doing’. The Youth in Action is the EU’s programme for young people aged 15 to 28. It enables more than 150,000 young people and youth workers every year to exercise non-formal learning mobility across the EU and beyond and it helps young people to develop skills and fosters their active participation in society.

Source: UKRO newsletter