Entrepreneur in a week

What are the objectives of the project?

We want to develop the soft skills of the participants through non-formal learning methods, especially in relation to starting a business. This will be very useful for them in other areas of life, whether in a professional or personal context. These include presentational skills, leadership skills and of course, the entrepreneurial skills that the project will develop the most. Through non-formal learning methods, they can prepare their business plan, which can later be a great help in starting their own business.

We want the project to show participants the path from idea to reality and what they need to do to make it happen. We also want the project to inspire young people to try their themselves at entrepreneurs in the future. Several programme elements, such as guest speakers or start-up visits, will serve this purpose. This can provide huge opportunities for young people and help them to fully develop their potential. We want young people to be aware of these opportunities and of those that can help them on their way to achieving their goals. That is why we will talk about Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs and other international programmes and why we will organise a programme element where each national team will have to present opportunities for young entrepreneurs in their own country.

What activities do we plan to implement? What is the number and profile of the participants involved?

In order to make non-formal learning as real as possible and to give participants the opportunity to face as many learning situations as possible, we will organise a wide variety of sessions. These will include, among others, a debate, a field visit, guest lecture, teamwork, an interactive city rally, a presentation by the participants and a pitch.

A total of 35 participants from 5 countries will participate in the project, in a team of 6 participants and 1 team leader. Participants are expected to be in the age group 18-25 years old, with young people from different backgrounds. The team leader must be at least 18 years old.

No qualifications are required for the project, just an entrepreneurial attitude and we encourage sending organisations to select as diverse range of young people as possible. There is no age limit for the team leaders.

We would like to select participants who know almost nothing about entrepreneurship and startups, those who are at an intermediate level and those who are at an advanced level. It would be extremely useful for the evaluation of the project and the lessons learned from the project to see who has what level of knowledge and how they develop during the programmes. For each level of knowledge, the project can offer new challenges and development.

What results and impact do we expect our project to have?

We aim to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to take the first steps towards becoming an entrepreneur in the future, if they feel motivated to do so, and to gain valuable entrepreneurial and other skills even if they do not. Importantly, the project does not aim to produce ready-made entrepreneurs and transfer all the necessary skills, which is not possible in a youth exchange. It is, however, the perfect format to get started on the necessary path and to develop valuable skills.

We believe that by providing training through non-formal education, rather than in schools or in a market setting, through an Erasmus+ project, it offers a huge advantage and a higher quality, more diversified learning outcome. During the project, participants will go through a learning curve, and by the end of the project everyone will be familiar with the knowledge of how to start a business, such as how to prepare a business plan, how to present it, how to make a financial plan.

This is a good combination because it provides participants with a usable knowledge, without being a dry curriculum, but also by putting them in interesting and varied situations. And in the longer term, the hope is that the business ideas developed by the participants in the project will not be shelved, but will actually be worked on by the participants. We will continue to give them all the help they need to do this after the project.

The other thing that we expect from the project is that the participants will become more active citizens and, if not necessarily entrepreneurs, they will implement their ideas that will benefit society and their community.

The project of "Entrepreneur in a Week" will be implemented by Team SOYA in the spring of 2025. For the participation and more information, please follow our social media!