As currently the EU youth NEET rate – young people not in employment, education, or training – stands high, especially after the COVID19 pandemic has already put 3 million young Europeans out of work, European entrepreneurship needs to change and be more flexible. Overcoming challenges, removing obstacles to entrepreneurial activities, and supporting entrepreneurship education will offer Europeans the required skills and competencies, boost the economy, create job opportunities, and accelerate growth. This combination of a more socially conscious generation and the overall growth of social and green businesses creates a powerful solution to one of the most pressing issues young people are facing right now: youth unemployment.

Our project “FUTURE” aims to provide educational resources to target the development of digital and green skills applied to (social) entrepreneurship, especially in NEETs, in order to prepare future generations of entrepreneurs to provide innovative solutions to the existing demands in the society. By developing youth green, digital and entrepreneurial skills, our project also aims to reduce youth unemployment, which has increased due to the Covid19 pandemic. The pandemic also brought a higher necessity of digital and green empowered entrepreneurs, ready to face the challenges of the lock-down and the pandemic in general. Well-matched education and training is needed so current and future generations of entrepreneurs not only identify eco-innovation opportunities – greener ways of working, living and moving around – but also possess the skills to make them happen.

Horizontal:  

• Environment and fight against climate change.
• Addressing digital transformation through development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity.

Field Specific:

• Promoting active citizenship, young people’s sense of initiative and youth entrepreneurship, including social entrepreneurship.
• Strengthening the employability of young people.

• Create educational tools to promote the development of competences according to Greencomp and Digcomp.
• Provide youth workers tools to work with youth on the development of green and digital entrepreneurial solution.
• Develop green and digital competences of both youth workers and youth.
• Foster youth employment and entrepreneurship, by capacitating youth with the required competencies required by the current labour market.

FUTURE’s objectives are related to some of the European Skills Agenda & Youth Employment Support actions:

• A Pact for Skills.
• Strengthening skills intelligence.
• EU support for strategic national upskilling action.
• Skills to support the green and digital transitions.
• Increasing STEM graduates and fostering entrepreneurial and transversal skills.
• Skills for Life.

FUTURE expects both tangible and intangible sustainable results to achieve the objectives set and target the priorities chosen. The project was planned with the aim to generate innovative, creative, sustainable, impactful, and transferable results to other educational sectors.

TANGIBLE RESULTS

• Entrepreneurial coaching platform – “Green & digital solutions for entrepreneurs”. The platform will contain 10 modules (e-book, audio-book, video tutorials, interactive presentations), forum, and will generate certificates for the users completing the coaching course. The course will be available in 6 languages (English, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Greek, and Lithuanian).
• Green and Digital Business plans Toolkit (based on the European Framework: Entrecomp, Greencomp and Digicomp). The toolkit will contain 12 activities according to each area of competence of EntreComp, GreenComp and Digcomp . LTTA activity.
• Local training activities.

INTANGIBLE RESULTS

• 20 youth workers will attend the LLTA activity in Portugal and will get trained on how to create and apply activities developing digital and green skills applied in an entrepreneurial context.
• 200 youth/youth workers will enroll on the coaching platform (during the piloting) and will develop their green, digital and entrepreneurial skills.
• 50 youth will attend the local training activities and will develop their green, digital and entrepreneurial skills.
• 10 staff attending TPMs.
• 100 participants in MEs.