Care to Entrepreneurship Erasmus Project

Project Title

Care to Entrepreneurship

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

It is estimated that there are more than 100 million carers in Europe today. This accounts for about one fifth of the entire European population. The vast majority of them are young people, principally girls. According to the Erasmus KA2 (Youth) funded Care to Work project and EUROCARERS’ statistics, young carers are faced with additional barriers to education, training and employment. The same research also suggests that early in life young carers develop a number of soft skills and competencies that, with the right support, can lead them into the development of their own social businesses and entrepreneurship activities. We also know that the economic savings that these young people make to their governments through their informal caring role is considerable. In fact, in Europe the value of unpaid informal care in the community and at home is estimated from 50-90% of the overall cost of formal care provision.

Encouraging entrepreneurship for youth is part of the European Reference Framework on Key Competences, while the Resolution adopted by the European Parliament in 2015 stressed the role of Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation in combating unemployment.

At a critical point for Europe when youth unemployment continues to rise, IARS coordinated a strategic partnership of familiar and no so familiar to Erasmus organisations to run Care to Entrepreneurship (C2E) as a youth-led, transnational project that developed, tested and implemented innovative practices in a much neglected area in the field of youth. Social entrepreneurial competences, such as business and strategic planning with a social dimension, were the main pillar of the capacity building course curriculum to be developed for the young potential entrepreneurs of C2E.

In particular, C2E fulfilled its aims of:
– constructing new training curricula and courses (online and face-to-face) for young carers that will allow them to develop the necessary skills, knowledge and competences to become social entrepreneurs
– testing and implementing these materials in the UK, Greece, Italy, Romania and Belgium, and use the comparative learning for informing EU-wide practices and policies
– developing a youth-led evidence-base for the construction of the project’s training and educational tools.

HORIZONTAL PRIORITY
C2E promoted inclusion, diversity, equality, gender-balance and non-discrimination in the education and training of young carers through innovative and integrated series of youth-led actions including volunteering. The “Social Inclusion” priority was addressed through the fostering of social and inter-cultural competences and critical thinking that will help young carers to combat discrimination faced by them and their peers. Particular emphasis was given to female carers given that (a) it is more likely for girls and young women to become young carers (b) they are more likely to be discriminated against due to their gender. C2E will also enhance access, participation and learning performance of these disadvantaged learners and through its courses help reduce disparities in learning outcomes.

SECTORAL PRIORITIES
As a transnational youth-led initiative, C2E promoted entrepreneurship education and social entrepreneurship among young people’ by allowing young carers (with an emphasis on girls) to put their ideas into practice; including through social enterprises, tackling challenges and identifing problems in their caring roles and lives. Social entrepreneurship constitutes a flourishing field of work, which not only facilitates young carers entering into the labour market, but also contributes to the community’s well-being by solving pressing social issues and generating a positive return.

C2E also addressed the “Promoting Empowerment” priority by fostering the active citizenship and participation of young carers, one of the most neglected youth groups in European societies. Due to the youth-led methodology of C2E, young volunteers were empowered and supported to carry out the research for the evidence base of the project, manage its development, quality control it and monitor its outputs. Taking into account the underlying European values and the ambitions of the Youth Strategy, C2E succeeded in its aim to empower young carers by giving them accredited training, skills, knowledge, tools and mind-sets to put “their entrepreneurial ideas into practice”, while serving their communities. Following this approach, challenges in the participating countries, which may have come as a result of persisting socio-economic crises, can be tackled in the long term with the introduction of new social enterprises designed and applied by the young participants of the project. C2E essentially grants a unique opportunity for young people to contribute to their communities while advancing their own career needs, receive accreditation and inform national and EU-wide policy.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 252529 Eur

Project Coordinator

INDEPENDENT ACADEMIC RESEARCH STUDIES INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE & Country: UK

Project Partners

• DIESIS COOP
• KENTRO MERIMNAS OIKOGENEIAS KAI PAIDIOU
• ASOCIATIA HABILITAS – CENTRUL DE RESURSE SI FORMARE PROFESIONALA
• ANZIANI E NON SOLO SOCIETA COOPERATIVA SOCIALE