Up to Youth – Promoting Future Digital Social Entrepreneurs Erasmus Project

Project Title

Up to Youth – Promoting Future Digital Social Entrepreneurs

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

There is widespread concern that economic growth has not been fairly shared, and that the economic crisis has only widened the gap between rich and poor. People especially young people are very concerned about this situation and would like to take some steps against it. However when youth graduates from universities, they find themselves competing with each other for a job. Social entrepreneurship can bring solution this problem since benefits of it are for both youth and people in need. In this era, best way to reach other people and spread an idea is internet.
Therefore this project aims to encourage young people (undergraduates, unemployed graduates or young migrants) to develop their skills for digital social entrepreneurship. These certain skills are required to create and develop a digital social enterprise up-to-date and range from those for promoting social inclusion such as life skills, social skills and work skills to support entry in the labour market, skills for entrepreneurship and management and skills for workforce development, essential to achieve sustainability and growth.
In our project, we have developed training materials encompassing “new media skills, financial literacy, knowledge about entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship, multicultural awareness and knowledge about digital marketing”. Apart from these training materials for youth, we also developed an analysis of social entrepreneurship in partner countries, good examples of social entrepreneurship, as well as videos with successful social and digital social entrepreneurs to encourage youth with the role models. In order to support the youth trainers, partner of the Up to Youth Project has created a handbook for teacher and trainers with methodology to teach social entrepreneurship, extra learning materials, sample lesson plans and ice-breakers so that they can use the training content of the project face-to-face in their classes or courses. The developed materials has been uploaded to a Web 2.0 learning environment to ensure accessibility of the project results and outputs. Since one of the aim of the project is to reach migrants, the project website and the training content have been translated to Arabic. The dissemination events in partner countries (Turkey, UK, Portugal) had been organized under the shadow od the pandemic however, the partnership reached its goal in terms of both quality and quantity.
The partnership of the project thinks that the Covid pandemic can be a chance for the youth to support people via digital social enterprises because of the increase in the numbers of people with social needs as well as the usage of digital devices in these periods. Therefore, partners have created, although not promised in the proposal, a handbook for youth on opportunities of pandemic and the needs of people that the youth should focus.

Project Website

https://uptoyouth.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 240264,88 Eur

Project Coordinator

BAHCESEHIR UNIVERSITESI FOUNDATION & Country: TR

Project Partners

• ISKUR ISTANBUL MUDURLUGU
• AEVA – ASSOCIACAO PARA A EDUCACAO E VALORIZACAO DA REGIAO DE AVEIRO
• STEP Institut, zavod za psihologijo dela in podjetnistvo
• BRIDGING TO THE FUTURE LTD
• INSTITUTE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT
• Gelecegin Egitimi Dernegi
• ISTANBUL VALILIGI