Junior Entrepreneurship

The proposed project of  "Youth & Employment / Youth enterprises"

Young persons and young adults often do not find a place to train and to work after their time at school and in the phase of career orientation. In the youngest past it has come to initiatives of schools and youth organizations to build up so- called youth firms, youth- or junior enterprises. In them young persons and young adults have the chance to find out and to learn what it means to be an entrepreneur and to run an own business. Youth enterprises for example are run as learn projects integrated under the roof of an NGO, as independent profit oriented projects with or without cooperation ties to an NGO.

Funded by the European Programme "Euro-Med Youth II" globe is recently planning a joint exchange project which will examine the field of junior enterprises. The project should be designed as a youth meeting taking part in the beginning of 2005 and will bring together cooperation partners from Turkey, Egypt and Jordan to discuss this issue.

During a preparatory visit to Istanbul in April 2004 as well as to Cairo in June 2004 the concrete aims, contents, participants, partners, target groups, methods, events, activity plan and a time-table for the youth meeting project will firstly be drawn up together and agreed with several potential cooperation partners.

The main issues to be probably discussed are for example: What kind of youth enterprises are existing? In which institutional surroundings do youth enterprises work? How are they supported - educational / vocational training institutions, youth organizations, companies, other NGOs? What are the main target groups? Do disadvantaged young people, young adults or migrants play a part, too?

After the approval of the project the participants and partners should acquire an overview of the protagonists, relevant institutions and basic conditions of youth enterprises - each in the third country and in the programme´s country.

Despite the topic of youth enterprises a central further aim is to support the intercultural dialogues and the intercultural competence. There should also be given additional possibilities of partnerships and the possibility to develop new projects together in the long term.

The personnel experiences of the single participants and the partners involved in the youth meeting will represent at the same time an experience with civil society commitment. This could lead to, that cultural differences and common grounds and values as well as work- and communication styles can be recognized and understood as synergy chance and might be integrating in the own living and working world. The common experiences between people from each foreign culture and societies are generally accepted as essential for a peaceful and beneficial co-operation and they contribute to tolerance and for mutual understanding.

Potential beneficiaries of the youth meeting should be especially young people, young adults and young migrants who are jobless or in their phase of career orientation as well as youth organizations, educational institutions, vocational training schools and possibly schools which want deal with the field of junior enterprises.