Entrepreneurship and Employment

Enabling youth to drive local development, the EU4Youth programme equips young people with the necessary entrepreneurial skills and resources to come up with innovative solutions to issues in their communities. 

Throughout 2024, the programme piloted initiatives that offered both technical and financial assistance to guide young people through the process of turning their ideas into viable enterprises.

In 2024, the EU4Youth - Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship project made available a selection of eLearning and soft skills training materials for young entrepreneurs and those wishing to start a business. The materials cover key skills to enhance professionalism and business performance, including in the areas of process optimisation, change management, conflict resolution, creative problem-solving, project management, negotiation and teambuilding.

To promote the uptake and use of these materials, the project organised several trainings in Armenia and Ukraine, specifically tailored to representatives from youth centres and Public Employment Services.    

Several grantees receiving funding under the EU4Youth - Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship project, have integrated entrepreneurial skills training into the process of building a social enterprise, merging education with practical experience and civic engagement. Making use of non-formal settings, many projects have organised competence development through youth centres and extra-curricular activities. This way, they manage to engage a range of local stakeholders to foster ecosystems in which entrepreneurship can flourish.

• Throughout 2024, grantees involved more than 400 external stakeholders in non-formal education and employment mechanisms to foster entrepreneurial capacities among young people. By partnering with local businesses, educational institutions, and youth organisations, the grant projects help to create long-term support structures that will continue to provide skills training, financing, and technical assistance to youth.

The Greenhouse for Social Innovators grant implemented by IBB Germany, helps young entrepreneurs to roll out sustainable green and digital business models by establishing lasting cooperation between young start-ups and private businesses. The project also works with refugees and enterprises that were forced to relocate from Belarus and Ukraine. 

• In 2024, nearly 40 local business mentors were trained under this grant. Together, they assisted 83 young entrepreneurs from Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine with developing an assessment of their businesses to reveal bottlenecks and growth opportunities. Ultimately, the project will connect entrepreneurs with potential investors, ensuring continuity of funds for their projects.

Under one of the grants being implemented in Ukraine, the NGOs Youth Platform and School of Mindful Entrepreneurship (School of ME) have joined forces to help youth centres in Ukraine to become active hubs for social entrepreneurship. Supporting the centres in starting their own social enterprises, they seek to ensure their financial sustainability, while at the same time fostering entrepreneurial competence development amongst youth. In 2024, it was possible to support eight youth centres across Ukraine and provide entrepreneurial competence training to over 220 young people.

In addition to creating local support structures, the grants also offer a wide range of business development and start-up initiatives. Activities in 2024 included hackathons, social entrepreneurship incubators and accelerators, as well as technical and financial assistance for social enterprises. 

The SKYE-Net project implemented by World Vision aims to foster social entrepreneurship amongst youth through training incubators, competitions and seed funding for business ideas that can positively impact local communities.

• In 2024, the grant trained 170 young people in Armenia, Georgia and Moldova by guiding them through the process of turning their ideas into business plans. Following the trainings, the project invited young people to participate in start-up competitions for the chance of receiving financial assistance and access to a coaching and mentoring programme. A total of 36 young entrepreneurs received microgrants, 18 of whom were young women and 17 disadvantaged young persons.

One of the focus areas of EU4Youth capacity building in 2024 was the piloting of Youth Guarantee-type measures in EaP countries.

The Youth Guarantee is a strategic initiative to assist young people’s integration into the labour market after leaving formal education or becoming unemployed. The initiative seeks to address youth unemployment by fostering partnerships among governments, businesses, and educational institutions to provide targeted support to young people. Key components of the Youth Guarantee include investment in skills development and the promotion of inclusive policies to empower youth and enhance their employability.

In 2024, the EU4Youth - Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship project  helped to set up the necessary structures for the piloting of Youth Guarantee-type measures in Georgia and Moldova. In light of the current circumstances in Georgia, however, there were no further developments on the Youth Guarantee piloting in the country. 

Based on the experience from Georgia and Moldova and, with the support from the European Training Foundation (ETF), assistance has been extended to partners in Ukraine to promote the piloting of the Youth Guarantee in the country.

In 2024, cooperation with Public Employment Services (PES) continued in selected EaP countries. A mutual learning plan to assist PES in providing better career guidance and employment services to young people was implemented by the EU4Youth - Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship project.

Several in-person and online trainings took place in 2024, covering priorities such as targeted services for jobseekers and employers, improved skills profiling, and outreach to NEETs (“Not in Education, Employment, or Training”) and other vulnerable groups. The trainings were offered for PES employees from Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.