Entrepreneurship, youth and environment

Background Green entrepreneurship represents an opportunity for Europe and its citizens. An increasing number of people of working age, especially young people, are looking for opportunities to engage in a profitable business of their own. The European Commission has adopted several policies and action plans to respond to this aspiration. The "Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan" was adopted in order to encourage job creation and entrepreneurship, as a prerequisite for growth. This plan has been presented in order to "unlock Europe's entrepreneurial potential, remove existing obstacles and revolutionize the culture of entrepreneurship in the EU". In addition, the "Small Business Act for Europe" reflects the policies on SMEs at EU level, by setting a certain number of priorities, the environment being one of them. Combined with the Commission's "Circular Economy Action Plan", these policies aim to make green entrepreneurship an alternative and effective solution to tackle youth unemployment and economic inactivity while also implementing Europe's climate goals. Objectives The main objectives of this project are: - encourage entrepreneurial interest and talent, particularly among young people with green ideas and aspirations, - promote the inclusion of young people in the active economy and, - educate young people in partner countries on the basic tools needed to start their green business project. Implementation Activity 1: Preparation of an online survey on business intentions, expectations and barriers according to the target group. Activity 2: An online tool dedicated to frequently asked questions from interested young entrepreneurs and a compilation of the questions and answers. Activity 3: Identification of good practices among partners and creation of a manual that covers them all. Activity 4: Identifying and conducting video interviews with successful young entrepreneurs in environmentally relevant sectors (agriculture, renewable energy, smart transportation, etc.) showing success stories that will inspire future young entrepreneurs. Activity 5: Development of an e-learning platform with methodology and study plans (modules and content). Activity 6: Programming a learning game about the first steps in green entrepreneurship. A Course on Green Entrepreneurship for youth workers was also held at Gaziantep University (Turkey). Achievements In order to create new companies, services, products and technologies, which address environmental and nature-related problems in our European society, there are certain prerequisites that young people in the target group must fulfill before immersing themselves in the business world. These prerequisites imply skills and competences that will complement the knowledge already acquired and that will be obtained thanks to the general and specific e-learning modules of the environmental sector for young entrepreneurs, developed through the activities carried out by the project consortium and thanks to the good practices exchanged between partners. As the main result of its implementation, the project aims and hopes to achieve an improvement of the business culture in each young person concerned, in support of sustainable growth, as well as the acquisition of relevant green business knowledge and skills. For this, an online survey has been carried out among the young people of the countries of the consortium, the results of which have served as the basis for preparing the different modules of the training plan of the e-learning platform.