Youth business activities in terms of circular economy to achieve Green Deal goals

Background The reason for the application of this project was the fact that the transformation of our linear economy to a nature based and circular economy takes more than twenty years. Several European strategies aim at this transformation on different levels in different sectors. Awareness must be risen now in order to be able to have enough work force in the respective fields in the future. On the other hand, there are more than 3 million unemployed people in the European Union (2019). The field of circular economy and the topics addressed in the European Green Deal mean a great opportunity for young people to start business activities and be part of this urgent and highly necessary transformation. Objectives By implementing this project, we want to kill two birds with one stone: by supporting young people to start their own business and doing that in the fields of circular economy and the Green Deal topics, great opportunities will open up for them in the future. Many new companies with a high innovation potential will be needed in the future to fight climate change, use renewable resources in a sustainable way, protect soil, air and water and still ensure social and economic stability. If that path will succeed European societies and societies worldwide will profit in the future. Implementation The following main activities were implemented: - Exploration of the state of the art concerning education opportunities in the fields of circular economy and the Green Deal topics in the partner countries. - Set up of a user-friendly online platform to be able to provide learning materials for young people. - Development of high-quality learning materials for young people in the fields of circular economy and within the Green Deal topics. - Several training and dissemination activities. Achievements The concrete outputs and results of the project are: - 1 State-of-the-art report (including around 200 questionnaires and five competencies maps) - 1 e-learning platform - 96 micro training sessions for young people in six languages (as the main result of the project) - 1 scientific article - Around 100 participants in the National Workshops - 15 people trained in the short-term joint staff training event, who act as “ambassadors” of the aims of the project in the partner countries - Around 30 young people certified within the international GD Hive training