Fostering Empowerment of Young People in Rural Areas Through Social Entrepreneurship and Employment

Since the economic crisis that began in 2008, unemployment rates in the European Union and Europe in general have increased greatly. The increase has been even greater in terms of youth unemployme...

The main objective is to provide young people in rural environments with knowledge and tools that enable them to start own social businesses, favouring the exchange of ideas and perspectives with social enterprises and other social entrepreneurs through the ruraLAB platform. The project contributes to increasing the employability of young people by providing training materials on social entrepreneurship, marketing, economic management, generation of ideas, etc. The innovation and differentiation of this project is the ruraLAB platform, which creates opportunities for the establishment of a network of entrepreneurs and a channel to allow micro-investments in social entrepreneurship. The project also promotes the practice of ruraLAB at the local and regional levels through public bodies and youth associations, generating a connection between social entrepreneurs/investors in urban areas and young people in rural areas, to exchange ideas, visions, and social business models that could be replied in rural areas. The project implementation will have a positive impact on rural areas, making them more attractive, assuring the future of young people, and avoiding depopulation.

The project objectives are achieved through the collaboration of 7 partners from 6 different countries. 6 partners have been selected whose countries are facing this problem, and one from The Netherlands which is an example of good practice in social entrepreneurship in urban areas. The project management and monitoring were ensured by 4 Transnational Project Meetings and several online meetings. The research work was implemented by 4 Intellectual outputs: 1. Definition of rural competences profile and self-assessment tool. The first task was to carry out an analysis of the current competences related to social entrepreneurship of young people in rural areas through a designed and performed survey. The second task was to define a model of competences, based on the analysis of existing competence frameworks. The next step was to validate the defined models through focus groups. Finally, an action plan and online self-assessment tools in all partners` languages were developed. 2. Toolkit and MOOC. A Training Curriculum was developed, covering the contents of online training (INDEX) and Toolkit structure (educational games). Then, the training content, educational games, and 6 video narratives that present concepts to help young people in rural areas improve their competences in relationship with social entrepreneurship in rural areas were developed. Finally, the training materials were validated and tested by young people and teachers. The toolkit is available in MOOC. The environment is adapted to different languages, using English as the main language. The MOOC allows student enrollment without limits. 3. ruraLAB platform. The platform is developed which provide opportunities for young people to register as job seekers or idea's generators, and for social companies and entrepreneurs to look for employees and make an investment in social business. The platform was tested by young people in partner countries. A digital online portfolio was created including projects/ideas of social entrepreneurs in rural areas. 4. Guides about ruraLAB dynamic and digital rural hubs. The aim was to develop a methodology and guidelines so that the ruraLAB concept can be incorporated into the different youth associations or through town halls in entire municipalities, offering the tools developed in the ruraLAB project to young people who live and/or study in rural areas. Specific guides were designed for youth associations and municipalities, accompanied by video narratives to achieve a better understanding of the ruraLAB concept implementation and improve the transferability of ruraLAB. The project results are widely disseminated through 5 Multiplier Events, 1 European Seminar, and conducted dissemination activities by partners to increase the project impact.

The main results, achieved in the project, include: - State of art: analyzing entrepreneurial competences on rural youth: https://www.ruralabproject.eu/gallery/PR1.A1%20pages.pdf - Visual report of the research: https://www.ruralabproject.eu/gallery/Visual%20report%20PR1.A1.pdf Frameworks of Competences published on the project website: - Framework of Competences for RuraLAB Social Entrepreneurs (https://www.ruralabproject.eu/gallery/FINAL%20entrepreneurship.pdf) - Framework of Competences for RuraLAB Employment (https://www.ruralabproject.eu/gallery/FINAL%20employability.pdf) Two self-assessment tools, that allow young people in rural areas to measure their competences related to social entrepreneurship (available on the project website: https://www.ruralabproject.eu/Result-1/): - RuraLAB Social Entrepreneurship Competences Self-Assessment (http://self-assessment.ruralabproject.eu/public2/2022/05/02/self-assessment-ideas-and-opportunities/) - RuraLAB Employability Competences Self-Assessment (http://self-assessment.ruralabproject.eu/public2/2022/05/24/ruralab-employability-competences-self-assessment/) - A virtual training environment (MOOC) and a series of training content and games to provide young people with relevant knowledge on social entrepreneurship: https://ruralabproject.eu/training-environment - ruraLAB platform that allows registration of young people in rural areas and social enterprises or young social entrepreneurs in urban areas, thus favouring the exchange of ideas and micro-investments in businesses of the young rural participants: https://ruralabplatform.eu/ - A guide on the ruraLAB concept so that it can be disseminated and replicated by youth associations and town councils: https://view.genial.ly/64a84835fbc0d30011264c99 - Video narratives about ruraLAB concepts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgmv_hl7YXJ64tIAc6LhoBV7Q0UF0pbqs A guide focused on policymakers to set up digital rural hubs that are the backbone of change in rural areas, giving support to young rural entrepreneurs to their business ideas: • Guide about ruraLAB Digital Hubs (interactive): https://view.genial.ly/64abc802d7dfc4001901606d • Guide about ruraLAB Digital Hubs: https://www.ruralabproject.eu/gallery/PR4.3%20digital%20hubs.pdf The other results of the project are: • Project website: www.ruralabproject.eu • Project Blog: https://www.ruralabproject.eu/News/ • FB page: https://www.facebook.com/ruraLAB3.0/ • YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Sjhx6oFM9bHZyiOILU5ag • Project Brochure and banner • Project Exploitation and Sustainability Plan