Enhancing Young People Skills and Competencies in Social Entrepreneurship by Virtual Reality

Youth unemployment rates were alarmingly high across Europe, especially in Greece, Romania, Slovakia, and Italy. The ENTREALITY project addressed this by equipping young people with essential entrepreneurship skills through innovative 3D virtual educational environments. This project aimed to create ICT-based educational methods tailored to young entrepreneurs' needs, enhancing both their skills and their employability. By leveraging advanced ICT and interdisciplinary approaches, ENTREALITY aimed to unlock the potential of youth entrepreneurs, promoting social responsibility and inclusion. The project successfully developed a VR platform for entrepreneurial education, produced the brand-new ICT-based envisaged educational methods (i.e. 3D virtual reality) tailored for young entrepreneurs and their educational needs, trained 28 young people in social entrepreneurship, and exposed over 250 youths to new entrepreneurial skills and VR technology, effectively overcoming various economic, social, and physical barriers. ENTREALITY also helped the participants overpass all kind of obstacles and barriers (i.e. economic, social, and physical) by means of digital innovations.

The ENTREALITY project aimed to achieve several key objectives: 1.To design, implement, and promote innovative frameworks, tools, and methodologies for entrepreneurship education, by means of 3D Virtual world environments which comprised of at least 5 topics and 40 scenarios - 1 VR platform developed, implemented and functional with all the requirements of the project. 2.To train at least 20 young people in social entrepreneurship and assist them to create their business plan - young people trained in the social entrepreneurship domain. 3. To expose min. 200 young people to new entrepreneurial skills through the use of advanced courses and efficient ICT (i.e. virtual reality technology) - young people trained to use ICT and VR technology. 4.To improve the participation in entrepreneurial education of young people facing all kinds of obstacles and barriers (i.e. economic, social, and physical) by means of digital innovations with 10% improvement of the participation of the young people in entrepreneurial education, creating virtual SME’s in social economy.

The ENTREALITY project implemented all activities according to the initial Gantt chart. These activities focused on developing and delivering scenarios and course materials in an interactive 3D VR environment. We created an educational environment based on Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies, along with open digital learning resources from the project results. Interactive tests and collaborative activities were implemented in the 3D world, supported by a comprehensive content repository. We held the Transnational Partners Meetings, organized regular management meetings, we did the one week LLT activity organized in Romania, which proved to be a big success from the participants feedback, we held all the Multiplier Events in the participating countries (with much more participants than initially envisaged), we developed all the Open Digital Learning Resources (and extra ones from the ones initially envisaged) and we made a top of the line Report on “European best practices in digital innovation and entrepreneurial education" (focused on the topics of Labour market in EU, Entrepreneurial ecosystems in Europe, Digital Entrepreneurship: a big step for employability, Fostering the development of a high-performing digital education ecosystem, Building innovation capacity, CSR, Best practices in Europe: Romania, Greece, Italy and Slovakia). Implemented activities include: R1 (A1 to A6), R2 (A1 to A8), R3 (A1 to A4) and R4 (A1 to A3), management activities, C1, M1 to M4 and E1 to E5. Additionally, we maintained a constant update of the project website and carried out planned dissemination activities. The project included validation, testing, and piloting of learning materials and 3D world activities. We also developed a report on European best practices in digital innovation and entrepreneurial education. Key activities included collecting and analyzing lessons learned, best practices, and success stories. We conducted piloting activities and multiplier events, and prepared a package and guide to help stakeholders adopt and use ENTREALITY results efficiently. Continuous quality management, collaboration, and project monitoring for all partners were also integral to the project's success.

The ENTREALITY project achieved several concrete outputs and results: R1: Innovative Social Entrepreneurship Curriculum and Training Material: • A comprehensive report on Social Entrepreneurship Training across Europe, , the document describing the curriculum, the courses, the areas of the 3D world, the learning scenarios and the required learning materials and the 5 courses topics; • Documentation of the curriculum, courses, areas of the 3D world, learning scenarios, and required learning materials. • Templates for describing learning material and scenarios. • Detailed descriptions of individual learning scenarios for each course. R2: Innovative Educational Environment Based on Virtual and Augmented Reality Technologies: • Development of the first version of the 3D World. • Initial layout of the virtual buildings. • Scripts for the gaming mechanisms of the scenarios and their integration. • Configuration plan for the 3D World covering the five learning topics. • Development of complex gamification mechanisms within the learning scenarios. • Implementation of the piloting plan. R3: Open Digital Learning Resources: • Integration and testing of learning materials within the 3D Virtual World. • Creation of a Content Repository platform. • Technical documentation on exporting and publishing content from the 3D World for easy transfer to stakeholders. R4: European Best Practices in Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurial Education: • Development of the research methodology, compilation of best practices, and success stories. • Report on “European best practices in digital innovation and entrepreneurial education" (focused on the topics of Labour market in EU, Entrepreneurial ecosystems in Europe, Digital Entrepreneurship: a big step for employability, Fostering the development of a high-performing digital education ecosystem, Building innovation capacity, CSR, Best practices in Europe: Romania, Greece, Italy and Slovakia) The monitoring process was carried out by the steering committee at quarterly intervals. Financial management adhered to contract rules and regulations, with budget execution following the planned progress. A Dissemination & Exploitation plan was developed and followed. The project website and Facebook page were created and regularly updated. Online meetings were held quarterly, with active use of online collaboration tools. Constant and active communication among all project partners was maintained mainly through emails and WhatsApp. A Project Quality Management plan was developed, adhered to and respected by all partners.