EU-REKA: developping self-employment opportunities for vulnerable adults facing Covid-19 conseguences.

The "EU-REKA" project involved five European countries (Italy, Spain, Greece, Austria and the Czech Republic) in the implementation of a learning and guidance pathway for the creation of new start-ups or SMEs, aimed at adults with fewer opportunities who had been affected by the employment crisis triggered by the Covid-19 epidemic. The proposal was developed after a careful context analysis in the affected countries and with the aim of providing concrete solutions. In response to the rising level of unemployment, our project aimed to create a guidance and support tool for employment capacity building in the area of self-employment, providing concrete entrepreneurial educational skills for future opening of one's own business, the necessary training for the creation of a business plan, up to the funding opportunities offered by the EU.

The main objective of the EU-REKA project was to provide low-skilled adults who had exited the labour market with appropriate training to re-enter the labour market. The goals the project set and achieved are: - to increase the entrepreneurial skills of participants with fewer opportunities, through the inclusion of low-skilled adults disadvantaged by the COVID19 pandemic, in training activities implemented in partner countries - stimulate self-employment against unemployment, especially in geographic areas furthest from urban centers, home to partner organizations - create a network of contacts of European entrepreneurs who can support each other - help disseminate European policies, opportunities and funding programs for entrepreneurship, which were covered extensively during the training sessions - empower public and private institutions to improve their services to the community by replicating learning outcomes - increase the entrepreneurial skills of the staff of the organizations that acquired new skills and expand the European network of partner organizations

All foreseen activities by the project have been implemented: -3 international meetings and 12 online meetings -5 learning sessions, at partner premises, to engage the target group. Each country selected a minimum of 6 adults with fewer opportunities by providing them with this entrepreneurship training resulting in new professional skills. -Blended Mobility in April 2023 in Graz, at the Austrian partner. Several disadvantaged adults selected from the learning sessions participated in the mobility for two days of full time activities based on new knowledge gained and cohesion to propose new initiatives together. - "Guide to Entrepreneurship" and "Recommendations for Disadvantaged Adults" in both paper and digital format as the final product: it represents a tool made available to any interested party not only to learn about best practices adopted in different European countries, but also to be able to replicate the training sessions and disseminate notions of entrepreneurship among adults with low skills. The Guide was launched in the final dissemination events as well as following the project's digital dissemination strategy and publication on the website https://eu-reka.eu

The Final Entrepreneurship Guide and Recommendations, final and tangible products of our project that brought together the work of these 19 months of the project, are aimed at adults, educational entities and any interested person with the goal of ensuring replicability of the actions and involving more and more adults with fewer opportunities in lifelong learning. On the KA2 EU-REKA project website you can find all information and documents related to the project, such as meetings, photos, activities carried out with adults, dissemination materials, project description, objectives, etc. This site will be maintained so that everyone can download the documents at any time and without time limit. During local multiplier events in the various countries of the partnership, the results of the project were presented with insights into the teaching approaches and the contents of the Guide, fomenting constructive debate with respect to the topic of unemployment and the consequences of Covid-19 on the labour market. A strength was also the contribution to the project brought about by the transnational dimension, which represented for each of the partners an added value to their growth.