Entrepreneurship Support for Young People with the "Up To Youth" Project

Bahçeşehir University has launched a project to encourage young people to engage in digital social entrepreneurship. The "Up to Youth" project, carried out under BAU's coordination, helps young people, and especially those referred to as NEET (not in education, employment or training), become entrepreneurs by developing their digital social entrepreneurship skills.

The details and outputs of the project are as follows:

1. Title:  Up to Youth - Promoting Future Digital Social Entrepreneurs

Project Number: 2018-1-TR01-KA205-057895

1. Type: Key Action 2 (KA2) Strategic Partnership in the Field of Youth

Project Team: Prof. Dr. Şirin Karadeniz (Coordinator), Assist. Prof. Dr. Tuğba Kıral Özkan (Researcher), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Berna Güloğlu (Researcher), Research Assistant Meltem Özmutlu (Project Assistant)

The main aim of the EU project "2018-1-TR01-KA205-057895 Up to Youth - Promoting Future Digital Social Entrepreneurs", carried out under the coordination of Bahçeşehir University (BAU) in partnership with the Istanbul Governorship, the Future Education Association, the Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (IED) (Greece), Bridging to The Future (BTF) (United Kingdom), STEP Institut (Slovenia) and Associacao Para A Educacao Evalorizacao Da Regiao De Aveiro (AEVA) (Portugal), is to encourage young people to engage in digital social entrepreneurship. The Up to Youth Project helps young people, and especially those referred to as NEET (not in education, employment or training), become entrepreneurs by developing their digital social entrepreneurship skills.

Up to Youth project outputs:

1. Needs Analysis: An analysis of the social entrepreneurship training offered to young people and of the legal basis of social entrepreneurship in the partner countries. The aim of this analysis was to examine the social entrepreneurship training offered in the partner countries, and the legal infrastructure of social entrepreneurship in these countries was also researched. In addition, young people's existing knowledge of social entrepreneurship was measured through surveys. According to the research results, social entrepreneurship courses last between 40 and 120 hours, and the target group is young people aged 16 to 32. Although these courses have no common curriculum, structure or methodology, many of them cover introduction to social entrepreneurship, financial literacy and marketing. According to the research, social entrepreneurship has no legal infrastructure in our country and is still a little-known concept. There are activities by EU funds, the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Industry and Technology aimed at raising awareness of social entrepreneurship.

2. Website: http://uptoyouth.eu

3. Interviews with good practices and role models: Videos of interviews with social entrepreneurship examples and entrepreneurs in the partner countries.

Good practices presented from Türkiye: Otsimo, Tarımsal Pazarlama, Çöp(m)adam

Interviews conducted in Türkiye:

E-bursum: Mesut Keskin

Fazla Gıda: Olcay Silahlı

Good4Trust: Uygar Özesmi

Otsimo: Zafer Elcik

YouTube > UptoYouth Project (UpToYouth Project - YouTube)

1. Training Content: A 10-unit training program to help young people become digital social entrepreneurs. Training content through which young people can develop their digital social entrepreneurship skills was prepared in the following units: Introduction to Digital Social Entrepreneurship, Social Needs Analysis, Social Business Model, Funding Your Idea, Finance and Budgeting for Digital Social Entrepreneurship, Digital Marketing, Digital Model for Social Entrepreneurship, Human Resources and Team Management, New Media Skills, Multicultural Awareness

Training Portal: https://athena.entre.gr/en/courses/up-to-youth-promoting-future-digital

1. Trainer Handbook: As the final output of the project, a handbook was prepared for trainers (academics, youth trainers, etc.). The aim of this handbook is to make it easier to deliver the training content as courses in the classroom. To this end, the following content was prepared: Information about the Project, Learning Outcomes of the Training Content, the 5E Methodology for Entrepreneurship Education, Ice-Breakers, and In-Class Group Activities.

The Up to Youth project outputs, produced in six different languages (including Arabic for the project partners and young people under temporary protection), will help young people aged 18-24, and especially those referred to as NEET (not in education, employment or training), learn digital social entrepreneurship and set up their own ventures.

At the end of the training, young people will:

• Develop social entrepreneurship skills, such as how to start a social venture and how to raise capital,
• Develop digital marketing and new media skills (e-commerce, using social networks),
• Increase their multicultural awareness in order to reach migrants effectively,
• Learn important skills such as budgeting and creating business models,
• Have access to the trainer handbook created by the project team.