BASIC ELEMENTS OF THE ACTIVITY
The activity will bring together 41 youth workers, youth leaders, and staff members for a seven-day event in July 2023 in Paredes, Porto, Portugal.
The project team chose the Porto region as the location for the project because it is adjacent to distinctive social enterprises worth visiting. Experienced experts from local youth NGOs will be involved in the project, and trips to local youth centres and social businesses will be arranged.
The methodology is based on non-formal education ideas. The learner's experience will be the centre of attention, and their goals and needs will be taken into account as mentioned in the relevant sections. Methods that are designed in a way to develop skills and attitudes required for entrepreneurial activity. Experimenting with approaches, exercises, group work, and discussions will be the main activities. Several non-formal education working methods will be used to encourage participatory dialogues, in addition to creative and digital skills. The open space technique will be used to guarantee effective follow-up planning. Participants may learn and practise new abilities, implement strategies, and receive feedback on their progress through the project programme, which is a logically connected process.
The programme is built with the following aims and educational logic:
Day 1:
- Presentation of project, aims, goals & Team Building Activity. The participants get to know each other, participate in team-building activities and create a group dynamic, and set their goals.
- Introduction to Entrepreneurship. This is an inspirational session. The participants will break the stereotypical image of an entrepreneur's traits to develop, individual differences)
- Entrepreneurial creativity. This session will teach the techniques on how to be creative.
Day 2:
- Entrepreneurial habits. The participants will come up with the goals for the training and longer term.
- Choosing a challenge. The participants will choose a social issue that they would like to tackle.
- Coming up with solutions, Design Thinking. The participants will go through the guided process of creative brainstorming based on the Design Thinking technique.
- Evaluating ideas techniques. The groups evaluate ideas based on design thinking methodology mixed with the Pugh matrix and choose the final idea to develop in the next days.
Day 3:
- The role of the founder. The aim is a better understanding of the experiences of those who are currently business owners.
- Business modelling - strategising. The participants will learn how business models are designed and discover what factors influence that.
- Segmentation of the target audience The participants will define their customer segments.
- Interview with a social entrepreneur. A chance for the participants to ask their questions from the real-life local social entrepreneur.
Day 4:
- Psychology of creative behaviour. This will be a motivational session for trying to get into the flow while working.
- Building a value proposition. We will develop value propositions and build hypotheses to test the value proposition live through interactions with other groups.
- Developing customer relationships and channels. We will look at the various options for building customer relationships and how these can be combined with channels (e.g., Physical/Digital).
- Study visit to a social enterprise (cafe or hand craft shop, etc). An inspirational visit to a physical social enterprise to examine the real life processes of an enterprise.
Day 5:
- Key activities, resources and partnerships. The participants will work on mapping the key activities that will contribute to resolving the chosen social issue, analyse the resources needed to undertake key activities and identify partnerships which could assist you in creating value.
- Costs and revenue streams. The participants will be calculating costs and identifying their revenue streams to keep the enterprise sustainable.
Day 6:
- Preparation of final presentations. Independent work of groups to finalise their ideas and prepare for the pitch in front of investors role-played by other participants.
- Pitching (presenting ideas of new social enterprises). The aim is to learn to convince investors through pitching.
- Environmental entrepreneurship. Study visit to get involved into environmental topics and learn from local entrepreneurial practises.
Day 7:
- Outcomes, creating long-term plans. Participants work on their future collaborations and ideas, reflecting on the knowledge gained.
- Visibility - Promotion - Dissemination. Presentation of designed follow up plans
- Youthpass CV. Gaining certificates and celebrating the results.
The different activities are balanced and scheduled in a way that will facilitate the purpose of the training and lead to the best possible results.