ESF-SI-2023-SKILLS-01-0018

In a world where job roles are changing rapidly, soft skills will be one of the few constants. The YouthPioneer project intends to upskill young NEET’s soft and entrepreneurial skills by combining 3 successful methods tested during REBUILD and StartUp2 projects, coordinated by CESIE, enriched with the experience made by CESIE as partner in the YOPEVA project. 

YouthPioneer aims at promoting collaboration with relevant stakeholders, understanding young NEET’s aspirations, enhancing their soft and entrepreneurial skills, and at empowering youth NEET to play a key role in today’s evolving economy. 

The objectives will be reached thanks to different activities relevant to the ESF+ and SI+ call, as they increase the employability of young NEETs by addressing skills gaps in an innovative and collaborative way. Partner organisations will participate in international training sessions to learn from the successful methodologies identified by CESIE. They’ll explore young NEETs’ aspirations through networking and mentorship, organise roundtable discussions with stakeholders, and collaboratively, they’ll create the YouthPioneer Learning Model. Following this phase, they’ll develop a project design training program focusing on NEET entrepreneurship, a handbook for effective pitching, and a NEET skill assessment tool. Young NEETs will then participate in the YouthPioneer Training & Mentoring (YPTM) and work-based learning (WBL) experiences. During the training they will learn project design that they will apply during their WBL experiences by designing a project answering a need of the host company/organisation. After the WBL, young NEETs will receive mentorship and career guidance, and participate in a Job and Innovation Forum with a project ideas contest. This will help them directly integrate in the labour market through the skills they have developed thanks to the YPM: the project design methodology combined with a multi-actor and multi-dimensional approach. 

Expected results:

• YouthPioneer Learning Model created collaboratively; 
• Project design training program focusing on NEET entrepreneurship developed; 
• Handbook for effective pitching developed; 
• NEET skill assessment tool created;
• 90 NEETs who participated in the YouthPioneer Training & Mentoring (YPTM) and work-based learning (WBL) experieces.  

Funding: 639,559.00 Eur

Social innovation scale-up 

The REBUILD, YOPEVA, and StartUp2 projects all represent instances of scaled social innovation, as each developed resources and methodologies that were intended to contribute to the YouthPioneer project. REBUILD’s Youth Manual and Training Toolbox, YOPEVA’s manual on supported employment, and StartUp2’s focus on entrepreneurship for SMEs have elements that are being transferred and scaled up.