youngbusiness.net 3
YBN.3 Partners:
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for information
- Budapest Youth Enterprise Centre, Budapest, Hungary
- Neumann Youth Enterprise Centre, Eger, Hungary
- Móricz Zsigmond Secondary School, Ibrány, Hungary
- Abigél Primary and Secondary School, Nyíregyháza
- Inkubator De Afaceri, Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania
- Regional Development Agency, Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia
- Regional Development Agency, Moldava nad Bodvou, Slovakia
About YBN.3
The youngbusiness.net 3 (YBN.3) project was aimed specifically at helping organisations in Central Europe to establish sustainable youth enterprise programmes and develop and promote good practice in the field of youth enterprise development.
Led by EDW, the project was delivered over two years from late 2007 to the end of October 2009 as part of the overall YBN programme. It extended the network developed in the YBN.1 and YBN.2 projects into new regions, while facilitating the cascading of knowledge and expertise from our ‘older’ Central European partners to four ‘new’ Central European partners, in urban and rural areas in the transitional and emerging economies of Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
Society for the Promotion of Youth Enterprise in Central Europe
The outstanding achievement of the YBN.3 project, supported by the European Commission’s Leonardo Da Vinci Lifelong Learning Programme, was the establishment of a unique initiative to promote youth enterprise in Central Europe. The Society for the Promotion of Youth Enterprise in Central Europe was launched in October 2009 at a Conference in the British Embassy in Hungary’s Budapest, hosted by the British Ambassador, Greg Dorey.
The Society will be the platform for further rolling out the youth enterprise activities of the YBN.3 programme in the region. Enterprise Development Worldwide (EDW) and its YBN.3 partners, all of whom are members of the new Society, are committed to carrying on the work of the YBN.3 project. We aim to advance entrepreneurship, improve entrepreneurship skills among young people and to provide a comprehensive support infrastructure for aspiring young entrepreneurs in their respective countries.
This Society is unique to Central Europe, and will be the engine that drives forward the development, innovation and dissemination of the YBN model of support for the foreseeable future. Dr Mária Lakatos, Leader of Budapest Youth Enterprise Centre, and Liz Rhodes MBE, a former Trustee of Wandsworth Youth Enterprise Centre, are joint Managing Directors of the Society.
Speaking about the launch of the Society, Michael Manning-Prior, Chief Executive of EDW, says “The launch of this Society could only have been achieved through the perseverance, commitment and hard work of all the YBN.3 partners, who are all founder members. The Society and its beneficiaries will benefit from their track records, experience and ability to work across international borders and deliver practical and cost-effective results.”
Other YBN.3 successes include:
- EDW’s Partners, new to youth enterprise, in Ibrány, Nyíregyháza and Debrecen in Hungary, Sfântu Gheorghe in Romania and Moldava nad Bodvou in Slovakia, have created entirely new youth enterprise incubation services.
- Events have been held in Rimavska Sobota, Eger and Sfântu Gheorghe to promote youth enterprise and disseminate the lessons learned so far.
- The project has successfully provided targeted assistance to the disadvantaged, minority ethnic groups and those with special needs and disabilities. The Roma community have been a special focus, and there have been successes in Eastern Hungary and Romania especially.
- The activities of the YBN.3 project have been widely publicised, and information about it transferred through special dissemination events that have reached a wide range of officials, educationalists, business people and practitioners.
- An online system of advice for young entrepreneurs has been developed by Budapest Youth Enterprise Centre, providing useful business start-up information, including information about taxation and regulatory issues.
Overall Impact of YBN.3 in numbers:
- 1150 young people have had an introduction to enterprise
- 790 young people have received training and counselling in enterprise skills
- 70 new young businesses have started up
- 125 trainers and teachers were given youth enterprise training
- 170 new links with local schools have been developed
- 170 students from minority ethnic communities have benefited in 2007 – 2009
World Entrepreneurship Summit
EDW and Wandsworth Youth Enterprise Centre (WYEC) were invited to run a conference track at the World Entrepreneurship Summit at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London, in January 2008.
The session included a presentation about their work by one of our Central European partners, Budapest Youth Enterprise Centre (BYEC). Anett Dandóczi, one of Móricz Zsigmond Secondary School’s Roma students, also gave a presentation about the issues facing the Roma community in Ibrány, where the number of poor, unemployed and under-educated people is very high.
Ensuring continued success
The YBN.3 project is the latest in a series of initiatives that started in 1999. Using tried and trusted methodology, the project has brought together old and new partners to ensure that previous experience is passed on to new agencies in new regions and countries. However, the project has also had a wider remit: to reach out to policymakers, practitioners and opinion formers to spread the key messages about the economic and social benefits of youth enterprise and self-employment. Three regional events have been held, which attracted a wide range of influential and knowledgeable people who were able to mix with practitioners and with the target group of young people, to learn about the realities of youth self-employment.
At the heart of the YBN.3 project is the creation of the Society for the Promotion of Youth Enterprise in Central Europe. Not only does this guarantee the continuance of the work beyond the life of the project, it also demonstrates the commitment and viability of the YBN partnership to cooperate effectively in the future.
News update:
EDW’s Chief Executive, Michael Manning-Prior and Roma student Anett Dandóczi have been invited to give a presentation on YBN.3 at a major conference in Brussels in Spring 2010.
Note: The YBN.3 project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This website reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein.
