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Budapest Youth Enterprise Centre, Budapest, Hungary
Pioneering youth enterprise in Central Europe

Background

EDW’s team first started working in Central Europe in 1996, when the Budapest Business Polytechnic Secondary School of Economics became interested in its enterprise incubation model, Wandsworth Youth Enterprise Centre, and asked for help in developing a similar provision in Hungary.

This led to the creation of Budapest Youth Enterprise Centre (BYEC), the first ‘flagship’ youth enterprise incubator centre in Central and Eastern Europe. This initiative was funded by the European Commission’s Phare Partnership programme.

BYEC became fully operational in 1999, and since then has offered young people who want to start their own businesses a comprehensive programme of support, from initial awareness training to enterprise counselling and incubator units. Having been one of EDW’s partners in the YBN.1 and YBN.2 programmes, funded by the UK’s Community Fund and the Eureopean Commission’s Leonardo da Vinci Lifelong Learning Programme respectively, BYEC was a key participant in the YBN.3 programme, led by EDW’s team.

Service Provision

Based on the EDW team’s holistic model of youth enterprise support, BYEC, led by Dr Mária Lakatos, offers outreach, business awareness raising, business counselling and business incubation facilities to its clients. BYEC is open to all young people wishing to start a business, and the Centre’s main target group are clients with special needs, including those who are unemployed, physically disabled and belonging to minority ethnic groups.

The Centre has 22 units for those who need business premises, providing offices and workshops for young entrepreneurs. Rents are graduated, with those starting businesses paying a nominal rental fee. During the clients’ two-year lease, the rents rise gradually, until, towards the end of the lease, they approach market rates.

YBN.3

In the course of the YBN.3 project, EDW supported BYEC in helping two new partners, the Móricz Zsigmond Secondary School in Ibrány and Abigél Primary and Secondary School, in Nyíregyháza, both in Eastern Hungary, to start their business incubation programmes. BYEC completed their “Training the Trainers” sessions in the first three months of the programme, and were accredited by the Hungaraian Accreditation Body. As part of the YBN.3 programme, BYEC also developed a new internet platform to provide remote assistance to young entrepreneurs in the region.

BYEC has made its training materials available throughout Central Europe and have begun the process of making them consistent, in order to achieve accreditation to an adult training standard. In particular, BYEC has developed a ‘virtual’ incubator platform for those on the YBN.3 project who do not need to lease premises but who want to take advantage of BYEC’s services. Several new businesses are operating in BYEC’s incubator, while others have already begun their independent lives – here is what they say:

“We have been in touch with the BYEC team for four years, and they have given us a lot of support. Our business could not have been so successful if they had not helped us so much.”
Kinga Mohari and Juli Oszlay Horváth, ORIGAMI Fashion Design Studio

“BYEC provides an opportunity for all young people planning their businesses. At counselling sessions they can discuss all the financial, legal, accounting and other problems they face. Young entrepreneurs need not feel lonely – they belong to a community.”
Diána Krausz, Goldsmith

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  YBN.3
  Central
  European
  Project

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• "We have been in touch with the BYEC team for four years, and they have given us a lot of support. Our business could not have been so successful if they had not helped us so much."

  Kinga Mohari and Juli Oszlay Horváth, ORIGAMI fashion design studio