ACCESS TO SUCCESS

https://www.facebook.com/Busteni-Access-for-Success-Erasmus-exchange-2019-107699107268784/

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

"ACCESS TO SUCCESS" was a youth exchange with mobility between 26 august-4 september 2019 in Busteni, Prahova County, Romania. The partnership included 32 young people and 8 group leaders from eight european countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Slovakia, Spain and Romania The context of the project is one in which the average rate of NEET and unemployed young people in the European Union reached 12%, in 15 countrie being over.

The aim of the project was to increase the opportunities for access to the labor and business market of NEET youth and unemployed aged 16-24.

The methodology was dynamic and diverse and based on nonformal education. It included games, presentations, entrepreneurial education, artistic creation, workshops, visits, intercultural evenings.

The project activities were training, introduction, knowledge, trust, teambuilding and group dynamics, presentations of organizations and participants, Erasmus + program and youthpass certification, cultural and study visits in Busteni and Brasov.

There were 8 workshops where participants found information on unemployment in partner countries, its causes and effects, understood key competencies for employment and business, met with young local entrepreneurs. Central workshops taught young people to develop a CV, a motivation letter, prepare an interview and create a business plan.

The impact of the project was felt at the level of young participants through the development of new entrepreneurial skills and the assimilation of entrepreneurship models for better access to the labor market. At the level of local organizations and communities, the impact will be felt through the presence of young people who are more trained to apply and multiple methods and tools for access to the labor market and business.

We want to express our gratitude to our partners:”Change is in You” – Bulgaria, “SVON” – Croatia, “Iniziativa Democratica” – Italy, “Baltic Regional Fund” – Latvia, “Alter Ego” – Greece, “Youthfully Yours SK” – Slovakia, “Asociacion Juvenil Almenaras” – Spain, to the wonderful group leaders: Stan, Kristian, Eleni, Diana, Julija, Onderj and Lucia and to all participants that got involved in activities and are the main beneficiaries of project’s results.

Thanks to our host in Busteni, Vila Cristina and especially to Andreea for friendship and hospitality.

Tolea Postovei – project coordinator on behalf of FPT Buzau

CREATING THE “TEAM” It’s clear we were a strong team during the exchange and that happened because our involvement, respect and willing of cooperation. First days we had activities to train us to work in a team and have a good spirit.

Trust games in the forest: a)

<<The cars>>-in pairs, one blind had the role of the car and the other the driver and vice versa. It was a good game which made people to interact and trust each other..and also made us understood feelings of Hrisi, our visual impaired colleague. b) <<The bottle>>-in groups with one person in the middle having the role of a stiff and drunken bottle and the others trying to push it but not to break it.

Actually, both games reinforced the trust among participants and the ice was completely broken.

The"Eggsercise”: in mixed groups with certain materials (scissors, stick, pen, piece of paper, balloon…) we created a protective case for the egg which fell down from a several meters high. It was a creative activity.

City Bound in Busteni: in mixed international groups we started discovering the city. We had a few tasks to do such as find the market and buy a fruit, take a group photo with a local and find the story of the soldier statue in front of train station. Later, we went hiking in the forest and we arrived at the"Waterfall", an amazing natural source of water hidden under the trees and the mountains. We had the opportunity of learning about the city and admiring the beautiful nature of the area.

LAND ART continued our construction of team spirit but also awareness of way to success. Using branches, stones, leaves and trash we created wonderful masterpieces in the forest.

On the way to success there are lots of obstacles as you can see on the pictures. There is a little green tree in the middle of the road, which represents a point of your life, when you grow, but to the way of perfection there are even bigger and harder obstacles on the road to the "wooden throne". The other masterpiece shows that when you arrive on the top you are #1

The idea was to create something that is related with the job and the bungalow represents the success and near to that we do the path, which bas a trash on it, which garbage that represents the obstacles that we go through.

The branches symbolize the ups and downs of the way to succsess, the mushrooms are representing the succsess, but sometimes you can feel like trash and that is why they have put a garbage on the road.

"The railway to succsess" is a long one and full with obstacles, the mushroom represents the succsess, but also there is another mushroom which represents "the ultimate lust" that can lead you to the failure Our installation represents steps to success. At your path you will have challenges with many things; one of them may be laziness, alcohol, drugs, loss of hope and failure. On this path you are not alone, the tree represents family and friends who are stepping stones in your path that give you stability to achieve success

INTERGALACTIC EVENINGS Presentations of countries were split into several “intergalactic” evenings. At first evening Italy, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Latvia were presented. Bulgarian team promoted Italy. They showed us some funny videos about stereotypes about Italians and a sketch about how they behave in the restaurants. After that they sang an Italian song called Bella Ciao. It was very nice that not only Italians knew how to sing along but almost everyone (isn’t it crazy how international we all have become?). Croatian team promoted Slovakia. In the beginning they briefly introduced us to the country. After that they told us about some national foods and showed pictures of them. After that they told us some interesting facts about Slovakia, and they ended their presentation with a funny video about daily life in Slovakia. Italian team represented Latvia. They started with singing Latvian national anthem and made a very beautiful moment for everybody being present. After singing they shared some interesting facts about Latvia while in the background, they played a video with scenes from Latvian nature as Cēsis castle, river Daugava etc.

During the second evening we discovered more about Spain, Croatia and Greece. Slovakia promoted Romania. They started with some basic things about this country and then there came more interesting facts like that 60% of brown bear population is located here. They ended their presentation with very funny video that was made to introduce Romania to USA president Trump! Romania promoted Spain.They told a lot of interesting facts and also showed some funny sketches for example bull fight etc. They ended their presentation with a Spanish song that all of the participants danced to in a friendly circle.Latvian team was representing Croatia. They made a country overview by showing a video about the culture and shared some funny stereotypes. To make it more visually attractive was created a poster which presented to the Croatian team as a gift. Spanish team promoted Greece. They made a funny play that represented the Troyan war, specifically the scene of the Troyan horse when the Greeks fooled their opponents hiding themselves inside it and beat them. They also teached everyone how to dance syrtaki. Each country told some interesting facts about their cuisine. After degustation and socializing countries showed their national dances. We all became more united than never and will never forget each other! Everyone had really nice discussions in not formal way.

Romanian evening was held in different day, when all participants gathered together near BBQ place and tried typical food.

ABOUT “NEET” NEETs: who are they? Being young and Not in Employment, Education or Training today in an era characterized by the aging of the European Union population, young people constitute a large economic and social potential. Therefore, in recent years, there is a generation being created by the disproportionate effects of the economic crisis and the consequence can be an alarming social issue, as being NEET predisposes young people to long-term unemployment and social exclusion. It also has a significant negative impact on the economic growth and welfare equilibrium of countries.

At present, most EU Member States are facing the growing challenge of absorbing and integrating young people into education systems and labour markets.The lowest NEET rates for people aged 20–34 in 2018 were in Sweden (8.0%), the Netherlands (8.4%), Luxembourg (9.9%) and Malta (10.1%). In contrast, the highest NEET rates were recorded in Italy (28.9%) Greece (26.8%) Bulgaria (20,9%) and Romania (20,6%). In these member states, more than a quarter of all young people aged 20–34 were neither in employment nor in education and training.

In our first workshop every participant has equally been included in the division of tasks. Each of us had to draw, think of the situation in his/her own country, collect the necessary material, improve our fantasy and to create a team poster. We tried to funnily represent a very complicated concept through the technic of the story telling. For example, one of the poster represents Bob, a guy looking for hir first job and studying the situation all over the European countries.

We have improved our cultural awareness. Drawing a scale as an allegory of the youth unemployment signifies the burden of youngsters.

To sum up, all the teams represent the nowadays critical issue of the youth unemployment in a different way, even though the final results are very similar one to each other.

This leads us to the conclusion that cultural differences about youth work in each country, all of us has a different mentality. There could be lots of solutions that must be tailored for the gravity of problem according to the amount of NEET presents there.

WORLD COFFEE

is a perfect tool to analyse one subject from different angles, in our case youth

unemployment. At four stations moderated by Lucia, Ivor, Any and Alex we discovered causes and effects of unemployment, solutions and responsible for intervention.

Causes of unemployment Most people that took part in the world cafe activity agreed that the main cause for unemployment is the economic crisis, poverty and lack of opportunities.

But another popular discussion point was the mentality argument. For example, people avoid doing menial or manual work, looking for jobs that they may be under-qualified for, making it a lot harder to get employed. It was also a discussion of people that are choosy and having huge expectations, preferring to remain unemployed and take the support from the government rather than compromise. Some said that culture is a factor: in some countries, it is normal for a woman to be a home-maker, for example. On the other hand, it is difficult for the young generation to find employment since the retirement age has been pushed so high.

Speaking of the government, another item that was discussed was the minimum wage and how increasing it exaggeratedly can lead to companies firing people in order to be able to keep their profits. Fewer jobs, more unemployed people. Because of the wage situation factories chose to relocate to a place where they have cheaper labour force, or start paying employees under the counter. In a lot of countries, grey work is a common practice and a problem. In industry, robotisation has an interesting impact. While it makes certain jobs obsolete, it creates other opportunities. The problem is that to access them one would need higher education or training.

Education was another subject that was mentioned often. Starting from the education one gets at home: some people believe that people who do not find a job are lazy because they got raised in a certain comfort zone. It is a proven fact that people who drop out of school are less likely to get employed. Others blamed the educational system, as for a lot of jobs, youngsters especially, are required to have practical skills, experience or training that the formal free education does not offer.

In some countries, it also happens that because the university does not put a limit on the number of students they accept for certain studies based on the labour market requirements it creates people who are highly qualified in a field where the demand is already saturated.

One very important aspect of this conversation are the people who cannot find unemployment due to health issues, both physical or mental. With physical disabilities, it is difficult since most employers do not have the facilities to accommodate them. With health issues, it can happen that depression, anxiety and low expectation from life make it difficult to get oneself motivated and prepared to get employed.

Discrimination, of course, is a factor in this discussion as well. Discrimination based on bias and prejudice aside, the most common example is when a woman is less likely than a man to be hired for a position due to either having children or possible pregnancy. Another example would be when former inmates are marginalized, even though they have done their sentence and have been rehabilitated. It was mentioned that there are not enough active policies and programs to help people get the required skills and support them in getting a job.

All being said and done, there are some cases in which unemployment is a choice and not a problem. Some people live in the countryside and live off what they produce. There are people, especially youngsters, who prefer to postpone their career to take advantage of existing opportunities such as education, internships, Erasmus program. Other people live off their or their familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wealth or have other sources of incomes. Other people are undecided, so they take time to discover and to research what they would prefer to do.

Effects of unemployment Unemployment is a situation in which able-bodied people who are looking for a job cannot find a job.Unemployment is a real concern in all areas of the world. For the workshop called World Coffee, we had to switch ideas about a specific topic, in my case as moderator the physical, mentally and social causes of unemployment. As a moderator, I was pretty surprised that people had new and creative ideas for causes, ideas that I could never think.

First, it started with mentally causes, like anxiety and depression and then developed in something deeper than that, like criminality, hunger, alcohol and drugs dependence, discrimination, feeling needy and in the end even committing suicide.

These issues are caused more because of lack of activity when a person just stays too much focusing on himself, the brain is atrophied and enters desperation. On social standards, the unemployed ones are seen like people that don't contribute to the economy of its country, so it started to be "socially acceptable to discriminate" For the physical causes, the main ideas were having a sedentary life and diseases. Also if you're an unemployed the chances of having a low quality of health insurance is increasing.

For the social causes, unemployment can go to political topics as not trusting the administration emotional like breaking relationships, social division, poverty, protests and even emigration.

When it's about social causes, when it goes to this topic we are not learned what to do and how to cope with that in the future and some people may feel stuck and wail about their life and that's unfortunate because of quality of the education.

Also, the best example I can give it was from one of the participants where he shared that from the ancient time and to our generation everyone worked, as hunters, in agriculture or fishing and since then, now we face something new. With the evolution of society and advanced technologies, people are more inventive, creative and try as much as they could to reach our dreams, fact that break the traditions.

In the end, for the World Coffee workshop, my moderator part was interested because I could just sit and listen to all ideas and in the end, we tried to connect everything and we came to a simple conclusion: Everything is connected more effectively then we thought exactly like a spider web. There are no important causes than others, there are all perfectly aligned together, positive or negative, we have to be aware and try to make a small change, maybe we can "break" the spider web.

Solutions to reduce unemployment While talking about how to face unemployment, people came up with a lot of ideas.

Everyone was very participative and proposed several solutions, one different from theother. Above all, the fact that the unemployed should have the actual willingness to find a job is a common thought, along with having an active attitude and/or sense of entrepreneurship.

These specific traits of personality should be acquired by education since a young age, they pointed out, as entering into the labor market is not specifically included in any subject at the high school or university. Also, an idea in which participants insisted since the beginning is that the solution, in a lot of cases, is in the person itself. "We are too ambitious, and we need to be more realistic", they criticized. Flexibility and adaptation to the actual labor market status were the main characteristics people missed out. As they said, "You have to start from somewhere".

The importance of social media and online platforms was also taken into account, as they consider these tools essential nowadays when searching for a job. We talked not only about general tools like LinkedIn, but also about specific ones existing in our countries. This shows how things have changed in the present time, and national agencies are not needed that much anymore to find jobs, the process is more individual and fast, yet difficult anyway.

Another common point in the discussion was related to the government, which was believed to be the highest responsible of intervening in the labor market and opportunities' improvement. Launching training programmes for free (or having to pay an affordable price) was one of the most proposed solutions, as it would allow unemployers to continue learning while trying to find a job and/or to reinvent themselves. There must be a wide offer of courses according to the different specialities of each person (IT, Communication, Graphic Design…), they detailed. Nevertheless, participants also mentioned that this could be done by their own, with online tools, in an attempt to self-teach themselves through videos, fill-in-the-gap exercises… Apart from that, it was discussed that the increase of monetary wages from the government could help the situation.

Related to the enterprises and corporations, it was proposed both the implementation of a tax that they would have to pay and some kind of monetary help from the institution for them to hire more people (quite contradictory proposals, in fact). The importance of supporting young entrepreneurial initiatives and start-ups was also noted down. Lowering the taxes to new and small businesses, too.

According to educational institutions, the participants agreed that there is a lack of connection between universities and corporations, which is needed to increase direct job opportunities for youngsters. In this sense, they also proposed the improvement of the internship conditions themselves, as sometimes enterprises use this type of contracts to exploit young employees and not to create real jobs, well-paid. Finally, they talked about the fact that we do not receive lessons about Economy, Business, Entrepreneurship…, in our student life, and that it would be useful to add some subject regarding this matter.

In conclusion, there is a lot to be done. The solutions could come from several ways: ourselves, our families and friends, institutions, corporations… The discussion was very rich and interesting, and we can see this way how young people are really conscious about the problem of unemployment and know how to face it. It just needs to be put in practice.

Responsibles of intervention

In this workshop we talked about who are the responsibles to reduce unemployment. There is no an only answer for this matter, as it was reflected in the discussion. Everyone had a really good idea, so this is a summarize of some of them. On the one hand, there are external agents such as the government by itself, better education and training courses. Erasmus program could be located in this area too, so that the European Union as an institution is one of the main "saviour" actors. We agreed in the fact that we need to invest more money (which is obtained mostly by the payment of our taxes) in fields like tourism, technology, knowledge (general and specific ones), startups... Or even joining a political party. In this sense, we strongly believe that powerful people can make a difference; but not only them.

On the other hand, it was pointed out that we need to work more on ourselves to get self-confident. Learning new laungages and don't stopping developing ourselves are also several ideas. We should never lose hope, in the end. Just go on a bussines interview, take care of yourself and be confident, they said. Apart from that, it is important to make strong and personal connections with friends or family, but also professionally with some bigger companies. Volunteering sometimes after all could also be a good idea, as we should not forget the golden rule of doing good to the others.

Talking about the poster, we finally draw a bridge in order to connect education with labour market, as ways to face unemployment pushed by the responsibles discussed. So, at the end. John Doe succeeded. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are four tables leaded by four moderators who recollect all the information about the different groups which are composed randomly. People rotate around all the tables to complete with their ideas and debate about the four topics.

Finally, the moderators resume all the ideas and share the conclusions.

In our opinion, it was a very complete workshop because it gathered all the ideas of the different participants, so in each of the four topics there was a wide variety of concepts that complement each other.We have realised that even though everyone is debating the same topics there were many differences between participants due to the cultural diversity, but we also realised how similar we are, for example every country agreed with the solutions and the person/institution that is responsible for the unemployment in our countries.â&#x20AC;? ( Spanish Team)

About KEY COMPETENCES In first part of the workshop, facilitators explained us the key competences and skills that a person should have for certain jobs.Here are some examples of them: leadership, communication skills, stress management, flexibility, diplomacy, negotiation skills, teamwork, ambition, empathy, responsibility, .

After that, we started an non-formal education exercise.We were splitted into groups and we had to create figurines from clay that represent the model employee, the employee that has all the skills and competences required for their job, or field of activity.It was surprising to see the interest everyone showed on this workshop and their creativity.

Amanda-a lawyer, Delaida-a professional volleyball player, Amby-an ambulance, Bob-a phoenix bird, Da Queen-a chess board piece, Leonard Ratatouille- a cooker, and God-the almighty, are some of the characters the groups made.

At the end of the workshop, all the groups presented their masterpieces, the members changed their experiences and had fun.I think everyone learned something new that will be helpful for them in the future.

Second part of the workshop had the main goal to show by acting to participants what are the key competences they should acquire when applying for a job and as being a worker. People have been mixed in teams, every group got one paper explaining key competence and were given a task to show others in a short sketch a situation where that competence is needed.

Groups had about 30 minutes to make a sketch and used brainstorming method.

We had a task to think about key competences needed for labour market and business field, so we started giving ideas, everyone was active and had good ideas and were productive .

Groups prepared a little sketch a variously from how to get competence to the real image of unemployed person .

First group made a sketch about giving competences and education on modern technology. They showed how to make a powerpoint presentation, how to use smartwatch and some troubleshooting on phone. They showed how can person be immobilized in modern world if he cannot set up an alarm, make a presentation for his studies or make a phone call. It was educating and fun in the same time because they showed creativity.

Second group made a sketch about typical unemployed person it was fun and true. So they gave him this characteristic like being lazy, drinking all the time and arguing with his wife, but on the end when he hit the ground he chose to change and to find a job.

Third group was showing competence about learning how to learn,they showed many different types of learning like visual, audio and kinetic types of learners and how it is important to learn in different ways and find your best way of learning.

Fourth group was showing cultural differences in handshakes, gestures and food preferences and how is knowledge about different cultures important and can be key for getting a job.

Fifth group represented work habits that are important to acquire when being a worker. They showed a waitress who wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t doing her job and smoking cigarettes outside(bad habit) and a cook who did her job and cared about the cafĂŠ and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s costumers (good habit).

Everyone was doing their best and showed that they have a competence. It was real educative workshop and we all had fun.

It helped people to reduce their anxiety when speaking in public and made people more aware how competences are very important in life and acquiring them will make you a better worker.

About CV’s and job interviews During this workshop we tried to focus on very essential activities concerning the process of creation of Curriculum Vitae for our future labour purposes. In the second part of theworkshop we simulated a video job interview for our desired job with a random participant of our choice using skype and in the thirdpart we experience the full process of live, Face to Face interview, but this time, the position was assigned to us at random.

The CV activity was arranged in a logicaland systematic way. At the very beginning we heard a brief explanation and theoretical introduction to writing and preparing a good CV. As our main example for presentation we used Europasstemplate.

The Europass page is a very practical tool that helped useasily create our own CV’s in multiple European languages, which should be accepted in any European country by various companies.

Then we were divided into groups,with a task to create a CV for a character with specific skills, knowledge and experience in order to make them fit the job position we discussed earlier. We needed logical thinking and precisionand we had to keep in mindthat each detailof our character is important.Sometimes we got stuck because we couldn’t agree on a common solution, but after some brainstorming we alwaysreached a consensus.

This activity enriched our teamwork and team-flow. We understood how importantit is to have a good CV in a labour market and how significant participation is in a team.

In the second workshop we practiced for a Skype interview. At the beginning we were told to find a partner of our choice, but it had to be someone from a different country than ours, which was a welcome way of getting to know others better. Then the couple had to set roles. One of the two was the employer and the other one the applicant for a job of the couple’s choice. We had to prepare an interview lasting maximum of 5 minutes asking approximately 5-6 questions. After preparation time, we had to perform a short act in front of the rest of the participants. It was interesting to see the variety of question which were asked. Some of the employees-to-be were asked generic questions which were repeated many times, for example: Where did you learn about this job vacancy?, What is your past experience? What are your strengths?... We could also observe unexpected questions which took the applicants by surprise, such as Are you good at managing your time? Are you a hunter or a gatherer?... While these questions may seem a bit strange, they can reveal a lot about the candidate’s personality.

After demonstrating all the Skype interviews we had a feedback from all the group leaders who didn’t participate in the exercise. They pinpointed what we did right but also showed us in which areas we can improve and gave us useful advice.

Interestingly, most of the performances were really good, so you can imagine we were really surprised upon finding out most of the “actors” have never been to a job interview.

The last workshop we did was a “face to face” interview. Everyone took a random paper from an envelope. The papers had either the position we would apply for or the position of a boss who would hold the interview.

We kept our role for ourselves, so that we didn’t know who we were going to be facing when demonstrating the interview. During preparation time we worked individually and everyone prepared in a different way. The bosses had to prepare questions while the candidates mainly spent their time researching their “dream job”, since most of the jobs were quite unusual. It was also helpful to make up a backstory for our characters, but when it was finally time to hold the interviews and we found out who our pairs were, most of us had to resort to improvisation anyway. One pair after another we performed our interviews. It was surprising to see that there was very little silence between the questions and almost no I don’t know’s. the participants, even though often caught unprepared, managed to get answers off the tops of their heads, just like they might have to do in real job interviews. Next up was feedback again, not only from our team leaders, but this time from us as well.

One think in particular that most participants liked was the diversity of the jobs and their uniqueness, from strippers to soldiers, secretary to journalist, shaorma maker to beer taster, bodyguard to DJ, waiter to cosmetician, the selection was wide.

BUSINESS PLANS WORKSHOP Just imagine 32 youngsters from different cultures, most of them being NEET or unemployed and for sure all of them wishing a better life with a good job or a reasonable business. Close to them were 8 group leaders and facilitators showing them that anyone can create and, why not, apply a business plan.

Yes, we played, you can say seeing next pages, but Pink balloons, Zeppelin speakers, applications for safety or finding beers are part of our lives and maybe in the future our dreams will come true.

For sure we have now more competences to valorize our initiatives and during the 3 days of business plans workshops we improves ourselves more than expected and we hope to find ACCESS TO SUCCESS. See also our videos for advertising here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8JfiyuSvMQ&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR0orWJVKBiNhut-VycPUbmoB1Zq2_QeOYlPeNBW6kO2Z6GDmYIdcBWzOc

ACCESS TO RELAX

ARE YOU BORED, YOU WANT SOME FUN? IN THAT CASE WE’RE NO.1 >> Idea Access to Relax is a place that brings youngsters together and offers them quality time with lots of fun games and thematic nights. In this way our customers can escape from the daily routine, refill their batteries, feel themselves and make fun memories. >> Added value • • • •

Our customers will be less stressed, they will work and study more efficient Support our local economy Encourage people to be more active in their real lives than on social media People can socialize, make relationships and new opportunities appear to develop themselves and the society

>> Future customers Youngster from 16-35 years and everyone who wants to have fun and make friends.

>> Commercial strategy • • • •

Management plan: We are young entrepreneurs and we will work in the company as normal employees. Main risk is the competition because there are a lot of companies similar to ours Material: We have a rented place, furniture, games and drinks Financial: Our work is financed by a bank loan and our sponsors such as Coca-Cola and Timişoreana Marketing plan: We will advertise ourselves through social media like Facebook & Instagram, flyers, our website and billboards but the most important advertisement will be made through our satisfied customers

>>Expected Results • • • • •

In the first six months we expect to raise our sells with 10% To diversify our services, adapting them to our customers needs To improve our reputation, to be known all over Bucharest To find more sponsors To improve our marketing strategy, promoting ourselves on radio and TV

>> Our Story Are you bored of being bored? Are you tired of sitting in your chair playing games alone? You had enough singing alone in the shower? We have the solution for you! Join us to have fun, make new friends and fun memories! We promise you that you will never get bored because there is always something fun happening in Access to Relax!

>> Website http://cms.access-to-relax.webnode.hr/

Name: Beautiful Morning Slogan: Be the best version of yourself Our idea is to open a beauty salon. Our goal is to provide services related to beauty procedures bringing more steady and permanent results. Our services are involving nails services (manicure, pedicure, semipermanent and gel), make-up (casual, theatrical, TV, bridal, etc.), solarium, losing weight-cool sculpting, hair removal, with SHR method.

Our salon will work with technologies that are much better for the skin compared to other hair removal technologies in other salons.

Our salon is addressed to everyone who cares about his/herself. There are no age limits.

Marketing plan: To reach our costumers we will use our own website, Facebook page, Instagram profile, Youtube channel. Besides the digital platforms, we are going to create business cards, leaflets. Another way of promoting our salon is the cooperation with self-care/beauty/ fashion influencers. We will organize weekly events for our customers.

Management plan: In order to open our salon we are going to use shares and crowd funding campaign strategies to raise the funds. The main risk of opening a salon is that there would be a big competition since the beauty industry is so advanced nowadays.

• Name: Block.

• Definition: A security system to replace traditional ways of accessing buildings.

The product consists of a smart device to be installed on the door with a face recognition system and a fingerprint scanner to unlock it.

Block is waterproof and protected from the sun and other elements with a cover.

It is used in combination with an app that notifies you if someone tries to unlock the door and fails, and also allows you to monitor the device.

The purpose of this product is to increase both security and practicality, as there is no need for keys, which can be forgotten or lost.

In this way, it is easier, faster and safer.

Potential customers: Everyone who has a house, a business, an organisation, etc., and wants to live peacefully without the trouble of carrying keys.

Commercial strategy: SWOT analysis. − Strengths: secure; easy to use; reliable; durable; practical; innovative. − Weaknesses: more expensive than traditional methods; the app is not attractive for older people. − Opportunities: partnerships with other security companies; attractive for new generations; it can be installed in any kind of door around the world. − Threats: People might fear that the system could be hacked; possible competitors from other security companies.

We will create a crowdfunding campaign to get the financial resources in order to build the device, develop the software of the app and promote our product.

Furthermore, we will try to establish partnerships with other security companies.

Our advertising campaign will consist of a video ad and promotion on the social media (TV, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Google Ads, etc.).

FIND MY BEER Business plan IDEA Our idea is to create an app for the geolocation of the different types of beers in a concrete area, along with the connection of locals and tourists in order to encourage them to interact with each other (while drinking beer). It will be based on a map where all the bars in the surrounding areas will be located. We will write a description of the different types of beers, creating a kind of "Beerpedia", including prices, allergens, and information about the different Happy Hours they have. Reviews will be allowed and also stories about how people met in the bars will be published (it means, reviews both for people and drinks), stimulating the human interaction with the use of a technological device. We also thought about including an actual chat for them to talk and a mechanism of "matches", as the one in Tinder, increasing the social and cultural awareness as long as the civic competences. This app could be included in the field of both IT, because of the technology used, and Entertainment.

ADDED VALUE This app will bring people together, making a positive use of technology, encouraging them to interact with the others while drinking RESPONSIBLE!. It will be a way to contact both with locals and travellers who want to discover the best beer in the area and meet people all around the world.

NAME: Find My Beer LOGO

SLOGAN: Drink RESPONSIBLE! CUSTOMERS The target group is quite wide, as our users will be people +18, which is the minimum age for drinking alcohol allowance in a general basis (except, for example, Bulgaria, Belgium, Germany and Portugal, where you can drink beer from the age of 16).

However, we will focus our promotion strategy in young people, who are the main users of technology and open-minded, looking for discovering the world. Both women, men, and "prefer not to say" or different genders will be included, without any discrimination.

MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING PLAN Human resources • • •

IT specialist, for the development and maintenance of the app Graphic designer, for designing the interface of the app and promotion items Logistic attendant, a person in charge of the contact with companies, bars, etc

Material resources • • •

Computer, to develop the app using the softwares needed (we need to pay for the license of those too) Phones, for communication between the employees, contact with external partners and testing of the app Contract with Google Play and App Store, to allow people to download our app

Financial resources As we are a young entrepreneurial initiative, we can get finance from different kind of contests for start-ups. This will give us the money needed to the development and maintenance of the app itself, together with the hiring of employees to promote and make the app work. Some examples of them: TechCrunch Disrupt, StartCon, Startup World Cup… We could also put our idea on kickstarter.com, a webpage where you can get donations from others or sell your products while creating a long-term partnership.

On the other hand, before launching the app to the general public we could go to pubs, companies, etc, directly and offer them some benefits (discounts for future membership) if they invest some money in us. They could be highlighted in the map for attracting more customers, becoming a both-sided benefit (for them and for us).

EXPECTED RESULTS The app is going to be the n°1 Entertainment app on App store and Google Play, because it will appeal young people in a successful way. Bars will increase their income and tourism will be popularized (specially, hostelry). On the human side, we expect people to communicate more with each other, sharing their beer experiences and leaving the phone apart for some hours.

MAIN RISKS We found several apps beer-related, with whom we share the main idea, that can become our competition: Untapped, Discover beer, Barly-Beer Finder, BeerMenus-Find Great. Also, another risk is that we could be denounced for supposingly promoting alcoholism among young people. For fighting so, we will include pop-ups in the app advising people to drink responsible.

PROMOTION STRATEGY For this app our promotion is based only on social media like web pages, advertising, Facebook pages and also on Instagram.

We believe this is the best way to reach young people and share content in an interactive and creative way. A promotion video and special posts will be displayed in social media. We will combine this with a face-to-face promotion, based on the delivery of flyers (which will include a QR code, for relating everything to technology).

IMAGIRO Fold your life

Idea, products, services Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper into decorative shapes and figures. It’s simple and complicated at the same time, and that’s the beauty behind it. Our team is very enthusiastic about it and origami deeply saddens us that people nowadays don’t show much interest in it, so we’ve decided to change that.With our business, we would like to spread the concept of origami to our cities, countries, basically, to infinity and beyond.The main objective of our business is to sell already folded origami animals, objects, people, whatever your heart desires. You can gift it to your loved ones, decorate your home, store, or even your wedding.We also offer tutorials and courses where you can not only acquire the skill of folding your own creations, but also learn more about the art of making origami

Added value In today’s materialistic society everyone is always in a rush, chasing money, thinking it will bring them happiness. We would like to teach people how to stop every once in a while and appreciate the small things in life. We believe finding joy in origami is a good start. We’re also proud to say we care about our environment. That’s why we use recycled materials for our products and all our origami is handmade by us. In addition to that, we want to donate 5% of our revenue to conservation of the Amazon rainforest.

Future customers After conducting a research, we decided to focus mainly on female customers aged 15-60, but everyone who is at least a little bit interested in origami is welcome in our shop! We like to believe our clientele will grow not only in size but also in diversity.

We would also like to provide services to other small businesses that want to decorate their space in not-so-usual way, companies that organize different kinds of events, wedding planners, etcetera.

COMMERCIAL STRATEGY: Human capital: The art of origami is about more than just money for us and that’s why we like to think ourselves as a team, not as bosses and employees. Everyone has an important role and we’re all part of a whole. Our team should consist of artists – the people who can actually make origami, promoters– someone good with people to manage our social media and relationship with customers, salesperson – someone to sell our origami, interact with customers and be willing to help them, courier – for delivering larger orders of origami, to ensure our services are convenient and easily available.In the future, when our business grows successful, we will need more people to join our team.

Material: The most expensive commodity we need is a space for our shop. We would like to rent a small retail space in the city centre and use it as both the manufactory and the place for selling our products. We are also going to need some generic things found in every shop such as cash register, security camera and shelves and racks to displaythe origami on.

Concerning the actual production, as we have mentioned before, we are trying to make our products as ecological as possible, which is why we’re using recycled paper as the main material of our production. Apart from abundant amount of paper for our origami we will also need other crafting tools like scissors or strings and, of course gift bags, boxes and some other kinds of packaging to sell our origami in.

Last but not least, we are going to need stickers with the logo of our company, as we believe promotion is one of the keys to having a successful business.

Financial capital To start our business properly, we will need a bank loan of 30 000 euro that we should be able to pay back in 10 years.

Main risks: The main risk is the possibility of bankruptcy, either due to lack of popularity or because of new competition entering the market. Bankruptcy could also lead to the inability to pay back out loan. However, this situation is purely hypothetical. We’re confident that our idea is good enough for a big breakthrough and our business has very low chances of failing. We’ve also taken into consideration fires and natural disasters as well as injuries that may happen during the crafting process and we decided we want to get insurance in case anything bad happens to our store or employees.

Expected results: In one year we expect all the bug events in our region to have origami decorations. Our tutorials will get popular and people will want to buy more. We’re hoping to have a small cosy store in the city centre with good atmosphere so our customers feel at home when they come to visit. Our Facebook page will grow an audience of 10 000 likes and fans will actively like and share our posts. We’re also hoping to grow as a business, and start doing business with the big companies such as IKEA. We’re expecting to be at the forefront of decorating industry by the end of 2022.

Pink Balloon - Kindergarten Idea: Pink Balloon is a bilingual kindergarden and nocturnal care service. During summer some events will take place in this venue such as sportive tournaments, culinary experiments, games, board games, plasteline workshop and so on. We offer a positive environment where kids can safety grow in psychical and mental way.

Added values: We will give extra value to the school children education providing bilingual education in mother tongue and English and night surveillance.

Characterize your future customers: Our service is devoted to single parents or any type of couple with no discrimination of sexual orientation or any kind of nuclear family. These parents want to adopt a clever way to entertain their kids and provide them the first-class education. They want a trustful and highly equipped staff who takes care and guarantee surveillance when they are not available.

Built your commercial strategy: We offer daily activities, sport, pre-school education, leisure time and night care of your kids. Different fees are applied for the educational part and the summer camp. We need at least 3 fulltime teachers, one substitute mother tongue teacher, 2 secretaries, 2 handymen, an accountant and one security guard. The material resources we are going to buy with a loan of the bank or from funds of the government. Toys, cameras of surveillance, school materials and first aid kits. All the furnitures and the stereo speakers will be already in the building that we are going to rent.

How we will pay the rent?

With a fee of 400 eur which parents will pay.

We are expecting to benefit our investment whose main risk is the lack of consumers. We want to make sure kids learn and that parents are satisfied

Zeppelin -

Look in the skies, music flies

Our main idea is to make a flying zeppelin shaped speaker filled with helium and made of high quality materials. It will launch in technological field. Other than selling our product we also are planning to open a lending service for events that are linked with electro music and other festivals.

Product description: Our aim is to launch two products: Blimp (40cmx12cmx12cm) and Zed Force (130cmx40cmx40cm).

Zeppelin speaker has sensors that can allow it to navigate through the environment. It is made of carbon fibre that is light and durable and can withstand the toughest conditions. It has GPS tracking so it can follow you via phone and smart watch connection. The engines are carefully designed and can lift it up to 10 meters. It has built in LED lights that can be managed by the Zeppelin application. It has got a 4k camera that can record premium quality sounds and videos. It has Wi-Fi connection (up to 50 people can simultaneously be connected) and 360° Cloud sound. It has a Help Mode that can aid people with disabilities and can be beneficial to people in everyday life.

Target group: This type of product will be appealing to those who organise events. They will be very interested because of an original idea reviving a vintage product. It is a set goal for the product to be accessible to the individual for personal use in the near future. It can also enter the market as a guide for museum or touristic tours.

Resources: Materials: Carbon fibre and helium are the main materials for the Zeppelin construction so partnerships with reliable producers are needed. It includes a set of quality speakers, with voltage of 30 (Blimp) or 70 (Zed Force) and a battery system that can withstand 8 hours of playtime on maximum volume. It includes materials that can withstand challenging weather conditions and also the navigation system, GPS, Bluetooth, Sensors and Wi-Fi routers.

Human personnel: We need very capable engineers for the design and construction. On the other hand, we need programmers to build the navigation system and also, the online firewalls. Experts on Zeppelin manufacture and safety superiors will have a very high place in the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hierarchy. Highly competent marketing and advertising strategists are critical for the most efficient entrance in the market. Managing the economic section, financial advisors and economists are needed.Very important are the researchers on alternative materials improving the quality cost of the product and decreasing the environmental impact.

Financial: The material cost is estimated is estimated to be at 8 Million euros the first year. The human labour economic cost is estimated yo be at 2 Million euros per year.

Our company’s policy is to reach out to private investors. It also includes partnerships, sharing percentages of the company.

Business plan: Stages for the Launch

Description

Pilot (before the Launch)

Zeppelin kickstarting campaign. When Co. has enough capital it pays promotions to celebrities and festivals, gives them custom made products. The aim is to popularise the product by showing people that it is fun, reliable and safe to use. Social media accounts will be opened with an aggressive marketing campaign to be known among targeted public and create excitement.

The product is only available to high end customers via invitation. We are developing technologies that can allow less expensive manufacture.

The invitation is not required anymore for purchasing the product. Co. developed less expensive production management and invested towards creating its own materials, therefore will be available to high-end customers.

Developing a product that has the same qualities but with easier accessible materials in order to make it available to more people.

Exclusive (6 months)

Highend-range (6 to 8 months)

High to mid-range (12 to 24 months)

Risks: • • • • •

Failure Low demand Malfunction due weather conditions Being dependent of certain resources and materials Unpredictable environment conditions (birds flying)

Impact: The whole stage at an event can be relocated in a much shorter period of time. It is a novelty on the market. It has a Help Mode that can be useful to guide people in a different way than ever before. It is a never heard before rich sound experience. Due to its high quality camera it can be very useful in filming – concerts, selfies, video clips. It doesn’t require much space and doesn’t need to be carried. Since the product has a flexible character, it can be used as well in non-musical situations, for example recording and surveillance.

AFTER THE MOBILITY What youngsters say:

“I developed my competences and cultural awareness. I realized for one more time how similar and at the same time how different we are as European young citizens” “I feel like i have grown in certain respects as a person and also i believa i have made a better connection between education and the work environment” “Apart from learning how to succeed in the labour market i also learned about new cultures and i met people that influenced me for the future career and life. Thanks to that i’ll use my acquired skills and knowledge to start my own business.”

“I learned more about other countries, i understood the things better about educational systems and definitely i

learned how to write a business plan in just few days. I really hope that our ideas will be soon seen around.”

“This was my first project and it has changed my mind and my life. It’s so strange how people that i never met before became part of my existence and i think for my path in the business field ( i want to have my own company) is now more clear due to project facilitators and nice work we had in teams.”

“I am a little bit shy but this exchange and working in teams made me more confortable to express my opinions.

I didn’t believe before that i can work so efficient in a team with people from othere countries and backgrounds.”

“This project confirmed me how badly i thought i’d like to work in this European field. Now i have practical tools to implement my personal skills both in relationship with other culture and on the way i want to follow to be a freelancer and do what i like and help people be more educated.”

What Stanimir says: “First of all, we want to mention that we liked the schedule. It was very well balanced, we had enough time for rest as well as for work. The accommodation and the food were fine. We liked the ice breakers, they were very well organized. We all agree that our favorite part of the project was “the intergalactic night”, we enjoyed dancing, laughing and learning from each other. I think we all learned how to write a proper CV. We loved the fact that we were working in international teams and by the end of the project every team had a result of their own. We had a lot of fun, we gained a lot of knowledge and we hope that we will see each other again. The trips were exciting and well organized When you want people to learn something, you just teach it easy and accessible capable. From this exchange we learn useful to us lessons. We learned how to make statistics and how to explore different information. We learned how to work in teams and how to teach people, how to do and pass an interview for work, how to start a business. This project gave us positive experience and development.”

What Tolea says: “A project is important when it happens. Every project i coordinate and manage is like my child and every child has something special. This one made me feel closer to the problems the youngsters have, problems that from outside for a lot of people are unseen: unemployment, less opportunities for education and work, weak self confidence. I saw in almost every participant a future good student in university, a potential good worker, an active entrepreneur and i hope that the power of nonformal education and of Erasmus + will help these beautiful people to discover their proper way in life and to find the “access to success.”

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] 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 therein.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;