Support to Prospective Young Entrepreneurs : Inclusion

Author: E2E Youth Employment Initiative (Social Inclusion Blog)

The E2E Youth Employment Initiative provides support for innovative models and solutions for increasing the youth employment and employability, with the financial support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. “Explore your Business” is one of these models, targeting prospective young entrepreneurs. We talked to Branislav Milosav and Svetlana Glavaški from the Banat Regional Training Centre that implements this model, as well as with prospective young entrepreneurs.

What is special about the Explore your Business model?

Branislav: The model was designed to contribute to solving the problem of youth unemployment, and is a genuine example of a partnership between the public, civil and private sector. The partners pooled their resources and rallied around a common goal and idea – to improve the position of youth in the labour market and their employability. This partnership brought together eight partners and seven collaborators, among other: the Development Agency, six private companies, local governments, NES branch offices, the Vojvodina Secretariat for Economy and Tourism and REC Banat.

Svetlana: We piloted the model in 2016 in Zrenjanin, with the financial support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Subsequently, with the support of the Ministry of Youth and Sport, it was replicated in Pančevo and South Banat. Now we’re working in Novi Sad, Stara Pazova and Kikinda.

Are young people interested in becoming entrepreneurs?

Svetlana: There are regional differences, but most young people are primarily interested in working for an employer, rather than being self-employed. The NES is one of our key partners, because they have an excellent database on unemployed people, and, additionally, information about those who are interested in self-employment.

Branislav: Lack of ideas, information, and self-confidence are some of the reasons why young people are reluctant to start their own business. At the same time, they also lack adequate skills, working experience or knowledge to be able to find employment. This is why many give up, or resign themselves to being unemployed. The challenge is to get them to apply, once they have joined the project, everything is much easier.

What does entrepreneurial training entail?

Svetlana: In their applications, the applicants briefly describe their business ideas. After that, 30 selected candidates attend the entrepreneurial training programme. The first part focuses on soft skills, such as motivation, self-confidence, public-speaking skills and conflict resolution.

Branislav: In the second stage of the training, the trainees develop their ideas into business models with the help of certified mentors: how they are going to do business, what kind of service or product they will offer, to whom and how. The ten best candidates attend a two-month advanced entrepreneurship training, and at this stage they develop their business plans individually, with the help of mentors and business sector partners.

Svetlana: Business sector partners transfer their knowledge and experiences to the prospective entrepreneurs: what kind of challenges they faced at the beginning, how to avoid so-called “beginner’s mistakes”. According to the trainees, the advice of private sector partners left the strongest impression on them.

The winners of the final contest are granted financial and non-financial awards, the latter entails consulting support services in the first few months of activity, which proved crucial for the survival of the start-ups. Partners also provide other forms of support. For instance, the City of Zrenjanin and the Business Incubator provided free business premises to a young award-winning woman entrepreneur from Zrenjanin in the first year of activity, (who started a psychological and speech-therapy counseling service for diagnostics and treatment of children). Our experience has proven that people endorse good ideas when they recognize them.

What do young people need in order to start their own business?

Ideas and initiative

Maša Vukobrat wants to open a law firm and provide environmental legal counseling services: “I like the fact that this project highlights the positive side of entrepreneurship and encourages initiative.”

Stefan Panić came up with an idea and started his own business – he works with housing automation systems and applies state-of-the-art technologies in the field of “smart” apartments and houses.

Courage

Milica Tornjanski believes that it takes courage to become an entrepreneur. She plans to provide legal aid to victims of domestic violence, to help them cope with the difficult situation they are in. “We learnt a lot about entrepreneurship, from finance, through public-speaking skills, to business cooperation with clients”, adds Milica.

Adrijana Savić left a steady job to develop educational books for children, endorsed by psychologists and speech-therapists, designed to enhance the development of fine motor skills and logical thinking. “Knowing that I am going to make a child happy gives me a sense of personal satisfaction and fulfillment”, she says with a smile, as she shows us the books, made of natural materials.

New insights and contacts

“This training means a lot to me, because it will enable me to develop a business plan”, says Slobodana Rajić. She wants to combine business and art through an educational-creative music centre.

Aleksandar Vlasačević is planning to open a dental practice, with on-call and visiting services. He says that the training helped him a lot, especially learning about the administrative aspects of starting his own business.

Dalibor Barbenik is very satisfied with the training, as it helped him gain new insights to help him develop his own construction business.

Dental technician Ana Todorović says that she learnt a lot about how to organize a business, and that she also met dentists she could work with. “Now I know exactly what I need to do, how, where and when”, concludes Ana.

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This article was originally published on the Social Inclusion Blog.

The E2E project has been supporting youth employment and employability in Serbia since 2015. The Youth Employment Initiative is part of the Education to Employment (Е2Е) programme, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, implemented by the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of Serbia. If you want to learn more about the project, click here: www.socijalnoukljucivanje.gov.rs/YEI and znanjemdoposla.rs