On 18-19 December in Lviv, 39 teachers representing 22 educational institutions from 11 regions took part in a two-day intensive training. This was the first training that marked the launch of the EU4Youth project for young people “Reconstruction through Social Entrepreneurship” in Ukraine.
Over the course of two days, the participants had a series of useful lectures and workshops from practitioners: they learned about the role of social entrepreneurship in rebuilding Ukraine, found out about successful examples of local social companies, discussed the problems that the latter can solve, had practical exercises on finding business ideas and analysing them, and gained knowledge about marketing strategy, financial strategy and taxation of social enterprises.
“Each topic provoked a lively discussion during the training. The teachers were very motivated to participate in the project and actively practiced new approaches to teaching,” says Yelyzaveta Milenina, Programme Manager at Junior Achievement Ukraine, describing the intensive atmosphere. “The project brought together specialists from various professional fields and institutions of almost all levels of education who work with our target audience, young people aged 17-24: universities, colleges, vocational schools, and even several schools. In fact, the project, in addition to its main mission of developing social entrepreneurship, can be a good platform for sharing the experience of teachers,” adds the organiser.
After the training, the teachers participating in the project will start working on business ideas with their students. Next, teams from different educational institutions will present their business plans at a competition at the all-Ukrainian startup accelerator. More than 70 teams and more than 700 participants are expected. A total of 44 educational institutions from 16 regions have applied to participate in the project.
After the event, all participants received certificates of completion of the EU4Youth training.
The next two-day intensive for teachers will take place in early February in Kyiv. By the end of July, the first phase of the project will also include a series of Entrepreneurship Camps for students participating in the initiative.