AGRI-CHARISMA: accessing and developing youth skills in agro-entrepreneurship

Background The project "AgriCharisma - assessing and developing youth skills and agri-entrepreneurship" aims to empower young people to build strong teams and engage in agri-entrepreneurship. The OECD report "The Missing Entrepreneurs 2019: Policies for Inclusive Entrepreneurship" (2019) clearly shows that young Europeans are struggling to find work (15% unemployment rate). However, the report reveals the tendency of young people to take risks and found their own start-up or innovative company. More than 40% of them believe it is possible to be self-employed in the next five years. However, the transition from school to work is difficult, especially in agricultural and rural areas. Although the green economy accounts for 6% of EU GDP, the population in rural areas is ageing rapidly. Figures show that only 6% of managers in rural areas are under 35 years old. The challenges facing young people are lack of career, training, managerial and professional skills, lack of examples of successful innovative businesses and lack of networks. Objectives The objectives of the project and its outputs are to: - Promote entrepreneurship education and agro-entrepreneurship among young people (18-30 years), especially in rural areas; - Help young people to identify their skills and competences, in order to further develop them or acquire new ones to successfully develop sustainable agri-businesses; - Apply innovative game-based non-formal learning methods, develop innovative activities and create innovative tangible digital tools to promote open education and innovative practices in agro-entrepreneurship in the digital age; - Promote youth empowerment, connection and engagement in agri-entrepreneurship; - Strengthen the skills of youth trainers, coaches, career counsellors and relevant professionals. Implementation The ESM (Europe Startup Monitor) reveals that young people try to overcome challenges to launching an agro-entreprise by forming teams (more than 79% of the founders started in teams). The AgriCharisma project proposes that the key to the success of a new agro-startup is the team. Building a team with complementary skills, competencies and roles before starting is crucial. AgriCharisma therefore focuses on developing tools to connect young people interested in agri-business (platform), to assess their skills and competences and to enable them to develop their skills (E-courses and Serious game) and to create effective teams and agri-businesses. At the same time, it provides a guide for youth trainers and educators for educators to effectively integrate these tools into their courses. We tested these resources with 71 young people and 12 trainers and reached 52762 people as part of the project's communication campaign. Achievements RESULTS PI1: Agricharisma platform for young agro-entrepreneurs PI2: E-course Module 1: Key competencies and personality characteristics of a strong founding team PI3: Module 2 of the e-learning course: Developing soft skills for agri-entrepreneurship PI4: AgriCharisma Digital serious game on assessing personality characteristics of young entrepreneurs and developing agri-entrepreneurship skills PI5: Guide for youth trainers and educators on how to implement Agricharisma's innovative tools and methods in their courses. RESULTS - Number of young people who participated in the tests: 71 - Number of trainers who participated in the tests: 12 - Number of visits to the project website: 94169 - Number of people reached by the communication campaign: 52762