Down to Business also focuses on engaging, connecting and empowering young people by designing intellectual outputs which catalyze youth to create business start-ups for which they receive expert feedback. This is especially important with NEET and disadvantaged groups. Youth entrepreneurship, in particular, has been high on the EU political agenda as a tool to combat youth unemployment and social exclusion as well as stimulating innovation among young people: Fostering youth entrepreneurship is one of the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy and its Youth on the Move flagship initiative; Employment and Entrepreneurship was one of the eight fields of action promoted by the EU Youth Strategy (2010-2018); Entrepreneurship is a key competence in the European Reference Framework on Key Competencies for Lifelong Learning (2006). Empowering these groups with the right tools to start a successful business will provide them with much needed opportunities. Finally, it addresses the priority of social cohesion by creating intergenerational synergies and networking opportunities.

This project will address some of the astasia of disadvantaged groups in the hunt for employment. Given the enormous impact entrepreneurship can have on youth job creation and social change it is a powerful socioeconomic influence. However,
with low start-up success rates; several barriers to the inclusion of youth into entrepreneurship as a career; the forthcoming expiration of the Action Plan and a likely unemployment increase in a post- CoVID-19 europe, there is a need for fresh initiatives that boost entrepreneurship among the EU’s youth population. These choice of priorities is based on studies like Youth Business International, that recognize that after mentoring (74%), young entrepreneurs were more confident in running their business and 72% felt they had stronger decisionmaking skills through the support of their mentors.ccording to the Youth Business International, after mentoring (74%) of young entrepreneurs were more confident in running their business and 72% felt they had stronger decisionmaking skills through the support of their mentors. This is the reason why this project is about social inclusion, diversity, employability strengthening and “activating” young people.

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