Developing training activities to enhance social entrepreneurial skill development, with a specific focus on young people in the Western Balkans – that is what the WISEs4Youth project is all about. 2022, as European Year of the Youth, provides the perfect opportunity to start the project which is why Friday the 13th of May, the Kick-off Meeting of the 2 year project took place, bringing together the 6 project partners: ENSIE (Belgium), IDC (Serbia), CDI Macedonia (North Macedonia), Partners Albania (Albania), SENT (Slovenia) and Act Group (Croatia).

The project WISEs for Youth in Western Balkans (WISEs4Youth) is funded by the Erasmus+ programme under the call ERASMUS-YOUTH-2021-PCOOP-ENGO. The project aims to foster social entrepreneurial skills development, it targets potential young social entrepreneurs and especially NEET in the Western Balkans. As a huge number of young people in the region is struggling to get integrated into the labour market, WISEs can provide a fitted solution. By supporting young people to start their own social business, it is possible to support them to by-pass challenges of the labour market, namely getting an entry-level job. However, at the moment youth entrepreneurship in the Western Balkan region is not sufficiently developed nor supported.

Therefore, the project will promote social entrepreneurship, create a replicable and sustainable training methodology, modules and the implement these, promote mobility exchanges and strengthen the creation of regional WISEs, as well as measure the results of the project. The exchanges will take place in all the countries but Belgium, except for the final conference which will take place in Brussels.

The Kick-off meeting focused on the 7 work packages, going from project management and coordination, to the study visits and the work package on peer learning events. During the Kick-off meeting, the partners debated about the content as well as the practical organisation of the different work packages. It was a great opportunity to get to know each other and to start materializing the project.

Up next are the development of the training curriculum, followed by training implementation and the study visits. Meaning that from beginning of 2023 mobility exchanges will start taking place, creating opportunities to travel and meet face to face. We are curious about the upcoming results!