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The program Erasmus for young entrepreneurs it helps aspiring entrepreneurs or young, already established entrepreneurs to acquire the skills necessary to successfully start and/or manage a small business in Europe. New entrepreneurs learn and they exchange knowledge and business ideas with already established entrepreneurs, who host them and collaborate with them for a period of 1 to 6 months. The stay is co-financed by the European Commission.
Benefits
If you new entrepreneurs, you will have the opportunity to have an on-the-job training experience in a small and medium-sized enterprise based in another country participating in the program. This will help you start successfully your business or to strengthen the foundations of the company you have recently established. Not only that: you will be able to enter new markets, undertake international collaborative relationships and exploit potential cooperation opportunities with foreign partners.
If you already established entrepreneurs, you will benefit from a motivated mind ready to fuel your business with innovative ideas. Your guest may have specialized skills or knowledge in an area you do not master, perhaps complementary to yours. Most of the experienced entrepreneurs who joined the program were so enthusiastic about the exchange that they decided to repeat the experience.
Young participants are paid a monthly contribution, which varies from country to country, to cover their travel and living expenses.
Potential benefits for young participants include the opportunity to:
- stay for up to six months with an experienced and successful entrepreneur in another European country to gain relevant knowledge for starting a business in a wide range of areas such as marketing, financial accounting, customer relations, corporate finance
- improve the entrepreneurial experience and chances of success during the business start-up phase; refine business ideas and plans
- become members of an international European network of successful entrepreneurs;
- acquire knowledge of foreign markets and understand the regulatory framework of another European Union country
- collaborate and develop cross-border business cooperation
- gain knowledge about different cultural and organizational contexts and understand how businesses work in the European Union;
- improve language skills
- discover European business law and the European single market, European standardisation and European support for small and medium-sized enterprises;
- receive practical and financial assistance, such as introductory courses before the exchange, logistical and local support during the stay and a scholarship that covers travel and living expenses during the stay abroad.
This is undoubtedly a collaboration from which both parties can benefit enormously, since it offers both new market opportunities at a European level, the possibility of identifying new commercial partners and discovering different ways of doing business.
In the long term, the benefits could extend to the creation of a broad network of contacts and the decision to continue the cooperation, perhaps as stable business partners (e.g. by concluding a joint venture agreement, entering into subcontracts, establishing supply relationships, etc.).
How the program works
The “Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs” program is funded by the European Commission and operates throughout the country of the participating countries, which in addition to the 27 of the Union, also include 14 other partner countries.
To participate, you can contact one of the Responsible centers in your country and visit the Program website
This guide has been produced as part of the annual work plan of the European Network IGNet, co-financed by the European Union. The content of the guide reflects the views only of the authors and neither the European Commission nor any of its agencies can be held responsible for its content or any use made of it. The content of the guide has no official value for the purposes of submitting applications and projects, for which only the official guides of the individual programmes and initiatives are valid.