The initial training for the European Programme Erasmus For Young Entrepreneurs, took place in Brussels, from 18 to 19 of February at the premises of the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW).
Purpose of this initial training session was to train the staff of the participant organizations on the IT Management Tool, which is a platform created by the European Commission to support the whole process of establishing, following and evaluating the relationships. It also stores information about all parties involved in the programme – i.e. European Partnerships (EP), Intermediary Organisations (IO), New Entrepreneurs (NE), Host Entrepreneurs (HE) and the Support Office (SO).
The process to identify, validate, implement and evaluate stays abroad comprises four phases: Application, Matching, Building, Execution.
In the Application phase, NEs and HEs who are interested to enter the programme , apply through the on-line registration tool and establish contact with the IO that they have chosen. The IOs are responsible for screening the entries and, once completed, to accept them.
In the Matching phase, the IOs facilitate contacts between accepted NEs and HEs and seek to make matches. NEs and HEs who are interested can also search the database for appropriate partners and make suggestions to the IO that they have chosen.
In the Building phase, the parties involved (NE, HE, IOs responsible) reach agreement on the commitment to quality, business/work/learning plan, tasks, responsibilities, deliverables, financial conditions, legal implications, etc. and sign the necessary agreements. The Commission gives the final approval of the match. NEs and HEs participate in preparatory activities organised by the IOs responsible.
In the Execution phase NEs and HEs complete the stay abroad – in accordance with their needs – in one or more phases and report on them. The IOs responsible monitor the quality of the activity and evaluate the results.
The training completed with an exercise on:
-how to create an Entrepreneur
-how to connect with your IO Staff and assess the application
-how to propose matches to Entrepreneurs and
-how to treat the relationships
