The number of young people leaving school early and becoming unemployed remains high in the 2 Seas area. The COVID19 crisis adds to this challenge and calls for a different approach to support and motivate vulnerable young people to get back on track. SPEED-You-Up offers NEET young people, or those at risk of becoming NEETs, a different approach. From within schools or together with community organisations, they have the opportunity to develop a business pop-up, while at the same time developing entrepreneurial and employability skills. Project partners have collaborated to develop an entrepreneurship programme that is tailored to the needs of vulnerable young people. It is based on a coaching and community-oriented approach as well as learning-by-doing. The entrepreneurship programme consists of 8 modules: Intro; Talent & Skills, Discovery; Dreaming; Pitching; Designing; Doing; Lessons Learned. The entrepreneurship programme is accessible on the project website.

There have been 10 pilots of entrepreneur hub in which young people have been able to experience the SPEED-You-UP approach. Based on the experiences in these hubs, they have developed four models of working on entrepreneurship in local communities which formed the basis for upscaling their approach. 

9 project partners created an entrepreneur hub. During the course of the project, partners have created a feasibility framework, in order to allow organisations to understand the prerequisites, step by step guide, as well as the implications but also benefits that can be derived from implementing their approach. Finally, coaches from multiple new regions have been contacted and have been given a train-the-trainer session, so that they can set up and implement the Speed-You-Up approach. 

This projects' impact has become very visible not only in the reports, but also thanks to the registration files, the surveys, the video testimonials, but also from the interviews that were conducted with young people and coaches who took part throughout the project lifetime. The impact was not solely noticeable in young people but also in coaches as well as partners, organisations and even whole communities. Project partners really believe this type of approach can help young people now and in the future. 

…I was helped tremendously by them…they helped me tremendously with the creation of my website, I myself had never done anything like that before.

Something I've really learned, is to be creative…to step out of my comfort zone, to do things I normally wouldn’t do. 

I would definitely recommend SPEED-You-UP to other youngsters, because they helped me so much…they really went along with what I wanted, and they could guide me very well.

When I quit school and had nothing else to do, this project is what got me back on track…it’s a great experience, I had a beautiful time.