The highest YOUTHShare skills are developed through educational materials, a mentoring programme and internships. The education has been part of the training provided by YOUTHShare and through the training the project has provided the opportunity to explore and develop social and solidarity economy skills, IT skills in the sharing economy and web-based economy, skills in resilient sectors and soft skills. All these competences contribute to the development of employability skills of the NEETs involved in the trainings. Other competences developed were teamwork, creativity, cooperation, etc.
In addition, the Mentoring Support Programme in Cyprus was organised by Neapolis Paphos University and supported by the YOUTHShare Cyprus Transnational Employment Centre. The established “Mentoring Support Programme” was an opportunity for NEETs to share with mentors and other participants their ideas and entrepreneurial vision, to join initiatives of other NEETs in Cyprus and/or abroad and to become members of a Co-operative, participate in new seminars on topics of their choice, and be fully supported to implement any of the above by a team of mentors who will help NEETs to cope and overcome the difficulties they will encounter in practice. The skills developed of entrepreneurship,which means the process of creating and implementing a new idea and aims to create synergies, promotes a sense of achievement and strengthened ways of working.
Another part of YOUTHShare is the internship that took place in all partner countries. In Cyprus, migrants and non-migrants NEETs participated in internships and had the opportunity to gain experience in the workplace. Participants improved their knowledge, communication skills, but most importantly gained confidence to apply for future jobs. Furthermore, the importance of the internship experience lies in the opportunity given to migrants to integrate into the workplace and employers to give NEETs an opportunity to share and/or improve skills, knowledge and career paths through the project.
Foteini Sokratous, KAM OF Youth Employment Center Cyprus, YOUTHShare Project
