With young people facing challenges of unemployment and precarious jobs, a training project has been launched to give them skills in co-operative entrepreneurship.
CoopStarter 2.0 is a European programme which “aims to mobilise the youth around co-operative entrepreneurship by bridging the knowledge and tool gap between youth organisations and co-operative associations”.
Funded with support from the European Commission, it follows on from the previous CoopStarter project, created by eight partner organisation across Europe to teach younger people about the co-operative business model.
The partners in the project are Cooperatives Europe, Legacoop Liguria (Italy), Kooperationen (Denmark), K.A.P.A Network (Greece), Promo Jeunes ASBL (Belgium), CJDES (France), AEGEE (Belgium) and the Co-operative College (UK).
“Co-operatives are convinced that they are the innovative answer rising up to the challenge, offering a sustainable, participatory and socially responsible way of doing business for younger generations,” they said.
“But with a huge lack of knowledge and training of such models, young people are simply missing out.”
The programme will gather co-op mentors, youth workers, young ambassadors, trainers and EU-wide network representatives in an effort to give young people the tools and opportunities to create meaningful jobs and take control of their lives.
The initial CoopStarter programme produced tools such as Ready, Steady, Coop, a practical guide to co-operative start-ups, and the starter.coop website.
