In 2009, the European Commission launched the Erasmus program for young entrepreneurs “to enable new entrepreneurs to acquire skills essential to the good management of a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) by training with an experienced entrepreneur national of another Member State of the European Union (EU) [1] “The objective is to help young entrepreneurs to meet an experienced entrepreneur in another European country in order to benefit from his experience to start their activity or manage it successfully.
Called IPEYE (International Project for Young Entrepreneurs), this program allows new entrepreneurs to quickly access a level of knowledge and practice by immersing themselves in a new environment for a period of 1 to 6 months, the stay partly funded by the European Commission. The new entrepreneur thus benefits from real training in the development of a small or medium-sized company and potential access to new markets and new business partners abroad.
ECLEE has integrated a consortium of 7 partners * to develop a specific support program for the period 2016-2018, for a total of 102 young entrepreneurs. They were put in touch with 102 host companies from whom they learned new professional practices related to new economic contexts. It is also a way of developing their knowledge of the business environment in the European Union and of thinking from the outset about the possibilities of opening export markets.
For host companies, it’s about getting a fresh look at their own business, in a win-win logic – as well as access to new networks of partners.
As an educational innovation institute, ECLEE has supported the mobility of a dozen young French people so that they can benefit from a specific framework. Through our know-how, we have helped each program participant to specify their objectives, their target and the stages of the evolution of their personal entrepreneurship project. For their part, most of the host companies particularly appreciated the experience and decided to welcome new entrepreneurs afterwards.
*The IPEYE program is conducted by 7 partners :
- for Spain, the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services of Santiago de Compostela;
- for France, the European Center for Leadership & Entrepreneurship Education (ECLEE);
- for Greece, the Olympic Training & Consulting Ltd.
- for Ireland, the Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) and the Limerick Chamber of Commerce;
- for the Czech Republic, the Prague Chamber of Commerce;
- for Turkey, the Technoparc Odtü Teknokent of Ankara.
[1] European Commission, The European Entrepreneurship Exchange Program,User Guide, p 4.
