Ent-Ex The Entrepreneurship Experience Programme

Whether as a grandparent, parent, uncle, aunt, family friend or even sibling, you will have a relationship with a young person between the ages of 18 and 30.Chances are, if we are to believe much of what is written, this person’s future is less certain than yours was at a similar age. We’re told that Europe faces high unemployment amongst its population of university graduates. Those in employment may have to face difficult early years of internships and uncertainty before finding a permanent position, and even ‘permanent’ appears to mean something much less certain than it used to.But take heart – this is the age of entrepreneurship, and policy-makers across the continent tell us that the future of our youth is in their own hands, and that it is rosy….The EIIL has spent ten years helping our future industry leaders to acquire skills and knowledge to help them realise their potential. For the last four summers we’ve run an ‘Entrepreneurship Summer School’ in Brussels, using the EIIL’s masterclass approach to help over 300 18-30 year old young entrepreneurs to identify and develop skills which will help them in their quest to be better entrepreneurs (or employees, if that is finally their choice).This year we are helping three young Entrepreneurs to take this concept to five exciting locations across Europe. Ent-Ex, the Entrepreneurship Experience Programme, is starting at UCL in London on 16th – 19th June (www.ent-ex.eu). Aimed at 18 – 30year-olds of any background or discipline, a series of four day events will follow in Berlin, Barcelona, Bucharest and Amsterdam.Web-site competitions, quizzes, costume competitions, and other ‘barter your services’ arrangements will bring huge discounts on the participation fees, and will show participants that there is more to entrepreneurship than just preparing a business plan and pitching to an investor, and that collaboration and cooperation can help many start-up ideas become meaningful businesses.The events will help young people around Europe to learn from experienced entrepreneurs those skills which they believe have helped them to succeed. EIIL coaches will ensure that they develop many of these skills themselves throughout the workshops. In a ‘win-win’ these events will also provide us with new insights into how we can develop and improve our coaching for our own programmes in Brussels.If you could bring this opportunity to the attention of young people in your networks, we would be extremely grateful, as we are sure will they be.