Three rural municipalities and two agro-holding stakeholders are officially on board by supporting eNEET Rural project in Bulgaria

 

The Mayors of Aksakovo, Devnya and Beloslav municipalities officially supported the implementation of the project “eNEET Rural: Facilitating entrepreneurship and improving skills of NEETs living in rural areas” by signing a Cooperation Agreement with UBBSLA. By signing an agreement, the municipalities agreed, in terms of lasting partnership and mutually beneficial cooperation, to support the work of the Association with young people focusing on low-skilled NEETs up to 29 years living in rural areas. In addition to the three administrative structures, UBBSLA managed to attract as a social partner and local business in the field of agriculture by signing agreements with two local companies: one in the field of agriculture, production and trade in agricultural products and wine production / “Marvin” Ltd./, and the other working in the field of park development and developing the idea of ​​aestheticization of the landscape, landscaping, production and trade in planting materials / “Gardens” Ltd. Varna /.

The eNEET Rural project envisages activities to increase the skills of these young people by stimulating their entrepreneurship and successful realization on the labor market in the agricultural sector. Through various forms of training, youth competitions, staff exchanges and job counseling, the young people involved in the project are expected to develop their professional skills and incentive to enter the labor market. Funded by the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment, the project is implemented by organizations from Norway, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Hungary and Romania, which are a network of organizations supporting unemployed young people , including youth NGOs, educational and training centers, associations of municipalities, regional development agencies and business incubators with a focus on agriculture. UBBSLA is a leading organization of the international consortium.

Since its launch in October 2018 till now, the specialized training materials and the ICT collaborative platform have been developed, where the online training is available (www.eneet-elearning.eu)  and the training has been fully adapted and translated into Bulgarian. Two on-the-spot trainings involving 41 unemployed youths from rural municipalities were conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic. UBBSLA intends to organize a series of on-the-spot Soft-skills trainings (with a focus on basic CV preparation skills, participation in a job interview, communication skills, etc.) and Agro-professional skills (with a focus on innovation and technology in the agricultural sector) by the end of the project – September 2021. More information on the enrollment procedure and how to apply for the courses can be found here: www.ubbsla.org/eneet-cources

A number of activities are yet to be carried out in support of the NEETs trained in the project, such as a mentoring program in a local agribusiness company / farm, an international competition for Start-ups, study visits and  exchanges, etc.