Creating Opportunities for Young Entrepreneurs through E-Commerce (COOYEC) was a large scale project focusing on creating employment possibilities (including self-employment) for youth with fewer opportunities: from deprived neighborhoods with migrant backgrounds. The project was executed in 3 countries, Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands.Context/backgroundThe economic crisis, the lack of formal qualifications and the issue of work-related discrimination inspires more and more young people to leave the labour market and opt for self-employment through entrepreneurship. With this Strategic Partnership, we strive to reach target groups of young people that currently aren't participating in projects fighting youth unemployment, using the experience and networks the various international partners have and represent. Most young entrepreneurs focus on local activities because they lack the knowledge of online business and e-commerce and therefore miss out on the opportunities that the Internet offers. In the coming years they will continue to lag behind in these fields, not fulfilling their potential. Every year, new online concepts and services are introduced. Youth organizations want to step in & offer courses on e-commerce, but find their own knowledge & skills relating to online business insufficient. Aims/objectivesThis project aimed to develop a sustainable methodology, toolkit and online platform for international youth-workers, in providing trainings in online entrepreneurship to youth with a bi-cultural background. The focus was on transnational entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial opportunities offered by the bi-cultural background of the participating youth and youth workers. Besides, the partner organizations involved have been instrumental in offering courses in entrepreneurship to migrant youth with ambitions to improve their employability and position on the labour market. By cooperating in this enduring trajectory, the partners developed methods and trainings for youth workers with a focus on including and expanding the unique and specific skills a bi-cultural background offers. The project also featured the supra-national development of a comprehensive manual and toolkit for youth workers with a focus on cooperation across borders, aimed to train young entrepreneurs with a bi-cultural background. Participants/target groupsAfther the completion of the project we aim to reach at least 800 young people, part of the secondary target-group of youth living in deprived neighborhoods, with the trainings that will be delivered by the trainers we trained in C3 (an average of 40 per trainer, over the years, starting after the delivery of the final digital manual and training method). However, we will reach much more young people (and youth workers) indirectly through the website and manual that we will promote in each of the participating countries. Our primary target group consisted of youth workers/educators that are active in multi-cultural urban communities, ie. representatives of partner organizations who have been involved in the organization's past e-commerce, entrepreneurship and ICT-activities/projects. The members of these communities, predominantly youth from migrant backgrounds, are our secondary target group.Our program consisted of 6 phases:Phase 1: Goal: The development of a methodology tailored to the particular features and opportunities of e-commerce, based on the research of partners & shared best practices. Assessing needs & objectives of target groups.• Assessing, establishing and meeting of our primary target groups• Building partnerships and discussing project strategies• Sharing best practices and brilliant failures • Agreeing on time schedule and task division Phase 2: Goal: development of the training program, based on the methodology and outcomes of phase 1.• Training of trainers (primary target group)• Pilot given to unemployed youth (secondary target group) by the trainers trained.Phase 3: Goal: Improving methodology of our training, by evaluating & reflecting on the pilot. Getting input for manual (digital course method, with instruction videos exercises; created by using creative commons/open source principles) .• Evaluation and reflection with partner-organizations, trainers & participants in order to develop the final manual.Phase 4: Goal: Finalizing methodology, training, manual for future implementation.• Development of final training & manual using all information and evaluations done in previous phases.Phase 5: Goal: Dissemination of the project results, presentation of the training & manual to international peers.• International multiplyer event/conference introducing publication/website&manual.• Implementing results into training of 20 trainers.Phase 6:Goal: Final evaluation, making the project sustainable, working on future cooperation.The project outputs were branded under the name Your Future Online (www.yourfutureonline.eu)

"The EPBE project has created many Open Educational Resources (OER) with the aim of helping students to build their own personal brand and look for a job, using technological tools 4.0 and favouring access to the labour market on the Internet, as well as the acquisition of digital skills in a training and work context. The main objective of the project is training and raising awareness among students and vocational training and higher education teachers of the acquisition of digital skills in a training and work context (creation of a personal brand, job search and training aimed at teachers that can be replicated in any other educational centre). This project favours the use of innovative techniques by means of the use of the results created: Quality Guidelines for the preparation of Massive Open Online Courses (hereinafter, MOOCs) ""Personal Branding"" and ""Job Hunting 4.0"", and a Handbook on methodological and pedagogical approaches on distance education with ICTs to create a personal brand and look for a job on the Internet. 8 members from 5 European countries have participated in this project:P1. Universidad a Distancia de Madrid (UDIMA) (Spain): Project Coordinator. Private 100% distance learning university specialised in the use of ICTs applied to education, innovation and research.P2. Fundació Prat (Spain): Foundation associated to the Centro de Estudios Prat that offers training for different levels through innovative teaching techniques.P3. STePS (Italy): Pioneering company in formal and informal approaches to favour a sustainable change within organisations and territories.P4. Learning Plans for All (LPfA) (Greece): Company specialised in lifelong learning and in providing continuous learning opportunities. Experience in the field of vocational training.P5. Marconi University (Italy): First distance learning university of Italy. Devoted to research, development and testing of innovative pedagogical methods using the latest technologies.P6. Marak Digital (Spain): Advertising agency specialised in promotion, marketing and emerging technologies.P7. Deloitte (Cyprus): Service consulting company. P8. Radio Leinehertz 106.5 (Germany): Non-profit company working in the field of the media and in education for young people and adults.The main activities (Intellectual Outputs -O-) developed were the creation of a Quality Guidelines (O1), the curricular design of two MOOCs (O2 and O3), the preparation of said MOOCs (“Personal Branding” -O4- and “Job Hunting 4.0” -O5-), the creation of a Handbook to facilitate the creation of MOOCs and on-line courses in general (O6) and, lastly, the creation of a Toolkit (O7) composed of a repository containing all information and tools developed in this project, available for free download for all teachers, educational centres or companies wishing to use them.From the beginning of the project and in parallel to the work made, we have worked in an online marketing campaign for the promotion of same, including the creation of a web site (epbe.eu) where you can find all information and results created subject to be freely used. In addition, a Promotion Plan, a Quality Management Plan and a Results Use Plan has been created, as well as a training activity applying the B-learning methodology for teachers from all educational sectors with the aim of multiplying and transferring the results and know-how created.Finally, for the presentation and dissemination of the results of the project, an International Workshop was celebrated on 1 June 2017 in Barcelona, in front of an audience composed of professionals of the sector, students, teachers, stakeholders and general public. Said event was streamed with the aim of ensuring the widest circulation possible, and it can be watched on-demand from the project's web site. The project tries to have an influence on the improvement of the accessibility to the labour market of European young people through the enhancement of their personal brand on the Internet. MOOCs and a specific methodology previously mentioned have been developed to this aim. Thus, students and teachers can acquire the necessary knowledge to improve their employability, teaching activity and digital skills. On the other hand, the presence of a free and permanently open repository of results on the project's web site containing many audiovisual educational resources ensures the project's sustainability and applicability in all educational contexts and its use for all potential users and interested parties."