1. Project name:Opening new business horizons through business meetings with the countries of Central and Southeastern Europe
Period: September - December 2015
Target group: Representatives of small and medium enterprises managed in Macedonia and the region of Central and Southeast Europe; Organizations and institutions working to support the development of small and medium enterprises in Macedonia.
Activity desctiption:Two-day conference on business networking through B2B meetings, exchange of experiences, good practices and opportunities for regional connection, increasing the competitiveness of companies, improving the offer and their visibility in the market. Initiating and maintaining contacts and contributing to the development of entrepreneurship, internationalization and competitiveness of SMEs.
Achieved results: 50 small and medium enterprises from Macedonia and the region of Central and Southeast Europe included in the conference and B2B meetings; realized more than 100 bilateral business meetings and established contacts for international cooperation
2. Project name:Facilitating integration of ethnic minorities into the labour market through enhancement of their employment potentials
Period: December 2015-August 2017
Target group:Existing and potential entrepreneurs, BSOs, entrepreneurship CSOs, local authorities
Activity desctiption:The overall objective is to facilitate the process of integration of young people form ethnic minorities in Macedonia and to increase their competitiveness on the labour market.
Specific objectives:
1) to increase the employability and self- employment skills to minority young people through flexibly
structured capacity building programs based on individual skill-level assessments;
2) to help the creation of new businesses set up by young people from minority ethnic groups;
3) Creation of a capacity building taskforce for continuous support of minority young people in their
professional development.
Achieved results:
-
Self-employment programme
-
Entrepreneurship training courses
-
Mentoring and internship programme
-
Promotional campaign
-
Business plan competition
-
Web-portal with e-commerce for the entrepreneurs introduced
3. Project name: Building local capacity for youth policy development
Period: November 2015-may 2017
Target group: Youth CSOs, municipality policy makers, young people from 3 municipalities
Activity desctiption: The overall objective of the project is to support the involvement of youth in decision making process and establishment of mechanisms for long term development and sustainable implementation of local youth policies. The project foresees the following specific objectives:
1. Implementation of National Youth Strategy to local level according to the local needs and priorities;
2. Promotion of cooperation of CSOs and municipality policy makers;
3. Capacity building of all stakeholders for creation and implementation of youth local policies;
4. Establishing of joint forums for development, monitoring and implementation of local youth
programs and creation public opinion.
Achieved results:
- Inter-ethnic youth entrepreneurship study
- Youth entrepreneurship camps
- Entrepreneurial learning/ Training of potential young entrepreneurs
- Learning resources for trainers and facilitators
- Accelerating BSO start-up support at local level
- Exchange of best practices
4. Project name: Trainings and personalized consultations for access to finance, for increased competitiveness and innovation of entrepreneurs and their businesses
Period: August 2015-December 2015
Target group: Entrepreneurs, owners of small and medium businesses from the territory of the city of Skopje, aged 18-45 years
Activity desctiption: Two realized trainings for project management and access to finance through national and European programs. Personalized consultations were held, ie individual advisory meetings for 10 of the entrepreneurs who participated in the trainings and who showed seriousness in the intention to prepare projects for which access to finance can be provided through various instruments. The consultations were conducted by experienced consultants and mentors, part of the expert network of YES Foundation with many years of experience in various programs for access to finance for micro, small and medium enterprises.
Achieved results: 24 young entrepreneurs and owners of 18 different startups and small and medium businesses from the city of Skopje, participated in two specialized trainings on project management and access to finance, and 11 of them received personalized consultations on access to finance with a presentation of programs appropriate to their needs, opportunities and in order to increase the competitiveness and innovation of their businesses. also received direct financial support (Prime Aps, Gordian and Interactive Gaming).
5. Project name: "Young creative entrepreneurs for sustainable Skopje" - Raising awareness of social entrepreneurship by creating a platform for promotion and support of the concept of youth social businesses
Period: June 2015-November 2015
Target group: CSOs from the territory of the City of Skopje that work or have the potential to work in the field of social and youth entrepreneurship; Students and unemployed young people aged 18-30 from the territory of the city of Skopje.
Activity desctiption: Raising awareness among civil society organizations and young people about the opportunities and benefits of social entrepreneurship, through the transfer of knowledge and useful European practices. Laying the foundation for joint and systematic action of civil society organizations in the field of social entrepreneurship by creating a platform for networking, exchange and cooperation. Increasing the level of information among young people about the way of establishing and running social businesses through promotional and educational material (manual and video presentations).
Achieved results:
8 civil society organizations and a total of 12 representatives at the working meeting on social entrepreneurship and proposals and recommendations for a promotional platform for raising awareness among the civil society, young people, entrepreneurs and the general public to support and promote social entrepreneurship;
-Made educational-promotional material under the motto "Be inspired!" (Handbook for establishing a social business and disseminated video messages with success stories from European social enterprises);
-The educational-promotional material was followed by an online campaign on the websites of the YES Foundation, which provided at least 3,000 young people with more information about the benefits and opportunities for starting a social business;
-The results were promoted at several events with the participation of more than 30 stakeholders, such as the European SME Week 2015, the Global Entrepreneurship Week 2015 and the Youth Info BOOM project.
6. Project name: Increasing the capacities of young entrepreneurs for successful marketing and sales in order to encourage the development of innovative products and their successful placement on the market
Period: July 2015-April 2016
Target group: Young entrepreneurs who have their own business, young people with entrepreneurial spirit who want to start their own business
Activity desctiption: Two realized trainings for sales skills and successful marketing, held mentoring sessions - business meetings with facilitators, two created video trainings that targeted the online audience by setting up the portals yes.org.mk and pretpriemac.mk, as well as disseminating through regular newsletters and social media on these media.
Achieved results: 30 young entrepreneurs and business owners participated in trainings and mentoring sessions - business meetings and gained more successful sales techniques and tools in placing their products and services on the market, more than 3000 young people and entrepreneurs were targeted through the announcement and the dissemination of online training.
7. Project name: t-MAIL - Teacher Mobile Application for Innovative Learning
Period: November 2015-October2017
Target group: adult education decision makers learners, trainers, and trainees.
Activity description: The present project aims at the development and testing of a mobile application to stimulate student personalised and self-regulated learning in primary school. Educational policy makers, teacher educators and primary school teachers are the key stakeholders of the project.
Achieved results:
- Theoretical framework on self-regulated learning
- Needs assessment of teachers, teachers’ educators and policy makers
- Mobile application for self-regulated learning
- Training course for teachers and teachers’ educators
- Data warehouse, data analytics and learning resources
- Pilot study and teacher training course