31 May ECOOPE partners confirm actions during a kick-off meeting in Porto

• The project, focused on pilot experiences, is co-funded by the European Union and will be completed in May, 2018

After a two day-meeting in Porto, the European project Entrepreneurial Cooperative Experience has officially started. The project partners planned ECOOPE’s first steps and further actions, in order to achieve the main objectives: improve European youth employability and create a new generation of cooperatives. This project is co-funded by the European Union and will be completed in May 2018.

The Entrepreneurial Cooperative Experience ¬involves eight different institutions from five European countries: Centro Internacional Santander Emprendimiento | Santander International Entrepreneurship Centre (CISE), Universidad de Cantabria | University of Cantabria and Ciudad Industrial Valle del Nalón | Valnalón from Spain; Co-operative College from United Kingdom; European Research Institute on Co-operative and Social Enterprises (Euricse) from Italy; Lappeenrannan Teknillinen Yliopisto | Lappeenranta University of Technology from Finland; Policy Experimentation and Evaluation Platform (PEEP) and Universidade do Porto | University of Porto from Portugal.

During the first day of the kick-off meeting, the project manager introduced the context, scope, activities and expected results of ECOOPE, and gave an overview on the project work packages (WP). These WP were explained in detail by their lead partners in the course of the second day and the partners discussed ECOOPE’s calendar of events which includes, among other activities, the publication of a Self-Assessment Tool and a Best Practice Guide of European cooperative entrepreneurship training programmes.

The kick-off meeting concluded with the set-up of a work plan that details the contribution of each of the ECOOPE partners to strategically use their expertise –cooperative movement, entrepreneurship, education and training in Secondary and Higher Education, and Policy reform- in the seven different work packages of the project.

About ECOOPE

In a context of high youth unemployment in many European countries, this 12-month project, led by CISE, aims at designing and implementing an innovative replicable training model both for Secondary and university students as a solution to improve European youth employability in a context of high unemployment in many European countries.

For this purpose, the project relies on the extensive experience of the partners in designing and implementing entrepreneurship education and training activities, as well as in promoting the co-operative business model throughout Europe.

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