Generation Entrepreneur
Context and objectives
Generation Entrepreneur helped develop an environment of entrepreneurship throughout North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean by providing business skills to young people from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia. The project’s integrated approach considered both the demand and supply sides of the labour market.
Generation Entrepreneur was the first project promoted under the Mediterranean Initiative for Jobs (Med4Jobs). It was endorsed by the 43 member countries of the UfM in October 2013. The project sought to support and develop the entrepreneurial ecosystem on multiple levels, from business education in primary and secondary schools to training in business creation. Generation Entrepreneur also involved private sector mentorship and seed funding for enterprises. Approximately 79,000 school and university students benefitted from the training programmes promoted by the project, and 500 job opportunities were created through participants completing mentorship, incubation and start-up programmes.
The project comprised the following three components:
INJAZ Entrepreneurship Education. Students in middle and secondary schools attended entrepreneurship education courses that provided them with business concepts and soft skills such as analytical thinking, teamwork, creativity and leadership.
INJAZ Company Programme. Students in secondary schools and universities received lessons on economics and entrepreneurship. Mentors from the private sector gave advice on how to launch real-life enterprises.
INJAZ Start-Up Programme. A careful selection of business projects and youth enterprises had the chance to establish real businesses and receive incubation, seed funding and dedicated business mentoring services.
Location
Key figures
Duration:
2016-19
Beneficiaries:
79,000
Total cost:
€3.4M
Countries:
7
Financial contribution
Promoter
This project was promoted by INJAZ Al-Arab (INJAZ meaning ‘Achievement’ in Arabic), a non-profit organisation operating in 15 countries across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The mission of INJAZ Al-Arab is to provide young people in the MENA region with entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work-readiness skills through experiential programmes and as part of the regular educational curriculum. Furthermore, it aims to create a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem through innovative public-private partnerships as a critical part of the solution to chronically high youth unemployment.
Key partners
Ministries of Education of participating countries
Private Sector companies engaged in the programme
Beneficiaries
79,000 students across the 7 countries who received INJAZ entrepreneurship training over three years, helping them to become more employable.
Key actions
Selecting entrepreneurship education programmes, preparing materials, selecting schools and training volunteers to train the students.
Providing private sector mentoring.
Implementing start-up programmes in six countries (this component built on the successful experience pioneered by INJAZ in Egypt).
Organising a national/regional competition in which leaders from the private sector serve on a judging panel to evaluate the students’ company concept, business plan and performance.
Results
79,000 entrepreneurially minded young people and graduates were trained.
Approximately 500 job opportunities were created through participants’ successful completion of mentorship, incubation and start-up programmes.
Young people received the knowledge and skills they needed to own their economic success, plan for their future, and make smart academic and economic choices.
50 start-ups supported and funded in their launch.
