An Innovative Tool Developed to Help Young People Successfully Start a Business
At the end of February, following the compilation of results achieved over a year and a half, the project Youth BIZ Skillset, implemented by the Young Entrepreneurs’ Centre "Jobs & Society" with co-financing from the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme, came to a successful conclusion. This was the first project of its kind to be launched in Latvia, with the aim of promoting business thinking and the skills necessary for entrepreneurship among young people by developing comprehensive methodological tools for starting a business and training young people and youth workers in their successful use. As part of the Youth BIZ Skillset project, an extensive study was also conducted on the skills in demand in today’s labour market, enabling potential employees to realistically assess and develop their competences.
Since September 2017, a set of various interactive activities was implemented within the project in cooperation with the Estonian Business School and the Spanish Centre for Communication and Innovation. This made it possible to study objectively and in depth the skills and career opportunities of young people in Latvia and Estonia in the 21st century, focusing on promoting smart and forward-looking entrepreneurship.
The project idea was developed on the basis of a special pilot study, “Skills in Demand on the Labour Market: Opportunities for Using Job Advertisement Information to Identify Skills in Demand on the Labour Market”, which examined in depth the ever-changing demand of the labour market in Latvia and Estonia, focusing specifically on young people who, after completing their education, find themselves navigating the complexities of job seeking but often do not know how to apply their skills and knowledge. The aim of the study was to identify current and anticipated market demand, as well as to promote business thinking by encouraging young people to become not only employees but also potential employers. To conduct the study, more than 4,000 job advertisements from the CV.lv portal in Latvia and Estonia were compiled, and their content was analysed in the context of occupations and specific skills; an in-depth analysis of the data was also carried out from various perspectives.
“The results of the analysis of job advertisements show that various occupational groups require specific personality traits, motivation, language skills, critical thinking and previous experience, while specific education, specialised knowledge and technical skills are mentioned in only slightly more than half of all the vacancies studied. It is encouraging that young people today are not afraid to take the next step, are open to training in developing business ideas and recognise design thinking as a tool for generating and testing their ideas. The labour market is currently undergoing major changes, but young people are also capable of adapting—they have different skills and different needs, and they simply need to be encouraged by providing them with new tools and methods for growth. Through the project, our aim was to dispel the myth that business is something very cumbersome and complicated and requires extensive prior preparation. We will certainly continue developing this approach in the future, drawing on the experience gained over a year and a half, with an emphasis on non-formal education and using seminars to develop a set of methods relevant to young people that will remain relevant in the future as well,” comments Līva Stūrmane, one of the implementers of the Youth BIZ Skillset project and a member of the JUC Board.
The digital handbook “Design Thinking for Developing Business Ideas”, created during the project, is a set of practical tips and easy-to-implement methods designed to successfully promote entrepreneurship and develop specific business models using design-thinking methods. The handbook includes comprehensive information on identifying and researching the market situation, solutions to various problem situations and idea generation, creating clear and easily testable prototypes, as well as objectively assessing one’s potential without investing unnecessary resources and energy. As is known, only a small proportion of all start-ups stand the test of time, and therefore it is particularly important today to use this resource wisely.
The handbook tool was developed on the basis of the JUC team’s experience accumulated over many years of working with students, start-ups and non-governmental organisations in Latvia, Estonia and elsewhere in the world, as well as the knowledge gained during a training visit by the JUC team to Spain, organised by the project’s partner, the Spanish Centre for Communication and Innovation. The design-thinking methods used in it are based on a creative and innovative approach to solving problem situations, placing the person—the direct user of the product or service—at the centre. Accordingly, the handbook’s content consists both of informative content blocks and individual question-and-answer sections, and of practical exercises in the form of interviews, collages, drawings and clear business-model prototypes, which can be applied and refined again and again.
The full study and its results in Latvian and English can be viewed at: https://juc.lv/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/BizzSkillSet_Study-Report_2018_LAT.pdf; https://juc.lv/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/BizzSkillSet_Study-Report_2018_ENG.pdf.
The digital handbook “Design Thinking for Developing Business Ideas” (in English) is available at: https://juc.lv/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/design_toolikt_final.pdf.
