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Migrapreneurs - Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Mindset Development for Highly Skilled Migrants in Europe
Start date: Sep 1, 2016, End date: Aug 31, 2019 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Skill mismatch can contribute to unemployment and may reduce productivity and competitiveness. It appears in various forms such as skill shortages or skill gaps, but also applies to situations where the qualifications, knowledge and skills of an individual exceed the requirements of their job. ‘Vertical’ mismatch, commonly referred to as over-education, occurs when an individual is employed in a job which requires a lower level of education. Migrant workers are more likely to experience over-qualification – where their level of education is higher than the job they are doing. With the worsening refugee and migrant crisis across Europe and linked negative media coverage we need to make sure as an EC community that we are making the most of migrants' skills and education and showing the benefits they bring.Erasmus+ guidelines (2016) have been updated to address issues around social cohesion and the integration of migrants. “Education and youth work are key to prevent violent radicalisation by promoting common European values, fostering social integration, enhancing intercultural understanding and a sense of belonging to a community.” Migrapreneurs will contribute to this priority by ensuring Europe is making the most of our highly skilled migrants in order to enhance social inclusion and enhance intercultural understanding. There is an entrepreneurial gap in Europe: 45%of Europeans would like to be self-employed, compared to 61% in the US. In order to promote entrepreneurship, all groups within society have to be involved. Migrants and people from ethnic minorities represent a considerable pool for entrepreneurship.The Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan proposes: • policy initiatives to facilitate entrepreneurship among migrants• to remove legal obstacles to business start-up -giving qualified immigrant entrepreneurs a stable permit. Target group:The group targeted in the project will be highly skilled migrants (HSM) (educated to university level) would-be entrepreneur migrants around Europe (mainly in countries who have been more affected by the refugee crisis) who might never have thought about starting up businesses or are in the early stages of thinking about starting up. We will aim to help them develop their skills by developing a bespoke training programme to develop Entrepreneurial Mindsets for Migrants which will focus on the development and reflection of soft skills required for business start up. Following this course, those participants who are seriously thinking of starting up a business will move onto a start-up/growth business course and those who are not ready yet will complete the programme with an Employability/Intrapreneurship unit to ensure they are more employable. Additional mentors/facilitators will be migrant entrepreneurs with relevant entrepreneurship experience who will support the trainers (partners) to run the sessions.Objectives:The overall objective of this project will be to better utilise the skills that highly skilled migrants bring into partner countries by fostering an entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial mindset for migrants. The difficulty of immigrants successfully integrating into society is becoming an ever-more pressing issue and needs to be addressed. This project will help to combat this problem by increasing migrant employment in skills-matched areas as well as increasing entrepreneurship amongst this group and helping migrants to create strong social networks. The project will do this by providing migrants with the necessary skills and knowledge to improve their chances of finding employment that matches their skills and experiences or start a business instead. The project will also connect participants with both business professionals and fellow immigrants via a networking platform which will contribute to a more cohesive society and lead to more active participation in the community.Outputs:O1: Research Reports (National and European) on training needs of highly skilled migrants to develop entrepreneurial mindsetsO2: A Training Programme - Entrepreneurial Journey for HSMO3: Training the Trainers materialsO4: Guide "Transferring your Skills into Self-Employment for HSMO5: Policy Guide - Developing Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Mindsets: A Guide for Working with HSMO6: E Learning HubImpactMigrapreneurs will impact on HSM in the partner countries, providing them with training in developing entrepreneurial mindsets and further detailed training on business start-up and growth tailored to the migrant perspective. Those participants who decide self-employment is not for them will gain support in becoming more 'intrapreneurial' in order to try and combat their under-employment and support towards gaining employment that matches their skills/education. Impact on trainers will be that they will receive training in the new integrated methodology used for Migrapreneurs. Policymakers will be impacted upon via the policymakers guide.

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