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SAIL4entrepreneurSHIP
Start date: Aug 1, 2015, End date: Jan 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Since youth unemployment is a huge issue in Europe including the Baltic States, innovative approaches are needed to provide young people with the competencies that are necessary to enter the labour market of 21st century. One of the solutions is to develop the entrepreneurial competence and/or become an entrepreneur, and to do it in an attractive way that involves young people. "SAIL4entrepreneurSHIP" was an innovative training for 20 youth workers and leaders from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to explore the methods on how to unfold and strengthen youth's entrepreneurial competence through sailing expedition and practical entrepreneurial learning (by doing) in challenging international environment. The project aimed to explore new attractive practical entrepreneurship education methods, particularly, sailing and entrepreneurial expedition, that can be used by youth workers in the Baltic States in entrepreneurship competence development for young people. Two sail training yachts - Spaniel (LV flag) and Lietuva (LT flag) - with 2 captains, 2 trainers and 20 youth workers and leaders from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia sailed 500 nautical miles in the Baltic sea from August 15 to 27, 2015 learning to sail, getting the inspiration from young entrepreneurs in Liepāja and Klaipēda and searching the answers to few important questions: how to integrate practical entrepreneurial education elements in youth work, how to support young people in their business ideas' development and how to use sailing as a method in the development of youth's entrepreneurship competence? During the training the participants explored sailing as a method in youth work, tested practical entrepreneurship education methods, learned more about sailing and business parallels, practiced business development methods and created their own future project ideas for youth. The sail training yachts stoped at 5 different ports of 4 countries during the project (Liepāja (Latvia), Klaipeda (Lithuania), Visby (Sweden), Roomasaare (Estonia), Ventspils (Latvia). In these countries the participants discovered local entrepreneurial environment and learning opportunities for youth, learned basic business theories and models, met local entreprenuers and potential cutomers, and also experienced the simulation of entrepreneurial project development in international markets. The training methodology was a mixture of business theory, sailing practice and non-formal education approach with the focus on entrepreneurial competence development. The motto of the project was useful both in sailing and entrepreneurship: “As you can’t change the direction of the wind — adjust your sails!” Training approach included the principles of non-formal learning such as learning by doing, learning in group, learning to be and learning to learn, as well as the elements of experiential and adventures education and 8 competencies of life-long learning, especially self-initiative and entrepreneurship. The participants gained nautical knowledge and practical sailing skills, got familiar with sailing conditions and widened their comfort zone in the sea so they can be more skillful for future sailing project implementation. They increased their own entrepreneurial knowledge as well as enriched their methodology with practical entrepreneurship education methods. They also increased their ability to link sailing, non-formal education and youth work in a meaningful way for learning purposes and they increased their capacity to support young people to become more entrepreneurial in their career development. Two months after the training the participants organized a traveling photo exhibition "How we sailed to learn entrepreneurship" sharing their impressions and lessons learned during this journey. The photos were exhibited across all partner countries - in Klaipēda Shopping Centre (Lithuania), Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre (Latvia) and in Tallin University (Estonia). People could follow the learning adventures of SAIL4entrepreneurSHIP team on its "public diary (Facebook page) where also the short film about the project now can be found. The project was a first big step to build "sailing youth workers" network in the Baltic States and across Europe.
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