Compete ID

The Project “COMPETE: Competitiveness, Management and Performance of young entrepreneurs through training and exchanges” is realised in the framework of the Preparatory Action “Impact of Enlargement in EU border regions”, of the European Commission, whose overall objective is to strengthen the competitiveness of regions and economic sectors particularly affected by enlargement, by helping them to cope with social and economic changesresulting from it and to identify new opportunities in an enlarged European Union.

COMPETE addresses to youngsters from Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria who want to establish small businesses and lack skills, information and motivation, as well as youngsters who are unemployed or recent graduates from a University and lack experience and training. It constitutes an initiative of the Thessaloniki Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Greece), implemented with the cooperation of the Izmir Chamber of Commerce (Turkey), the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Prefectural Authority of Lesvos (Greece) and the Greek NGOs Dialogos and Diavoulefsi.

The target groups of the project are:

• Young entrepreneurs

• Graduate students

• Members of the participating Chambers

• Members of the business communities participating in the project (Izmir, Sofia, Lesvos and Thessaloniki)

 

The specific objectives of COMPETE are:

-To implement training programmes that will improve the professional competencies of youngsters from the participating areas and develop their entrepreneurial spirit.

-To increase productivity by investing on human capital and promoting a knowledge-based society.

-To develop a specific strategy for the business communities of Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece so as to meet the principles of the Lisbon agenda for European competitiveness.

-To promote cooperation between business communities of the participating regions.

-To create a network of knowledge from three different Balkan countries that will aim at the exchange of know-how and information for the encouragement of business initiatives.

-To provide information on EU policies and business opportunities through a web portal and a youth business centre.

 

In order to achieve its objectives, the project includes a number of complementary activities:

1. English courses in Thessaloniki and Lesvos: seminars for beginners, but also specialized seminars on business English

2. Training seminars in Thessaloniki and Lesvos on business plan and small business creation

3. Training seminars in Thessaloniki and Lesvos on entrepreneurship in the European environment and the EU funding opportunities

4. A Study visit to Thessaloniki Chamber of Commerce and Industry

5. Training seminars in Sofia and Izmir on clustering

6. A study for the establishment of a Youth Business Centre in Izmir and Sofia that will provide support and consultancy to SMEs and young entrepreneurs

7. Six-month pilot operation of the Youth Business Centre in Izmir

8. Creation of a multilingual Web portal (Greek, English, Bulgarian, Turkish) that will function as a pool of information and documentation on entrepreneurship

 

The implementation of the COMPETE project started in November 2006 and will be concluded in the end of 2008.