At the beginning of October, a group of 4 Slovaks took part in the training course “IDEAS HUB” in Gritsa, Litochoro (Greece). The project we participated in was focused on developing competencies needed for social entrepreneurship. Through non-formal workshops, people from Greece, Slovakia, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, and Croatia learned entrepreneurial strategies and methods related to founding an NGO, starting a start-up, participating in an incubator mentoring, and more. Additionally, there were several outputs of the project. One of them was creating digital and offline maps/sheets with entrepreneurship opportunities in each participating country.

A one-day field trip to a local feta cheese factory and to a fruit factory served as an example of what it means to start and run a small business. After that, the more significant part of the training course was focused on creating and then pitching our own social business ideas. We were divided into teams, and then we had several days leading up to the final day of presenting our projects. The presented projects ranged from an app about raising awareness about environmental problems through a language school and T-shirts made from displays to a multipurpose community center in a rural area. Everyone could contribute in their own ways based on personal experiences, interests, passions, and future goals.

I believe we all had a great time brainstorming and bringing ideas to life. Apart from the non-formal education, a fantastic part of Erasmus+ projects is intercultural evenings; thus, some evenings were dedicated to presenting our countries. Everything was happening while we were surrounded by magnificent Greek nature – sea, beaches, mountains. Although surprisingly, the weather wasn’t the warmest at this time of the year, we enjoyed our time there and learned some new things. Which is in accordance with what Erasmus+ projects are about – non-formal education, fun, new experiences, and unforgettable memories. So, we would also like to thank our sending organization Youthfully Yours SK for giving us this fantastic opportunity. 😊