Cherkasy, July 25 -  the youth "Skills Lab: Your Own Business" training program was completed. At the final meeting, young entrepreneurs from Cherkasy and the region presented 11 business plans aimed at solving environmental, educational and social problems of the city. This year, the program was first implemented in Cherkasy with the assistance of CSR Ukraine, CSR Development Center expert organization and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), with the support of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine in cooperation with the Cherkasy Regional Youth Resource Center.

"Skills Lab: Your Own Business" took 1 month to complete. During this time, 30 girls and boys, along with coaches, have proceeded from idea to the business. Through 6 training modules, participants learned how to generate ideas and perform business analysis, learned the legal and financial issues of starting their own business, and learned how to develop effective marketing strategies.

“We have specifically designed this training course for young people as practical as possible. Its main advantage is that future entrepreneurs work on their ideas, communicate with successful entrepreneurs, and go through the whole cycle from developing a business idea to preparing everything necessary for its implementation in a month”, said Yuliya Novak, UNFPA Ukraine Advisor on Youth and HIV.

Among the ideas presented by the participants were a vertical microgreen farm, SAVE solar energy concentration collector, CleanUp self-service laundry, aerial silk dance studio, GiftBox gift boxes, Renko&Ti SMM agency, ArtMediaGroup public organization, web studio for business development, Avangard online store, Biks Business School for Kids, ElzaProject game development studio, ModelCraftPaper paper models, training company, courses for women and delicious food bouquets.

At the final session of the program, a solemn ceremony for the signing of the Pact for Youth-2020 was held by three local employers. The Pact was joined by the FoodHacker company, Faine Misto discount and special offer network, and Semenova Media PR agency. By signing the document, the company's top executives have pledged to foster a minimum of 700 business and education partnerships and provide 50,000 internships and first job opportunities for young people, facilitating the mentorship support for 1,000 young people by 2020.

“We are pleased that new initiatives will be launched in Cherkasy from now on. The questionnaires showed that almost all participants are ready to start their own business immediately after the completion of training: three of them have already registered as individual entrepreneurs. In addition, the participants admitted that they discovered a lot of new things: found future clients, got an understanding of how to do business, learned how to promote SMM-strategy, and gained confidence in their project”, said Yuliya Bolhak, Skills Lab: Your Own Business coordinator from the CSR Development Center.

Anastasia Pyshna, a participant in the SkillsLab: Your Own Business program, shared her experience with the training: “The idea behind my business is a solar collector that heats water through collecting the sun energy. It is also possible to heat the room and generate electricity with this appliance in the long run. This technology can generate energy 10 times cheaper than its average market price. The Skills Lab: Your Own Business project has helped to increase my social resources, discover completely new paradigms in business, learn how to analyze competitors and find potential clients”.

Yuliya Kartalapova admits that participating in the program helped her discover opportunities for modern ways of promoting a unique, new product - microgreenery. Thus, she conceived an idea start a new farm for growing fresh plants, vegetables and herbs.

“The idea behind the project was fostered by the eagerness to do something useful for people and to help the people of Cherkasy be healthier. It was through my studies at the program that I became acquainted with professional specialists in various fields. The crash test of my business plan showed me the areas for development, and working on a helper notepad united my family”, the participant said.

The implementation of Skills Lab: Your Own Business is the starting point for launching other programs in Cherkasy. The next step will be the launch of "Skills Lab: Successful Career" to start this September, helping boys and girls find their dream job.

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CSR Ukraine, CSR Development Center - an expert organization in Ukraine that brings together more than 40 large companies, jointly with which it has been promoting the principles of sustainable business and social responsibility, implementing its own social projects, providing consultations, holding seminars and trainings on CSR issues and reporting for both private companies and public authorities for more than ten years. It is a national partner of CSREurope (Brussels, Belgium) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (Geneva, Switzerland). www.csr-ukraine.org

The UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is a leading UN agency focusing on gender equality, reproductive health and capacity building for young people. We work with partners in 150 countries and territories around the world, and since 1997 we operate in Ukraine to promote equality, overcome gender stereotypes, enhance women's opportunities, support equal distribution of household chores, and involve men in raising children. Since 2015, together with the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, the campaign "4 Hands Happiness" has been launched. More information about UNFPA and our work in Ukraine: www.ukraine.unfpa.org. Follow UNFPA's Twitter and Facebook activities.