Mykolayiv, June 20 - CSR Ukraine, CSR Development Center expert organization, the United Nations Population Fund with the support of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and the Youth Policy Department of the Mykolayiv City Council started the Skills Lab: Your Own Business youth training program. The purpose of the program is to help young people create and grow their own businesses in their village or city.

For the second year in a row, Skills Lab: Your Own Business is being implemented in different cities of Ukraine. More than 150 boys and girls have graduated from the program, and half of them have already started a business. This year, for the first time the program will take place in Mykolayiv, to which 35 participants from all area were selected.

The program started just at the right moment, because in late 2018 the Mykolayiv Oblast Council approved the Program for the development of small and medium enterprises in the Mykolayiv oblast for 2019-2020. As of the end of last year, there are 10,459 small and 334  medium enterprises in the region, and more than 52,000 individual entrepreneurs.

Olesya Bratus, coordinator of Skills Lab: Your Own Business in Mykolayiv oblast noted: “To our surprise, more than 65 candidates applied for the program. We had to select 30, but considering the eagerness of young people to learn and gain new knowledge, we added five more places. The startups among young people are trendy in our region. We very much hope that our participants will generate and create cool projects, and that the city will support a new generation of innovative entrepreneurs”.

Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevich attended the opening of the event with a motivational speech. "I thank the organizers for the implementation of this interesting and at the same time useful initiative, helping the youth to earn money in the right way. Moreover, as a result of youth startups, it is possible to attain a more global goal - to create a specific cluster of mutual assistance and to develop a favorable competitive environment. I appreciate everyone's eagerness to learn. You give us hope that in the future Mykolayiv will become a city of innovative and creative economy”.

As part of the introductory module, Reflection and Looking for Inspiration, the young men and women discussed how to identify an effective idea for their own business and where to start. In addition, special attention was paid to understanding the differences between self-employment and start-ups. Each participant received notepads from the organizers which were helpful for setting up their own business and shared their expectations of learning.

«I am a student of one of the higher educational institutions of the city. My guys and I have created a Home Mappy startup and now we are developing it. It is designed to assist blind people in finding objects around them without assistance. I want to find ambitious, creative minded people to develop future startups and gain valuable knowledge about further promoting an existing product”, Yana Taranenko, a program participant, said.

Over the next three weeks, participants will study business analysis, legal aspects and financial literacy, marketing and finances with their coaches. The complete business plans will be presented as a result of the training.

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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.