Mykolayiv, July 17 - Business Skills Development Program for Skills Lab: Own Business Completed. At the finals of the program, participants presented 21 ready-made business projects aimed at solving educational, logistical and medical problems in the Mykolayiv region. The program was implemented by CSR Ukraine, an expert organization of the CSR Development Center in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with the support of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, and the youth policy department of the Mykolayiv City Council.
This year the program "Skills Lab: Your Own Business" was held for the first time in Mykolayiv. The purpose of the program is to develop and improve the skills of young people that are necessary for successful business. 33 young people from Mykolayiv and Mykolayiv oblast participated in the program and successfully completed training within one month.
"We have specifically designed this training course for young people to be as practically-focused as possible. Its main advantage is that future entrepreneurs develop 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", told Yuliya Novak, UNFPA Ukraine Youth and HIV Advisor.
Within 6 training modules, participants have listened to lectures from business coaches and local entrepreneurs, formulated their business ideas, studied legal and financial issues in starting their own businesses and learned how to develop effective marketing strategies. For each class, motivational speakers were invited to inspire future entrepreneurs and advise them on starting their own businesses.
“The format of the Skills Lab: Your Own Business” program is absolutely new for Mykolayiv. There are programs in the city that support young entrepreneurs, but starting your first business in just 1 month was a novelty. Attendance was high, indicating that people are ready to learn and implement their businesses”, said Olesya Bratus, regional program coordinator in Mykolayiv.
In the final session, 21 participant presented the business plans of their projects and received advice from the mentors on how to improve them. According to the participants, the proposed business plans of the projects were a response to the challenges faced by the city.
The presented projects include startups aimed at the development of education: To Be platform, Breakthrough, Open Future, Friendly Space day care center for youth with special needs, Khlopushka center for comprehensive child development; tourist projects: Prikliuchenko adventure club, Zames Party leisure startup, Travel hub. Other initiatives include the HomeMappy startup designed to help people with sight impairments, the LampIdea crowdfunding platform for projects development, a Kite Wings kite building startup, Winner leisure club, Your Style beauty hub, Innodent innovative dental clinic, etiquette school and more.
Yuliya Bolhak, Coordinator of Skills Lab: Your Own Business, CSR Development Center said: “We are pleased that so many of the presented initiatives have a social focus and are promoting educational solutions to the problems that exist in the city and the region. Youth support is our top priority and driver for systemic change in Ukraine. Already in September of this year in Mykolayiv the new program for youth - "Skills Lab: Successful Career" will start which will help boys and girls to find their dream job.
Participants of the Skills Lab: Your Own Business Program Yuliya Kolodrub and Dariya Archibisova shared their impressions of the training:
“We are developing a project - Prikliuchenko ("Little Cute Adventurous Cookie") Travel Club. Our logo is a small cute cookie with a suitcase that explores the interesting tourist places of Mykolayiv city and oblast. We are engaged in the development of unique excursions, quests and our task is to provide a wonderful leisure activity for people. At Skills Lab: Your Own Business, we came up with ideas for how to promote the project through online resources, learned about our business development strategy, and outlined a specific action plan”, the girls said.
At the end of the program, 5 local companies signed the Ukrainian Pact for Youth 2020. 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 mentoring support for 1,000 young people by 2020.
