What is the issue ?
Young Croatians are very active in early-stage entrepreneurship. Over the period 2018-22, about 12% of 18-30 year olds reported that they were working on a new business start-up. This was more than double the European Union (EU) average over this period (5%) and also above the OECD average (9%). This is consistent with the high entrepreneurial ambitions identified a recent Eurobarometer survey, which showed that nearly 60% of young people in Croatia would prefer to be self-employed over working as an employee. However, about one-in-four young Croatian entrepreneurs reported that they started their business because they could not find a job, which was 2.5 times higher than the EU average. This suggests that many young Croatian entrepreneurs are turning to entrepreneurship as a route into work.
There are currently several initiatives that seek to support young entrepreneurs, including programmes managed by the Croatian Employment Service, Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and HAMAg-Bicro agency. Youth entrepreneurship is supported by the National Programme for Youth 2020-24 (Nacionalni program za mlade za razdoblje 2020 do 2024) as well as European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) investments. However, there is scope for strengthening available support by improving cohesion and quality of schemes, better-addressing the needs of youth entrepreneurs and enhancing access to mainstream entrepreneurship supports by young people. It is also important for policy makers and support providers to be aware of trends in the design and implementation of youth entrepreneurship support policies and programmes so that schemes are organised and delivered in the most effective and efficient manner, and that they are accessed by youth entrepreneurs.
About
This webinar will examine two different methods for stimulating and supporting young entrepreneurs. First, a bottom-up approach from Finland will be presented and discussed, showing how students can be leveraged as entrepreneurs and support actors. Second, a long-standing business competition operated by POPRI will be presented and discussed to show how new support actions can be deployed among existing support measures.