There are hundreds of young people in Nicaragua who have made the leap from self-employment to generating employment opportunities for others. They represent around 2.2% of the total youth population, according to the Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (Funides). Nevertheless, a 2013 study carried out in over 100 countries by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor places Nicaragua and Venezuela last on the list of Latin American countries that foster business ventures.Spain, Italy and Turkey are an excellent example of a struggle with youth unemployment and the lack of education in this field. Needs of young people to find a job is well addressed, but job market does not answer these needs properly. One solution that is often offered is that young people start their work practice in chosen company, right after the university for a minimal salary and after the practice, they often get replaced by new students. This is a “legal” practice by the majority of companies in order to find cheap labor and not to pay fines for firing employees. On other side U.K is more advanced with understanding of Entrepreneurship education and support system for entrepreneurs that can be transfer to all other partners.The overall aim of the project is in accordance with the primary objectives capacity building project for Youth:- To create a sustainable partnership between NGOs and institutions from Program countries and Nicaragua in order to transfer the training model on the entrepreneurship education/social entrepreneurship among young people.- To establish two-business incubators (one Nicaragua and one in Turkey) that focuses on social business and mentoring young people to start their business.The specific objectives are:1) To develop creative thinking, employability (soft) skills, financial management, strategic planning and entrepreneurial skills of young people2) To create a training module on how to develop, validate and implement social entrepreneurial projects and enterprises through non formal education methodologies.3) To create cross-sector cooperation between NGOs and Universities.4) To create sustainable partnership between institutions/NGOs from program countries and Nicaragua.5) To work with and train mentors on how they can support young people in developing entrepreneurial paths.6) To explore practical ways of supporting young people in NGO set up and social enterprises, taking into consideration legal, financial, management and social requirements.7) To create new tools and methods designed to develop entrepreneurial skills among young people through trainings.8) To provide young people with a platform where they can exchange experience and expertise in the field of SE through internship.9) To develop solidarity, promote tolerance and foster mutual understanding between generations and cultures by creating a common platform for development.10) To promote Erasmus+ programme outside of Europe.

EPA! (Entornos Personales de Aprendizaje Inteligentes) tiene por objetivo hacer realidad el aprovechamiento de los llamados Entornos Personales de Aprendizaje (PLE por sus siglas en inglés) tanto desde la perspectiva del discente como desde la perspectiva del docente, con el fin de facilitar y mejorar el encaje entre la educación formal, el aprendizaje informal y no formal, y los requisitos de los empleadores para potenciar la empleabilidad y emprendimiento de los estudiantes.Desde el punto de vista del desarrollo tecnológico EPA! tiene como objetivo la creación de un portal inteligente para facilitar la gestión de los entornos personales de aprendizaje de discentes y docentes, haciendo un seguimiento, ofreciendo recomendaciones y credenciales, para la mejora de la calidad de dichos entornos, teniendo en cuenta el bagaje (e-porfolio) de cada usuario y sus aspiraciones profesionales, atendiendo también a las necesidades del sector productivo. EPA! tiene en cuenta la necesidad de armonizar los desarrollos tecnológicos con las metodologías docentes, por lo que no solo se ocupa de crear el sistema inteligente de seguimiento, recomendación y credencialización, sino que capacita a docentes y estudiantes en la aplicación de la metodología de entornos personales de aprendizaje, mediante diversas actividades de formación, garantizando así la inmersión y aprovechamiento de dicha metodología.Los beneficiarios son tanto estudiantes, como profesores, como el sector productivo. Durante el desarrollo del proyecto alcanzaremos directamente a 12.000 estudiantes, de los cuales 3000 son mujeres, 600 profesores (200 mujeres), 20 gestores universitarios, 500 entidades (empresas/otros).El resultado será la utilización del sistema por el mismo número de personas indicadas anteriormente y, que un 10% de los alumnos obtengan credenciales sobre su aprendizaje, convalidables al menos 360 de ellas y al menos 120 de los estudiantes habiendo sido contratados o emprendiendo.

The changes in educational paradigms and development of ICT are promoting the modernization of universities and the establishment of open and flexible study programs, freeing academic boundaries.Quality, accessibility and innovation are concepts that are driving the changes of virtual higher education. ACAI-LA Universities Network undertake the challenge of modernizing and internationalizing higher education, and contributing to development and social cohesion in Latin America, with an academic offer in pursuit of excellence, equitable and innovative.This academic offer will be available in the ACAI-LA Virtual Campus with accessible:- Life long learning program, MOOC.- Master for training of trainers, MOOC, certified by the consortium universities.This university campus will integrate online services for: support to students, support to graduates and job placement, and guidance to teachers in methodologies and innovative educational techniques.The curricula will:- Be open and flexible.- Form its students with ICT skills required by the labour market.- Include educational materials and laboratories, accessible to social groups with learning difficulties because of economic, ethnicity, gender or disabilities reasons.- Be available in: English, Spanish, Mayan and / or African descent languages.A sustainable business model will be supported for capacity building in:- Young graduates.- Teachers, who create innovative educational, quality and accessible resources.This scientific and educational cooperation network shows the diversity in Latin America. The ACAI-LA Network consists of three European universities and eight Latin American, four of which are located in less developed countries of Central America and the others are from South America. This condition will improve the impact, dissemination and exploitation of project results, publications and open educational materials.

The Free Network project is a Joint Action to be implemented in Central America. Its general objective is improving business opportunities for research-based entrepreneurs, promoting spin-off services in Higher Education Institutions and strengthening the innovation ecosystem in Central America. The FREE Consortium identified a lack of institutional regulations supporting the creation and development of spin-off, and the absence in most of the Central America universities of specific units with qualified and skilled staff. As consequence there is a very limited capacity to exploit the research results coming from academic/research staff and students. In this context FREE proposes facilitating the creation and development of spin-off companies. The project specific objective is the creation and modernisation of spin-off support services within 12 CA Higher Education Institutions through institutional and capacity building and the use of a regional network and platform.The FREE Network activities, implemented by 12 CA HEIS and 3 EU HEIs, will include: - in-depth needs analysis on research-based entrepreneurship in PC will provide a good insight of the situation of the CA HEIs in terms of spin-off regulations and units supporting research-based entrepreneurs;- capacity building for Innovation Support Offices (ISO) staff;- creation/adaptation of ISOs with appropriate institutional legislation, qualified HR and relevant infrastructure for providing spin-off support services;- creation of a regional platform for transferring good practices and exploiting synergies at regional level; - an ambitious disseminating and exploitation strategy of the project outputs;

The IRUDESCA project (from its Spanish acronym, Integración Regional, Universidad y Desarrollo Sostenible en Centro America) aims at strengthening relations between Central American and European universities and the social and economic fabric, as part of a new way of understanding economic models, based on cooperation, sustainability, respect for the environment and people as well as the role and responsibility of universities in the training of professionals and entrepreneurs committed to a smart economic growth of their countries. IRUDESCA focused on entrepreneurship education by providing training to entrepreneurs giving special attention to contents related with business cooperation, the creation of sustainable value chains at the regional level, and the improvement of productivity and competitiveness of micro, SMEs and cooperatives. The project proposed new methods of practical training and real case studies in business and industry (through the Work Package 2.4: Double Coach Assistance (GA) that aims at supporting the development of innovative ideas for sustainable projects and students international exchange between Central American partner universities and countries involving the companies related with the Business Entrepreneurship Projects), with a strong focus on regional integration. In short, IRUDESCA proposed University-Business Cooperation and new university guidance and tutoring services for the students, in collaboration with the business sector.The project focused its approach on the articulation of a European and Central American Universities Network that act in coordination in the definition and implementation of a common modular training program connected with the business and productive sectors of the participating countries.Thus, the project created two new modules of 90 hours each (with a 2 CAC - Central American Academic Credits - each), a transversal module of 45 hours (1 CAC), and an online training course for 24 teachers from the Project partners in Central America. Through these new modules, 240 students (20 students per University, 40 per country) have been formed. The modules focused on the topics of business innovation and value-chains development, creating eco-sustainable SMEs and innovative managerial skills. The modules had, as an educational methodology, the development of Business Entrepreneurship Projects (PEE, from its Spanish acronym). A Network of Coaches was organized based on a system of coaching structured with 2 coaches (1 academic + 1 business) with the role of advising students in the definition of the PEE and its implementation in the real economy of their countries. Students were divided into groups of 5 and each group will develop one Project (4 groups and 4 PEE per University). From the total of 48 Projects, the top 12 (1 Project per University) were selected by an Academic Committee (CA, from its Spanish acronym) and the students involved in these projects participated in an International Internship Program (PIP, from its Spanish acronym). IRUDESCA’s results have been transferred to other universities in Central and Latin America as well as companies and organizations in the productive sectors. This was accomplished (i) with the support of 6 National Working Groups (GTN, from its Spanish acronym) that established for the Project, (ii) through the dissemination of a Project’s Newsletter (Spanish + English + Portuguese), and the organization of 12 Communication Conferences (2 in each partner country) during the Project’s lifetime and a Final Regional Conference.