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Entrepreneurship Summer Courses
Twenty-five years ago, a group of Dutch students from Amsterdam travelled to the Western Balkans during the Bosnian war and set up summer courses for fellow students. Being at the root of the establishment of SPARK, we are still very passionate about developing and implementing summer courses in fragile and conflict affected regions around the world.
Supporting young people in starting their own business is of major importance as it results in the creation of new jobs, generates innovation and offers perspective to a new generation. Summer courses are a good way of teaching students an entrepreneurial mindset and by partnering with selected educational institutions, SPARK designs courses that deepen students’ knowledge and build their capacities to get started. Professors and students are brought together through intensive, several week-long interactive trainings that deepen the knowledge and skills of future entrepreneurs.
Partnering with local institutions ensures sustainability and transfer of ownership. This way, the local university or vocational school can improve its curricula and teaching methods, as well as provide new, quality content for its students. The education institution leads the design, implementation and evaluation of the programme.
Through our programming in Jordan and Kosovo, over 7,000 students received entrepreneurship and business skills training. However, additional support in this field to youth in conflict-affected regions remains much needed. Download the SPARK introduction to the entrepreneurship summer courses manual to read more about our approach and lessons learned. Interested in the complete manual, or the services that we can provide? Contact us.