EU4Youth: project to support IDPs and entrepreneurs reaches almost 2,000 young people from Ukraine

The EU-funded ‘Support for internally displaced persons and youth entrepreneurs’ project has already provided 2,748 career consultations, used by more than 1,900 young people from Ukraine.

The project was launched in June 2022 by the Charitable foundation SpivDiia (Ukraine), together with the Office of the President of Ukraine, the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, and in cooperation with the EU-funded EU4Youth Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Programme.

The project, with a budget of over €307,000, addressed the war-related needs of Ukrainian youth covering ten regions, including Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Odesa, Cherkasy, Lviv, and Chernivtsi. 

Career counselling supported young people in all stages of employment: setting goals, developing a career plan, writing a CV, preparing for an interview with an employer. Almost 500 participants have succeeded in getting a job and building their careers without leaving their home country.

“The project aimed to create opportunities for young people in Ukraine, help them continue building their careers in the country, and recover from the effects of the war,” said Maryna Popatenko, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine.

The project’s small grants have helped young entrepreneurs to adjust their businesses to new conditions and to restore supply, as well as to stay active in their region or in the region they have moved to. So far, 49 small businesses were able to remain active, save and create new jobs due to small grants.

According to Marina Poptapenko, the project attracted a lot of attention in Ukraine: “Inspired by the positive experiences of the centres participating in the project, other regional centres are asking SpivDia to share their know-how on how to create effective centres that meet the needs of young people.”

She added the Ministry of Youth was actively discussing with the Ministry of Education and Science, the National Agency of Ukraine for Public Service and Public Employment Service, and other state and non-state stakeholders active in education and employment to further promote the idea of a sustainable system of young talent acquisition, skills development, professional re-training and recruitment, in particular to strengthen the civil service.