European Economic and Social Committee
Member Delegation Report Ms Madi Sharma
INT Section
Event. SALTO – Bridges to Work
Place :
Antwerp
Date
18-20 October 2011
NOTE to the file
Subject:
Participation of Ms Madi Sharma as a speaker and taking a workshop
Earlier this year I was honoured to speak on behalf of Group 1 at the European Youth Forum on the
value of entrepreneurship. Three great outcomes were achieved as a result of that presentation. : The
European Youth Forum joined the Young European Entrepreneurs Sparks Group and also attended
the YEE; and I was asked to participate in the Bridges to Work programme
As follow up to INT 519, Entrepreneurship as a mechanism to exit the financial crisis, I have had
many opportunities to present to different sectors of the community the recommendations of the
opinion. This conference was of particular interest, because not only did I speak to all the coordinantors and trainers for youth unemployment, I was also given the privilege of holding a
workshop with the young unemployed people on entrepreneurship.
Bridges to Work was held in Antwerp, the 2011 European Youth Capital,. And the workshop took
place in the beautiful buildings of the Zoo. The purpose of the gathering was to start building bridges
to improve young people’s chances on the labour market!
www.salto-youth.net/BridgesToWork Salto is part of a European Commission project
Bridges to Work wanted to take concrete steps forward to improve young people's chances on the
labour market, especially of those at disadvantage compared to their peers. The programme provided
space to share experiences and to build new and better employment and entrepreneurship projects
involving different stakeholders.
Parallel to the big stakeholder conference, 25 young people from employment and entrepreneurship
projects met to talk about their situation and make their voices heard.
At the Stakeholder conference I presented the value of entrepreneurship, recommendations of some of
the EESC opinions in the context of unemployed young people, and some findings from our Young
European Entrepreneurs Seminars alongside some personal experiences. The following day I took 19
young people through a workshop on entrepreneurship. The results were inspiring.
None of the young people had considered entrepreneurship but all were willing to learn more. After 3
hours of practical and interactive lessons the young people were given a selection of goods to sell.
They split into two teams, the girls and the boys. In just over 1 hour both teams had sold all the
.../...
products. The girls had raised 91euros and the boys 70 from the sale of the same goods. As with all
businesses they were told it was their choice as to what to do with the profit. The girls chose to give
theirs to charity, the boys were undecided but I later saw them in a bar!!!! No judgements are made,
as the entrepreneur has a right to do what they want with profits, profits are an enabler, and also I do
not know for sure what the boys did with their funds…….BUT ……it is a known fact that women
think more long term, build more sustainable projects and think about the future, communities and
social well-being. It is why we need more equality in society, especially in the current crisis if we
are to come out of it with sustainable solutions !!
As a final note, I attach also with this report the evaluation sheet from those who attended the
meeting. I am pleased to say I believe I represented the Committee well.
Madi x
original.madi@tiscali.co.uk
Copies:
Group 1 Secretariat
INT Section president
INT Secretariat
Mr Westlake
Mr Nilsson
Also copied to SOC and AnnaMaria Darmanin as I know both are also working on
youth unemployment.