Young creatives going digital 2022

<< Background >>The creative sector suffered during the pandemic. Funding has been cut, and many artists have lost jobs and sources of income. According to preliminary estimates by Eurostat, the COVID-19 crisis may affect about 7.3 million cultural and creative jobs across the EU. The complexities of their status and the fact that over 30% of artists and cultural workers are self-employed made them particularly vulnerable. Moreover, entering the cultural sector after the pandemic has been particularly hard, young people’s experiences in remote environments had a negative impact on both their social and professional skills. Therefore, the chosen target group focused on young people. According to the OECD reports for Future Jobs Skills 2030 - entrepreneurial competencies and digital literacy are some of the key skills for young people. With the Capital of Culture events in Esch, the space was created to share knowledge and expertise in the creative sector, which has experienced the biggest challenges during the pandemic. The partnership was formed to include organisations linked to European Capitals of Cultures and was a great opportunity to extend a network and share experience in youth work.<< Objectives >>The project aimed to set a new partnership between countries and connect organisations which are or will be taking part in the Capital of Culture initiative in order to prolong, diversify and extend some of the activities happening around these cultural events. The main goals were to give young people the opportunity to network, and build connections and relationships with peers from different countries, who practice the same forms of art/creative jobs, and who, after a difficult period directly connected by the pandemic, struggle to make a living from their work. Most importantly, the partnership wanted to offer participants access to a variety of workshops and activities which encourage them towards entrepreneurial ventures and build the right mindset and skill set, particularly in and around a strong European initiative such as Capital of Culture. The partnership also intends to foster new learning opportunities enhancing collaborative work between young people.<< Implementation >>All the activities planned in the project description were implemented in a timely manner. Over the course of the project, the consortium organised 1 kick-off meeting, 1 mobility, 4 webinars and 1 online conference. During the project, the partners also collectively created the survey to identify the needs of youth based on best practices that were collected from each country. The Kick-off meeting was hosted in Serbia in June 2022 and was followed by the co-design activity, which resulted in a training programme for creative youth. The mobility which lasted a week (12th -16th September 2022) in Luxembourg was organised successfully. During the mobility, the training programme was implemented. The 4 webinars were planned in parallel with the mobility (July-December 2022). They were complementary to the training in person. The final conference was organised by Tartu2024 with the support of the lead organisation WIDE ANDCO (November 2022). Dissemination activities, including press releases, social media posts, and promotional posts were an ongoing effort throughout the duration of the project (January 2022-December 2022).<< Results >>The partnership has developed a collaborative learning programme for youth focused on developing entrepreneurial and digital skills applicable to youngsters working in the creative sector. Partners have also produced national reports including the level of youth confidence and skills development in the digital and entrepreneurial areas. The lead organisation, WIDE ANDCO, has drafted questions for the survey, and partners have reviewed and updated the questions based on their knowledge of local and national challenges. In June 2021, NoviSad organised the kick-off meeting. In September 2022, partners travelled and co-hosted a mobility for youth “Learn, share, create” in Luxembourg. In November 2022, Tartu2024 hosted the final online conference sharing all the insights regarding the project. Four of the partners led online webinars dedicated to digital and entrepreneurial skills between September and December 2022. Serbia discussed how to tell your story digitally, Luxembourg tackled tech entrepreneurship, Estonia talked about the art of marketing in the art world and Romania approached Digital voice for your community. All the activities gathered more than 300 participants.