1. Connecting for the Future
Team Hearts
Our project, Connecting for the future, aims at providing a brief insight into
Romania’s high rate of youth unemployment, its causes, effects and short,
mid and long-term doable solutions. Our focus was on improving the
communication between the parties involved in the educational process:
the ministry of education, professors, students and future employers.
Having identified the roots of the problem, we built our solution taking into
account both those already in unemployment and the future generations.
Therefore, the core of the project is preventing future unemployment by
gradually reducing today’s rates, through improving the curricula,
promoting collaboration between educational institutions and companies,
reducing the emigration rate and raising the quality of our specialists.

2. Steps
-• 4-stage process (for short and medium term solutions):
Stage 1: Conducting initial questionnaires and selecting the organizing
committee
Stage 2: Training the team and planning the events
Stage 3: Organizing the conferences and workshops at university level
Stage 4: Expand the project to the high school level
• Creation of an online platform where we will add all the contact details
of the people involved in the short and medium stages, where they can
share experiences, brainstorm, post opportunities or search for them.

3. Specific objectives
As the identified causes of the Romanian youth unemployment problem were deep, our
vision had to be a more complex one such that the immediate outcomes of the encompassed
solutions will be seen only after at least 5 years. After the 4-stage process we plan to achieve
the following:
• Career center connected to the market reality equipped with career and personality
tests, advisors, guest speakers from our target groups (students will go to high school level
and employees to the university level) at high school level and in each university
• Partnerships between companies and universities which will include: shadowing
activities, internships, job and company presentations, guest lectures and companies can
target top students and offer them jobs
• Partnerships between high schools and faculties which will include: presentations about the
educational offer, contests organized by faculty for high school pupils, high schools will
actively promote fields that have a deficit of specialists such as IT, engineering, sales and
hotel industry

4. Quantitative outcomes:
• 20% companies will offer on the spot trainings (in fields such as:
plumbing, constructions, transportation, food industry, sales)
• 15% companies will be willing to offer scholarships for students to study
abroad and then return to work for the company
• encouraging faculties to reintroduce the admission exam and adopt higher
examination standards (only two possibilities to take an exam) as they are
autonomous
• encourage professors to include practical activities such as case studies, real
life examples in the lectures
Long-term outcomes achieved through our platform would be
debating the reinforcing of vocational schools and changing the high
school curricula.

5. Human resource
• PARTNERS and SPONSORS: local and national media (newspapers, TV News, radio,
internet), universities and high schools, local entrepreneurs, local job center
• ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: students and professors gathered from each university,
members from the Student Government, trainers from important partner
companies, members from the various youth NGOs + high school teachers,
counselors and pupils, members from the Pupil Councils and Alumni Group
• PARTICIPANTS: employers, professors, students + high school teachers, counselors
and members from the Pupil Councils
• BENEFICIARIES: The targeted beneficiaries are the Romanian youth facing
unemployment; additional beneficiaries: the community members, labor market
and overall economy