The Smarter Project, co-financed by the European Commission's 'Youth in Action' program, aimed to enhance employability and entrepreneurship among youth through social media tools. The European Digital Youth Summit (EDYS) gathered participants from 14 countries to discuss employment, digital behavior, and to formulate policy recommendations for improving youth opportunities and digital education. Key proposals included establishing online academies, mandatory internships in high schools, and enhanced project management training within the educational system.

1. edys.eu
geyc.ro
SMARTER project (RO-43-E107-2013-R3) is co-financed by the European Commission through ”Youth in action” program (4.3). The content of this
material does not necesarely reflect the official position of the European Union, the entire responsibility being taken by its author (GEYC association). [1]
European Digital Youth Summit – WHITE PAPER
28th of August 2014 | Bucharest, Romania
Background information
Employability, entrepreneurship and digital behavior are important and delicate issues in our modern society. They can influence a variety of aspects starting with someone’s first job and going as far as the general standard of living.
GEYC addressed all this issues by organizing SMARTER - Social Media Academy: Raising Teen Employability Resources (geyc.ro/smarter), a project that aims to empower participants to implement employability projects at local level by using social media tools. SMARTER is organized by GEYC together with GEYC Resources Center and other partner organizations from 14 European countries. The European Commission through “Youth in action” program financed the project.
The main activity of this project was EDYS – European Digital Youth Summit (www.edys.eu), an event organized under the patronage of the European Parliament. EDYS brought together over 100 people (specialist, youngsters, and representatives of public and academic institutions, NGOs, mass media and companies) from 14 European countries. The event addressed topics such as employment, digital behavior and tried to find practical solutions to raise employability and to encourage digital entrepreneurship among European citizens. EDYS was organized during four sessions that covered employment, digital, European project management and funding, vital aspects for starting a successful professional life.
In the following day, EDYS participants gathered and they worked in a democratic manner, towards formulating recommendations regarding European policies on youth, digital and employment. We will present now only those recommendations that reflect the opinions of the majority of the participants:
Digital: 1. To found online academies for students, unemployed or elderly people ending up with examinations and certificates. 2. EU needs a San Francisco IT - Hub equivalent in the European area. This space would be a center for IT-companies, in co-operation with leading European IT-faculties. To encourage companies to settle there, they should be offered great infrastructure and perhaps tax benefits. 3. Facilitate digital learning by defining quality standards on EU-level and applying them in Member States. Classes should teach how to use professionally digital tools, including social media. These subjects should be taught in schools and universities. Moreover, member states must raise teachers’ competencies to use digital tools and to get new technology for schools.
Employment: 1. Because young people lack work experience, the high - school curriculum should include a mandatory summer internship for all profiles. At the end of the internship, school representatives should evaluate both the intern and the host company. The evaluation of the company will be useful in order to create a database with the institutions that have successfully fulfilled their objectives in providing the intern with the proper information while the institutions that did not do their jobs well not be considered anymore. 2. Introduce job possibilities for young people and organize sessions that will give pupils some ideas about the working environment in general. The ministries of education should secure job

2. edys.eu
geyc.ro
SMARTER project (RO-43-E107-2013-R3) is co-financed by the European Commission through ”Youth in action” program (4.3). The content of this
material does not necesarely reflect the official position of the European Union, the entire responsibility being taken by its author (GEYC association). [2]
orientation in high schools. People from companies should visit schools and lead events to introduce their organization and what they seek for a future employee.
European Project Management:
There is a need to raise awareness about project management and increase young people’s project management skills, as this is a core skill needed for various positions:
a. We would like to encourage those in charge of education – Ministries of Education but also other actors such as teachers, principals, project management institutes, NGOs and training providers – to promote the development of project management skills within the formal education system through for example training courses, workshops, eLearning, etc.
b. We would also like to encourage companies of the private sector to implement competitions, training courses, internships, job shadowing, etc. in order to allow young people to develop project management skills.
Funding: 1. Regarding the fact that many small villages and communities: - are not able to follow the advancements in the digital fields available throughout Europe; - confront a lack of information about financing possibilities and partners in order to set up projects combating literacy; - are unaware of the wide range of existing funding programs and methods; we address the local communities in underprivileged areas in order to encourage them to:
a. Found NGOs, either by their own or in cooperation with other communities in the same geographical area in order to identify their needs, to tackle their concrete literacy problems by their roots and to set up concrete solutions.
b. Take in consideration multiple funding programs, such as:
 The EEA grant program, for handling local researches in order to identify the needs;
 TechSoup to provide the necessary software and training courses in order to assure effective work;
 Crowdfunding in order to raise the money for obtaining the necessary equipment, but also in order to collect books directly from people, companies and publishers;  The Erasmus+ program, for setting up EVS positions and internships in order to guarantee the project’s sustainability and to participate in KA1- seminars for acquiring the needed qualifications. 2. European authorities should consider the possibility of creating an initiative to provide financial support to
Hoping that our efforts will make a positive impact among European decision makers, we eagerly wait for your feedback so we can continue our work in these fields.
About us Group of the European Youth for Change - GEYC is a Romanian organization founded in 2010. GEYC is a member of Advisory Council on Youth of the Ministry of Youth and Sport (Romanian Government) as well as a member of the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs, a multi-stakeholder partnership initiated by the European Commission. Our mission is to empower young people to create a positive change in their community. Our main activities are educational projects, intercultural projects, research projects, challenges and raising awareness campaigns.
Contact Mr. Gabriel BREZOIU – General Manager
Website: www.edys.eu E-mail: office@geyc.ro Facebook: fb.com/GEYCRomania Fax: (+4)0318.178.029