About the project
Entrepreneurship you can actually try
DEMYST is a two-year Erasmus+ partnership between three organisations in Slovakia, Italy and Austria. It exists because youth entrepreneurship training too often ends with a business plan nobody ever tests.
Why we started
The gap we saw
Young people in smaller towns rarely meet anyone who has started something. Training that does exist tends to be theoretical, in English, and aimed at people who already have a network and some money behind them.
At the same time, youth workers tell us the same thing: they would happily run entrepreneurship sessions, but they have no ready material, no method they trust, and no time to invent one.
Objectives
What DEMYST sets out to do
1
Equip youth workers
Give at least 45 youth workers a method and a full set of materials they can run themselves, without needing us in the room.
2
Let young people test
Take at least 60 young people from a rough idea to a small real-world test, with mentoring along the way and a Youthpass at the end.
3
Leave something behind
Publish everything openly, and find local organisations willing to keep running the sessions after the project money ends.
Who it is for
Two groups, one chain
Youth workers, trainers and youth organisation staff who want to run entrepreneurship sessions but need material they can trust and repeat.
Young people aged 15 to 30, with at least half the places going to those with fewer opportunities — because of where they live, their financial situation, or their education path.
Timeline
Two years, four stages
2026, first half
Building the material
Six modules written, translated into local languages, and reviewed before anyone teaches from them.
2026, autumn
Training the trainers
Youth workers in all three countries go through the modules themselves and leave with a trainer pack.
2027, first half
Pilots with young people
Workshops run in Slovakia, Italy and Austria. What does not work gets rewritten before the final version.
2027, autumn
Demo days and handover
Young people present what they built, and local hosts commit to running the sessions again.
How we work
Four commitments
Inclusion
At least half of the workshop places go to young people with fewer opportunities. Materials are in local languages, not only English.
Digital skills
Selling online, basic e-commerce and staying safe on the internet are treated as core skills, not as an optional extra.
Participation
Young people help write the storyboards. The final materials carry their corrections, not only ours.
Green practice
Rail travel where possible, meetings online by default, and materials designed to be read on screen rather than printed.