Young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEETs) face challenges integrating into the labour force and are at a high risk of having long spells of unemployment, which can negatively impact their career trajectory in the long-term. The Yes I Start Up initiative is an Italian entrepreneurship training programme that ran as a national programme from 2018 to 2022 as part of the Youth Guarantee programme, an initiative of the European Commission, and continues in three regions: Calabria, Sicily and Tuscany. It was developed by the Italian Agency for Microfinance and was financed by the National Agency for Active Labour Market Policies (ANPAL) with co-financing from the European Commission. By 2020, the programme was delivered by more than 500 active training structures.
Yes I Start Up – Italy
Abstract
Yes I Start Up promotes self-employment and entrepreneurship among NEETs between the ages of 18 and 29 by providing free entrepreneurship training, mentoring and support services. The programme delivers a standardised curriculum through a network of local training providers, including public training institutions, universities, private consultancy companies, associations, and chambers of commerce. There are 60 hours of online classes delivered across 15 modules over the course of 35 days in groups of 4‑12 participants. The young entrepreneurs learn how to create a business plan and complete a loan application. The training also covers market studies, SWOT analysis, examination of the local or regional socio‑economic context, and territorial dimensions. Participants receive an additional 20 hours of personalised tutoring with a coach and can access financial support through the SELFIEmployment Fund, which is managed by Invitalia, the National Agency for Inward Investment and Economic Development. The Fund provides zero‑interest loans ranging from EUR 5 000 to EUR 50 000. Participants are also accompanied by an Invitalia tutor for a year and a half who provides support and advice throughout the post-training phase.
Following the COVID‑19 pandemic, the programme was digitised through the creation of an e‑learning platform programme with no reported drop in the quality of training. The new training format expanded outreach to rural areas and improved the quality of monitoring the activities and participants. Due to the success of the programme with NEETs under 29 years old, it was expanded with dedicated modules for women and long-term unemployed people of any age.
From 2018 to 2020, 350 training sessions were offered, with 1 700 NEETs completing the course. Across all regions, women accounted for between 34‑46% of all participants. Around half of the YISU programme graduates created a business and nearly 22% were in employment 3 months after the programme. Following the training, about 1 in 4 participants (586 people) applied for funding through the SELFIEmployment Fund, of whom more than one‑third (208 people) successfully received funding. 97% of 135 participants who received funding were still in operation 3 months later. By March 2021, 1 555 enterprises had received EUR 52 million from the Fund, which led to 2 746 new jobs.
ANPAL evaluated the YISU programme two years after its introduction. The evaluation considered performance metrics (e.g. microloan acceptance rate, businesses started, business survival and jobs created) of 1 508 YISU participants and 1 369 SELIEmployment Fund recipients from May 2018 to September 2020 and compared these metrics to non-YISU participants and non-financed businesses. The evaluation suggests that companies financed by SELFIEmployment Fund have a higher survival rate than unfunded ones (97% vs. 83% as of August 2020).
Further reading
[1] ANPAL (2021), Progetto Yes I Start Up - formazione per l’avvio d’impresa: Rapporto di valutazione in itinere, https://www.anpal.gov.it/documents/552016/586519/S1_Rapporto+di+valutazione+YISU-%09ENM_11102021.pdf/189e66da-0872-489f-95d3-7015369292dc?t=1635505161566 (accessed on 23 August 2024).
[2] Ente Nazionale per il Microcredito (2023), Il Modello Yes I Start-Up Italy, https://www.microcredito.gov.it/in-corso/yes-i-start-up.html (accessed on 23 August 2024).
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