Budapest Youth Enterprise Centre, District 9, Budapest, Hungary
Pioneering youth enterprise in Central Europe

Background

EDW’s team first started working in Central Europe in 1996, when the Budapest Business Polytechnic Secondary School of Economics became interested in our enterprise incubation model, Wandsworth Youth Enterprise Centre, and asked for help in developing a similar provision in Hungary.

This led to the creation of Budapest Youth Enterprise Centre (BYEC), the first ‘flagship’ youth enterprise incubator centre in Central and Eastern Europe. This initiative was funded by the European Union’s Phare Partnership programme.

BYEC became fully operational in 1999, and since then has offered young people who want to start their own businesses a comprehensive programme of support, from initial awareness training to enterprise counselling and incubator units. Having been one of EDW’s partners in the youngbusiness.net programmes, funded by the Community Fund and the EU’s Leonardo da Vinci Lifelong Learning Programme respectively, BYEC is now a participant in the youngbusiness.net 3 programme, led by EDW’s team.

EDW’s Central European work is driving forward a ‘cascade’ model, through which BYEC and the other ‘older’ partners are trained to be able to support the development of youth enterprise centres in other regions and countries in Central Europe.

The Project

In the youngbusiness.net 2 project, BYEC supported the Vak Bottyan Vocational School in Gyongyos, Hungary, to foster a spirit of enterprise among its students. The current youngbusiness 3 programme, also funded by the Leonardo da Vinci Lifelong Learning Programme, involves the transfer of innovation by BYEC and the other ‘older’ youngbusiness.net partners, with support from EDW, to ‘new’ partners. In this project, BYEC is now helping organisations in Ibrány and Nyíregyháza, in Hungary, to develop their enterprise support programmes, by sharing their experience and techniques with them.

BYEC’s Goal

BYEC’s goal is to support young people in the exploration of their potential, to acquaint them with private enterprise as a possible option and to help develop an enterprise culture. The Centre actively contributes to addressing unemployment issues among young people and creating a strong micro-enterprise sector. In particular, BYEC focuses on target groups such as unemployed people, those with disabilities and from minority ethnic backgrounds, and female entrepreneurs. BYEC is also keenly interested in the transfer of skills to other organisations in Hungary and neighbouring countries.

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