The aim of the project/competition “Create for the Region” is to give Latvian and Lithuanian students the opportunity to reveal and demonstrate their entrepreneurship skills and such personal qualities as the ability to take responsibility and present results. In this way, students will gain better career opportunities in the future, while helping to develop the regions of Latvia and Lithuania. The form of the competition was chosen to attract media attention and to receive maximum support from student universities, which would also gain recognition during the competition.
The long-term vision of the project is to be a tool that would direct both energy, creativity and youth ambitions, as well as university resources to the creation of new economic value in Latvia and other European Union countries. The fact that the competition takes place in several countries would provide an opportunity to create international teams that would use territorial resources and strengths together to create global companies.
Students participating in the project will gain a lot of practical experience as well as develop awareness and understanding. In this way, a new generation of entrepreneurs will be born, ready to create and work not only for their own benefit but also for the benefit and well-being of society as a whole. The project will become a symbol of quality, opening the door to new career and development opportunities for each participant.
The first pilot project, which is scheduled to end in 2017, will involve 200 young people from 20 universities and implement their business projects in 30 different regions of Latvia and Lithuania.
The project has already started in Latvia and has proven to be able to achieve all ambitious goals. It is very important to start the project internationally now and to test different methods of attracting student teams and regions, also to test its different duration and competition rules. If the project took place only in Latvia, it would take 5-6 years to test it all. It would provide an opportunity to expand this competition across Europe, create international student companies and implement international student business projects in later years.
The experience gained in Latvia will be used in Lithuania in autumn 2015 to start the project and make it international. Throughout the project, the Latvian experience, which will be transferred to Lithuania, will help to try different methods and quickly learn from mistakes.
The project will consist of three phases. In the first stage, the municipalities to which the student teams will apply for the competition will be contacted and the best teams will be selected. Application and selection will take 3-6 months. In the second phase, the teams will develop an action plan that will describe the business ideas that will be implemented later in the next phase. In the third stage, the real activity will start: using all available resources, the teams will try to realize their business ideas. This phase will last one year (Lithuania) or two years (Latvia) and during that time the teams will be able to either set up their own companies or contribute to the business projects of existing companies.
The contribution of the organizers to the project is the opportunity provided to the participants and the necessary information to help them achieve their goals. Organizers will not conduct training, leaving this opportunity to universities.
30 new jobs and 15 new companies will be created and at least 1 million euros will be absorbed in the end of the project to support various business projects. The most active young people will get great offers for career development and each of the 400 young people will be able to feel what it really means to be an entrepreneur and how difficult or perhaps it is to implement business projects and create new value.
The medium-term goal is to make this project financially independent from sponsors and shareholders. This will happen in at least 10 EU countries and will be an effective tool for solving local economic problems with the energy and talent of local and international students.
