The Youth Entrepreneurship Policy Academy (YEPA) participants in more than 20 events have identified lessons and policy pointers, which are now published in a new document.
Young people in the EU show great interest in entrepreneurship. About four in ten young people report a preference for being an entrepreneur over an employee. However, only one in twenty are working on a start-up and barely half of these succeed at launching a new business.
This gap between intentions and action is due to several factors including:
- a lack of knowledge about how to take the first steps towards launching a business
- barriers accessing resources, for example funding
- a lack of professional networks
- difficulties navigating administrative processes
During almost three years, the YEPA, gathering policy officers, programme managers, young entrepreneurs, networks (including social entrepreneurship networks) and researchers, discussed solutions to overcome these obstacles.
Under the steer of DG EMPL of the European Commission and the OECD, many YEPA workshops and webinars took place and the closing conference was held in October 2025. Participants summarized the lessons learned and drafted policy pointers for the future. This legacy document is now available with the objective of informing national or regional initiatives in the field of youth entrepreneurship.
Background
YEPA was officially launched in Brussels on the 9 March 2023 by the European Commission and the OECD. The aim was to create a multistakeholder learning network, which brought together more than 150 policy officers, programme managers, young entrepreneurs, networks (including social entrepreneurship networks) and researchers to:
- hear directly from young entrepreneurs about their motivations and ambitions, successes and challenges, and unmet support needs
- exchange on what works and innovative approaches to supporting young entrepreneurs
