Support for young entrepreneurs as a priority for economic development

Abstract

The development of entrepreneurial interest among young people represents an important alternative in terms of using the potential of young people. Youth unemployment represents a significant loss of human capital that could contribute to economic growth. The last challenges that young people faced (mass emigration abroad, general demographic decline, the COVID-19 pandemic), shows that it is absolutely necessary to support young people in starting their own businesses. Analysing the experience of the European Union in supporting young entrepreneurs, we found that the inclusion of young people in economic activity is characterized by certain specific difficulties. Based on the obtained results, we can conclude that most of the analysed countries aim to develop entrepreneurial skills among young people through various mentoring and coaching programs, the dissemination of good practices and the sharing of experience. For the Republic of Moldova, the experience of the analysed countries demonstrates that the main support for young people to be interested in entrepreneurship, as a way of self-employment, is the promotion of public policies that must clearly indicate the need to develop and promote entrepreneurial education and culture, including the development entrepreneurial skills and an entrepreneurial mindset at all levels of education.