150 people have signed up to follow SHIFT. That number is worth pausing on. It tells us that young freelancers, sole traders and people from underrepresented groups across Europe are actively looking for support that most national systems still don’t give them.
SHIFT didn’t start from assumptions. Before any module was written, each partner organisation ran a focus group analysis at home: EMC in Slovenia, Asociacija Aktyvistai in Lithuania and Edumansha in Portugal. The point was to hear directly from young people who are already working solo and wondering what comes next. What is actually holding them back? Where does the step from freelancing to a real business break down?
Those conversations shape everything we build.
The Freelancer-to-Startup Toolkit will cover business modelling, productisation, lean startup methodology, financial literacy and growth strategies, published in Slovenian, Lithuanian, Portuguese and English. Alongside it comes a training programme for trainers and national bootcamps for young people in all three countries. Free to take part in, and built around what the focus groups told us rather than around a generic entrepreneurship curriculum.