From 28 to 30 October 2026, youth workers and mentors from Slovenia, Lithuania and Portugal gathered in Ljubljana for the SHIFT Training of Trainers. Hosted by EMC, the three-day training prepared participants to lead national bootcamps supporting young freelancers in developing their entrepreneurial skills and moving towards more sustainable businesses.
The training was organised as part of SHIFT: From Solo to Startup Success, an Erasmus+ project coordinated by EMC in partnership with Asociacija Aktyvistai from Lithuania and Edumansha from Portugal.
Preparing Trainers for the SHIFT Bootcamps
In the coming months, each partner country will organise a SHIFT Bootcamp for 15 young freelancers aged 18 to 30. The bootcamps will particularly aim to reach young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEETs), young migrants and those facing additional barriers to entrepreneurship.
To prepare for these bootcamps, youth workers and mentors came together in Ljubljana to explore the Freelancer to Startup Toolkit, a practical learning resource developed within the SHIFT project.
Over three days, participants experienced the toolkit from two perspectives: first as freelancers working through its activities, and then as trainers preparing to use those same activities with young people in their countries.
A Toolkit Built Around Real Challenges
Before developing the toolkit, the project partners consulted 154 young freelancers to better understand the challenges they face.
Financial resources were not the most frequently mentioned obstacle. Instead, participants highlighted the importance of supportive networks, personal confidence and the difficulties of maintaining a stable income.
These findings helped shape the toolkit’s six learning modules. Each module combines theoretical concepts, individual and group activities, practical case studies and additional resources.
During the training, participants tested the activities using their own freelance experiences or real-life examples. They then reflected on how to adapt the exercises to different groups of young people, considering potential challenges, facilitation approaches and the time needed for each activity.
From Learning to Planning
The final part of the training focused on turning the toolkit into concrete national bootcamp programmes.
Working in country teams, participants developed their own three-day bootcamp plans, each consisting of 18 hours of learning activities for 15 young freelancers.
With approximately 26 hours of activities available in the toolkit, the teams had to decide which exercises would be most relevant to their participants.
Each team defined the activities, their duration, the trainers responsible and the expected learning outcomes. The Slovenian, Lithuanian and Portuguese teams then presented their programmes to the whole group, exchanging ideas and feedback.
This process helped ensure that each national bootcamp would respond to local needs while following the shared SHIFT learning approach.
What’s Next?
The SHIFT Bootcamps will take place in Slovenia, Lithuania and Portugal between November 2026 and mid-January 2027.
Each bootcamp will bring together 15 young freelancers for three days of practical learning, followed by mentoring to support participants in applying what they have learned to their own entrepreneurial journeys.
Are you a young freelancer aged 18–30 from Slovenia, Lithuania or Portugal?
Stay connected and follow our updates. The calls for participants in the SHIFT Bootcamps will open soon.
Through SHIFT, we aim to help young freelancers build the confidence, skills and connections they need to take the next step from working solo towards sustainable entrepreneurial success.
