Revolutionizing Careers: Turning NEETs into SME Social Media Managers

Connecting young people with the business world needs an integrated approach and the educational system plays an important role. The Erasmus+ project, titled "Follow-us – NEETs as Social Media Managers for SMEs," is the initiative of 4 NGOs and 4 chambers of commerce for development of an innovative training program on Social Media literacy. The Follow Us training program was built on the needs of youth and youth workers collected through online surveys and analysed, aiming to harness youth existing digital and personal skills to motivate and reintegrate them through innovative training tools and methods to develop their skills as Social Media Managers. The program connects them with SMEs that need their services, providing a win-win situation: young people can find future careers and become positive societal members, while SMEs benefit from improved online content for digital presence and financial growth.

To offer an enabling learning environment for professional development, this article presents the approaches and benefits for youth, youth workers and SMEs. All these initiatives aim at increasing youth participation in education and training and supporting their transition to sustainable, often remote, employment.