As youth unemployment rises for another month, young people across Europe are looking for unique training options to make them stand out from the crowd. The European Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Program (EYE) might just provide the way in. As part of EYE Staffordshire University’s spin out company flux has been able to provide young student Manuel Moreno from Andújar, Spain with the opportunity to work with them on a social media project.

flux is an innovative design company that takes emerging talent from Staffordshire University to generate contemporary ceramics. Manuel’s Brussels based role was to promote the FLUX brand internationally.

Manuel said “The most important thing that I’ve learnt is that everything is possible with effort and being persistent. This project was born as a dream and now is becoming a reality little by little.”

The post was part of the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Program (EYE), a business exchange programme, offering new entrepreneurs the possibility to work for up to 6 months with small businesses by covering travel and living expenses. Schemes such as this can be vital to ensure young people have financial support whilst they gain work experience to make themselves marketable to future employees.

Manuel feels placements like this are good to give young people the experiences of living and working abroad at least once in a lifetime. He added “It helps you to grow up not just in a professional way but also in a personal one.”

For Manuel the scheme has already been a success story as his contact has been extended for a further 8 months.

flux director Glynis Whiting feels that these schemes are an excellent way for young people to enter the business world, “there is no doubt that the international experience offered by the host entrepreneur via EYE is invaluable in building confidence and a wide range of contacts which will be of use for the new entrepreneur in getting their business off the ground, or indeed in their wider future career portfolio.”

This was flux’s first taste of the EYE scheme. It has been so successful that flux has applied again. Glynis added “We are especially pleased that our next EYE placement will be a Staffordshire University student graduating this year in photography and entrepreneurship, which I hope will be the first of a programme with new entrepreneurs from Staffordshire.”

Further details on flux www.fluxstokeontrent.com

More information on EYE http://www.erasmus-entrepreneurs.eu/