European Commission

In July, the European Commission launched the 6th edition of the SME Week Youth Essay Competition. If you are 18-25 years old and from an EU or COSME country, the essay competition is an opportunity for you to speak your mind and share your opinions with EU policy-makers, entrepreneurs and innovators.

The challenge this year is to write an essay about: What do SMEs need to become sustainable and resilient in the context of COVID-19 and other global challenges? Think about the competences and skills needed in the future for an entrepreneur, describe three promising and sustainable start-ups in 2030.

You have until 26 September 2020 to submit your entries, so there is still some time. To give you a bit of encouragement, we asked last year’s winner and finalists if they had any advice for this year’s participants.

“The great thing about this competition is how creative and free you can be in your approach. Read some of the older entries, get inspired, then forget all of them and build your own thing! You can do it!” Sabine Kerssens, 2020 winner

“Think about what makes you angry, about what you want to change in the world. Sometimes we want to be too rational to seem technical, but in reality, when you start an enterprise, it is because there is a very simple problem. For example, if you are a baker, you are providing an essential good for the people around you: food. And sometimes people just start to work in automatic pilot and forget why they do things, or they think their work is nonsense. This is part of the reason why some enterprises die: they forget the reason why they exist, or they don’t want to ask themselves that question. The same goes for writing an essay that wants to make us reflect and see the world in another way. In short, feelings are very powerful catalysts for change.” Pablo Pastor, 2020 finalist

“Brainstorm your ideas, take a little break from it, come back and expand on all these ideas. I wrote about five essays, answering the same question in different ways, and essentially hosted an X Factor – evicting an essay from the running on each round of reviewing! This helped me because it gave me the chance to explore all the avenues I was interested in, hash them out completely, and then refine it down to the one I felt most passionate about.” Geena Whiteman, 2020 finalist

We hope that this excellent advice will get your creative juices flowing – so get writing, and good luck!

For any questions on the SME Week Youth Essay competition, contact smeweek@loweurope.eu and read the 2021 competition launch post for all of the information on this year’s edition. Good luck, get writing and don’t forget to submit!

Ready to get to know another finalist of this year’s SME Youth Essay Competition? Let’s meet Ngaio!

Ngaio Olsen-Stahl is a passionate Social Science student at the University of Strasbourg, who developed an interest in international relations and comparative politics due to her own mixed cultural heritage from France and New Zealand. She hopes to pursue a career in public policy, and after taking part in a Model European Union event, was all the more inspired to do so within the EU.

What made you enter the SME Youth Essay Competition?

I just happened to be surfing the web and looking at upcoming events in Europe, and came across the essay competition information by chance. At the time it was the middle of August and I was enjoying a break from my studies, but after reading the question I thought it would be an interesting challenge. I am very passionate about the EU and its values, and I wanted to discover what I thought about innovation. Truthfully, it was not something I had thought about a lot, but after my research it has really grown on me, and I’m now very interested in how I can create and find innovation in my career path.

What did you think of the SME Assembly 2018?

The SME Assembly was a fantastic event, with people from all over Europe (and indeed, the world) coming together for the purpose of supporting business, ideas, and innovation in Europe. People from all industries, and all different career levels, shared their stories with me, and it was a very humbling experience to be able to gain so much knowledge just by simply getting to know people. I made some great friends too! The speeches, debates, and policy sessions were varied and incredibly useful, my favourites were The Big Debate and Bridging the Skills Gap. The App made sure I knew exactly where to go and when to be there, and Graz was such a beautiful city to explore during my free time. Overall it was a life-changing experience that has inspired me to work on an entrepreneurial venture.

The theme of this year’s SME Assembly was to ‘Connect. Share. Innovate’, what does that mean to you?

To me, this embodies the spirit of collective power. Acknowledging the strength of Europe as a Union and business as a team, our world is moving towards being ever-more globalised, interdependent and invested in a number of different economies. This diversity and growth will be the fuel for new ideas in the future.

What is next for you? Any exciting plans to share?

I’m currently in the exciting/terrifying transition between my Bachelors and the unknown. I will be applying to Master courses in Public Policy, different research projects in social development, and some graduate opportunities in government ministries. So, my exciting plans are all hypothetical at the moment but I’ll leave you with a graceful ‘watch this space’!

Read Ngaio’s essay and have a look at the presentation she made at the SME Assembly 2018.

Don’t forget to have a look at fellow competition finalist Joakim Davidsson!

Youth of Europe – Voices of the future

The Youth of Europe have a voice, plenty of ideas and innovative visions of the future, but how can they make their voices heard? The European Commission values the voices of the future and is proud to announce that the SME Week Youth Essay Competition is back, with a fresh question ready to be answered. Keep reading and visit the News Portal for more information on how to enter.

Have a look through this latest edition for all the EEPA updates as well as upcoming entrepreneurial events and remember that we want YOUR stories, so update us for future editions.

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