12 experts and youth workers from youth organizations, SMEs, multinational companies, local municipality and university participated in the CoOp with us! Romania Multiplier Event. The event was a learning and sharing experience in the field of cooperation between companies and youth organizations.

During the event from September 24th, 2018, from Cluj-Napoca, the experts and youth workers found more information on the CoOp project, such as objectives, activities, partners involved, and estimated results, and also about the Erasmus+ programme that supports the implementation of the project.

Fundatia Danis, the host of the event, introduced to the participants the CoOp research effort from the five countries involved in the project, with a special focus on the Romanian case and on the differences and similarities between Romanian model of youth organizations-SMEs cooperation and the models from Greece, Ireland, Norway and Poland. The experts were very curious about the companies’ motivation to get involved in community work, and about the opportunities NGOs can provide, in the five countries included in the research.

Then, using an example of cooperation from Cluj-Napoca, Fundatia Danis presented to the youth workers and experts the plan for the development of the CoOp Best Practices Guide. The participants brainstormed on success stories they heard about in the community or they might have in their own organizations. Other two success stories were selected to be presented in the guide and interviews were planned with a company and a student union.

Finally, during the event, the host challenged the experts and youth workers to come up with ideas on what other needs of young people we could respond to through common projects. All the participants mentioned the need of young people to find a job in the field of their study at the moment of graduation, and the need of gaining relevant working experience during their college or high school years. Common projects, supported by youth organizations, university, municipality and companies could be developed to provide high quality internships, job shadowing experiences, mentorship activities, job fairs for graduates, etc.