Young entrepreneurs from Balti can benefit from training to open their own business

Young entrepreneurs can benefit from training for starting and managing a business at the Business Skills Hub in Balti. The center is financed by the European Union and was opened with the support of the Association of Business Women. The center’s activities are aimed at providing technical and informational assistance to young entrepreneurs from Balti and the northern regions of the country (Rîșcani, Glodeni, Florești, Drochia).

The Business Skills Hub support center is located at 75 Kiev street, in the same building as the social enterprise Credem-Eco, intended for employment of people with disabilities.

President of the Association of Business Women in the municipality. Balti Tatiana Puga spoke about the activities of the business center.

— This two-story municipal building, where there was once a kindergarten, came into our use thanks to the support of Norway. Since 2020, a social resource center for integration and work, Credem-Eco, has been opened in a part of this building. Employees of the social enterprise provide catering services – food preparation and delivery. The founder of this center is the Association of Business Women.

In another part of the building, another enterprise will officially open on October 5 – the Business Skills Hub, which is designed to support young business people. At the moment, we are making the final preparations for the opening of this place, but the business center itself has been operating for a year.

From the very beginning, we promoted equal opportunities for women in society. The idea behind the project is that a woman has unlimited potential and can lead society to prosperity. We now provide economic support to both women and youth equally. Hundreds of young people received training in entrepreneurship, starting and managing a business with us and were guided in their efforts to receive European grants”, said Tatiana Puga.

She also mentioned that currently, thanks to EU funding, the center implements projects to teach digitization and digital technologies to women and young people in Balti.

For her part, project manager Elena Bordianu spoke about the achievements of the Business Skills Hub.

— The project to train young entrepreneurs is expected to last three years, which means we have two years left. We are focused on two categories of entrepreneurs: those who are in the stage of launching the business and those who are in the stage of its development. During the project, we organized three training groups in business launch and management and conducted 28 consultations on the development of business plans.

23 Business Skills Hub beneficiaries have submitted their applications to receive a grant program from the European Union. And now, in a week or two, we are signing five contracts to receive grants for five beneficiaries. This year it turned out that only women were among them. They will receive a grant in the form of technical equipment for their activities in the total amount of 9,000 euros”, said Elena Bordianu.

She also pointed out that in cooperation with the Business Skills Hub, young entrepreneurs who do not have offices, computers or internet access can use the premises and equipment for free for 6 months.

In the next two years, the business support center also plans to organize 10 exhibition fairs to promote the products of local manufacturers, 12 training seminars for enterprises at the development stage and 5 additional follow-up events to obtain feedback from the population.