START Project

START Project is an educational outreach program that was formed with the aid of Microsoft Hellas and the City of Athens, and is currently supported by the Athens Development and Destination Management Agency (EATA), aiming to bring together community members under the umbrella of digital education.

In its continuous effort to tackle the existing digital skills gap within the Greek society, Socialinnov is continuing to support this important initiative with the goal of creating invaluable digital competencies and employability for underserved groups such as the unemployed youth, immigrants and refugees. To date, more than 11,000 beneficiaries have participated in START Project’s seminars, with the majority of them being women or belonging to underserved communities.

Start Project begun operating at Lela Karagianni’s historical building in the city of Athens in 2017, offering free coding and other digital skills courses for whomever wishes to expand their professional skillset, and thus becoming more agile in an ever-changing employment market.

From March 2020, the program is based at the Serafeion Centre of Sports, Culture, and Innovation of the Municipality of Athens, at the Piraeus and Petrou Ralli junction.

 

 

START Project has 3 main directions:

Education
Courses on computer science, digital skills, internet security, coding and more, for children, teenagers and adults.

Participation
Consultation seminars for entrepreneurial development, micro-financing programs, business development etc.

Innovation
Introduction to innovative technologies such as 3D printing, automation and robotics.

 

START School of Code

START School of Code started its third cycle in 2020, with the support of the Costas M. Lemos Foundation, Develop Athens (EATA) and iTechScope. The program targets unemployed youth and focuses on the role and the necessary skills that a Full Stack Developer must have today. The 26 selected participants acquire all the skills needed (Front‐End and Back‐End), in order to then be employed as Full Stack Developers.

 

START School of Business

START School of Business, an initiative first supported by PwC, is an intensive ten‐course program targeting business owners and those who want to start their own company. The aim of the program is to provide in a simple and practical way the necessary knowledge about the digital tools that a small business can use in order to have the maximum benefit, to teach the participants methods of solving business problems and to familiarize them with the basic principles of finance and branding, as well as the use and security of data. Special emphasis is also given to the training of social media as a tool of work, as well as to digital marketing.

 

START School of Integration

START School of Integration’s mission is to promote economic empowerment and poverty reduction via work and active citizenship, so people living in social exclusion can improve their quality of life.

With START School of Integration we aim to empower and upskill homeless people by enhancing their digital and soft skills and increasing their chances of re-entering the labor market.