Federterziario is an employers’ confederation, a non-profit, non-partisan body active in several sectors: services sector, small enterprises, professional work and self-employment. Guided by a team of experts and through a network of associations spread on the entire territory, the confederation helps and guides over 90 thousand businesses in securing new business opportunities and gaining sustainable access to credit. The confederation further deals with technical and financial aspects of companies to support them in creating connections, managing collective bargaining and agreements, and promoting moral, social, and civil values including safe working environments.
Federterziario capitalises on its previous microfinance experience in previous projects such as the Yes I Start Up (YISU) project, where It counts on a team of tutors, registered on the National Agency for Microcredit, to provide non-financial monitoring and tutoring services. The project has aimed at promoting self-employment and entrepreneurship among young people through a specific program that includes both theoretical training and tutoring. The training courses targeted youth between 18–29-year-old who are not generally engaged in education, employment or training (NEET), but want to own and grow an innovative business idea.
Working on this project has equipped Federterziario with adequate experience in addressing young entrepreneurs as the target group. For ReSt@rts, one of the main two beneficiary groups is non-bankable actors, especially women and young people between 18 and 40 years old, who are aspiring entrepreneurs and owners of early-stage businesses. ReSt@rts supports these beneficiaries’ financial inclusion by adopting a bottom-up approach to improve skills, capacities, and business attitudes.
For Federterziario, their nascent experience in supporting this target group is a key advantage that will be well-utilised throughout the project as a whole. Moreover, their recent experience in managing training activities qualifies them to lead the knowledge capitalisation part of the project, specifically developing the training material and managing the Massive Online Open Course for aspiring entrepreneurs.