Summary

Odisseu is a response to rural youth exodus that aims to provide solutions for healthy generational renewal and fight the brain drain that affects most rural areas of Catalonia. Odisseu focuses on those aged up to 40 from rural and urban areas.

Through a range of diverse activities, the project accompanies young people interested in learning more about the opportunities that exist in rural areas for professional initiatives. It is fostering entrepreneurship and improving the employability of young people as well as their engagement with their rural territory of origin.

Results

20 workshops were held in 12 educational centres (659 students) with an additional 1 385 students attending events and participating in activities outside the educational centres – i.e. business ferries. In total 2 044 young people were reached.

In 2017, eight informative actions were organised attracting 226 young students in the ICT sector and agri-food sector in Catalonia.

In 2016, the first Odisseu Practicum was convened, which led to 12 grants for companies located in rural municipalities being nominated in order to host paid professional internships for university students (300 hours, compensation 5 EUR per  hour, 50% co-financing by the company).

Since October 2016, through the Retorna online tool, 367 young people, mostly women, enrolled in 17 different professional sectors and have interest in working in several rural districts.