Who We Are

StartNet is a network for cooperation, collective action, and impact on young people’s transition from education to work.

It has two levels of action:

• a regional network created to promote orientation in schools and create the conditions for young people in Apulia and Basilicata to enter the labour market in line with their potential and ambitions. This network is made of schools, governmental institutions, businesses, youth groups, and the third sector who plan and implement concrete projects on the ground.
• the StartNet Europe network,a platform for dialogue among similar networks from different European regions to exchange good practices, learn together and be supported in their future development.

Our goal is to provide a productive and efficient transition system that guides and supports young people from school to work.
Funded by the Stiftung Mercator and by the Goethe-Institut, the network StartNet was officially launched in September 2017 in Bari.

The Stiftung Mercator is a German-based foundation committed to project in education, culture, science and art in different countries in the world. The Goethe-Institut is the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany worldwide, and in Italy, where it has been working actively on career guidance with schools from all over the country. Following the growing youth unemployment, which was triggered by the global financial crisis especially in Southern Europe, both institutions decided to act and gave birth to StartNet- Network transition education to work in two hardly hit regions, Apulia and Basilicata, for the period of 2017-2020.

StartNet is led by the Goethe-Institut Italien in Rome and Trani and by the Goethe-Institut Bruxelles. Our projects pool together national, European and private funds in effective, long-term and sustainable ways.