The ACADEMY OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP (AKEP) is a non-governmental, non-profit organization founded in 2007 by the historical Educational Association of Athens "HFAISTOS" and aiming to create a healthier entrepreneurial environment on a national and European level, and trying to support young people who wish to make their innovative entrepreneurial ideas come true. AKEP's main objective is the cultivation of the essential entrepreneurial attitude and transfer of the necessary knowledge to trainers of new entrepreneurs who are now entering the labour market and to already active entrepreneurs, wishing to establish themselves and expand their operations both within Greece and abroad. AKEP has been a national partner of the Global Entrepreneurship Week in Greece since 2008 (https://genglobal.org/) in this context the Academy is a also member from Greece of the Global Entrepreneurship Research network (http://gern.co/). A series of workshops and entrepreneurship seminars are always organized during the GEW where participants can brainstorm and seek advice on business issues and learn about the challenges they have to face within the crisis in the labour market today. They also receive specific guidance, depending on the requirements of their own business endeavors and activity. As a member of the Entrepreneur Envoy network ( http://www.entrepreneurenvoy.org), and recently of the European Association of Development Research and Training (http://www.eadi.org), AKEP is fully aware of the requirements of the European labor market, transferring this knowledge to the participants of its educational programs. AKEP's has been nominated as the official National partner for Greece for the Startup Nations (http://www.startupnations.org) Global Network, and constitutes an important communication channel for startup entrepreneurs and policy makers both on a European and a global level. AKEP is participating in various European research projects that support entrepreneurship development and employability, especially with regards to young population. Since 2012 AKEP is an intermediary organization in Greece for Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs thus facilitating Greek new entrepreneurs’ mobility throughout Europe and matching local enterprises with young wannabe entrepreneurs.
Recently, AKEP has become member of the Vision2020 The Horizon network an Open Innovation platform for research organizations & businesses and also member of the Euclid Network for Social Enterprises.
