The President of the AER Summer Academy Organising Committee, Mr Rune Fredriksen (Østfold-NO) is pleased to invite you to Østfold for the 2016 Summer Academy from 16-20 August 2016.

Østfold is situated in the South-Eastern part of Norway, on the border to Sweden.

Even though Østfold is the second smallest county in Norway, we like to call our region “compact and complete”. Everything is reached within an hour or so by car. Østfold is a region with a diverse nature – rivers, quiet lakes and forests in the inland, and a beautiful coastline that attracts a great number of tourists every summer. Østfold is the gateway to Norway – and is actually your first meeting with the Norwegian fjords, as you cross the border from Sweden over Svinesund.

We like to call Østfold both “the gateway to Norway” and “The gateway to Europe”.

The region offers a unique coastline and a variety of historical and cultural attractions.

In Østfold, and in Europe in general, there has been a great focus on young people and unemployment. The topic of the Summer Academy will focus on Youth Entrepreneurship. Østfold recently received the AER most youth friendly region Europe (MYFER Award 2014). The wellbeing of youth people is a central part of Østfold’s political agenda as well as of the EU. The theme of youth entrepreneurship is also high on the agenda in AERs Youth Regional Network (AER YRN), where youth from Østfold are active participants. AER YRN has a separate committee on Professional Life and Entrepreneurship and youth entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship were central themes in the latest plenary meetings of the network.

Østfold County Council has close cooperation with, among others, Junior Achievement Young Enterprise’s branch in Østfold. They run an extensive amount of programmes to promote and teach entrepreneurship in school from primary school to university college level, and are also working with many projects within the field of regional development in the county.

We look forward to seeing you in Østfold!