Dimitra Tsambazi was disappointed by the lack of opportunities to specialise in educational fields that interested her. When she got older, she dreamed of giving other children a chance to become entrepreneurs, making use of their unique skills and interests. Now, Tsambazi has realised this dream, and runs a learning centre called ‘Know Thyself’ in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Thanks to support from the European Social Fund (ESF), children from the local area were empowered, given the chance to develop the skills they needed to be successful in their specific fields of interest.

‘The EPAnEK programme was a big opportunity for us to make our educational dream come true and spread our vision all over Greece,” says Dimitra. “Seven years later, many children are happy learning with us, and many innovative learning programmes happen in our tutorial centre.’

In the long-term, the Know Thyself centre aims to strengthen self-employment and improve the competitiveness of the local economy by training students in the skills they need to work in their chosen field, as well as focusing on reducing local unemployment through developing participants’ entrepreneurial skills.