Realities of the Self-Employment Process in Romania

The present analyse was developed within the framework of Self-Employment project, i.e. “Guidance and counselling for self-employment”, financed under EU Leonardo da Vinci Programme. The aim of this project is to identify the location and the value of guidance and counselling services addressed to people considering self-employment. The project conducted a survey of existing guidance and counselling services in different location addressed to educated and experienced persons who wish to start their own business, how they were assisted and provided necessary guidance. The project partners are from Austria, Poland, Romania and Finland. This complementary partnership represents the background of counselling and guidance, academic and education, research and analysis fields strengthen by small business orientation and experience in self-employment project. They represent environments of different level of national awareness, policies and educational offer. The present paper is based on the findings of the field study, aiming to identify the real needs of the self-employed and of the people considering self-employment and if supporting services available are suited to their needs.