“Entreprise Youth Future” is an Erasmus+ project that foreseen the realization of a youth workers mobility, which took place between the 27th of May and the 2nd of June, 2018 in the city of Rzeszow, Poland. Its aim was to train youth workers on how to develop and instil entrepreneurial skills in young people from rural and remote areas who lack opportunities due to the geographical position of their communities. The project has been coordinated, organized and hosted by International Projects’ Association “INPRO”.
The project participants were twenty-four youth workers from eight different European countries, each of them working or volunteering in local NGOs or educational institutions in their home countries. Each organization delegated three participants.
In the first half of the first day of the project Beata Szmuc, Vice Chairman of INPRO, worked with the participants to get to know each other and on creating a friendly atmosphere. In the second half, the Chairman of INPRO, Radu Mirea brought up the topic of what entrepreneurship and youth work means and how to work with young people, especially from remote areas. Participants also learned and debated the differences between formal, non-formal and informal education.
On Monday, Bohdan Kamiski, expert and trainer, introduced the topic of social economy and the participants, divided in groups, in light of Kamiski’s talk on social economy and their new understanding of the concept, designed start-ups dedicated to the local community support.
On Tuesday, participants continued their workshops with Bohdan and in the afternoon participated in a city rally prepared by Elsa Daniels, project manager in INPRO with a background in intercultural communication. The city rally consisted of using an online game tool (Action Bound), through which participants learned more about the diverse businesses that exist in Rzeszow and about locals business aspirations.
On Wednesday, by using Open Space Technology participants created and realized their own agenda on entrepreneurship coming up with sessions about NGO work, youth entrepreneurial initiatives and start-ups. During the afternoon, participants prepared themselves for the intercultural night. This took place during INPRO’s local event, Open Café, in which participants shared traditions and delicacies with locals.
On Thursday, participants met with Ela Szczepaniak, who introduced them to an online simulation game in which they managed a travel agency office. Ela is a local entrepreneur who, along with her colleagues, has founded the company REVAS. The simulation game challenged participants with all the skills needed for running a business. They had to calculate costs, hire employees, boost customer satisfaction and also compete with each other’s businesses. Few of them purchased the game for further use in their youth work.
On Friday, the project included a field trip to remoted areas from Bieszczady Mountains region, where participants could visit the Regional Office of Social Economy Support Project in Strzyzow, a Chocolate Factory in Korczyna and the School of Disappearing Professions in Uherce Mineralne. Through these visits, participants got acquainted with examples of successful local enterprises which promote cultural heritage. The field trip also included a visit to Solina lake, where many traders are making a living thanks to its touristic potential.
On the last day, participants learned about the Erasmus+ programme and about the Youthpass. Moreover, they reflected on the ways they benefitted from the training and evaluated the overall success of the project.
Besides the training course agenda, participants got a sense of INPRO’s work and had the chance to interact with locals by joining our weekly events such as Monday Stories on Monday and Open Café on Wednesday. During Open Café that week, participants presented and offered some typical food and drinks from their countries to the local community.
Thank you all for making “Entreprise Youth Future” happen:
ERASMUS+
FRSE Poland – National Agency for Erasmus+
Project partners:
Bulgarian Youth Forum from Bulgaria
Urbana Mladez from Croatia
Koz-Pont Ifjusagi Egyesulet from Hungary
Young Effect from Italy
Socialas Inovacuas Centrs from Latvia
Europe Link Centre from Macedonia
International Projects’ Association “INPRO” from Poland
Agrupamento de Escolas de Vilela from Portugal
Local partners:
Rzeszowski Inkubator Kultury
REVAS
if you want to check more photos, the link of the project’s FB album: https://www.facebook.
the video of the project https://www.facebook.com/goinpro.org/videos/1685271811606561/UzpfSTIzMTkwNTM0ODgxMDg0NzI6MjQ1NDIyMjk2MTI1ODE5MA/
and more info, the website of our partner organisation: http://www.goinpro.