"This is the future: ideas in mind!" was a mobility for youth workers under Erasmus+, KA1, bringing together 30 participants from Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Spain, Germany, Croatia and The Netherlands. The training course aimed to explain the sustainability and independence of social enterprises on real examples and transfer entrepreneurial skills such as budgeting, digital tools for promotion, and business plan creation. Moreover, It was hosted by Logos Polska in Poznan, Poland (4-12.01.2020).
The first day was dedicated to getting to know each other, as well as sharing our expectations and fears, establishing a group agreement and revising the schedule and the objectives we aim to accomplish through the week. Participants were also invited to contribute to the training and some of the sessions were run by the ones that wanted to share their know-how. Moreover, the energizers were also proposed by all of us, making the learning process interactive and fun. Also during the first day, we visited two different social enterprises: Furia and Niewidzialna Ulica.
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| Training Course "This is the future: ideas in mind!" (Poznan, Poland - 4-12.01.2020) |
Second day started with an introduction into the meaning of social enterprise and the differences between CSR, non-profit & SE. Also each participating group presented a few examples of SE from their country. We continued with a nice workshop on marketing and learned how to use writing emails for our purposes.
The third day started with an inspiring visit at Barka Foundation, in order to see their model of social entrepreneurship, as they have a long experience in supporting homeless and drug addicted people by giving them a place to live and work and helping them to get reintegrated into society and community. Hearing the story from one of their beneficiaries was indeed touching. In the afternoon we visited Fort Va, we had a guided tour with some historical information about the place.
We followed it up with a game of laser tag. At the end of the day, we had our intercultural evening, which was opened to the local community.
The fourth day was dedicated entirely to group work on our own SEs. After an enriching and inspiring feedback activity on our initial ideas, we have developed our business models, and our marketing, financial and risk management plans.
The fifth day started with an engaging workshop on digital tools, where we could explore some really useful online apps to make presentations, questionnaires or even to record our laptop or mobile phone screens, gained tips on graphic design and tried our poster making skills with Canva. In the afternoon, we worked on the presentation of our projects and teamwork was challenging but surely productive and fun.
The following day we presented our SEs and got a very constructive feedback as a group but also individually. In the afternoon, we tried a board game on entrepreneurship.
The last day was dedicated to reflecting on our learning journey: after talking about Erasmus+ and sharing know how on how to write a project, how to choose a project or how to become a trainer, we brainstormed on various ideas that could be developed into future Erasmus+ mobilities and reflected on the key competences we have developed during the training and we evaluated the whole experience both formal and non-formal.
What a colorful experience!
And I am not talking only about the color on every slide or every flipchart, but also about the diversity of countries where participants are born in, about their age, or fields of interests, and even about our different personality types... This is what Erasmus+ offers. And a lot more. For example, this specific Training Course in Poznan was a great opportunity for me to develop my digital skills and my social entrepreneurship knowledge. I think all the people I will share information on this topic these days will gain enough motivation to look for more. (G., participant)
"This is the Future! Ideas in mind" was one of the best non-formal education training in which I participated. From the very beginning it was very clear the goals of the project, and how we will work. We had a lot of activities and meaningfully visits to Social Enterprises. I am very glad I could take part in it! (I., participant)
This training course offered me the opportunity to learn more about entrepreneurship, to exchange previous experience and knowledge with different participants from different cultures. Overall, we spent a beautiful week with great people. (R., participant)
Besides the inspiring visits at different social enterprises from Poznan and all the interactive workshops we took part in, the most productive learning happened during the development, presentation and feedback of group projects. This showed us that exchanging different ideas and stories, seeing an issue from multiple perspectives and teamwork can make the impossible possible. (D., participant)
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| Training Course "This is the future: ideas in mind!" (Poznan, Poland - 4-12.01.2020) |