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History When we first met in November 97 in Brussels, there were many parties that were interested in taking part in an ADAPT project of the ESF and thus building up a transnational partnership. A few of them we have never seen again. They probably found other, more convenient partners; others joined, because they found the partnership attractive. At the end we were six partners from four countries. In order to work on similar topics and to match ADAPT regulations (not two partners out of the same country) we formed two taskforces: Taskforce I VHS Duisburg (Germany), NCMV Hasselt (Belgium), W en O (former BSC Utrecht) (The Netherlands) Taskforce II CP'AC Barcelona (Spain), J en C The Hague (The Netherlands), Institut für faires Konfliktmanagement und Mediation (Germany). Targets We all agreed on different targets in the different taskforces and still kept a couple of items in common for both groups. Targets for Taskforce 1 (in accordance with the Transnational Document) This group concentrates on ethnic entrepreneurship and on training intermediaries. Main activities:
Targets for Taskforce II (in accordance with the Transnational Document) This group is concentrated on advice and training processes to starting and developing entrepreneurs and employees, and on braiding between them. Main activities:
The main thing that both groups have in common is to develop methodologies separately but to share the products and outcomes with (the partners of) the other taskforce. The way of working in Taskforce I Exchange of methodologies, good practice, experiences and people In the beginning all parties met to get to know the situations where and how the two other projects work. In the beginning we found it difficult to compare the projects and even exchange methodologies, because everything seemed to be completely different. Still the basic was that we all worked with migrants - either starting or existing entrepreneurs. All parties had contact to migrants before this ADAPT project. The Utrecht project is firmly established in an area of Utrecht where many people of Turkish or Moroccan origin live that had already opened up or wanted to establish a retail shop. In Duisburg the VHS has offered many education and language classes, seminars or cultural trainings for migrants. The partner of Hasselt has about 25 years of experience in advising people "how to start up their own business". So they also have some advice experience with ethnic groups, but could not spend as much time as the target group needed. So they found the partner in STEBO, and together developed a concept with the Utrecht partner. We exchanged people and experiences on different levels.
The way of acquisition/recruitment of migrant entrepreneurs and employees The experience shows that written letters don't have the same effect on migrant entrepreneurs as they might have on non-migrants. In fact even important letters by the Chamber of Commerce or other local authority will not be read or answered. So all projects decided that the only way of reaching their targetgroup was to build a personal contact with (potential) entrepreneurs. In Utrecht the location of the office was an advantage because another project based in this area proved to be an excellent partner. Networking with them, self-organisations and governmental bodies ensured that the project became know among the targetgroup. Although the majority of client came from the province of Utrecht, the project was able to work on a national scale and sometimes clients from other parts of the country found the project through their own network. In Duisburg the project works in the whole town. So the staff visited already existing associations, clubs or groups to introduce themselves personally and then contact the single retailer individually. This in connection with the fact that there were contacts before made first contacts not too difficult. But one of fundamentals was that we all have native language speakers in our staff. The training methods of this special target group Adult education for all participants means to find out the needs of the people and to match the need by a good program. The ideas behind the ADAPT program is to enable people of handicapped groups to take an active part in this economic society. If you don't want to go bankrupt you just have to know how things work (computer, bookkeeping, health and safety training), what standards (Chamber of Commerce, Local Authority) you have to fit in and how to meet new needs of new customers (window dressing, language). We found out that many migrant entrepreneurs knew that they had to learn and complete their knowledge but that it is difficult to participate in trainings when there are only a few people working in the retail shop. And migrant entrepreneurs usually have small shops, and entrepreneurs of these small shops just don't have time enough before or after their work. So in our classes we usually have a small group of people who get the minimum of knowledge in a small amount of time. This seems to be true for migrant and non-migrant entrepreneurs as we experienced with another ADAPT-partner in England. Weno Utrecht worked with potential entrepreneurs, mostly people who were unemployed and wanted to start their own business. The method of WenO Utrecht was combining the tools of individual coaching and training courses. It is important to note that clients enrolled in an individual project of coaching and training designed to their own personal needs. The training courses are short, practical and interactive. The main objective is empowerment, people becoming aware of their personal qualities and making the most of their skills and knowledge. The program aims at people meeting the basic requirements of entrepreneurship. Although the project was not limited to migrant entrepreneurs meeting people's individual needs meant that some special activities for this group were useful. For example, co-operation with (and partly the organisation of) the obligatory entrepreneurial training course in people's native language was a substantial tool in promoting ethnic entrepreneurship and integration into Dutch business society. The different experiences of being an migrant entrepreneur in Germany, in The Netherlands and in Belgium In the third part of the common ADAPT project the entrepreneurs themselves travelled to the partners. Some were eager to get contact to business-partners in order to trade. Others just wanted to see how other migrants in other countries work and live. Everybody had in mind to catch some ideas to carry home. This was one of the rare times when language was not a problem at all - everybody spoke Turkish. At the end of 98 the Belgian project resulted in a kind of advice committee for ethnic entrepreneurs (Overleg Orgaan Allochtoon Ondernemen). In this committee every "province" is represented by one or more organisations working with ethnic entrepreneurs and completed with NCMV as the organisation for SMEs. They already have implemented two of their proposals into the flemish government, i. e. to eliminate the "Beroepskaart" (allowance for self-employment) and to organise a course especially for ethnic entrepreneurs - during this course (which is a normal course by the government) the ethnic students get help by translator and other technical advisors. Training intermediaries Very often intermediaries have to be trained, too. For example, Hasselt created courses and started the training for teachers, trade union representatives, job counsellors, SME civil servants, banking, and all kind of other organisations. They also created some tools, such as slides, power point presentation and recently a video production. The way of working in Taskforce II General considerations Exchanges of experiences and practices, knowledge, and the specific situations in the different countries were, at the outset, important items to arrive at forms of co-operation. At the start of the exchanges it was shown that the parties concerned had different backgrounds in different disciplines. As a starting point and working basis it was chosen for exchange / transfer of specific methodologies and working practices. In particular CP'AC and J en C are geared especially toward the advising of starting entrepreneurs and stimulating and the support of SME's. On the other hand QUAK, though also aimed toward SME's, was more specifically directed at training of employees and directorate (management), in the field of conflict-management. The different projects have started at different dates. The Dutch project has in fact been rounded off in June 1999, the German project will run till the middle of 2000, while the Spanish will finish its activities at the end of 1999. The outcome of all this is that the exchanges have notably focussed at
Exchange of training methods / tools How to make self-employment as a known concept work and develop it into tools for entrepreneurs. The different partners have developed different tools within and from their expertise and trained these tools with the other partners. Transfer of knowledge and skills took place, as well as more specific background, characteristics of abilities of working with different groups of participants. From CP'AC:
From QUAK: a training-program for conflict-management and mediation as an alternative to lawsuits · training how to work starting from real cases or actual conflict situations · the possibilities of implementation of these methods in SME's · the important role of conflict in the development of SME's · mediation and fair conflict-management as tools in intercultural conflicts · role play as an important training method From J en C:
Exchange experience, knowledge and skills in the development of entrepreneurship in Germany, Spain and the Netherlands This exchange has taken place in the specific meetings of Taskforce II, respectively together with Taskforce I. More specifically the following items were treated:
Exchange of common good practice Though sometimes it seemed that the two taskforces had nothing in common, they still shared the experience of different training methods. Almost each party introduced one training method in a very practical way with the other partners being learners. The transnational and bi-lateral meetings have very often provided the opportunity of discussing problems experienced in the own project. Sometimes we found that an "out of town"- point of view could help solving own problems - and if not sometimes it just helps talking about the problem. Though we had agreed on English being the working language of the partnership Dutch, German, Spanish and Turkish could be heard as well, and nobody really minded, because it does reflect the European situation. The sessions were very informative about the cultural differences. They were stimulating in building bridges and helpful in crosscultural co-operation. Understanding has grown. |
