Community training in Poland
In Poland, two workshop sessions were conducted (every 2 days and 8 hours per day). Three sessions were planned. To participate in training registered a nearly 30 people, but only 12 participated inthe training process (tab 1).
Training – general statistics:
| No. | Date | Target Group | No of Applicants | No of Present People | No of People Completed | No of People with Mentoring Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20-21 02 2015 | Women | 6 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| 2 | 17-18 04 2015 | Minorities | 19 | 8 | 5 | 0 |
| 3 | 08-09 05 2015 | Minorities & Youth | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Source: Own elaboration
The rest who registered did not appear during the workshops. Low motivation among potential participants could be related to the lack of tangible benefits (including cash or other staff) from participation in the project, which has not been identified by the beneficiaries themselves but appeared during the discussion at the advisory panels. Additional obstacles could be caused by the low level of trust among Polish society. People usually do not like talking about their problems including those related to the lack of work.
The training process proceeded without problems although the attitude of the participants was rather passive. Participants do not have definite plans for his future business activities they were not too confident or not at all want to work on their own account. This made some difficulties with the proper conduction of some of the parts of the workshop related to the orientation for your own business.
Closed attitude of some of the participants meant that they were unwilling to share their ideas with others. Only some people took an active part in discussions and interacted with others.
The content of different workshops parts was positively received by the participants in the context of tasks to perform. On the other hand they were not convinced that after completing the training will be willing to take concrete action. In the opinion of the trainees they face a lack of the technical knowledge that allows them to set up a business as well as information on funding despite the fact that, at the beginning of the meeting objectives of the workshop were clearly defined. It corresponds to the identified barriers during the research invisible socio-cultural barriers to entrepreneurship that can prevent a new venture starting; financial problems; lack of hard skills; other e.g. : legal regulations, systemic problems, infrastructural problems.
Participants saw a great value in the accompanying training mentoring program, however, only some people wanted to keep contacted with mentors.
