Transnational
nEU Entrepreneurs is a transnational partnership of four EQUAL funded Development Partnerships (DP) in the Czech Republic, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands. The common bond between the four DPs is their interest in supporting minority entrepreneurship. As each partner has a different focus within this ambit, the following is an outline of the four partners and their particular focus.
EMERGE DP (Ireland)
The main aim of the project was the development of new methodologies for the establishment and expansion of Ethnic Minority businesses and to assist Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurs (EMEs) in overcoming business obstacles and regulation constraints. Ireland has seen an unprecedented increase in immigration in the past fifteen years, and this has resulted in the creation of many new ethnic minority communities. Members of these new communities have demonstrated a strong interest in entrepreneurship. Many of the problems faced by EMEs, when starting and growing their businesses, are shared with small businesses in general.
However, the following problems were believed to affect ethnic entrepreneurs more excessively than others:
- Access to finance and to support services
- Language barriers
- Limited business, management and marketing skills,
- Over-concentrated in low entry threshold and niche activities where the scope for breakouts or diversification into mainstream markets may be limited.
The task of assisting new entrepreneurs and small businesses is one shared by many of the members of the DP at different levels. There is currently no specifically designed mainstream programme that targets the particular problems encountered by EMEs i.e. that takes into account the problems presented by cultural differences, racism, language problems and social exclusion. This project will test various methodologies at different stages in the business cycle, within various agencies. Through this, the project aims to influence policy and programme development in the area of enterprise development. The outcome will be a best practice model for developing ethnic minority entrepreneurship in Ireland and opening access to mainstream business models and networks, while at the same time positively promoting ethnic minority entrepreneurship. The members of the DP are:
· PARTAS (Community enterprise organisation serving south Dublin)
· BASE Enterprise Centre (Community enterprise organisation serving northwest Dublin)
· The Small Firms Association (SFA) (the primary representative body for SMEs in Ireland)
· Cork City Enterprise Board (local enterprise agency)
· Cork South County Enterprise Board (local enterprise agency)
· FÁS (the national training and employment agency)
· Metro Eireann (Ireland’s first multicultural newspaper)
· Galway City Partnership (local development agency)
SEPECO - (France)
The French DP has gained a significant experience in providing assistance to business starters since 1995. Thanks to the Réseau+ project launched under Equal 1, Solidarité Enterprise has gained specialised knowledge within the area of providing business support in the sector of services to individuals. The main lessons drawn consist of developing the spirit of entrepreneurship through networking, especially when the profit margins are not high. By putting business set-up initiatives into collective dynamics, Solidarité Enterprise has managed to create more than 120 small enterprises. Solidarité Entreprise national DP partners for SEPECO project in Equal 2, which are COLISEE and the Institute Hannah Arendt have a strong experience in dealing with migrants public and other economic and cultural issues coming from Central and Eastern Europe.
EQUAL – XLX (The Netherlands)
The DP will develop means by which one can learn to be an entrepreneur. These means are based on simulation of experiences. The means (the starters game) will be used in the last year of the middle and higher educational institutions. Professors will be trained to use the game with their students. The same kind of means (starters game) will be used in the social security environment to offer an alternative to people who are already out of job for a longer period of time the opportunity to start their own company. They will experience what this means and what it takes.
The DP will:
- create awareness and a focus on entrepreneurship
- make (would be) starters aware of what it takes to start ones own company. Most educational institutions do not make students aware of the possibility of self-employment. With the consequences of a not optimal functioning society in regard to entrepreneurship, innovation and employment. For people who do not participate in the labour-process, the start of one’s own company is often the best (and sometimes only) option to get a paid job. Empowerment will be ensured through the following: Huygens and Technopartner have their connections and are directly involved in start-ups. They can facilitate those would be start-ups with the next stage. Stimulans is involved with those people with a distance to the labour market. It has it's own database for those people and already trains them in other aspects. De Vier Essen is responsible for project management and coordination.
The DP members are:
- De Vier Essen b.v.
- Huygens-XC b.v.
- Foundation CMO-Stimulans
- TechnoPartner Platform
Social Co-operatives and Enterprises (Czech Republic)
The purpose of the partnership is to achieve the engagement and involvement of individuals and groups comprised of those affected by physical and mental handicap in co-operative self employment and on the other hand to bridge over existing institutional barrier and to force and accelerate enforcement of the needed legislation. The target group are handicapped people of productive age, with work potential. The aim is to optimise the number of the target group in equal and stabile work, ensuring social integration. The co-operative model is a well-established form of entrepreneurship with a long tradition in Europe, as well as being held as one of pillars of social economy in Europe. It is hoped to establish the maximum number of functioning social co-operative enterprises, creating a respective number of workplaces for handicapped people in the Czech Republic. It is also hoped to develop new institutional frameworks for the establishment and development of the social economy. The main benefit of the DP, and the project generally, will be the use and verification of new tools in the development of co-operatives. The main benefit will be the co-ordinated and synergic exercise of supports to utilise the unused abilities of the target group. The existing system used by the agencies is not complex and it is inefficient.
The members of the DP are:
- Svaz ceských a moravských výrobních družstev
- Asociace zamestnavatelu zdravotne postižených CR
- IRISA výrobní družstvo
- Krajská hospodárská komora Moravskoslezského kraje
- Národní rada zdravotne postižených CR
- Obchodní a hospodárská komora Brno
- Obcanské sdružení Vlastenecký poutník
- SENZA-družstvo, chránená dílna
- Úrad práce Brno-venkov
- Úrad práce v Ostrave
nEU Entrepreneurs
The transnational project title is NEU Entrepreneurs and this project affords the DP, and the host organizations involved, an opportunity to test out new and different approaches in a collaborative fashion. It was generally believed, following the initial transnational meeting, that ethnic minority entrepreneurs face common problems in the countries that were present in the meeting. One of the main aims of the project is to address these common problems and to formulate “common” solutions to these problems through the transnational partnership.
The common interest of the members of the TCA is the development of target group’ competencies and skills in relation to entrepreneurship. The partners will focus on the development of training methodologies specifically targeted at strengthening and empowering the target group in the successful creation of new enterprises, given that there are various obstacles in their way in terms of accessing existing supports via mainstream agencies. The purpose of the partnership is to re-energise the commitment to the attainment of the enterprise targets set out in the Lisbon agenda particularly as it applies to the contribution that must be played by the target group in contributing to the economic life of society.
Main actions to be undertaken
Entrepreneurship is the common theme underpinning the relationship between the members of the TCA.
In many cases entrepreneurs, within the specific target groups identified by the partners, face particular difficulties in playing a full role in mainstream business creation. Problems exist in the development of business skills, access to finance, business networking, personal development and motivation and other obstacles arising from marginality.
The TCA assumes that trans-national cooperation will lead to a fuller understanding of the common problems faced and the various degrees of success achieved by the partners in tackling those problems. Through this cooperation we hope to learn from each other and develop systems of best practice as co-developed by the partners. Specifically our objectives are:
- To experiment with and evaluate various training methodologies as developed by the individual partners in different contexts but with similar target groups.
- To develop a common web portal aimed at on-line entrepreneurship support
- To study the experience of the transnational partners in regard to business networks and to capitalise on good practice
- To disseminate different lessons learned by the partnership
- Mainstreaming of good practice in entrepreneurship training supports developed by the partners
- To enhance the national projects with an awareness of the European marketplace and facilitate ‘ Go Europe’ – a common training module aimed at facilitating an understanding of exporting and doing trade across the EU.
The outputs of the transnational partnership
Final report of the TCA partnership including policy recommendations. This report will be translated into Czech, French and Spanish.
- A common web portal aimed at delivering on-line entrepreneurship support.
- Seminars in the representative countries aimed at disseminating project learning.
- Final seminar aimed at disseminating the learning of the project at EU level.
- Development of a common training module on doing business in Europe (‘Go Europe’)
The overall value which will be added to the project as a result of the transnational actions
The partners hope to develop a synergistic approach to understanding the process of enterprise development among the various target groups. We will test various methods of training and personal development and through the contribution of the fuller European perspective of the partners, further refine the methodologies developed. We will be informed by the research outcomes in the partner countries at all stages of the project, which will further enhance our understanding of the issues as they apply at a European level.
We will add to the common understanding of the members of the TCA by project visits throughout the lifetime of the programme. This will facilitate a cross-fertilisation of ideas among the partners so that we can enhance our ability to deliver innovative responses to the challenges faced by participants.
We also hope to contribute fully at EU thematic level and to assimilate into our learning the outcomes from other TCAs. Through this action we hope to influence European and national policymaking
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