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About PREFACE Focus Groups
The project activities that the partnership organisations have agreed upon
are dialogues in
groups with key actors. The focus group consists of these key actors; university
teachers, entrepreneurs, business supporting organisations, career advisors,
students and the national coordinator.
Apart from the focus groups there are other activities on the national level to
implement and inform about the PREFACE project. The activities could be aimed at
an extended group outside of the focus groups.
Here you could find an overview about the work of the different FOCUS groups.
Greece, EDEM
A FOCUS group consisting of six participants with key actors (i.e. university
teacher, career advisor, student, entrepreneur, business supporting organisation
as well as the coordinator organisation) has met several times during the
period, starting after the first partnership meeting in February 2003. Working
in the FOCUS group has given the partners new knowledge about education of
entrepreneurship at the National Technical University of Athens and together
they have been able of mapping incubators in Greece.
Denmark, MHT Consult APS
The FOCUS group has been running with participants from key actors (i.e. university teacher, career advisor, student, entrepreneur, business supporting organisation, trade union of Engineers and coordinators from other similar projects). «The FOCUS group has given us the platform – now we know that we represent the knowledge in front in Denmark concerning the Preface issues ». MHT Consult APS is, supported by Switzerland, leader of the thematic project working group on Entrepreneurs/business organisations. Following this a cooperation with the Technical University in Denmark has opened a possibility to develop a course on free agents and entrepreneurship. This has also led to an opening for making workshops on entrepreneurship for women.
Estonia, Tallin Technical University (TTU)
The FOCUS group in Estonia organised and participated in national consultancy meetings with the participation of experienced female entrepreneurs and female students in order to arrange a mentorship network to encourage the students to set up their own businesses, and to provide them with a support network to enable them to do so.
The search conference in Sweden gave new ideas of analysing teaching courses in entrepreneurship at Estonian universities. «The core group experts of this case presented material to our Estonian government about the weak situation in courses taught in entrepreneurship. General proposal was to learn from international experience (PREFACE) and start new centre for these purposes. There have been 4 major meetings, site visits, reporting and decisions made at national level forums that the centre should be created at TTU as the main centre of research and education in engineering combined with studies in economics and humanities thus best case or practice among other Estonian universities.
The new core partners like Estonian Women Entrepreneurial Organisation, ALUMNI activists,
QUIN Estonia, Junior Achievement Organisation and others supported these activities ».
Finland, Tampere Polytechnic Business School
Tulossilta OY was earlier partner in the PREFACE project. They are replaced by
ProAcademy / Tampere Polytechnic Business School.
The new partner is building up a network and a focus group in Finland now.
Spain, Programa Dona UPC
Programa Dona is a leader of the thematic work group for teachers and career advisors. They have had some difficulties involving the university teachers. Representatives in the Spanish FOCUS group are career advisors, students, entrepreneurs and business organisations. One result of the work and meetings in the FOCUS group is the exchange of experiences and to build network between the different organisations “for example, as a result, we have found a very interesting experience outside the university that could be a reference”. The choice of the best practice for the search conference is the woman programme, Programa Dona, from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.
Italy, University of Bologna, UETP Alma Mater
UETP has established and are working in a FOCUS group involving participants from different organisations, such as university teachers, career advisors, students, entrepreneurs and business organisations. The work in the FOCUS group has, so far been satisfying due to active participation and enthusiasm from the participants. Apart from the work in the FOCUS group a survey has been carried out among engineering female students about their willingness to become entrepreneurs. For the search conference in Sweden Italy contributed with 5 best practices; a course on “laboratory for star up company”, university competition for the best ideas (Start Cup), Spinner support to start up companies, Region Emilia Romagna financial supports and Comitato Impresa Donna of CAN initiatives.
Netherlands, VHTO
A FOCUS group of 5 members has been established; a career advisor and a professor from HAN University/Centre of Entrepreneurship, a female architect/entrepreneur/secretary of the SVE-foundation of female entrepreneurs, a female student in SET and a manager of Young Enterprise of the Netherlands. Apart from the focus group meetings, other arenas has been arranged with other organisations on the theme '”female entrepreneurship in SET”. The partners are developing a training model. In order to design a model for a digital training, meetings has been arranged in the FOCUS group.
Switzerland, SOL and The School of Business Administration
SOL has a broad participation in their five FOCUS groups with totally 60 persons from different fields, mostly female entrepreneurs. The interest for the FOCUS groups are very high.
The people in the FOCUS groups comes from all over Switzerland, which means networking between the participants and also setting up a tank of mentors and role models (i.e. the female entrepreneurs participating). The wide regional participation has also lead to good opportunities for dissemination. For the search conference in Sweden they brought two good practices; the Opportunity Booster Program which provides customized training sessions to meet participants' objectives in areas such as entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, strategy, marketing etc. and Apprendre ŕ Entreprendre (AŕE) Project which main goals is to stimulate would-be entrepreneurs.
Switzerland will try to introduce the Preface model in the study programmes at the universities.
You can find more information under each project partner's presentation.
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