Poland

Almost one hundred students from eight junior high schools of Nowodworski County from Pomorskie Voivodship took part in a few-month-long project "Lets do business". Its aim was to promote economic potential of the areas surrounding Zalew Wiślany. The participants of the project presented eight different business plans concerning social enterprises. Among proposed ideas there were e.g. a fitness club or a rehabilitation centre. - In practice it is much more difficult for them. They have no idea how to deal with official businesses -- where to go, to whom they should turn to, with whom to cooperate. We tried to show it to them. Their strength is their freshness, ideas and openness. They haven't been restricted to thinking in one particular way yet. - We came up with an idea for a fitness club. Everything was new to us, so it was hard in the beginning. Now we know that if you want to run an enterprise you have to invest in it. - Our town starts developing very well. The infrastructure is moving on. We are visited by more and more tourists. And more and more people need secondary healthcare. We came up with a rehabilitational centre. The project has been financed by Ministry of Labour and Social Policy within EU The Civil Initiatives Fund and was coordinated by Szkolna 13 Association. - Through training techniques our teenagers have learnt about terms like e.g. social economy, voluntary service, etc. It really helped them in writing a business plan. - While working the youth were taking under consideration the social context. They wanted e.g. to organize a group of people who would help children cross the street. They had many other ideas. My students were thinking about setting up a foundation whose members would visit children in hospitals. It is very nice and empathic. Young people were working on the basis of an up-to-date multimedia platform nowyinteres.pl, an application for writing professional business plans. - We liked the application, for it is very developed. Children dealt with it very well. In a few weeks they filled in all necessary information. We checked it. It looked well. - The application made our work much easier. Its biggest advantage is that it contains all points, which should be included in a professional business plan. As a result, the final outcome is much more reliable. - There is no need to create spreadsheets. The applications are transparent, orderly and very useful. - Using Nowyinteres.pl economizes a lot of time and work. Very simple interface makes filling in blanks faster and more efficient. - It is a platform for everyone who wants to try before they start to act. Our target is young people between the age of 20 and 35. At this age we start to think about our first own business. Not everyone wants to work in a corporation. Every idea for an enterprise has to be thoroughly thought over. - We were working with 14, 15-year-olds. We saw that young people can act resourcefully. - Every age is good for starting a business. All you need to have is a legal personality -- you need to be 18 years old. But the biggest ones, like e.g. Steve Jobs started at a young age. - If we have a passion in ourselves it is good to think about setting up a business at a young age. I personally started to think about my own business after completing my studies. - Every age is good for business. The project showed that people from Nowodworski County have very original and well-constructed ideas, which should be taken under consideration, for they could ameliorate socio-economic conditions of the area. - Young people showed that in our region business is possible. They asked the citizens about their expectations. They weren't afraid to do so. The young people can change the future of this city and do better for example in my city Nowy Dwór Gdański. They have great ideas and they are not afraid to ask questions. The potential of our region is enormous. One has to consider all its possibilities. We don't make use of natural and tourism resources of our region. In our towns the job market is not big. In Nowodworski County the unemployment rate comes to about 40 percent. And it is not only a problem of young people. We should put into practice the business plans that emerged during the project. Nobody thought about something concerning production. They all proposed services. It is a niche we should start to make use of. The ideas the participants put forward are the answers to the needs of citizens and tourists. - Lets do business!

• published: 14 Mar 2014
• views: 171