This September, YOUWEEN (YOUng Women greEn ENtrepreneurs) held it’s sustainable entrepreneurship training to support employability and socio-educational development for young women living in rural areas.
Despite the difficulties of travelling due to COVID-19, partners from seven countries (Italy, Spain, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Greece, Poland, and Macedonia through online participation) gathered in Poland and shared their good practices, experiences, training and knowledge in green entrepreneurship, rural enterprises, and gender equality.
The learning, teaching, training activity (LTTA) involved everything from video production seminars to gender awareness training but above all, it highlighted and gave examples of successful entrepreneurship of young women in agricultural or rural settings, with women from rural Poland showing us, in person, their inspirational entrepreneurship successes.
From the 14th – 17th of September in the Agricultural Advisory Center in Brwinów Branch in Krakow, we spent an exciting 4 days sharing examples of successful women in their agricultural activities. Their stories were extremely inspiring to both partners and youth workers. They highlighted to us the difficulties for women in starting their own rural businesses with sexism and gender stereotypes often serving as a barrier, but we also learnt how they managed to overcome such challenges and succeed in their endeavours.
Interactive Training Activities
The first day focused on green, sustainable rural development in the EU, as well as new opportunities for rural areas and issues related to obtaining jobs. There was also no shortage of opportunities to get to know each other and integrate better. We played games to get to know one another and share interculturally, with one educational game devoted to issues related to the functioning of the European Parliament during which we worked in multicultural teams.
On the second day, we went on an outdoor learning visit to “Ojców Trout” – a family company belonging to the European
Network of Regional Culinary Heritage. Mother and daughter Magdalena Węgiel and Agnieszka Sendor, the hosts of “Pstrąga
Ojcowskiego”, shared their experience in business communication, company management, overcoming gender stereotypes, and brand image shaping.
On the third day, among the issues discussed during the visit of the participants of the YOUWEEN project, the balance between work and family life, cultural awareness, communication skills and leadership, gender equality, and the resulting acceptance of
diversity, was discussed and seminars given. It was then that Monika Kwaśniewicz, founder of Educativo, shared the history of
her entrepreneurial ideas. Monika presented her farm dedicated to ecological educational activities, with school children coming to the farm to learn about and interact with chickens, rabbits and goats. The day ended with a guided walk around Krakow, giving participants a chance to get to know Polish culture and history.
Finally, the LTTA closed with a presentation of YOUWEEN’s updated educational platform for young women and youth workers to share experiences and knowledge with a common interest: green entrepreneurship. Guidelines to create 14 educational videos as part of the project were also presented. It finished with an exchange of the most important conclusions through interactive evaluation activities. A massive 28/30 of participants said they would absolutely recommend this training! Overall, participants left feeling motivated and inspired to be a part of this worthy cause.
♻Are you interested in green entrepreneurship?
💭How about learning new skills and gaining knowledge to start your own green business?
🌱Are you located in a rural area or interested in rural ecological solutions?
Young Women Green Entrepreneurs (youween) is an EU project taking off in seven countries around the EU and UK. We are seeking volunteers to take part in the project who would be interested in free training, a sustainable network of like-minded young women (aged 18-30), and some travel to the EU!
As well as this, volunteers would help deliver the project’s objectives with things like interviews for educational videos and receive accredited training certificates!
To find out more, visit: www.youween.eu
