First Erasmus+ ‘SENpower” project training ‘Supporting Knowledge – Opportunities available to the Entrepreneur’ has been implemented in Lithuania from 22.10.2018 to 26.10.2018. Target group of the training – young adult & VET learners with Special Educational Needs (SEN), who had an opportunity to develop following entrepreneurial skills and gain knowledge: to know more about entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial opportunities, different types of entrepreneurship, develop communication, self- disclosure, self- reflection, team-work, presentation, critical and creative thinking skills by interactive activities and different types of tasks using more experiential, visual techniques, discussions throughout the whole week.
The objectives of the training were to improve the skills & competences of educators (trainers, school teachers, social educators, other specialists who work with SEN, etc.), offer significant knowledge to the young adult participants with SEN and improve the developed training manual, which will be the basis for future trainings after the official implementation period of SENpower.
During the whole week training was based on these modules:
- Know myself / develop myself
- About entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurship opportunities at work/social
On Monday training was organized in at Karoliniškės gymnasium, where 12 students and 10 specialists from Portugal, Spain, Cyprus, Italy and Lithuania participated. On Tuesday and Wednesday training was held at Vilnius Vocational Education and Training Centre of Technology, where lecturers from Cyprus and Lithuania led activities, where overall 25 students and 12 specialists from Portugal, Spain, Cyprus, Italy and Lithuania participated. On Thursday training and meeting with representatives of the Vilnius Verkiai school – multifunctional center was organized, where 11 students and 17 specialists (teachers, social educators, psychologist, administrative staff) participated and had an interesting discussion, exchange of good experience, situation about students with SEN in each country. On Friday a final discussion with partners about the training had been held.
Summing up the results most students would agree that they would recommend this training to others, have enjoyed attending the training and would like to attend future training from this program. According students’ feedback, most students assess training as helpful (18 students) or very helpful (15 students). What was the most useful part of the session?: It was good to find out our goals and strengths; team work; self-knowledge; recognition of character features; activity with sticky notes; activity about goals, actions and barriers; discussion how to improve your life; exchange of life experience with others; mind mapping exercise; development of strategy; creating a project; communication; creativity of project communication; finding the right business areas based on pictures; promotion of entrepreneurship; thinking about business opportunities; insights about the characteristics of different businesses.
