MAGNET Network Forum in Krems: Supporting Migrant Entrepreneurship!
These were 2 intense days for me: It was the first time meeting the MAGNET project team on February 19th 2018 for the project meeting day and on February 20th the first MAGNET Network Forum followed, one out of 4 network forums, which will be held in different European cities to engage stakeholders in supporting migrant entrepreneurship in a network – because from working together, great things can emerge! MAGNET is co-funded by the European Union (COSME funding scheme).
The MAGNET Project Team – it was great to finally meeting you face-to-face! 🙂
The First Network Forum
The discussion topic of the first network forum was “Identifying common issues and challenges of Migrant Entrepreneurship Support and the role of entrepreneurial skills” and we heard great presentations from Gudrun Biffl (Danube University Krems) , Fulvia Farinelli from UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development “Prosperity for All”), Tina Gruber-MĂĽcke (IMC Krems). Characteristics and challenges of migrant entrepreneurship were discussed and I found it especially interesting that there is a gender gap in migrant entrepreneurship, as many female migrants are mainly responsible for unpaid labour and caring for the family – being a crucial backbone and also success factor of the businesses of their male relatives.
CARamel – A Viennese Example of Migrant Entrepreneurship
Also, very interesting and impressing was the presentation by the migrant business CARamel, a sustainable and mobile car clearning service (B2B), based in Vienna, talking about how they developed and that they are facing major challenges right now and struggeling with keeping the company up. You can support them at the SozialMarie Voting!
An example of migrant #entrepreneurship in #Vienna, #Austria at the #MAGNET_EU network forum: CARamel mobile car cleaning, mobile, social and sustainable! Check out https://t.co/qV3GtmlTl1! @donau_uni #startup #startupculture #easme_eu #cosme_eu @EU_Growth pic.twitter.com/9S2HEFnfXF
— Isabell Grundschober (@IsabellGru) 20. Februar 2018
Mentoring to Support Migrant Entrenreneurships
In the afternoon of the network forum we enganged in workshops for different topics like financial issues, education, networking,…with a focus on supporting migrant entrepreneurship. Also we heard a very interesting talk by Doris Kaiserreiner (ZSI), who is part of the MEnt project, dedicated to support migrant entrepreneurship through mentoring. Find out more about the MEnt project on their website!
The Migrant Entrepreneurship Academy
Together with my colleagues from the Department for Interactive Media and Educational Technologies, we support the MAGNET project in developing a competence- and learning outcome-oriented curriculum for the Migrant Entrepreneurship Academy, which will be a train-the-trainer programme for everyone, who is involved in working with refugees and supporting them to start a business. Furthermore, we will create blended learning setting using eLearning and Moodle as a learning management system. Keep you posted on the developments! Looking forward to it! 🙂
The #MAGNET_EU Twitter Story
Like usual, I did quite some tweeting during the event. I collected some #MAGNET_EU tweets by me and other participants in my twitter moment story as a summary. Enjoy! 🙂
