Does a person from a Rural Area have fewer opportunities to develop entrepreneurship skills?

Disclosure: this article was extracted from our partner project PIETE, as it can be of interest for the ARDENT readership.

Entrepreneurship skills are undeniably important for
contemporary society, especially for teachers who shape new generations and
have a great influence on their prospective career and quality of life.
Although each year new entrepreneurship-related initiatives can be spotted in
Poland, still not all teachers, teacher educators or students are lucky enough
to participate in workshops or courses aiming at developing
entrepreneurship-related skills. At a first glance one could think that such
trainings are only for inhabitants of big cities and teacher educators from large,
recognisable universities who seem to be more aware of their importance. It is,
however, a misconception. We present you an example of an entrepreneurial municipality
on a smaller size.

Wilamowice is a small municipality of an urban-rural
character around the area of Bielsko-Biała, where people mainly are employed at
local factories, make their living from farming or work at Bielsko-Biała or
other Silesian cities. The municipality comprises the town Wilamowice and 5
villages: Pisarzowice, Dankowice, Hecznarowice, Stara Wieś i Zasole Bielańskie.

Local authorities and people organising the work of local
teachers, thanks to European funds they skilfully apply for, create many
opportunities for inhabitants of the municipality. Those opportunities revolve
around the development of students and teachers, and making the life of local
people easier. Few examples of those initiatives are the creation and
participation in a project protecting people against digital exclusion thanks
to which free Internet and hardware is delivered to some people.

A school in Hecznarowice, thanks to some teachers (including
University of Bielsko-Biała (UBB) graduates) and local authorities (especially
the head of School and Kindergarten Management Association – Zakład Obsługi
Szkół I Przedszkoli), created opportunities for kids from the municipality
participating in municipal assemblies, workshops connected with effective
communication and public speaking.

The workshop was carried out by a UBB employee who is a
PIETE project partner and who made the participants aware of the importance of
communication skills and other skills connected with Entrecomp. The young
participants were very active during the workshop, they asked many questions
with relation to public speaking issues and competencies important to become
successful in professional life.

It was apparent that young people want to develop and, if
given a hand, they can be very determined and motivated to aim high and develop
themselves. The meeting was fruitful enough to give rise to other plans
connected with developing skills of the local people. In October 2020, a series
of workshops for chosen teachers working in the area of the municipality will
be organised.

Some of those workshops will again be carried out by UBB
PIETE partner who will train the teachers with relation to public speaking,
effective communication and stress management at work. At the same time the
idea of PIETE project will be presented and key entrepreneurship competences
will be elaborated on. This way teachers will become more aware of the importance
of an entrepreneurial mindset and teach better and make young generations of municipality
students aware of competencies they need to develop.

As it can be seen, not only larger cities and largest
universities can change the mindset of people and make their world better; also
small villages, municipalities and smaller universities can inspire people to
develop themselves and broaden their horizons. Thanks to the combination of
opportunities created by local authorities, staff at HEIs and teachers and
students willing to leave their comfort zone and plunge deep into lifelong
learning the development is to be observed, no matter how big or small a given
village, town or city is. So, answering the question asked in the title of the
post, we must say that a person from a small town does not have fewer
opportunities if people involved in their education are open-minded and willing
to develop and if that person is motivated enough. With the help of a good,
open-minded teacher who is aware of the many important competencies that should
be trained by young people, one can achieve much, no matter where they live.

This article was extracted by the ARDENT partners’
project PIETE and authored by Anna Wieczorek, from University of Bielsko-Biala