Entrepreneurship education for seniors and adults with fewer opportunities
Quite often salaries of the employed citizens, as well as the pensions for the retired seniors are not fully sufficient for the high costs of life in those “older” ages when their children have left households to live on their own and to pursue their own careers. More and more seniors and adults with fewer opportunities look for other ways of regular income, therefore, they are positive towards entrepreneurship opportunities, as they see self-employment as a valuable and appreciated option.
A year ago, in frames of Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices of Key Action-2 by Erasmus+, 6 organisations from the Netherlands, Croatia, Serbia, Sweden and Germany gathered to deliver a new project targeting the needs of senior people and other adults with fewer opportunities in qualitative entrepreneurial education (SDGs 4, 8, 10 and 11).
Over 50 teachers and trainers will participate in educational activities and test intellectual outputs
on over 120 seniors and adults with fewer opportunities.
Motivation of partners in this project is to “equip” seniors and adults with fewer opportunities with set of skills needed to work on personal development in fields of entrepreneurial intelligence and creating (self-)employment opportunities proactively in today’s reality of employment uncertainty and the world of extinction of many known jobs and occupation now and even more in the future.
These objectives are to be achieved by empowering adult educators in theory and practice for building necessary competences in entrepreneurial intelligence and mind-set development (including intrapersonal and interpersonal social-emotional and creativity competences).
The outcomes of this project include following activities and publications: handbook on entrepreneurial learning for adults; curriculum and a training course for adult educators; three E-learning courses for target audiences and open for public conferences in the Netherlands, Croatia, Serbia, Sweden and Germany.
Masterpeace’s experts in education participated in writing of all intellectual outputs. However, this story is devoted to one of the most interesting and inspiring topics that is presented in the “Guidebook with Curriculum: Empowering adult educators for Entrepreneurial learning, Intelligence and mind-set development among seniors and adults with fewer opportunities”.* Here we share to the public: teachers, trainers, coaches, other adults’ educators and anybody interested in developing entrepreneurial mindset, – the materials for workshop “The leadership model of the Flow Compass as a way to develop interpersonal skills supporting entrepreneurial activities”.
* As soon as the guidebook is ready for publication, you will also find a link to it here.
Flow Compass - a guide to unleash your potential
The model of the Flow Compass was invented by a Dutch entrepreneur, business advisor and inspirational coach Jan Pieter van Lieshout. He uses it to lead individuals to the realization of their strengths and achieve their personal and professional goals. Likewise, the Flow Compass model is used to help organizations to evaluate the potential of every team member and set the strategic course where the combination of qualities contributes to the success.
To explain the Flow Compass leadership model we use the metaphor of the 4 Compass directions: East, South, North and West.
The West symbolizes the result, the objectives, the quantitative and qualitative KPIs. We frame this as “having”. The “having” is not a process, but an end-result of hard and committed work.
However, the best way to achieve the results and objectives is to start with the East: your passion, your inner drivers and values. The metaphor of “being” supports the dialogue with yourself first and then with your colleagues and partners. When you make decisions based on what is in your East, you will come to realize your passion and ambition.
From the East the flow goes to the South that symbolizes “feeling”. The South addresses the qualities of empathy, sensing opportunities, the deep belief in abundance and surpassing the fear of competition or scarcity. It also stands for co-creation. In this step you reflect with the other colleagues, project team members and partners: what do we see and feel as opportunities, what are your strengths and what are the topics that you do not feel comfortable with to achieve the best result.
The North symbolizes the “doing”, organizational structure, the LEAN processes and operational systems. This is about planning and deadlines.
Maybe, this is the most difficult part of the journey – the curve from South to North. It bridges the dimensions of Leadership (being and feeling) with the Managerial (the doing and having). Both qualities are needed to build a successful organisation and to flourish in your private and professional life.
The “being”, “feeling” and “doing” will result in a “having” and the result is very likely to be different than planned. It confirms the idea that the true innovation can not be calculated and exactly designed according to the plan, but can only appear from the unknown. This non-obviousness of the final result seems to be the essential characteristics of the contemporary business theories that is noticed by many change makers and advanced business leaders.
We might say that East and South represent the Leadership characteristics and North and West the Managerial, however, it is the unique combination of the four that results in great success.
Downloadable materials
More reading on this topic https://masterpeace.org/we-are-successful/