Be Inspired
by
My Generation at Work Stories
- Enterprising Curriculums, Ideas and Connections to Work
 Want to know about new ways of becoming an entrepreneur?
 About new ways of educating to be an entrepreneur?
 How to inspire young people – whatever their background – to come
forward with their creative potential?
 What it takes and means to be a good broker connecting people?
We have three stories to inspire you – as a young person, an educator, a
business person, a facilitator or a policy maker
A
My Generation at Work May 2015
A new way of becoming an entrepreneur
First we have Maria’s, 33 years, story. Maria Ruokonen is from the city of Tampere in Finland,
and is now working in her own cooperative, ‘Less Miserables’. She tells us a ‘Less Miserable
story’ how as a young person she found her way, after quite a few twists and turns – and luck
– into a decisive and formative experience of a new kind of education, paving way for her future in work. Maria’s story tells us about activity and agency of a young person, and how, with
proper conditions and contacts, good and surprising things start to happen.
Inspiring young people
Then we have Anthony’s, 31, story. Anthony Gerrard is from the city of Glasgow in Scotland,
and is and the Founder & Chief Executive of Bad Idea Organisation, a registered Community
Interest Company. Anthony’s story is about how he himself coming from a deprived background in Glasgow, could with new ideas, contacts and support get a surprising snowballing
process going, tapping into the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of young people and bringing them to contact with people helping them to develop their ideas further.
Being a broker for change
Third we have Piotr’s, 63, story. Piotr Wolkowinski is from Gdynia, next to Gdansk, Poland,
and is working as self-employed in his own company and, among other things, as a coordinator in Gdansk metropolitan region Creative Pedagogy project. Piotr tells us what it means to
be a broker, a go-between, connecting teachers and stakeholders in transforming education
and its connections to work to inspire young people.
Being inspired by the stories
At the end we have Timo Spangar and Bob Arnkil, who have been experts for My Generation
at Work, sharing what inspired them about the stories
We invite you to be inspired, too!
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Maria’s Story
A Less Miserable Story
Entrepreneurship has always fascinated me: the
idea of being your own boss, fulfilling your dreams
and actualising your skills for the benefit of the
world. Still it took me around 15 years to realise that
I could really be an entrepreneur because the current school system nor the world around young
people is supporting entrepreneurship, at least not
yet.1
After my comprehensive school I decided to go for upper secondary school and do a vocational degree at the same time in the field of dressmaking, because I was interested about fashion
and making clothes. After graduation I was 20 years old and I wanted to study more about
fashion designing but I couldn’t get in to art universities, which are really hard to get in if you
are not talented enough. Instead, I got a summer job from a knit wear factory and worked
there for six months. The following year I applied again to different kinds of schools of creative industries and got in for a nine-month-long course of interior decorating. I became really
interested about that field, studied some more and gained also work experience in different
places. Entrepreneurship was fascinating me all the time during the studies and working but I
was lacking knowledge, courage and co-founders. Ideas I had a lot.
In 2009, while I was doing an internship in Germany, I had some spare time to look in the Internet some universities where I could study entrepreneurship, because I thought I would
need some business education for starting my own company. Then I found about Proacademy,
the entrepreneurial unit of Tampere University of Applied Sciences in Finland. At Proacademy
there are no classrooms, teachers, lectures or exams. In there learning is happening in a selforganised way with the support of coaches in open space offices and dialogue rooms. Instead
of lectures and case studies, the students learn entrepreneurship, creativity and business
skills by doing real business projects with real customer companies through a team company
that they establish, and read professional literature that they reflect on for the use of the team.
Learning is measured regularly by learning contracts, customer and peer feedback and team
demos. The process is supported by an transparent and active community of over 100 entrepreneurial students working in one shared space. Proacademy is an active part of a larger
business network that consists of customer companies, mentor entrepreneurs and alumni
members. The network of universities with similar degree programs offers a perfect platform
for building connections on an international level.
Proacademy sounded like the place I was looking for: like-minded people working together
and achieving dreams through learning and doing business. I read about it everything I could
find and decided that I would apply there in the next period of applications, which was spring
2010. First I needed to apply and get in to business administration degree at Tampere University of Applied Sciences. It wasn’t easy at all, because it’s one of the most popular university
degrees in Finland, but I managed to get in, barely.
1
Picture Maria: source https://fi.linkedin.com/in/mariaruokonen
3
During the first year of business administration studies we learned for example marketing,
economics, finance, book-keeping, languages, math, selling, and we had virtual learning environment where we established and ran our virtual ”companies”. During the spring of the first
year of studies, it was time to apply to Proacademy. I visualized a motivation letter and attached my CV and my result of Belbin® team role test which is used for the creation of the
Proacademy teams. Then we had interviews with a Proacademy coach and a team entrepreneur (the students at Proacademy are called like that). We were asked about our motivation
and commitment towards different way of studying in which willingness and ability to lead
yourself is in important role, because nobody is telling you what or how to do something, instead you create your learning goals with the team and only sky is limiting the possibilities of
doing and achieving.
During the spring we got the results of the application process and I was relieved when I
heard I got in. During the spring and summer I already got to know my team of five other girls
and six boys, from 20 to 29-year-old (the average age of our team was 25). Before we officially
started at Proacademy, we took part in some community events where we got to know other
Proacademy team entrepreneurs, alumni and coaches. During the summer I also started to
read books about creativity and innovations and productization from a book list that was provided to us.
In August 2011 I officially started my team entrepreneur journey at Proacademy. With our
team we started to establish our cooperative which we named ”Extempo”. Over 2,5 years,
which is the team learning time in Proacademy, we did approximately 130 customer projects
and gained 20 customer ships. The projects were ranging from small projects at the beginning, such as selling children’s books and Christmas trees, to successful event production and
establishing a summer café which we ran for two summers and after graduation sold the
business to a younger Proacademy team.
In our team we had different kinds of experiences and skills, such as web and graphic designing, audio-visual production, marketing and communication and event producing. During the
2,5 years we could develop those skills and finally raised a revenue of € 230 000, travelled
around the world in the final year and for that gained € 50 000 profit.
My personal path in Proacademy included working one year in Proacademy’s Marketing &
Communication Team which had team members from different teams. The team took care of
the national marketing of Proacademy and communication inside and outside. During the
same year I was also a member of Proacademy’s International Team, also a diverse team entrepreneur group, and on the second year I started to lead the International Team. Working in
the International Team included presenting Proacademy in English, hosting international visitors and organising events and learning journeys.
In our team we had leadership roles that changed every six months, so that everyone interested about leadership could have some experience about leading a team. During six months I
was in a role of HR Manager of our team company and during the final six months I was leading our company.
One of my biggest customer projects was producing the 17th Tampere Flamenco Festival
which is the biggest and oldest flamenco festival in the Nordic countries. Before Proacademy I
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was doing volunteer work for the festival but Proacademy enabled to turn that volunteer
work into business. The festival lasts one week and is presenting high-quality flamenco art
from Spain and also from Finland and other countries. I led a project with budget of € 60 000
and a group of six people. The whole project lasted almost one year. Afterwards the festival
also employed another member from our Proacademy team.
I was also part of our summer café project. Me and three other girls from our team wanted to
have some project for the summer and we were thinking about how would it feel like running
a café. Proacademy was a perfect place to try something like that and so we established a
summer café in a park nearby my neighbourhood. I felt that the park was lacking a café like
that and so we learned during two summers that it was a really good idea to establish a café
there. In two summers we made € 100 000 revenue and € 40 000 profit with the café.
During Proacademy I took part in approximately 20 different customer projects. I read around
40 books from the fields of learning, entrepreneurship, leadership, marketing, customer ships,
selling, project management, event organising, creativity, innovations, business models, internationalization and story telling.
Our team learning journey was like a roller coaster ride, so to say. Two members left during
the first six months because they found out that the way of learning wasn’t for them. I suppose they were lacking self-leadership skills. In the first spring we got an exchange student
from Latvia for six months and our working language changed to English. We also had some
internal conflicts in our team and therefore the first spring was very tough for us.
After the challenging first year, we needed to start planning our final year, which in Proacademy consists of a Final Camp -project that can be anything internationally related. We wanted
to do something memorable and finally we set us a huge goal: a six-week-long trip around the
world that contains an international project. For the trip we needed € 50 000 profit and we
had one year time to collect the money. We also wanted that the team goes together or nobody goes, so there was a work to do to keep up the spirit and motivation. We were very
nervous because nobody in Proacademy had done this size of a trip before, but those uncertainities just gave us energy to push the dream.
Finally, again we had to let go two more members of our team because they weren’t committed to the team’s goal, and little by little, they were mentally and physically slipping away
from the team. We had to make the hard decision that it would be best for the team and the
individuals that those two members finish their studies in the basic business administration
side of the university.
For the counterbalance of the challenges and difficulties, in May 2013 we got awarded as “The
Team of the Year” at Proacademy because of our resilience, and finally in October the 2nd,
2013 we started our trip with the team of eight resilient members.
The route of our trip was Singapore-East Timor-New Zealand-Fiji-New York. In East Timor we
did a project for the first public library of the country that was established by Kirsty Sword
Gusmao, the wife of East Timor’s first post-independence President (and its current Prime
Minister) Xanana Gusmao. We developed the library’s financial systems, created a marketing
and a concept plan, made a database and photographed and documented all the items. It was
so rewarding to use our skills in order to help a local community in a developing country, and
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East Timor as itself, was an experience, which we probably wouldn’t have seen without our
team’s trip.
To achieve the trip was our toughest challenge but it really was worth of all the hard work.
Exploring the wilderness and submarine world, watching incredible beautiful sunsets and
starry skies, relaxing in hammocks, bathing in the Pacific, driving through marvellous scenery
and wandering in the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn were some of those moments that
will live forever.
It was in the beginning of November 2013 when we where waiting a transfer flight to New
York at Los Angeles airport when with my team mate Lauri Holja, we got an interesting email
from our Proacademy coaches. Our university’s vice rector suggested that we could be interested to apply to present Proacademy and team learning at University-Industry Interaction
Conference which would take place in Barcelona in April 2014. They were suggesting we
should base ourselves on the final thesis subjects we had. Lauri’s thesis was about leadership
in generation Y cooperatives and mine was about developing the international network of
team entrepreneurs.
Of course we were interested, and after we returned home from our trip, we started to plan an
article with which we could apply for the conference. As we were planning and writing, we
thought why wouldn’t we start doing business with the knowledge and experience about
team learning and team entrepreneurship that we had gained during our studies. We knew
that there is a need for updating education worldwide and with our skills and experience we
could promote the way of learning that answers to the needs of today’s working life.
In March 2014 we officially established a new company called Less Miserables. Up till then we
held interactive workshops on e.g. team learning methods, creativity and innovation,
knowledge creation and management, coaching and leadership and given presentations about
team learning and team entrepreneurship internationally.
While running a business, I have completed also a Special Qualification in Teampreneur®
Coaching at Team Mastery, an international training program for team coaches. I feel that developing yourself further is essential in business and in life in general.
The vision of our company is to enable team learning and team entrepreneurship for everybody in the world, and we want to inspire people to move towards more human-centered organisations and finding self-management and self-initiative in team working. We believe that
through team learning it’s possible to have less unemployment, less misery, more entrepreneurship and more learning.
I think that the many conflicts and down hills in our team entrepreneur time have been the
ones from which we have learned the most. Though it was really tough at some points and we
had to let go four members from our team, those are points where the learning and development happened. And now when I’m looking back, I wouldn't change anything in the process.
Also the personal growth and getting to know yourself more deeply have been the main benefits of the team learning process. Now I can better acknowledge my feelings, actions and why I
think and act the way I do. That is valuable when working with other people and when considering leadership and coaching. At the latest at Proacademy, I noticed that learning is a slow
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process, which lasts for your lifetime. Every day you can learn from your successes and failures, from other people, from other people’s successes and failures and by thinking through
those elements in your own situation. Learning as well as entrepreneurship is a continuous
trial that requires resilience, goals and passion.
Being part of a great network has been very meaningful for me. I wouldn't be here where we
are now without that network. It has needed a lot of self-initiative though to start using the
network and learning how to grow that. That is a skill I need as entrepreneur, so no contact
has gone to waste.
In October 2014 I participated in and won the 2nd prize at Export Race organised by The Regional Organisation of Enterprises in Tampere area. The race took place in Denmark for two
days. I took my network in use, contacted 40 people in different organisations and met 14
people during two days. That led to a future cooperation with an education development project in Denmark. From the jury I got acknowledgement about courage, business skills and the
quality of the contacts. Three years ago I never would have believed I could ever have courage
to do that kind of accomplishment. And probably without Proacademy I never would have.
I feel very lucky in every way that I had a chance to go through the team entrepreneurship
path, and now I feel that everything is possible in life. As Walt Disney put it: “If you can dream
it, you can do it.”
For more information about Less Miserables and our blog: http://lessmiserables.com and
Proacademy: http://www.proakatemia.fi/en/
Picture: There is an old and a new way for careers
Separate entrepreneurial careers
Passive recep on in
educ on
Scramble for scarce jobs…
OLD
Drop Out
NEW
Enterprising
curriculums
Ac ve agency,
building on passion,
ge ng to know about
enterprising
Not knowing a hoot about
enterprising and work….
Separate salaried careers
Spaces to
connect and
innovate
Connec ng, social capital,
passion, ’team enterprising’
learning by doing, nonformal learning, peers
Support to
launch
business
Connec ng with business
communi es, carving a
career
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Anthony’s Story
Bad Idea…there’s no such thing!
How do we encourage more young people
into self-employment and entrepreneurship? That was the question posed by
Glasgow City Council in January 2012.
Why? Only 29% of employers will recruit a
young person from education, and nearly
one in every five 16 to 24 year olds are
now classed as not in education, employment or training (NEET). The so-called
“Lost Generation”.2
To combat this, the authority brought together a range of partners in the city to explore new
ideas to connect with the most disengaged generation of young people there has ever been.
The group included representatives from economic, business and regeneration departments,
along with established youth enterprise charities, support agencies and local initiatives. I was
invited as a token gesture to say that they had spoken with a ‘young’ entrepreneur, having
started my first company the year before.
We spent a great deal of time discussing the support that is available in the city, which there is
certainly no shortage of. A recent study found over 100 active business support services
throughout Scotland, 49 in Glasgow alone. What I attempted to stress was that the group were
failing to address the point before providing business support. That nurturing entrepreneurial
spirit is a necessity to give young people options, particularly for those who can’t go on to further or higher education. But then who was I to tell them how to do it?
Coming from a broken home and growing up in poverty, I had a unique insight into many of
the obstacles facing a growing number of young people in society today. I was forced into
homelessness at 18, and have had no support from any family since. I managed to get myself
out of that situation and went on to enjoy success as a Marketing and Promotions Manager in
the events industry for 4 years, managing a team of 18 throughout Scotland. However, still
convinced of this linear life track: go to school, work hard, get a degree and you’ll be successful…I decided to return to education. Studying Accountancy and Law at college, then university. How false that idea is today. After leaving education in 2010, when unemployment was
really starting to bite following the global financial crash, I struggled to find work. Unable to
survive on state benefits, I decided to take action and start my own business. Having no experience of starting a business, I became very active in the business support network, and to
date have been a client of 27 different agencies. So I felt, out of everyone in that room, I was
probably best placed to find a solution. And I did.
I wanted to bring equality to entrepreneurial ambition for marginalised groups, especially
disadvantaged young people. To do this, we need to start believing that there is no such thing
as a Bad Idea. As Sir Ken Robinson famously stated in his now legendary TED talk, Do Schools
2
Picture Anthony: source http://www.myworldofwork.co.uk/video/anthony-gerrard-entrepreneur
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Kill Creativity: “We need to celebrate the gift of the human imagination”.3 We all have an imagination, and young people have an exceptional capacity for divergent thinking, the ability to
see multiple answers, not just one. So we all have ideas, and what we need to do is nurture
those ideas.
The problem with the existing provision for business support is it is firmly stuck in the 20th
century principles that no longer apply to the modern environment, the new business paradigm. Writing a business plan, wearing a suit, and getting a loan from your local bank manager
is a thing of the past. We must free ourselves from the tyranny of the status quo!
So how does Bad Idea work? Using 21st century principles, tools, and techniques, we support
young people to focus on what they can do, not what they cant. We remove academic assessment from creative flair…we even encourage mistakes! We use visual design tools and keep
the process highly practical. Over 2012 I developed a series of 4 workshops that take a raw
idea, contextualize it into a business ‘story’, communicate that story, build and grow the audience for that story, then finally engage and mobilise that audience to help make the idea happen. Model, Pitch, Network, Make. Simple. We deliver this through our flagship Youth Enterprise Competition for secondary school pupils. Although the methodology is very simple, the
programme was developed with support from world-leading academics in enterprise, learning, and digital education and is now accredited by the University of Glasgow.
“This is the future of entrepreneurial education, and a significant development for the future
of business in Scotland. The educational thinking of the project is highly sophisticated yet brilliantly simple.” Professor Vic Lally (http://viclally.eu/viclally/).
Nothing we use has been designed for young people, but we’ve found a way to make it so accessible and so inclusive that even pupils who have Assisted Support for Learning (ASL) needs
have been able to engage in the same process along with pupils from both state and independent education. We’ve brought equality to entrepreneurial ambition.
We’ve recently completed our pilot phase, having worked with over 200 secondary school
pupils and commissioned an independent qualitative assessment. Our greatest success has
been connecting with the most disadvantaged young people in Scottish society. Now, with the
support of Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Government, and a wide range of private and
third sector supporters, we are scaling our programme into the 7 cities of Scotland, and beyond.
To scale the project internationally we have been busy developing a bespoke Learning Management System (simply, a virtual learning environment). This digital resource will allow
learners and educators to engage with our programme, and collaborate on ideas, from anywhere in the world and at any time.
Our ambition coupled with an exceptional Board of Directors, not to mention turnover of
nearly £500,000 in just 18 months, has allowed Bad Idea to reach high-growth status in Scotland, and as such are now backed by a range of accelerator and support services to become
investment-ready. In April and May we will be pitching to private investors in Scotland and
Silicon Valley, San Francisco. Exciting times for a social entrepreneur!
Link to the TED Talk of Sir Ken Robinson:
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity
3
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What we have learned in the last 3 years though is that being entrepreneurial does not have
to mean being an entrepreneur. The personal development of the young participants has been
incredible. Patricia Gibson, a teacher at Drumchapel High School, noted that the pupils had
“found their voice for the first time” and Jackie Gallagher at St. Roch’s High School said our
work had been “life changing”.
And having an entrepreneurial spirit really can be. I embody the Bad Idea message. For someone like me, with my background, to create something from just a (bad) idea in my head that
now changes lives, is such a rewarding experience. And to have some exceptional people support the project is not just reassuring, but continues to challenge and drive me to do more and
be better every single day. But it is the honour of being invited into knowledge exchange networks like URBACT and prestigious organisations such as The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (The RSA) that really drives it home. I’ve been
able to visit cities and projects around the world, and even had the privilege of dining with
Nobel Laureate Economist, Professor Joseph Stiglitz.
Not bad for a boy from the wrong part of Glasgow.
Website: http://www.badideaorg.com
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @bad_idea_org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/badideaorg
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bad-idea-organisation-c-i-c
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/anthonyggerrard
Picture: We need to build on the creativity of young people
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Piotr’s Story
My Generation story from an older generation broker
Gdañsk is not only the capital of the "Solidarnoœæ" movement,
but the place where Lech Waêsa³ resides, it's a Hanseatic city, and
for a long time was part of the Prussian empire, it was also a "free
city" and between the two world wars managed by the League of
Nations. The Poles who live there today arrived for 95% of them in
1945, just after the city was destroyed by the Soviet army.4
I was born in London from Polish parents after the II World War,
who had to start their lives from scratch after fighting for the freedom of Poland for 5 years. Sometimes I wondered, as a teenager,
why I was not just British or just Polish. I studied pedagogy in
London and qualified with a B.Ed degree in drama and philosophy. I was already socially quite
active, participated in two Polish dancing troupes, was stage manager for a Polish opera, created a Polish student parish and was a volunteer in an association defending the rights of oh
pair's in London.
Teaching in the noble sense of the word was to remain my main activity, but not always in
schools.
After teaching in Britain I moved to Belgium and then France, where I became a journalist in a
Polish language newspaper. After six years of "exile" (learning the language, customs etc) I
created a post for myself in a popular education association5, which specialized in life long
education, especially for the least qualified part of our society. 50% of the persons we trained
got work and we started to work on the remaining 50%, creating jobs for them and opening
social enterprises.
My life was to be linked to persons in difficulty.
I ran a special scheme for homeless persons and participated in the EAPN network. I opened 3
social enterprises, trying to do the maximum to help unemployed persons to get back into the
job market and worked a lot on housing and it's availability for persons in difficulty. I animated an association of 400 such structures6 in France, worked with a European association to
help develop social economy7 and was a specialist in participation, partnership, group work,
urban regeneration, development based on peoples memories, and developed tools such as a
permanent creative diagnosis or socially responsible territories and trained in these areas. I
did many training sessions in Poland from 1990 and co-organized two international conferences on social economy in 2002 (Prague) and 2004 (Krakow).
Due to personal reasons I arrived one day in 2008 in the Tricity as the agglomeration of
Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot is often called. I worked for Gdynia bringing in all my competences
4 Picture Piotr: source www.smartmetropolia.pl
5 Culture et Liberte (Culture and Freedom)
6 CORRACE (Coordination of temporary work associations)
7 REVES (European Network of Cities and Regions for the social economy)
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to a regeneration scheme in a very difficult area for over 4 years. I concluded my work there
coordinating a PROGRESS project TQS proposed by REVES, on the quality of care services to
the elderly, managed with the participation of all the stakeholders with great success.
My Generation URBACT Project:
I got to know persons from Gdansk, through NGO's, with whom I had some contacts, whilst
still living in France, and met Magdalena Skiba, a person with years of NGO experience, who
decided to work for the local authority – the City of Gdansk. Slowly I became recognized as a
specialist in local development, participative techniques and social economy. She proposed
that I become an expert in the My Generation project, concentrating on the active role of
young persons in the management of the city. I animated meetings with young persons in unlikely places, a skate park, a school, the city building, trying to untwine what the young persons could do in the city and what the city could propose as a role for it's younger inhabitants.
This work led me to go to transnational workshops, where I was very rapidly integrated into
the expert team, and co-animated transnational workshops, working closely with the lead city
coordinator, Cleo Pouw from Rotterdam and Robert Arnkil, the lead expert from Finland. I
soon became a thematic expert in the Urbact network.
Social innovation:
The other key person in the city hall from the social policy and educational point of view was
the vice-president for social policy Ewa Kaminska. Addressing serious difficulties in personnel
management, I managed to gather around her an informal group of civil servants and NGO
militants, working on what social policy should consist of in Gdansk. Working on previous
experiences, I moderated several sessions on common principles, and on what socially responsible policies could be. For example we identified that the relationship between civil
servants and the inhabitants has to be more balanced – "an intelligent inhabitant, with plenty
of ideas, who is welcomed in the city hall!" This fundamental work lasted around 18 months
and allowed a group of around 15 persons to develop a common vision and understanding of
the challenges facing the social policy of the city and to influence the direction of the city's
strategic planning.
From then on, the social policy developed. It moved away from social support towards a policy of strategic themes, aimed at resolving problems, not keeping them going. This was a slow
process, but allowed the department concerned to change it's name, to resolve the personnel
problems at least in part and to develop even closer relationships with the III Sector. I participated actively in writing the strategy for the social policy of the city.
Broker: being an "international expert" has its advantages. I was used to customs and work
culture in the West and used them in central Europe. My character also helped, as I do not
work in a way, which respects hierarchy before all, but I want to get things done. So becoming an expert in Gdansk, for Gdansk in a small European project, dealing with youth employment, run by the social affairs department, gave me the comfort of being able to navigate on
several layers of hierarchy, work with outside stakeholders, and invite persons of a high level
to meetings which they would not always attend (ULSG). As the meetings were nearly always
dynamic and interesting (good quality of my moderation) participation was nearly always
good. Language capacities (English second mother tongue and fluent French) also made me
a natural intermediary with other cities in the My Generation at Work network. Innovative
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ideas were often accepted coming from me, as the experience I had had in the West was of
great value, and was often respected by persons in the city hall. The humour with which I
would moderate meetings was very important, as well as a slightly original touch with the
Polish language and certain coined phrases. Moderation techniques are also a key to my
success. Getting persons to hug, to do speed dating, to talk about themselves, to improvise, to
stand on chairs and breath, surprises many people, but they break the ice with resounding
success and create a space of collaboration which is often of very high quality. Energising is
another of my capacities, which I have a difficulty in describing. Very often when a session is
finished my energy level becomes very degraded, but I can see that the group is completely
loaded with energy, often does not want to go home and produces astonishing products many
days after the session.
Being a freelancer, also allows a very wide view on what takes place in the city, as several
responsibilities can be carried at the same time. During this whole process, I became the representative of the Gdansk Metropolitan region for social economy, leading a large EU project
in that subject, I ran over 15 participative meetings with inhabitants, school pupils and specialized groups building up collectively the Gdansk 2030 Plus strategy, and I became the
trainer for the Polish URBACT projects.
So the broker that I am, and I think I have always been, set to work on youth unemployment.
The diagnosis of Gdansk showed me that there are many interesting projects concerning the
links between employers, the educational system, the intermediary bodies and the young
themselves, but none of them know about each other. I tried to develop more knowledge
about these sectors, working with the intermediary institutions, vocational counsellors, young
persons and teachers. Some groups worked well, others, such as the young were very difficult
to maintain with the same persons.
The young people:
With the young I experimented in several ways and finally found a solution by empowering
them in their participative role, through their teachers. Not only did they join us in the transnational workshops, but they started to participate in professional meetings concerning the
quality of education in the region, working with university professors and other high level
specialists and presenting the synthesis of working groups8.
They also participated very actively in the Warsaw workshop, producing a very high level of
input proving that young persons have many very interesting opinions, are capable of formulating them and are keen to do so. I was invited to visit an internal school conference organized by the young about whether it's better to study or to go to straight to work from school.
During the breaks, some of the invited guests and young persons met in a separate room.
From the ensuing discussion it clearly emerged that young persons are fascinated by employers, especially younger ones and would like to work for them in an experimental way, by trying to resolve the real challenges that their companies have.
Typically as a broker, (condition of being free to take initiatives) I organized a meeting between five employers and the deputy director of this school, to see, if the simulation company
that the school has, could take on board real life challenges that the young persons could try
8 Pomorska Sieć Tematyczna o wysokim poziomie szkolenia (Pomeranian thematic network on the high level of education)
13
to do with the companies. This meeting was crucial, as the deputy director had confidence in
the contacts I transmitted, the employers, invited by one of them, had an initial confidence in
the aims and results of the meeting. My job was to provide the occasion and let things happen.
As a result some of the companies proposed real life projects to a list of pupils with identified
competences and the link was made. One of the employers, who also runs a foundation, is going to widen the scope of this collaboration in the coming months.
Vocational counsellors:
This group proved to be quite complicated. I found out that in Gdansk vocational counsellors
work for four different types of institutions and in fact have reduced access to young persons.
The capacity which the young have to identify what professions they would like to do or have
the capacities to perform, are limited. The small number of professionals, the lack of individual meetings and their varied status doesn't produce a feeling of succes. The work done by this
group should be continued in order to adapt their competences to the scale of the vocational
counselling needed, as I did not manage to draw out of this group elements which would permit an overall diagnosis and a strategy for change to improve things.
I think this may come about as a result of the regional work on life long counselling. Life long
counselling for everyone was seen as one of the best ways of guaranteeing healthy transitions
from one part of ones life cycle to the next, as well as the passage from one class to the next, or
choosing a profesional orientation.
Intermediary institutions:
The job centre in Gdansk is very lively and experiments in many ways. One of them was to do
a pilot project linking voluntary work to employment, for persons who find themselves far
away from the job market. This pilot project worked very well and I also moderated a conference about voluntary work done by profesionnals from corporations, with the participation of
about 20 companies, which was organized by the regional association for voluntary work.
Teachers:
This profession suffers from a very bad press in Poland and is stereotyped to a model representing XX century methods and not much interest in pupils themselves. In order to find out
what really happens in schools, I proposed and organized a first sequence of 3 or 4 meetings,
to which I invited those teachers who wanted to come. The workshop was called "Activating
teaching" about entrepreneurial skills and postures, in which I stunned the participants by
posing questions such as:
- why are you a teacher?
- what do you get out of it?
- is teaching a pleasure?
- how do you feel on Friday afternoon afer a weeks work?
The teachers present reacted positively to this challenge and worked with me as a moderator
"who knows nothing" on an analysis of the educational situation. I made it clear, that I did not
have the means to pay them for their efforts, that I did not dispose of any additional teaching
hours and that I could not change the national educational programme. Amoung their conclusions can be found:
- information about the pupil does not always follow from class to class, more often
from school to school,
- teachers work more often individually than together,
- the administrative requirements are very intensive,
- children suffer from boredom,
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-
many children (an increasing amount) need specific care.
The teachers also stated that:
- children learnt better when they were motivated and the lesson was interesting
- succes depends on the triangle school, teacher, parent with the child in the middle
- a successful pathway through the educational levels depends on the competences
and capacities which a young person learns to use, and not on memory and intellectual exercises.
The conclusion of these experimental sessions were, that teachers need to be animated, they
don't like classical trainings and new methods must be brought in. After a pause lasting several months, the experimental group was renewed and I worked with the group on how to share
the ideas that the group developed with more numerous teachers. They decided to try to organize support groups for teachers, called Creative Pedagogy. The scaling up of this action
was very important, in order to produce a result for the whole city.
Funds were found in the teacher training budget and I planned an intensive programme of
stimulating workshops with the participation of two of the teachers for the SeptemberDecember period 2014. These sessions were very intensive. The teachers took part in 8 10
hour sessions – Friday evening and all day Saturday, and were trained in neurodidactics, tutoring, lego logos, innovative pedagogical methods and most of all in leading a support group.
These sessions were collectively organized with the other two teachers and I trained the
group in some cases and was one of the "anchor men" during the whole process, interpreting,
widening and working more in depth on the subjects proposed.
The city proposed additional funds for preventive programs. The group of 25 teachers
twinned with 15 more and they produced prevention type programmes, which were put into
action in more than 30 schools, widening the scope of Creative Pedagogy.
At present these 25 teachers are starting a cycle of support groups. 500 teachers out of the
5500 employed in Gdansk have signed up on a voluntary basis, to try and work on how to be
more stimulating, interesting and on how to make the young person work and learn otherwise than through discipline and obligation.
As a broker I am now trying to help the Creative Pedagogy project become a "non institution"
in Gdansk, as a bottom up teacher training centre, which requires a lot of work on the social
innovation side, so as to not produce something typical, which will very quickly live it's own
life as an institution which "has to survive" itself. The broker role is not evident at the present
time, even though the new Social Development Department says it wants the role to continue.
What has to be defined is the relative autonomy of the broker in regards to a part of the department, which will be responsible for partnerships and social innovation, which according
to our first analysis should be some kind of an 'UFO' in the city hall.
That's the new challenge for the broker!
Picture: We need brokers between actors....
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Being inspired by the stories
My Generation at Work experts, Bob Arnkil and Timo
Spangar9, share their reflections on the stories. What is the
message in the stories concerning building a career in today’s changing world of work? Can we do something to
inspire and cocreate with young people? How can we catalyse cooperation?
Maria’s Story
Timo:
What struck me and what I really liked was the authentic feeling that was conveyed by the
story. Maria’s personal developmental path was not a straightforward road to success. While
Maria’s original motivation about entrepreneurship was to be her own boss in life, she had to
overcome many obstacles and road blocks. What is noteworthy, I think, is that she says in her
post-reflections that, after all, the many downturns and difficulties were events “from which
we have learned the most.”
Maria’s message seems to be that good developmental projects enable the participants to experiment and experience also failures. Fruitful encounters with colleagues and wider networks are those that are spaces for honest mutual learning and developing things together. As
Maria’s story suggests everybody is not necessarily ready for that, and not all institutions or
traditional teaching are today either ready for that. In Proacademy Maria found a space that
enabled developing her business ideas as well as own personal development. ‘Open space offices’, ‘dialogue rooms’, ‘doing real business projects’, ‘through team company and being
coached by peers and customers’ as well as changing roles during the whole curriculum were
perhaps the key features of Proacademy that enabled, at the end of the road, the rise of the
“Less Miserable”.
Bob:
Maria’s story tells us many things of what need to be in place, in order to be better equipped
for the labour market. It is a story of becoming an entrepreneur, but it is more than that. It is a
story of transforming one’s path, following one’s dream and demonstrating real agency. But it
is also a story about the winding road, surprises and turns in establishing a career. In a very
convincing way it is a story about the importance of providing multi-skilling learning spaces
and contacts, and providing real hands-on experience on entrepreneurship and enterprising,
while still in education, and thus is a safe environment to try out one’s hand and learn from
mistakes. It also tells us how important it is to be a member of a team, of having a team as the
‘basic unit’ in learning, with a combination of skills, and providing an opportunity to learn
about different dynamic tasks, including leadership. The educational environment was completely transformed – no traditional classrooms, teachers, or curriculums, where you are a
9
[email protected] , [email protected]
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passive receiver. The team, and yourself, were in the drivers’ seat, and the teachers, and
alumni, and other network actors were coaches.
The whole story is about enlarging circles, spaces of learning – first team, then a network of
teams, then a network all the way to the world on a world tour.
Key messages in Maria’s story
- Importance of agency, grabbing opportunities and having resilience
- Importance of chance and surprises
- Importance of real experimenting and experience on entrepreneurship while in education
- Importance of having a safe space to make mistakes and learn from them
- Importance of having experienced coaches
- Importance of having a team as the ‘cell’ of learning, providing a dynamic, combination
of skills and support
- Importance of connecting to broader networks
Anthony’s story
Timo:
A special twist about Anthony’s story is, I think, still the very radical idea to introduce equality
into entrepreneurship. What he strongly emphasises is that the new concept of educating entrepreneurship, ‘Bad Idea’ has been really successful in empowering also the most disadvantaged groups of Scotland. Although being entrepreneurial does not mean that everyone
should be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial spirit respects the creativity of all, also of those
with learning difficulties, for example. The success of the ‘Bad Idea’ both in Scotland and globally clearly indicates that there is strong demand for this kind of approach.
I also liked the simplicity and elegance of the way Anthony described the new Bad Idea concept: “take a raw idea, contextualize it into a business ‘story’, communicate that story, build
and grow the audience for that story, then finally engage and mobilise that audience to help
make the idea happen.” As they say, the most innovative ideas look often surprisingly simple!
The Glasgow development, and the Bad Idea development in particular, seems a story of
gradual overcome of sectorised and silo thinking. As Anthony tells us there was no lack of
support systems in the City. But, how to make sense of it? That is where I hear Anthony and
his colleagues having done a wonderful but certainly a hard job. Luckily, as a “bad boy from
the wrong part of Glasgow” he did not give up in front of the bureaucracy and the old ways of
thinking (like “writing a business plan, wearing a suit, and getting a loan from your local bank
manager.”). Instead, he pursued things forward with a slogan “We must free ourselves from
the tyranny of status quo” giving a personal contribution to “all the bad boys from the wrong
side of My Generation at Work Cities.”
Bob:
Anthony’s story tells us that we need to build on people’s passions, ideas and inspiration. The
‘space’ here is a snowballing network, where the dynamic is inspiration and positive competi-
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tion. ‘The young people have found their voice for the first time”. It is a story how someone
like Anthony, himself coming from a deprived background, and having personal experience on
the difficulties on establishing a career, can bring in insight on how to transform the paths of
young people to careers and entrepreneurship – even for children with deprived backgrounds
and learning difficulties in schools. Giving an opportunity, and providing coaching, we can tap
into the energy of young people. It is also a story about the importance of brokerage and connections, about Anthony as a broker, and the snowballing of connections and sponsorship.
The process has also successfully tapped into the digital age, providing easy entry.
Key messages in Anthony’s tory
- We need to build on the ideas, inspiration and passion of young people
- Entrepreneurship is not just for the privileged, it is for everybody
- We need people who understand ‘from within’, have experiential knowledge, to act as
good brokers
- We need combination of networks: brokers, a dynamic, which here is a competition of
ideas, coaches, sponsors and tapping into digital communication
Piotr’s story
Timo:
For me, Piotr’s story contains various levels and dimensions. Perhaps most intriguingly, it is a
story of a professional broker. Piotr’s personal experience is unique in its scope and cultural
knowledge of all the countries he has worked during his career.
Piotr reflects in an interesting way his role as a broker somewhere in an “in-between position” of the themes and players on the scene. He summarises his personal contribution to the
role by emphasising that it is important for him to get things done, to be able to navigate on
the different levels of hierarchy, good moderation skills, language capabilities, possessing innovative ideas, and energising the audience. These “broker capabilities”, together with Piotr’s
academic background of drama and philosophy as well as his working life experience makes
Piotr’s approach to brokering a unique one and has many implication for any project trying to
enhance creativity and participation of the citizens.
For My Generation at Work Piotr’s story addresses in a rich manner the dilemmas the broker
often has to face. Although Poland has many unique characteristics because of her late geopolitical development, the Polish story certainly has relevance for any other European country
where administrative structures are often barriers rather than enablers of citizen participation, where old traditions still prevail preventing creativity, where division of labour and
working alone precedes collaboration and working together.
Furthermore, Piotr’s story confirms us once again that when we manage to create developmental spaces as platforms for creativity, full participation and joint innovation, people feel
empowered and they are more than pleased to take things in their own hands. To achieve this,
we need carefully engage ourselves in the context, to build social networks “from within” and
scale up the local niches of developmental platforms in a persistent and systematic manner.
Bob:
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Piotr’s story is about what it takes to be a good broker. It is about a broad and varied life-time
experience in different countries and cultures, and having a wide range of educational and
practical experience, varying from drama and philosophy to education, journalism and consultancy and freelance. This rich experience, combined with language skills, has equipped Piotr
to be able to move freely across disciplines, cultures and hierarchies, and thus build bridges.
This ‘semi-detached’ position and varied experience makes it possible to be a ‘third that connects’. It is also a story about Piotrs’ own passions and ethos – life linked to teaching, but not
only in schools, and to people with difficulties. It is also a story of wanting to experiment, inspire people, and find people who want to change their situation.
Key messages in Piotr’s story
-
Importance of multi-cultural experience for good brokerage
Importance of multi-disciplinary and professional experience for good brokerage
Importance of being able to move across ‘silos’, cultures and hierarchies on the basis of
experience and being ‘semi-detached’ freelancer
Importance of own motivation, inspiration and ethos
Reading over in all three stories:
-
The importance of agency and passion
Importance of chance and surprises – and being open to them
Importance of doing it yourself’ and experimenting
Importance of timely connections and networks, with an inspiring dynamic
- Importance of gearing into the changes in working life
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This is a paper based on the work done in My Generation at Work, one of the URBACT thematic networks, in the topic areas of Inclusion and Economy10. The project started in 2012 and
ended in March 2015.
The partners in the network have been Rotterdam (The Netherlands) as lead partner, Antwerp (Belgium), Braga (Portugal), Gdansk (Poland), Glasgow (United Kingdom), Maribor
(Slovenia), Riga (Latvia), Tampere (Finland), Thessaloniki (Greece), Turin (Italy), Valencia
(Spain) and Warsaw (Poland).11
The main objective of My Generation at Work has been to promote the employability of young
people in a changing labour market, with special focus on enterprising skills and attitudes.
The key question has been what cities, local authorities, and their partners can do to promote
youth employment. In this My Generation at Work has emphasised real cocreation with the
young people in transforming education, counselling and connections to work, together with
good cooperation and brokerage between different actors. In exploring these possibilities the
partner cities have conducted several dozen experiments, and arrived at some important suggestions how cities could improve their policies and actions. These are reported on the URBACT website.
It is recommended that you read two other papers, which tell you more about the work of My
Generation at Work, both available on the URBACT website:
- Cocreating Careers with Spaces of Connection – Transforming Career Counseling and Transitions to Work
- Enrichting Youth Policies in Cities – Lessons from My Generation at Work Thematic Network
Learn more about the project at the website: http://urbact.eu/mygeneration-at-work
Contacts: coordinator Cleo Pouw, [email protected], and lead expert Robert Arnkil, [email protected] and from
1.6.2015
[email protected]
10
11
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APPENDIX: A COMPILATION OF USEFUL WEBSITES AND SOURCES
CONCEPTS AND TOOLKITS OF METHODS
Development process design: Innovation Spiral
http://youngfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/The-Open-Book-of-SocialInnovationg.pdf
The Go for It (GFI): GFI
http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/import/Projects/My_Generation_at_Work/documents_m
edia/MGatWork_Concepts_for_LSGs_-_for_Webex_18-19Feb2013.pdf
Policies and actions for young people: Supporting urban youth
http://urbact.eu/supporting-urban-youth-through-social-innovation
Youth employment: Jobs for a jobless generation
http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/02_jobgen-web.pdf
Designing learning processes : The SECI learning process
http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/ht/thonglipfei/ba_concept.html
Good Future Dialogue
http://files.kotisivukone.com/testataan.kotisivukone.com/julkaisut/good_future_dialogue.pd
f
Stop and Go!
http://deirdrehughes.org/2014/06/stop-and-go-in-search-of-new-ecology-and-dynamismin-group-counselling-for-employees-in-transition/
Bono’s Six Thinking Hats
http://www.debonogroup.com/six_thinking_hats.php
DIGITAL MEMORY AIDS OF THE MY GENERATION AT WORK MEETINGS
Rotterdam 4-5 October 2012
http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/import/Projects/My_Generation_at_Work/documents_m
edia/ID_Book_Partner_Meeting_Rotterdam_4-5_October_2012.pdf
Maribor 18-19 April 2013
http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/2_-digital_memory_aid_mgwork_maribor_april_2013.pdf
Braga 12-13 September 2013
http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/import/Projects/My_Generation_at_Work/documents_m
edia/MGatWork_Workshop_report_Braga_-_Digital_Memory_Aid_.pdf
Thessaloniki 21-22 January 2014
http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/import/Projects/My_Generation_at_Work/documents_m
edia/Visual_Memory_Aid_Thessaloniki_Workshop_January_2014..pdf
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Tampere 18-19 June 2014
http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/import/Projects/My_Generation_at_Work/documents_m
edia/DMA_Tampere_final.pdf
MY GENERATION AT WORK VIDEOS
MGatWork| Compilation Young Filmmakers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9UL40edHdg
MyGen at Work | Spaces (LONG VERSION)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1h5hRuW70o
MyGen at Work | Brokers (LONG VERSION)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CvsXbGQyZc
MyGen at Work | Enterprising skills (LONG VERSION)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj7d3fbjawc
MyGen at Work | Final conference “Play it Forward” (SHORT VERSION)
http://youtu.be/KgI8R-Ak7fg
MyGen at Work | Final conference “Play it Forward” (LONG VERSION)
http://youtu.be/KLzuxoATE6c
MyGen at Work | Workflow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0BikQdCpCI
MyGen at Work | Rotterdam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpk5D_BCsnY
MyGen at Work | Antwerp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4UjEnCvKTM
MyGen at Work | Riga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Inc9_XhwhtQ
MyGen at Work | Gdańsk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU94dd7Kz6I
MyGen at Work | Warsaw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgXlG0Bvo2A
MyGen at Work | Tampere https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxxB2eG-T5Y
MyGen at Work | Valencia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2hq3hHqUK0
MyGen at Work | Maribor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYq_5-TdZUE
MyGen at Work | Turin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKQnR-a6yFY
MyGen at Work | Thessaloniki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tn5L868sWQ
MY GENERATION AT WORK LOCAL ACTION PLAN SUMMARIES
Rotterdam http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/rotterdam_lap_summary.pdf
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Antwerp http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/antwerp_lap_presentation_summary.pdf
Riga (full LAP) http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/microsoft_word_-_mgatwork__riga_lap_12_2014_final.pdf
Glasgow http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/glasgow_lap_summary_2015.pdf
Gdansk http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/lap_summary_in_english_final_met_logos.pdf
Warsaw http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/microsoft_word_-_lap_warsaw_work_on_work_-_summary_0.pdf
Tampere http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/lap_executive_summary_2015_met_logo.pdf
Valencia http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/valencia_lap_summary.pdf
Braga http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/braga_lap_presentation_summary.pdf
Maribor ( full LAP)
http://www.urbact.eu/sites/default/files/import/Projects/Active_A_G_E_/outputs_media/U
RBACT_LAP_Maribor.pdf
Turin http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/mgatwork_lap_summary_turin_jan2015.pdf
Thessaloniki
http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/thessaloniki_lap_presentation_summary.pdf
OTHER MATERIALS AND USEFUL SITES
Ted talk Sir Ken Robinson
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity
Twitter My Generation at Work https://twitter.com/mygenw
In the My Generation at Work library you find examples of GFIs, newsitems and many
other materials we have used in our project
http://www.urbact.eu/library?f[0]=field_network_reference_multiple%3A954
My Generation at Work Presentation slides http://urbact.eu/files/mygenatwork-projectpresentation-slides
Pictures in MY Generation at Work have been made by: Taru Arnkil, [email protected],
http://www.taruarn.com
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