Trainings

Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship and CSR

The first LTTA of the Social Entrepreneurship Education Development project named "Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship and CSR" took place from 1st till 5th of February 2021 via the online platform Zoom because of the situation with COVID-19. In the training participated 34 students (30 of which were from the schools, 3 from ARNO and 1 from Go Green Belgium) along with 10 accompanying people from 3 high schools from 3 different countries (North Macedonia, Croatia and Lithuania) and two NGOs participated.

The goal of the training was to introduce the students with the terms of Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility, along with developing creative business ideas and solutions. The students were encouraged to think outside the box and learn that with proper preparation and good grounds every business no matter how small can make a difference. The training was evaluated very highly by all the participants. You can read more here

The training featured stories and sessions of successful social entrepreneurs that further inspired the young participants (and teachers too):
Irina Janveska, Shemsedin Iljaz, Katleen Van Waeyenberge, Koen Van Hee, Klementina Dukoska, Abel Alan Diaz Gonzalez, Aliona Lis, Tatjana Golcheva, Monika Rizovska, Boris Pavlovski

Marketing for Social Entrepreneurship

The second training for this project named “Social Entrepreneurship and Communication for Development and Social Change” was held online from 26-30 May 2021. Through the sessions the students were introduced to Communication, learned about tools and techniques used in creating the most successful social enterprises and finally, they were encouraged to work not only individually, but rather in a team. The training lasted 5 days filled with creativity, teamwork, focus and brainstorming.

1. The first day began with a warm welcome for everyone; Like always, the workshops start with an energizer as a way of waking everybody up, getting to know each other and starting the day in a right scheme. After the introduction, the students went straight to displaying their presentations on each virtual student company. For the last session of the day, Irina Janevska, a passionate activist with enormous experience in the social entrepreneurship and non-formal education was a speaker and presenter on the topic “Intro to Communication”. During the session, Irina covered the meaning of communication, the basics of the communication process, effective communication strategies and an important communication-related game called “20 seconds of fame”. Lastly, the day was finished by homework which consisted of creating a one-pager.

2. The second day started with Aleksandar Atanasov and his presentation on “Tools & Techniques for Media Relations”. Aleksandar Atanasov is an experienced journalist working for the Media Information Agency. His session was focused on media training. Moving forward, it was the students’ turn to see how they would organize and simulate a press conference based on their own virtual student companies; in addition they had only 30 minutes to do so and 5 minutes to present it. Each team showed themselves in the best light and it is great to see how professionally these young minds can think. This productive day finished with homework-the task was to watch the presentations, find the keynotes and write a press release.

3. With an energizer on how the students feel, the third day began. The first speaker of the day was Nikola Vojnov. Nikola is a designer, art director and creative director in an advertising agency. His presentation stood on the topic of “Brand Development Strategy”, he taught what a brand exactly is and how important it is. The crucial thing he told the students is that nothing is complicated and that in the creative business people follow the rule of KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). He displayed a few not so great ideas and what was practically wrong with them and at the end a step by step guide to creating your brand. The second speaker of the day was Milan Stojanov. Milan works in the advertising department in numerous agencies in the Republic of North Macedonia. With an experience of 18+ years he has designed campaign materials, creative concepts, billboards and all of this has led to him giving a presentation on the topic “Goodvertising – Campaigns that care”. His session consisted of what advertising is and furthermore how the advertising campaigns and agencies are created. He continued and finished with a few good examples that are said to be “Goodvertisments” and why they are “Good”. Through lots of visuals, pictures and videos Milan successfully concluded his talk and the third day as well.

4. David Ristov, Mila Kjurchinska and Andrej Bubevski were the speakers of the fourth day. David Ristov is a 17-year-old student at “Georgi Dimitrov” gymnasium in Skopje. Since 2016 he has been working thoroughly on his YouTube channel, editing and uploading all types of videos. His most viewed video has over 1.2 million views and his most subscribed channel has over 17.5 thousand subscribers. His presentation was focused on his journey on YouTube and the guide to creating a channel. He showed all the tips and tricks, the do’s and don’ts, the pros and cons and whether you could make a living out of this business. On the other hand, Mila is 16-year-old student at SUGS “Nikola Karev”-Skopje and her passion is art, hence she does digital art, drawing on paper, clothes, glass, bottles, she also knits and sews. As a part of her presentation Mila talked about “The power of visuals”. She explained what visuals are, which was connected to the next part of her session using Canva. Lastly, we have Andrej Bubevski. Andrej is a 17-year-old aspiring photographer, videographer, editor and programmer from Berovo, North Macedonia. With these skills Andrej has gained a lot of clients and has a diverse range of work he does for them, from photoshoots and brand promotions, logo, and website design, to computer and smartphone repairs. His presentation focused on “17 and making money-Skills that pay the bills”. Andrej covered and explained all the topics he is a master of, photography, videography, web design and web development. He showed some of his best work and left the students and teachers impressed. Andrej displayed his finest photographs, portraits and even videos he has done for promotion. He revealed his secrets to this magic work and encouraged everyone to try it! Moving forward, Irina continued her presentation from the first day and did an overview on communication channels and focused on social networks as well. This catching up was connected to that day’s homework-making a campaign brief. The task was closely explained and it was flexible to do during the day.

5. The fifth day was also the last day; it started with the presentations of the visuals for the virtual student companies. Next up were the presentations of the school campaigns on the topic “What is Social Entrepreneurship?”. After that, each school had to present one successful ex-student; this part was done by the teachers from each school. A short break followed and then the ARNO moderators took over to finish the second training. The last session was focused on what the students and teachers had learned and what is next. Finally, the last step was writing evaluations.

   
   

Fundraising for Social Entrepreneurship

The third training is all about learning about community mobilization, Fundraising tactics, and special tools and opportunities. The training

Focus is on balanced sessions for the students and teachers with the goal to: 

• Obtain theoretical knowledge on the fundraising tools for SE 

• Learn and practice SWOT tool for the Fundraising Strategy

• Practice what is learned through creating Fundraising Strategies for the Virtual Social Enterprises 

• Exposure to real small stories that grew big (use of crowdfunding platforms) 

• Practice the Previous skills and match them with real challenge (setting up Fundraising Events in the school) 

• Group work, creation of action plans, scenarios, for the Silent Auction and Talent Shows Fundraising Events that will be held in the 3 schools (e-Newsletters, invitations, community outreach tools) 

At the third training the accent is put on developing Action plans for the Fundraising Events in the schools with focus on using modern, IT tools and tailored messages to the target groups.

Sustainability for Social Enterprises

 The fourth training is all about learning about sustainability, reaching out to stakeholders and creating action plan for sustainability of the Virtual Social Enterprises. The training focus is on balanced sessions for the students and teachers with the goal to: 

• Obtain theoretical knowledge on sustainability concept with values for SEs (with presentation on the UN SDGs)

 • Obtain theoretical knowledge on the Identifying challenges, Evaluation and Diagnosis 

• Obtain theoretical knowledge on the Measuring social impact 

• Learning about Strategic Donations through practical session on use of the funds generated through the school events 

• Practice what is learned through creating Strategies for Sustainability 

• Exposure to Funding and Investment opportunities (sharing information on other competitions, entrepreneurship education programs and trainings) 

• Practice the Previous skills and match them with real challenge (setting up sustainability plan for the schools- Events for planting the seeds with stakeholders) 

• Preparation of Event (Planting the seeds with stakeholders in North Macedonia)

 • Organizing Multiplier Event with students 100% ownership (Press Release, social media coverage (invitations,live stream, photos, tweets, live statements), showcase of results -Students presentations ) 

At the fourth training the accent is put on dissemination of the project results and plans for sustainability support by other stakeholders.