Educational path for operators

Module 2: Entrepreneurship Education

The objective of this module is to train professionals working with migrants about the main entrepreneurship

concepts, models and tools in order to advise them on how to start a business.

This module is composed by eight lessons that cover the main entrepreneurial competences

that migrant entrepreneurs should develop to start a business as well as how to turn a business

idea into reality providing tools and practical models. Specifically, this module will have

the following lessons: entrepreneurial competences, value proposition, ideas generation, business

model, marketing plan, legality, feasibility and Lego Serious Play.

The last lesson will give an overview on the Lego serious play methodology, which is an innovative

process designed to boost business performance. The main idea is that everyone can

contribute to the discussion, the decisions process and the result; in fact this method is a facilitated

meeting, communication and problem-solving process in which participants face questions,

probing deeper and deeper into the subject.

In conclusion, apart from acquiring knowledge about how to start a business, this module will

show professionals working with migrants how to connect the main entrepreneurial competences

to the specific business plan phases.

The European project M.I.C.R.O. focuses on the creation of a professional profile with

competences on business start-up and on access to micro-credit for migrants.

The online course has been specifically designed to enhance the skills of the NGOs operators in

order to acquire the following competences: to be aware and overcome cultural differences and

religious aspects barring migrants from the entrepreneurial context, to identify the necessary

financial concepts for entrepreneurship, to manage formal and alternative financing sources to start

a business, to evaluate and strengthen the feasibility of a business idea as well as being able to

inform migrants on the microcredit system and its auxiliary services.

The course is composed by 4 Modules:

1. Intercultural communication;
2. Entrepreneurship Education;
3. Financial Education;
4. Access to financing;

The structure and the contents of the module have been successfully tested on 20 operators who

expressed positive and encouraging feedbacks.

The course will be uploaded on an online platform making the resources open and freely available.

At the end of the course, the operators will be able to inform, guide and lead the migrant in each

phase, supporting the migrant user facing the financial critical issues

Module 1:

Intercultural Communication The main objective of this module is to strengthen the intercultural competences of the learners by equipping them with basic knowledge on intercultural communication and raising awareness about cultural differences. Therefore the module will start with understanding the terms ‘culture’ and ‘communication’. We will have a look at different definitions and introduce some models about communication in general. On this basis, we will be able to define what ‘intercultural communication’ means, how we can learn intercultural communication and what are the “stumbling blocks” in intercultural communication. The next part of the module will focus on cultural awareness and cultural differences. First, we would like to motivate the learners to reflect on their own cultural background before we look at other cultures in a second step. Since communication is not only about words, we can learn a lot about cultural differences from the perception of gestures and facial expressions in different cultures. To sum up this introduction to intercultural communication we will reflect on the difference between stereotypes and prejudices, in which contexts we use them and how we can deal with them. Since many migrants in Europe come from countries with an Islamic background and therefore might have a different worldview from Europeans, we will then focus on Islamic culture. Then we will examine a case of intercultural communication where a different worldview is sometimes at odds with the one many of us live by: Islamic culture. We will start showing how different “basic rules” , that is, Islamic law, lead to a different interpretation of society and behavioral recommendations that in some instances can clash with our owns. Examples of how this can affect matters of work and business will also be presented. After this, a specific part of Islamic law relevant not only for intercultural communication but also for microfinance will be examined in some detail: Islamic finance. Trainees will be presented with a general overview of how culture and business are intertwined taking the example of thein that sharia, which permits only a share of financial transactions allowed in Western countries, on an ethical and religious ground. Therefore learning to communicate between these two worlds means learning to operate in otherwise mutually closed markets. At last, few words on how to draw migrants nearer institutions practicing Islamic finance in Europe will complete this module. Trainees will learn how to fashion support for access to finance in a way palatable to migrants coming from an Islamic background, so that a large part of business-looking migrants may rely on small amounts of funds without being forced to choose between their culture and their work.