This is an activity that aims to prepare mentors to provide effective assistance to companies experiencing difficulties across Europe.
The Early Warning Europe Mentor Academy is a continuation of two previous international projects we have implemented as a Foundation: Early Warning Europe and Resc-EWE. It was in the Early Warning Europe project that we created and educated a community of more than 120 mentors in Poland and 1,000 mentors in Europe who have helped and continue to help entrepreneurs in crisis free of charge. The Early Warning Europe Mentor Academy project is aimed at both them and new mentors from all countries in Europe – to develop their competencies and exchange knowledge, experience and best practices.
One of the goals of the project is to create a universal training for mentors supporting companies in crisis, which will be based on the best European standards. The training program is being developed with the participation of both experienced and first-time mentors. They will participate in a peer – learning workshop, during which they will present their needs and develop recommendations for the online training.
The Early Warning Europe Mentor Academy is an initiative of the European Union, within the framework of which the project “Improving the availability and scope of services for companies in financial distress” was created. It is being implemented by AARC Consultancy (Ireland), Erhvervshus Midtjylland (Denmark) and the Family Businesses Foundation (Poland).
As the Foundation, we have very responsible and demanding tasks in the project. We are the leader of two activities: Recruitment of mentors for which Kasia Gierczak- Grupinska was directly responsible, and preparation of all nine peer learning workshops, the leader of this task is Eleni Tzoka Stecka. Six of them are already behind us. The first was held in late October stationary in Barcelona. It was attended by more than 40 mentors from all over Europe, including 5 mentors from Poland. It is worth noting that these were not only mentors associated with our organization and the earlier EWE project, but also mentors working in other organizations.
Watch a summary of the first workshop in Barcelona in the form of a short video.
An important part of the EWEMA project is the workshops for mentors from all over Europe. The Foundation has been responsible for their preparation, with Eleni Tzoka-Stecka leading this task. So far, eight workshops have taken place – the first one was held in-person in Barcelona, while the other seven were conducted online. Around 70 mentors from more than 30 countries, including Poland, have participated in each workshop.
During each workshop, mentors had the opportunity to listen to presentations by experts and, above all, to exchange knowledge and experience with mentors from other countries.
A very important element of each workshop was also the so-called case study, i.e., work on a real, live case.
After each workshop, we conduct an evaluation to find out how the mentors evaluate the meeting and what they expect in the future. Here are some of their statements:
Thank you to the entire Early Warning Europe team. The timing [of the workshop] is very tight – but at the same time it’s okay because it’s held online. The case studies were once again well chosen and completely representative of the topic of discussion. It was great to attend the workshop and learn from the experienced mentors and participants.
Keep it up. This was my first time attending this workshop and I had no particular expectations. Upon completion, I found them to be very insightful, well prepared and organized, and rich in content.
Helping struggling SMEs is a never-ending topic. Crises that challenge smooth business operations appear one after another. Resilience is the key word these days. Resilience to world crises, personal crises, local, national and international business challenges. That’s why I’m happy to have just completed the second part of the fourth workshop of the Europe Network’s Early Warning Mentor Academy, which aims to create tools to help SMEs in times of need.
It was not only very meaningful work, but also a pleasure to immerse ourselves in difficult case studies, share knowledge and seek solutions with more than 50 mentors from different countries. The many opinions, thoughts and insights on helping SMEs in a critical state is a rewarding experience and food for thought. I feel richer! Thank you for an impressive experience and new helpful tools, EWEMA!
Based on recommendations from mentors, those experienced and those who are just beginning their mentoring careers, an online training course was created to prepare mentors to support companies in crisis. The training is located on the Early Warning Europe learning platform. It consists of 4 modules: Mentoring and Engagement, Problem Analysis and Change Management, Future Planning and Resilience, and Mentoring Readiness.
The mentor learning path is based on going through all the topics included in the 4 training modules independently.
The material is in the form of short articles and videos, with relevant links to supplementary materials. Each participant can share his or her comments on the topic within the forum, which allows him or her to experience so-called social learning. In addition, participants are invited to attend 4 master classes, which last an hour and allow them to explore some topics related to the 4 training modules. These meetings also have a networking dimension.
Two pilot groups have already gone through the above training. Their evaluation will contribute to the final version of the training.
All mentors recruited in this project – and there are as many as 685 of them – will have a chance to go through the above training in six groups between September 2023 and April 2024. We strongly encourage all mentors from Poland who have applied to join to benefit from this experience.
We have 3 more mentor workshops ahead, including two that will be held online:
Topics: Conflict Management , Mediation and Intellectual Property with relevant case studies. These topics will be presented by experts from Greece and Denmark
Topics: Risk Management, Business Exit, Ecology, Networking
Agnieszka Simon – Adamczewska, Krzysztof Kasperuk, Victoria Iwanowska, Ewa Magier, Janina Seredyńska-Targosz, Konrad Frontczak, Marzenna Tusza, Katarzyna Kłopocinska, Agnieszka Zasikowska, Celina Koszany, Grzegorz Kosson, Renata Żukowska, Ewelina Kosińska, Dorota Wieczorek, Ewa Chojecka, Maciej Siejka, Przemysław Przyjazny, Albert Adamczewski, Ewa Chojecka, Artur Wróbel, Ryszard Ćwiertniak, Katarzyna Ryfka-Cygan, Marta Ozga, Piotr Andrzej Oszytko, Agnieszka Wdowińska, Damian Hajduk, Monika Stachowicz, Agnieszka Lewandowska, Maks Kisyk, Patrycja Ilasz-Kłoda, Justyna Markiewicz, Tadeusz Woronowicz, Joanna Gawlik-Dziadoń, Jolanta Porebska, Marcin Birkietowicz.
Eleni Tzoka Stecka – responsible for preparing and conducting 9 peer learning workshops for mentors and moderating master classess online trainings
Katarzyna Gierczak-Grupińska – responsible for recruiting experienced and new mentors and moderating peer learning workshops.
Małgorzata Szady – organization support in preparing and conducting workshops and recruiting mentors
