News
25th November 2021
Rolling Out the Enter to Transform Hub in Ireland
After months of promotion, the Irish Enter to Transform Training Programme kicked off on 19th October 2021. 30 participants from more than 15 nationalities joined the Irish team for a three-hour workshop designed to show recognised refugees that entrepreneurship is a real possibility for them. The training programme is being rolled out nationally with participants from locations all over the country. To accommodate this, the team has chosen to deliver all workshops via Zoom in a virtual format. It is hoped that is will improve accessibility and remove any logistical challenges that participants may face.
The main objective of the workshop was to raise awareness about opportunities in Irish entrepreneurship. This included delivering information relating to what it means to be an entrepreneur, what personal characteristics an entrepreneur needs to have, what the entrepreneurial ecosystem looks like in Ireland and how to join the Enter to Transform Training Programme to get started.
The workshop was delivered in a dual-language format, providing information in English and Arabic, devised to accommodate the large amount of participants who come from an Arabic-speaking background and may face barriers to entrepreneurship due to language difficulties. It is hoped that this approach will empower more newcomers to explore the possibility of being self-employed.
The Enter to Transform Team also organised for a guest speaker, Thoiba Ahmed of Donegal Intercultural Platform to discuss aspects of cultural awareness with participants. This was included in a bid to introduce Irish culture to participants who may not have fully integrated socially into their new homeland.
Project Manager Juanita Blue states “When we started promoting the training, we had no idea how many candidates would register to join. We are delighted to see such a high turn-out and really hope the participants will continue to attend upcoming workshops where we address aspects of the Stand-Up, Start-Up and Scale Up phases of entrepreneurship in Ireland”.
The workshops will continue weekly until the end of December when participants will move to the one-to-one mentoring element of the training programme. The Enter to Transform team are excited to see the forthcoming results, and hope that many recognised refugees will benefit from the training.
12th October 2021
The Enter to Transform Roadshow Continues!
This week Dr. Muath Atmeh has travelled to County Tipperary to reach new potential candidates for our Refuge Entrepreneurship Training Programme.
Dr. Atmeh has met with Dr Basin Yasin who is a local business owner & entrepreneur in Clonmel. Dr. Yasin expressed great interest in the programme and will promote the training to potential candidates through his kebab shop!
We also paid a visit to some of the local mosque representatives in Tipperary, including Mr Miohammad Khalouf of the Thurles Islamic Centre and Mr Samer Jijazi who is a Clonmel Syrian Representative & member of the Islamic Centre. Here they are pictured with some potential candidates for the programme.
As the roadshow continues, we hope to welcome more entrepreneurial training candidates onto our programme! Registration remains open – visit www.enter2transform.com for details.
Workshop 1 – Awareness Raising kicks off on Tuesday 19th October 2021 from 2-5pm.
8th October 2021
Recruitment for the Enter to Transform Refugee Entrepreneurship Training Programme is currently underway with promising results. The training programme targeted at preparing refugees who want to start their own business for the Irish ecosystem has generated much interested with Irish business-support agencies and refugee-support agencies alike!
Recently, our Arabic-speaking trainer and promotional agent Dr Muath Atmeh of Alrayad CTS has met with directors from the main two Islamic centres in Dublin.
Mr Ahmed Hsaian, of the Islamic Cultural Center of Ireland (ICC) and Mr Yahya I al-Hussein, of the Islamic Foundation Ireland were both very interested in the training programme and happy to support the project team by disseminating the programme to potential participants in their network.
Support from these and similar organisations is key to the success of this training programme. We hope this will help to spread the word about the Enter to Transform and maximise our ability to prepare and support as many refugee entrepreneurs as possible!
For more information, visit http://www.enter2transform.com.
