Abstract:

Business education is facing civilizational challenges these days, including that of economic nature. The Polish educational system requires intensified economic education, and this issue is being raised by an increasing number of experts. Particular attention is paid to people who take interest in starting and running a business. Publicly co-founded programs - including the EU’s structural funds - offer the opportunity to win financial support for starting a business. In addition to a financial grant, the support program provides the participant - a future entrepreneur - with a training package and workshops preparing for running a business.
The aim of the paper is to analyze the structure and the substantive scope of the training package included in the offered support. It is a case study of the “Dobry czas na biznes” [“Good time for business”] program, executed under the Regional Operational Program of the Małopolskie Province for 2014-2020, Sub-measure 8.3.1, “Support for new business in the form of a grant”, co-financed by the European Social Fund. The program operator was Małopolska Agencja Rozwoju Regionalnego S.A. (MARR S.A.). As part of the project, residents of the Tarnów subregion and (KOM) Krakow Metropolitan Area (which includes the following districts: Bochnia, Kraków, Miechów, Myślenice, Proszowice, Wieliczka and the City of Kraków) applied for financial support to start a business in the period of 2014-2016. The project was dedicated to the unemployed and inactive people aged 30 and over, interested in starting a business (excluding entrants in the Central Register and Information on Economic Activity, the National Court Register or operating under separate regulations within 12 months preceding the day of joining the project). Target participants were members of at least one of the following groups: the long-term unemployed, people with disabilities, people with low qualifications, women. According to data provided by MARR S.A., a total of 1,819 participants (1,229 from the KOM and 590 from the Tarnów subregion) applied for the grant, of which 1,416 people were qualified for the project (934 from the KOM and 482 from the Tarnów subregion).
In terms of methodology, the author's own training program was analysed, developed by MARR S.A., which included three training packages:
1. Obligatory basic training – a set of knowledge packages offering the most important knowledge related to running a business. The packages included training in formal obligations and legal regulations, accounting and taxes, marketing, financing, creating and executing a business plan.
2. Individual training courses – an individual training plan, selected for each participant after the diagnosis of needs. The courses were adjusted to the participant’s skills and the planned activity (e.g. knowledge and skills update, industry regulations, consumer rights, e-commerce, copyrights, personal data protection, foreign trade).
3. Obligatory workshop training – a set of workshops to reinforce personality traits and skills of future entrepreneurs (motivation, negotiations, customer acquisition and service, business psychology) in a practical way.
The developed training program was recommended by researchers at the Cracow University of Economics.

Keywords:

Management, entrepreneur, education, public support.