How did you get in contact with the 40 Challenges Project?
As a learner who wants to ‘’access’’ the world of entrepreneurship I have a good collaboration with CPIP. We cooperated on previous Erasmus+ projects which were developed and implemented in the field of entrepreneurship and soft skills for employees / trainees. When the representatives of CPIP contacted me and told me about the main goals and products of the 40 Challenges project I highly appreciated the initiative. It was a good opportunity to add additional activities (named challenges) to my practice portfolio. I freely expressed my interest in getting involved in all the tasks required for the implementation of the project. This ‘’entrepreneurial’’ experience gave me the chance to improve my knowledge on soft skills for entrepreneurship also from a technological point a view.
What Soft Skills where more attractive for you?
When you have to be a ‘’good apprentice’’ you have to grow continuously to keep up with the changes in the learning environment. Each of soft skills has something new and different. This is the key: novelty – secret element. I have to recognize there was no time to go through all the challenges developed within the project but the more attractive soft skills were: decision-making, leadership, self-motivation, creativity, listening capacity and adaptability. The main purpose for my preference on these soft skills is closely related to my learning experience (as a trainee at the beginning). Switching from one position to another in a positive way is a reason to be proud of.
How many Challenges were you able to fulfill?
The division of challenges in routines and self-exercises ‘’encouraged’’ me to fulfill the following challenges (but I will also try the other challenges):
- MAKING A GOOD DECISION HELPS YOU TO STOP THINKING ABOUT THE PROBLEM;
- SELF-MOTIVATION AND GRATITUDE. WRITE WHAT YOU ARE THANKFUL FOR;
- ACTIVATE THE CREATIVE CHANGE;
- ACHIEVING GOALS.
What concrete results did you get implementing these Challenges?
- More resources and materials available for improving the soft skills;
- Greater understanding on using the time for completing a challenge/task;
- New materials easily available etc.
Do you think your work as an entrepreneur will improve?
Yes, I think so because I found out very interesting the brief theoretical part of soft skills and the challenges done were really useful and friendly. It’s critical that learners see the creation of their own opportunities as a viable and attainable possibility for their personal, professional and entrepreneurial capacity. Actually, it does not matter the level of improvement but the quality and efficiency of knowledge gathered and developed. The requirements as an entrepreneur change even from day to day. As a learner I am focused on my continuous development from the personal and professional point a view. The advanced markets show that many building businesses don’t think of or refer to themselves as entrepreneurs. I believe the major issue is that there are no enough practical resources to better understand soft skills ant their good implications.
Would you recommend the 40 Challenges Project to others? Why?
Definitely, I would recommend the 40 Challenges project to my colleagues and other interested parties because they are key actors in the field of entrepreneurship. It is also very important and useful for trainers/facilitators who have to deliver courses on entrepreneurship. The training companies, trainees and SMEs would also be very interested in using the Mobile App and testing the challenges as routines’ approaches. The practice portfolio as part of the work-based learning would benefit from the performance done by project partners within the 40 Challenges project especially because the ‘’first steps’’ of entering into the entrepreneurial world require specific capacities on soft skills.