Gelsenkirchener Teenpreneurs / GE-Teen

Tasks and aims

Children and youngsters with a immigrant background are facing racist and cultural exclusion during their schooldays and their subsequent professional lives (Fereidooni, 2016). This begins with the choice of location of the school (see Gelsenkirchen Participation Atlas) and intensifies in the school-to-work of transition phase. For years, studies and the press have drawn attention to the problem that even foreign-sounding names and surnames, regardless of whether the applicants are native or not, are overlooked in the interview selection process.

In general, racism prevention aims to raise the awareness of the powerful (in this case privileged actors), which also involves "power sharing", i.e. by promoting empowerment structures, the opportunities of participation and active participation and independence in favor of the target groups. Within the framework of the Gelsenkirchen prevention fund NRWeltoffen (of the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Nordrhein-Westfalen) our project "Gelsenkirchen Teenpreneurs” is planning an entrepreneurship training for the target group of young people between 14-18. The workshop series are understood as an instrument and thus as a measure to strengthen the target group and are used in such a way that they are not stand-alone tools, but collate with other measures as a counteracting part against racist and culturalistic exclusion.

Scientific studies (David et al, 2019, David & Coenen, 2017, Echterhoff, 2014) and educational reports (PISA, 2018, Bertelsmann Foundation and Fondazione Cariplo, 2008) show that children and young people today often lack entrepreneurial skills and an entrepreneurial mind-set. Both are sets of skills that are of benefit during the period of educational process (rules of behavior at school, respect for classmates and teachers, organizational sense, etc.), but also when entering the professional life. These include above all:

• independent learning that helps to master new situations and facilitates the development of new topics or subject areas,

• teamwork to co-operate with colleagues on tasks (co-design),

• problem-solving ability, which enables an analytical-productive approach to open questions;

• planning thinking that helps to organize work processes,

• analytical thinking (oriented to production systems), which is involved in the breakdown of processes,

• flexibility, as readiness in the world of "liquid modernity", meaning a world of rapid change, easy to navigate,

• communication skills and a conceptual idea of responsibility, which serve to understand and endure the consequences of one's own actions and to be able to talk about problems.

"Entrepeneurial Skills" are not to be equated here with entrepreneurship in the sense of a purely profit-based start-up motivation, but above all as a portfolio of skills, knowledge and key qualifications that help individuals to better plan, shape, align and create their own professional and private lives. Aware of this set of capabilities, we believe, the workshop series promotes self-confidence and awareness in an application-oriented manner and does not stick in theoretical "empowerment phrases". Participating young people will need to develop a high degree of initiative and self-reliance within the workshops and will be encouraged to incorporate their own ideas and skills into the project.