Our methodology and our concepts are used in many regions around the world. They originally come from the Atlantic Region in Canadad from where we imported them in the beginning of this century. We have further developed them here in Västernorrland county, Sweden and spread them both national and international.
Regional references Västernorrland county
The methodology of Open For Business was imported in 2000 when a group with 20 representants from Sweden went to Halifax, Canada to become trained as managers and staff within the concept of Open For Business. As a result of this three OFB-sites were started in our county from 2000 to 2003. The OFB-sites were fysical locations in the centre of each town where anyone with an idea or with a wish to do something could drop in to seek inspiration and information. They could discuss their ideas with the young staff and participate in the variety of activities that each site offered. The sites focused on peopel in the ages of 0-30 years but everyone else was also welcome.
The sites eventually started doing more and more external activities such as workshops at schools. Another development was that the broad concept from Canada was transformed into specific programs/concepts that were adjusted to fit Sweden and new target groups. This development lead to our three main concepts; Summerentrepreneur, Business 4 a Day and Rockets.
The sites were established in Örnsköldsvik, Solleftåe and Kramfors. Each municipality was responsibel for their project. Due to cut backs in the municipal budgets the sites in Sollefteå and Kramfors are unfortunately closed. The site in Örnsköldsvik is still open but has moved into the youth activity house called Sliperiet. The three sites have together through the period 2000-2005 hade more than 100 000 participants in their activities.
The methodology and the concepts are still used all over our county. Summerentrepreneur is the single most spread concept and it has had activities in all seven municipalities.
As a result of our work in Västernorrland from 1996 up until today the national bureau for enterprise development, NUTEK, in 2005 chose Västernorrland as one of six pilote countys in Sweden when it comes to entrepreneurship development. The other five countys/regions were Skåne, Halland, Västra Götaland, Stockholm and Västerbotten. Together the six regions formed a national project that om ett resultat av vårt arbete under 2000-talet utsågs Västernorrland 2005 av NUTEK som ett av sex pilotlän i Sverige för utveckling av entreprenörskap. De övriga länen/regionerna var Skåne, Halland, Västra Götaland, Stockholm och Västerbotten. Genom att bli pilotlän fick vi möjlighet att vidareutveckla vårt arbete samt genomföra utbyten med de övriga länen.
As a result of the work within the pilot region program our concept Summerentrepreneur is now spread to 11 other regions with a total of 45 participating municipalities. You can find Summer entrepreneurs in Skåne, Halland, Västra Götaland, Kalmar, Jönköping, Örebro, Värmland, Stockholm, Gävleborg, Jämtland and Västerbotten. There are still 9 regions to reach and a number of them have already shown interest.
We are now also spreading the concept Business 4 a Day by using the network built up witmed utgångspunkt i det nätverk vi byggt upp kring Sommarlovsentreprenör. Målet är att bägge dessa koncept ska ha en spridning i samtliga svenska län/regioner.
In Örebro county has an organization called Startcentrum that imported Open For Business at the same time as Västernorrland did. They have also developed new tools from the original concept and they are also using the concept Business 4 a Day. They have regional, national and international activities (for further information please look at the contact site).
The methodology and concepts within Open For Business have at a number of times been rewarded with different awards. In 2006 we got the national prize in European Enterprise Awards in the category "investments in people".
In the autumn of 2006 the EU-commission together with the Norwegian government arranged a conference "Entrepreneurship in Education in Europé". The aim of the conference was to examplify and spread best practise models within the area. Open For Business was chosen as a best practise and got its own workshop at the conference.
In 2007 the European Training Foundation got an assignment to ett uppdrag att ta fram goda good examples on promoting entrepreneurship in EU:s neighbour countries around the Mediterranean Sea. Open For Business was chosen as one of twelve "top class examples" and we got to go to Italy to present our methods to representants from these countries. Three of them; Jordan, Tureky and Israel, chose to work with our concepts. During 2007 and 2008 we have translated our materials and then been to these countries and trained their staff in using our concepts. Follow ups have been made and there is a big interest from these countries to continue the cooperation with Open For Business Sweden.
During this winter the German Ministry of Industri is working on choosing 10 "best practise" that are going to be used to promote entrepreneurship in Germany. Two of our concepts; Summerentrepreneur and Business 4 a Day, is still in the process with 15 examples remaining. In the beginning of 2009 we will know if one or both of our concepts are going to be spread in Germany.
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