Mobility Poland

MOBILITY IN POLAND

14-18 MARCH 2016

From 14th to 18th March 2016 the visitors from Portugal, Italy, Romania, Great Britain and Finland were hosted by Polish teachers and students from LXV Liceum Ogólnokształacące z Oddziałami Integracyjnymi im. gen. Józefa Bema in Warsaw.

During these days all the teachers and pupils had the opportunity to participate in variety of activities connected with the idea of the project as well as activities which meant to integrate the teams better and to get to know our country, Poland.

On the first day of the mobility the headmaster of our school, Ms Malgorzata Puculek welcomed the guests at the school gym, where later on they participated in the lecture of Mr. Pawel Poncyljusz, the former Ministry of Economy, who gave a presentation on entrepreneurship in Poland. Mr. Poncyljusz explained the advantages and disadvantages of running your own business in Poland. He also briefly explained the history of entrepreneurship in Poland as well as he presented a few different ways in which one can run their own business in Poland, so the students and teachers could compare the facts and figures with the ones from their home countries. 

After that, the guests had the chance to watch the presentations of small entrepreneurs who not only talked about their products and companies but also presented the benefits and drawbacks of being a self-employed businessperson. The entrepreneurs were people who produced healthy pillows with grain fillings, honey-makers, jam and marmalade producers, people who grow herbs or other plants and preserve them in a variety of ways, ceramics producers, people who make dolls or seasonal decorations. An interesting fact was that most of them were previous corporation employees who gave up their well-paid but very stressful jobs in a big company and started something which nobody believed would work. They mainly emphasized the difference between their previous jobs and the present situation: all of them said they now feel free and happy and they encouraged young people not to be afraid to look for their own idea of life.

And here is the short list of entrepreneurs and their websites together with the description of their products:

1. http://www.plantulepillows.com/ (healthy pillows)
2.http://www.teczowapasieka.pl/ (honey products)
3.http://polskaroza.pl/ (dog-rose products)
4.http://bastrona.pl/ (herbs)
5. Radosław Poślednik – quince products
6. Handcraft: Easter decorations, jewellery, ceramics, felt. Crafters:  Dorota Kozik, Anna Malonek, Żanet Sikorska, Agnieszka Jagodzińska

After the presentations, students and teachers had the chance to talk to the entrepreneurs and look at/buy their products.

Later on, the students were divided into two groups: one of them took part in the workshops on negotiations in business during which they had the chance to get to know each other and practice negotiations based or real life cases, while the other one had the chance to show the presentations on their countries, then they swapped roles so that everybody could have a chance to participate in both activities.

The presentations were very interesting, the students could learn about the countries of their friends from the project, they talked about educational systems, culture, customs, cuisine, a bit of history and the schools themselves.

On the second day, all the group visited the Neon Museum where they could listen to the lecture about history of Poland and Warsaw during the years of communism and see how the companies and institutions eagered to advertise their businesses with the use of neons, the symbol of western advert. Most of the companies then longed for colours to attract customers’ attention and colours in general as Poland at that time was basically all grey. However, after a period of disobedience from Polish society all the neons were banned by the communist authorities. This was an important place to see as the students and teachers could understand the history of the country, people and also business in Poland in different and often difficult periods of time.   

They also the chance to visit the Old Town of Warsaw and spend some time in the Wedel's Chocolate Shop where the students listened to the short history of the oldest Polish Chocolate Factory and they could decorate their own chocolate cakes. 

On the third day the group visited the Polish Jews' Museum (POLIN) where they learnt about the history of Jews in Poland. This is an important part of Polish history as Jews have been present in this country for centuries and they were one of the first ones to set up their own small businesses.
Later, the group had a chance to visit the Library of University of Warsaw and The Museum of Science “Copernicus”. In both places students could learn something about the history (Library) or use their brains in a creative way and spend great time together. 

In the evening both students and teachers had a great time in a restaurant "Halka" where they tasted traditional Polish dishes, played games and enjoyed the time spent together.

The fourth day was a day spent outside Warsaw – all the group had the opportunity to visit local entrepreneurships: a small company which produces apple juices were the owner explained each step of production, a cold meat production business run by a small family and a small flax oil company.

At the last place the students participated in the lecture by the representatives of Mazovia Province who told their guests about the brand products of Mazowsze area, as well as the significance of local and traditional companies and their prospects for the future development. After the lecture and student had a picnic during which they could listen to Polish music, dance, talk and of course taste local products.

The students and one Polish teacher gave a short interview to the local TV reporter about our project and all the event was a great opportunity to learn about Polish entrepreneurs who became successful outside a big city. Here are some pictures and links to the interviews and articles about us :)

Link: a short article about Erasmus+ event in the local press!

And here is the link to the interview from regional division od National TV TVP3.

(You have to go through the commercials and  then start watching in 9.45 minute, enjoy!)

Link: we are on TV! :-)

On the last day of the mobility the students had the opportunity to show the presentations of their countries to other students in the school. Together with their new Polish friends each of the group visited two classrooms and gave presentations on their countries and schools.

Later on they took part in the School Day Ceremony which takes place every year, all of them said good bye to each other and the fifth day of the visit came to an end. It was an intensive time but also very fruitful and informative. Both students and teachers learnt about each other and their countries a lot, they could view the idea of running a business from different perspectives and we hope this mobility as well as the other ones can inspire them to start their own businesses in the future.