FEATURED

Socionext and Consul-tech join forces and offer a free entrepreneurship workshop for ‘New-Comers’ in Groningen this month.

The two pioneering social enterprises herewith aim to empower ‘New-Comers’ in the Netherlands to realise their potential, fulfil their aspirations and develop their own businesses.

Registration for the free start-up lab is open now

We are offering a unique opportunity to kick-start and build your own business with the help of our qualified coaches. For registration, please fill in your personal information here

We are looking forward to seeing you!

Applicants from outside Groningen are offered accommodation and travel expenses.

Location

The intensive workshop will take place in the week of July 23-27 in the Puddingfabriek in Groningen and is free to participate by newcomers from all corners of the worlds that have a permit to stay and work in the Netherlands.

A new partnership

‘Great ideas do not know limits, they just need support’, is what both partners strongly believe and that’s exactly the reason they found a valuable partnership here. The organisations share the common goal of guiding the possibility of a young refugee person’s career choice from not only looking for a job, but also choosing entrepreneurship as a career path, particularly through good coaching, mentorship and increased access to capital.

For this edition, the team partners with Groningen Verwelkomt, Yamen Cuisine and De Puddingfabriek.

Background

Consul-tech, the training and consulting agency from Groningen is working towards a world where anyone, anywhere can transform their lives by accessing the world’s best learning experience. The social enterprise is known for providing 4 main services; Self-Development Programs, Business Consulting Services, Public Speaking Services and Events Management. The company works closely together with many governmental and private organisations. Also as a Training Agency, Consul-tech partners with many educational parties like Hanze Hogeschool and Alfa-College.

Socionext, an Amsterdam-based organisation founded in 2010, empowers newcomers in the Netherlands to create innovative impactful businesses that meet local needs and generate income and reduce dependency on social benefits. Socionext provides a highly interactive, hands-on training in social innovation and entrepreneurship skills development based on Design Thinking and the Lean Start-up methodology. In addition, Socionext offers a supporting ecosystem of networks and creative linkages in collaboration with other local organisations and funders.

What is the program about?

The partners use the Lean Start-up Methodology as part of a five-day Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship acceleration program – a very practical and hands-on approach that guides participants through the process of starting up a business through idea-generation, prototyping, testing and validating business models with actual customers. The advantage of this rapid prototyping and testing approach is that it significantly shortens the product development cycle – saving time, money and other resources.

The program has been executed in other cities in the Netherlands over the past years and has proven its success as students often make their first sales and gain orders within only 5 days.