ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION PROGRAMME FOR REFUGEE WOMEN: CASE-STUDY

This paper describes a program which was developed for women refugees living in The Netherlands geared at stimulating entrepreneurial behaviour and acquiring skills and knowledge necessary to develop their ideas further and start their own business. The program worked with principles of a learner-centred approach taking into account factors which are important for adult learning and teaching entrepreneurship. The paper explores which conditions need to be met to teach entrepreneurship to adults. It illustrates that 3 factors need to be taken into consideration: competencies, pedagogical approach and environment. The results show that for this specific group of adults the combination of a learner-centred approach together with principles for adult learning and teaching entrepreneurship works well, though it needs to be fine-tuned more closely to this vulnerable group that suffers from trauma, a loss of self-esteem and difficulty to regain control over their lives.