Parents International has organised three face-to-face pilots of the ParENTrepreneurs Training to ensure that the programme we developed in the project consortium works in different contexts. As other partners have only been able to pilot online, this was crucial for the project’s success. The pilots took place in October and the beginning of November in Hungary, the Netherlands (this training was the only one foreseen) and Spain.

ParENTrepreneurs – Netherlands

The ParENTrepreneurs pilot in the Netherlands was the first complete in-person pilot of the training. The pilot had been postponed in order to be delivered according to the application. The application had also contemplated an international pilot in advance of national pilots but in some cases this had not been possible owing to the covid related delays.. The pilot was delivered implementing the training manual. The training was delivered in English to a group of parents from various backgrounds and nationalities, with children enrolled in kindergarten or school in the country.

The training was offered on three consecutive Saturdays between the middle and the end of October with two modules delivered each day. Since there was much more interest and demand beyond the available 20 places, a second training is planned after the international training, in the Spring or early Summer 2022. Childcare and activities for children were offered alongside the training.

The 20 people enrolled in the pilot participated in all activities and filled the evaluation forms for each module separately. Overall, we can say that the training was very well received, the parents found it very useful, enjoyable and appropriate to cater for their needs.

ParENTrepreneurs – Hungary

The ParENTrepreneurs pilot in Hungary was an extra pilot of the training in an effort to have f2f pilots in at least 3 country contexts. The pilot was delivered and completed following the training manual. It was delivered in Hungarian, but using the English training materials to a group of parents who are all active parent leaders at different levels. It was held over the long weekend at the end of October and 1 November 2021 with two modules delivered each day.

Childcare and activities for children were offered alongside the training. The 9 people enrolled in the pilot participated in all activities and filled the evaluation at the end of the training for the whole experience. Overall, we can say that the training was very well received, the parents found it very useful, enjoyable and appropriate to cater for their needs. Linguistic barriers using the English training material were present, but addressed fairly easily.

ParENTrepreneurs – Spain

The ParENTrepreneurs pilot in Spain, Catalonia was an extra pilot of the training in an effort to have f2f pilots in at least 3 country contexts. The pilot was implemented and followed the training manual completely. The pilot was delivered in Spanish to a group of parents who are all active parent leaders at different levels, but the evaluation was done in English. The training was held over the long weekend at the end of October and 1 November 2021 with two modules delivered each day.

Childcare and activities for children were provided alongside the training. The 8 people enrolled in the pilot participated in all activities and completedthe evaluation forms for the training as a whole once. Overall, we can say that the training was very well received, the parents found it very useful, enjoyable and appropriate to their needs.

The ParENTreperenurs trainings have proven to be relevant and interesting for parents with different cultural and national backgrounds, different age groups and also for parents of younger and older children alike. Most of the topics are easy-to-link to everyday parenting challenges. Being entrepreneurial in everyday life is a relatively unique concept for parents in this country context. Most of the topics are easy-to-link to everyday parenting challenges. The training was given a very good evaluation by participants with only a few recommendations for refining it.