OW participants undergo an 8 week long ‘learning by doing’ experience, with real contracts to deliver, access to all of the tools and equipment they need, expert mentors on site, deadlines to deliver the contracts and payment of agreed rates for successful completion of works.
All that is asked of the participants in the first instance is that they organise themselves into a formal entity with representatives who can ‘do business’ on it’s behalf with the facilitators of the OW (who hold all of the tools, the contracts and the funds the new businesses need to begin trading). Once suitably organised, the representatives of the participant’s enterprises negotiate release of resources and work contracts with the facilitators and begin delivery.
Although the early days are always a struggle, as the workshop progresses and the pace of delivery is increased, a ‘pressure cooker of organisational and vocational learning’ is generated for participants, and the introduction of enterprise self management tools, lectures on the history of organisation and assistance from expert mentors all combine to help the participants grow in confidence and competence, until they are delivering smoothly, and getting ready to go out into the real world.
This is ‘capacitation’.
