1. Piotr Bastek „First Shift” Coordinator of the Vocational Trainings / Coordinator of the International Cooperation Brussels, October 2007 The project is co-financed by the European Social Fund within the framework of the EQUAL programme

2. Development Partnership: Chamber of Crafts and Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Katowice (Project Administrator). Regional Labour Office in Katowice; Upper Silesia branch of the ”Solidarity” Trade Union; The Walerian Pańko Local Government Training Centre in Katowice, The Foundation in Support of Local Democracy;

3. SME in Silesia Region Number of SMEs in total 449 186 SMEs in urban areas 360 203 SMEs in rural areas 57 349 SMEs in urban/rural areas 31 645

4. Problem 1. Lack of qualified employees due to migration to other EU countries. Problem 2. High unemployment rate (11,1 %) due to low qualification of the unemployed people.

5. Solution Provide unemployed people with the possibility of getting new qualifications applicable to the employers’ needs (Craft and SME sector) by means of EU funds.

6. Project „First Shift” Minimum of the theory (about ¼ of the time devoted to beneficiary’s training), maximum of the practical on- the-job vocational training in small and medium enterprises.

7. The Master–Apprentice Relationship Preparation the unemployed people for journeyman qualification examination.

8. Thank you for your attention biuro@1szychta.org.pl Project office: Chamber of Crafts and Small and Medium Sized Enterprises; Plac Wolności 12; 40-078 Katowice; Poland; Tel. +48/32/259 62 61 – 5 ; Fax. +48/32/258 87 38 www.1szychta.org.pl