My morning appointment was with Barcelona Activa and as I am in a hotel close by, the walk was brisk and fresh. It was good to be in the heart of 22@ and it is interesting to see how vibrant the streets are. There is activity everywhere as the area, which clearly was a strongly industrial part of town not too long ago, is being torn down and modern buildings are erected to house businesses like T Systems. There are at least two universities / training centres that I saw and a number of upmarket coffee shops etc. Architecturally the upliftment is done quite well in that some old “icons” are kept and deftly incorporated into the new modern structures.

The beach is a 15 minute walk away and beautiful with modern artworks popping up everywhere.

I was fully briefed on the model (like you all have) by Marc Sans, who works with Anna, Elena and Montse. He is very knowledgeable and so excited about their programme. What was interesting was to see how Spain’s acceptance into the European Union boosted employment rates and economic growth. They have clearly developed models of support and integrate this carefully with training programmes and job placement programmes. About 40 people per day receive their introductory “brief” and in total 1500 companies are coached through the startup phase and 3 years beyond.

What I found interesting is that their incubator space, which currently houses 50 businesses, and I must say, is quite beautiful, has 10 full time coaches / advisors available at all times. Entrepreneurs are not assigned a specific mentor / advisor / coach, but simply “pop down” to speak to whoever is available. This is different to our TSiBA model, but interestingly so and potentially quite a useful way of transferring the onus of responsibility to the entrepreneur and “forcing” the entrepreneur to think clearly about what the question is and where to get the answer. Our model relies more on the building of individual mentoring relationships as we believe this is more needed at the early stages of a business. Who knows? Certainly interesting to consider alternatives.

My second visit was to “SURT” – Foundation for the integration of socially marginalised women. This group focusses more on integrating vulnerable women into the workplace and tuning in on the need for social services to be involved where necessary. Sex workers who want to change profession are also encouraged to join their re-training programmes as well as women over 45 (eek!!), “housewives”, immigrants and women who might be highly qualified, but who need to reskill to be marketable.

What was impressive was their resources to do research – they have published several books and large works. They also have efficient connections with government and their seamless integration with other services is impressive.

Signing out until Colombia,

Arrived in Barcelona yesterday and was quickly introduced to Barcelona’s most famous tourist detraction… pickpockets… in 3 seconds I was detracted and they were gone. Unfortunately for them they chose a South African to bully, so they had to saunter (yes saunter!) away empty handed. I always spread my important items throughout my luggage and booby trap them, so heh, they got nothing for their trouble and I got a few teaspoons of adrenaline coursing through my veins. Veins, I may add, that have up to now been saturated with the best cafe con leche’s in the world. Man can these Spaniards make coffee!

I am situated in Barcelona 22@ and find the area very interesting. One can clearly see that the area used to be industrial and are now being revamped as we were told when Activa visited Cape Town in October. Unfortunately though, I am told that Spain suffered particularly badly in the financial crisis and here in 22@ in particular it is evident, as the property industry suffered the most.

Today I was hosted by an organisation called Trinijove (Trinitat + Youth). The director, Elizabeth Diaz introduced me to their programme and we went for a long walk through the neighbourhood. Trinitat is a very poor neighbourhood where unemployed is rife, drug dealing is commonplace, and a group of people live here at the terminal stages of AIDS (most infections here are from needle sharing). Motivation is low, education is poor and a number of gypsy families have illegally occupied buildings in the area. Most of their children either do not attend school at all, or attend erratically. Many of the youth are immigrants and although given residency permits – they are not given work permits!

Informally I picked up similar antagonistic views to “these foreigners who take our jobs”I was pleased to be able to look at the social services and support in this area. Trinijove supports the youth with training programmes like welding, cooking, cleaning and gardening. They help with placements and social reintegration. They also started a local radio station and have courses in social enterprise. Although I was not given specific statistics, they do anecdotally speak of successes in stimulating entrepreneurship. As in our own informal settlements, the initiatives remain small e.g. hiring oneself out as a painter, managing a group of ladies to clean houses or gardening.Trinijove gets half its funding from the government (and pays their students stipends akin to our learnership programmes) and supports itself with some income generating activities such as their successful recycling programme at the airport (employing mentally disabled staff)

The “La Caixa” (pron. kaiisha) “bank” was discussed, but I am still a little unsure how this differs from a “regular” bank.

That’s me for now. Will blog tomorrow after meeting with Activa and a programme called “Fundacio Surt” dedicated to integrating vulnerable women into the economy.

Following Peter’s involvement in the “importing” of the Barcelona Activa model to Cape Town, I will be also have the privilege of seeing Barcelona Activa in action next week. I’ll report soon on how this model was adapted in other coutries notably Colombia and Ecuador.