This document contains the results of a questionnaire given to local businesses in Glenamaddy, Ireland. It asks about the businesses' history, employees, recruitment process, training opportunities, and relationships with educational institutions. The following key points are made: 1. The businesses are small, locally-owned firms that have been operating since the 1990s. 2. They struggle with obstacles in the legal and fiscal systems and advise persistence, consistency, and patience for new business owners. 3. Employees' problem-solving, organizational skills, and work ethic are valued over foreign language abilities. 4. The businesses provide practical training opportunities and collaborate with schools but think education could focus more on practical skills and market

1. Questionnaire Results
Presentation prepared by Natalia Landek, Poland
C1 Blended mobility of school learners - Glenamaddy, Ireland 2018

2. History (background) of
the enterprise

3. 1. What type of business are you in?

4. 2. How long have you been set up?

5. 3. What is the number of employees in your business?

6. 4. Are the majority of your employees from this area,
or outsourced? Why?

7. 5. What age were you when you set up your business?

8. 6. What qualifications did you have when you started
your business?

9. 7. What extra courses/education did you do to improve
your expertise/skills in a particular area?

10. 8. What difficulties did you encounter as an
employer/ while running your business?
Please enumerate three biggest ones.

11. 9. What advice would you give to somebody that wants
to set up their own business?
Consistency
Patience
Persistence
Diligence
Sense of financial responsibility

12. Employees

13. 1. What soft skills do you value most in your employees?

14. 2. Is it important to speak any foreign languages for your
company? What languages? How many?

15. Recruitment process

16. a) Where do you advertise job vacancies for your
business?

17. b) Which factors would you regard as the most
crucial while hiring a new employee?

18. c) Have you experienced a skills shortage in your
field of employment? What skills are missing?

19. Promotion policy

20. a) Do you promote from within your business or
recruit an external candidate?

21. b) Do you review your employees' performance
on regular basis? How often? Do you provide
feedback?

22. Training and Development

23. a) Do you provide training and development
opportunities for your employees?

24. b) Do you provide "on the job" or "off the job"
training?

25. Educational institutions -
local businesses
collaboration/relationships

26. 1. Do/could you provide training for your potential
employees? (eg. work experience for school students,
internships etc)

27. 2. In your opinion/experience, are the local educational
institutions equipping our students for work in the local
labour market? If not, how can this be improved?

28. 3. Are you interested in collaborating with local schools
by carrying out skills workshops with the students of your
locality?

29. 4. What is missing in the current education system in
your opinion?

30. Quality symbols

31. 1. Do your products carry any nationally or internationally
recognized Quality symbols e.g. the CE mark?

32. 2. Do you carry out quality checks on your products?

33. 3. If so what method(s) do you use?

34. Conclusions
All the enterprises:
1. are local microfirms with 100% equity capital
2. present on the labour market since 1990s transitional economy period
3. struggle with many obstacles in the legal and fiscal system
4. advise mainly consistency, persistence and patience
5. value problem solving and organisation skills as well as strong work ethics
6. hire employees with potential
7. place little emphasis on foreign languages
8. collaborate with schools by providing practical training
9. complain about not enough practical knowledge and lack of market awareness in schools
10. care about quality checks but not certificates

35. Thank you for your attention