STEP Success Stories Find out more about the participants of the STEP Training and the impact the program had on their businesses and lives! STEP PROJECTS Our Projects View all CONTACT Get in Touch Your Name Your E-Mail Address Message I have read and agree to the terms of use . Send info@doorways-training.org +49 4134 9099726 Wiesenweg 2 21406 Barnstedt Home Doorways About Us Our Projects Success Stories Clients and Partners Contact STEP STEP Impact STEP Projects STEP Success Stories STEP Publications PI PI Impact PI Projects PI Success Stories PI Publications Blog FAQs Support Us © 2023 Doorways gGmbH. All Rights Reserved Terms of Use Imprint +49 4134 9099726 info@doorways-training.org Wiesenweg 2 21406 Barnstedt Popcorn Parlour From friends to successful business partners Martin Developing a never-give-up-attitude Msafiri An innovative fashion business Janet A successful portfolio entrepreneur Dennis Ngeno The importance of risk evaluation ​ YANA Trekkers Establishing trust is key Pascal Filling a market gap

STEP Impact The STEP Training aims at creating real impact by promoting entrepreneurial action and success STEP TRAINING The Evaluation Scientific evaluations mainly conducted by Leuphana University Lüneburg show that the STEP Training has positive short- and long-term effects on students’ entrepreneurial behavior. The STEP Training kick-starts the students’ entrepreneurial careers. More importantly, the studies demonstrated that the positive impact sustains over several years. ​ To assess the impact of the STEP Training, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are used. This means that evaluation studies use the gold standard to assess the impact of interventions and comply with the highest scientific standards. Using an RCT, applicants are randomly selected into a training group and a control group. This guarantees that the students in both groups are equivalent before the training and all differences after the training can be attributed to the STEP Training. Furthermore, a pre-training measurement and several post-training measurements are used to assess the long-term impact of the STEP Training over several years. EVALUATION The Most Important Findings Higher total income STEP Training participants earn 9.7% more two years after the training More business creation STEP Training participants own 33% more businesses two years after the training Stronger entrepreneurial mindset The evaluation studies also revealed mechanisms underlying the positive impact of the STEP Training on business creation. STEP Training participants develop a stronger entrepreneurial mindset. This means that the STEP Training enhances participants’ intentions to start a business, the confidence in their entrepreneurial skills, their knowledge about how to start a business, and their action planning for starting a new business. The stronger entrepreneurial mind-set results in participants identifying more business opportunities and performing more start-up activities to start a new business. Do you want to read more about the impact of the STEP Training in scientific publications and studies? Read More Higher life satisfaction and entrepreneurial passion Evaluation studies also showed that the STEP Training compensates for a lack of financial capital in the start-up process and leads to higher life satisfaction in the short- and long-run. Furthermore, the STEP Training boosts and sustains students’ passion for entrepreneurship, which translates into higher business creation in the long-run. STEP Training thus impacts on a broad range of positive outcomes. STEP PROJECTS Our Projects View all CONTACT Get in Touch Your Name Your E-Mail Address Message I have read and agree to the terms of use . Send info@doorways-training.org +49 4134 9099726 Wiesenweg 2 21406 Barnstedt Home Doorways About Us Our Projects Success Stories Clients and Partners Contact STEP STEP Impact STEP Projects STEP Success Stories STEP Publications PI PI Impact PI Projects PI Success Stories PI Publications Blog FAQs Support Us © 2023 Doorways gGmbH. All Rights Reserved Terms of Use Imprint +49 4134 9099726 info@doorways-training.org Wiesenweg 2 21406 Barnstedt

STEP TRAINING About STEP STEP Training develops (young) people’s skills, knowledge, and confidence to pursue an entrepreneurial career. In the 12-week training, the students learn step-by-step to start their own businesses. This provides them with an effective means of creating jobs for themselves and other people in the community. ​ STEP Training provides an answer to adverse labor market conditions and limited employment opportunities. STEP Training participants learn to create their own jobs by starting and running a business. A key benefit is that the students learn to take charge of their professional future. Through the training, the students become more proactive and independent, which supports them in overcoming the extreme unemployment rates among youths and the challenging job market conditions they are facing. Unemployment and poverty are inextricably intertwined. This is the point where the STEP Training seeks to make a difference. The STEP Training approach is supported by researchers and politicians alike. Politicians and researchers ranked fostering entrepreneurship among the top priorities of their agendas to alleviate poverty. Entrepreneurship is a main driver of economic development and wealth creation. Entrepreneurs have the potential to boost the economy and contribute substantially to new job creation. Against this background, entrepreneurship training, such as the STEP Training, is a main leverage for a successful bottom-up strategy to increase the number of entrepreneurs and accomplish politicians’ agenda. STEP The Student Training for Entrepreneurial Promotion (STEP) is an entrepreneurship training program which has been successfully implemented around the globe. Doorways is a certified provider for the STEP Training. STEP TRAINING How Everything Started The STEP Training project was founded in 2006 by Prof. Dr. Michael Frese and his team from Leuphana University of Lüneburg in cooperation with Makerere University Business School and Uganda Christian University (Uganda). The first training was conducted in 2009 at Makerere University and Uganda Christian University in Uganda. From these two universities, 200 students formed the first cohort to ever attend a STEP Training program. The evaluation of the first training showed significant short- and long-term effects on all factors important for entrepreneurship. Based on the positive results, the STEP Training was implemented at universities in Liberia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda. In subsequent years, STEP Training was extended to further educational institutions, such as vocational training institutes and secondary schools, as well as to further regions, such as South-East Asia (e.g., the Philippines) and Latin America (e.g., Mexico). Evaluations in each country have shown that the STEP Training has a significant impact on business and job creation. STEP Training thus contributes to poverty alleviation and job creation on different educational levels and in different regions across the globe. ​ STEP TRAINING Concept STEP is Locally Embedded STEP is tailored to local needs and conducted by local trainers STEP is Scientifically Evaluated STEP is evaluated according to highest scientific standards and shows positive short- and long-term effects Read More STEP is Evidence-Based The content is based on research on entrepreneurial success factors STEP is Action-Oriented Trainees start their own businesses and are learning by doing Each time STEP Training is implemented with a new institution, we aim to conduct randomized controlled trials (RCT) with a training group and a control group. A comparison of the pre-training measurement with post-training measurements enables to assess the impact of the STEP Training. The findings support that STEP Training enhances participants’ intentions to start a business, the confidence in their entrepreneurial skills, their knowledge about how to start a business, and their action planning for starting a new business. STEP Training participants learn entrepreneurship on the basis of action principles. The STEP Training action principles have been derived from the scientific literature on entrepreneurship, management, and psychology. They are science-based „rules of thumb“ that provide practical knowledge guiding students what to and how to do it to accomplish the start-up process. STEP Training is also evidence-based with regard to the didactical approach. STEP Training is rooted in action regulation theory and the result of our long-standing experience in training and entrepreneurship research in countries with adverse job market conditions and high youth unemployment. STEP was developed in cooperation with scholars from Makerere University, Makerere University Business School, Uganda Christian University, and Kyambogo University in Uganda. With every new implementation, the STEP Training content is adapted to the local context in cooperation with partners from the local institutions. The training sessions are conducted by local trainers who receive a five day train-the trainer workshop to become certified STEP trainers. The workshops are led by a team of STEP master trainers and in each workshop, up to 12 new STEP trainers are instructed on the methodology and content of STEP. STEP Training participants form teams and engage in the start-up process of a real micro business during the training. They proceed through the entire entrepreneurial process from preparing to launching and managing a real business. This involves that they identify and evaluate new business opportunities, acquire equipment and raw materials, deal with suppliers, and enter the market to offer their product or service to real customers. The participants thus take an active role and learn entrepreneurship „on-the-job“. They experience becoming an entrepreneur under real business conditions. They receive real-life feedback and develop a better understanding of the tasks and challenges of an entrepreneur. This is key to develop a feeling of true mastery of entrepreneurship, a belief of „I can do it“. Implementation Process The ideal procedure to facilitate the long-term implementation of the STEP Training at international partner institutions is depicted here. In a three-year project, the partner institutions are prepared to organize and run the STEP Training, secure the financial resources to sustain the STEP Training, and institutionalize the STEP Training (e.g. as part of their academic program). In the first year, the STEP Training is introduced, implemented, and evaluated to demonstrate its beneficial effects on participants‘ entrepreneurial behavior. ​ In the second year, the partner institution assumes responsibility for organizing and implementing the STEP Training. The partner institution also starts securing funding and the administrative procedures to include STEP in the regular curriculum of one or more programs of study. ​ In the third year, the partner institution independently organizes the training and decides about the institutionalization of the STEP Training in their academic program. STEP Projects View all CONTACT Get in Touch Your Name Your E-Mail Address Message I have read and agree to the terms of use . Send info@doorways-training.org +49 4134 9099726 Wiesenweg 2 21406 Barnstedt Home Doorways About Us Our Projects Success Stories Clients and Partners Contact STEP STEP Impact STEP Projects STEP Success Stories STEP Publications PI PI Impact PI Projects PI Success Stories PI Publications Blog FAQs Support Us © 2023 Doorways gGmbH. All Rights Reserved Terms of Use Imprint +49 4134 9099726 info@doorways-training.org Wiesenweg 2 21406 Barnstedt

Psychological training for entrepreneurs to take action: Contributing to poverty reduction in developing countries. Frese, M., Gielnik, M. M., & Mensmann, M. (2016). Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25(3), 196-202. Action and action-regulation in entrepreneurship: Evaluating a student training for promoting entrepreneurship. Gielnik, M. M., Frese, M., et al. (2015). Academy of Management Learning & Education, 14(1), 69-94. Proactive behavior training: Theory, design, and future directions. Mensmann, M. & Frese, M. (2017). In S. K. Parker & U. K. Bindl (Eds.), Proactivity at Work (pp. 434-468). New York: Routledge. (S)training experiences: Toward understanding decreases in entrepreneurial self-efficacy during action-oriented entrepreneurship training. Bohlayer, C. & Gielnik, M. M. (2022). Journal of Business Venturing, 38(1), 106259. Insights into an Action-Oriented Training Program to Promote Sustainable Entrepreneurship. Bohlayer, C. (2023). Insights into an Action-Oriented Training Program to Promote Sustainable Entrepreneurship. In: Halberstadt, J., Alcorta de Bronstein, A., Greyling, J., Bissett, S. (eds) Transforming Entrepreneurship Education. Springer, Cham. Adjusting the sails: Investigating the feedback loop of the opportunity development process in entrepreneurship training. Eller, F. J., Gielnik, M. M., Yeves, J., Alvarado, Y. C., & Guerrero, O. A. (2021). Academy of Management Learning & Education. How can problems be turned into something good? The role of entrepreneurial learning and error mastery orientation. Funken, R., Gielnik, M. M., & Foo, M.-D. (2020). Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 44(2), 315-338. A dynamic account of self-efficacy in entrepreneurship. Gielnik, M. M., Bledow, R., & Stark, M. S. (2020). Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(5), 487-505. How passion in entrepreneurship develops over time: A self-regulation perspective. Lex, M., Gielnik, M. M., Spitzmuller, M., Jacob, G. H., & Frese, M. (2020). Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. STEP Publications Find out more about the fascinating research behind and around the STEP Training! info@doorways-training.org +49 4134 9099726 Wiesenweg 2 21406 Barnstedt Home Doorways About Us Our Projects Success Stories Clients and Partners Contact STEP STEP Impact STEP Projects STEP Success Stories STEP Publications PI PI Impact PI Projects PI Success Stories PI Publications Blog FAQs Support Us © 2023 Doorways gGmbH. All Rights Reserved Terms of Use Imprint +49 4134 9099726 info@doorways-training.org Wiesenweg 2 21406 Barnstedt

DOORWAYS Members

Janet A successful portfolio entrepreneur from Uganda I learned how to overcome challenges. If your business collapses, you must start anew. Think what the problem was, what made the business collapse, then start anew. You can use the people around you to get starting capital. You don’t have to go to banks, people can supply you. It was helpful that we learned how to approach people. Janet was typical of many students in Uganda. Before the training, she had not been involved in any entrepreneurial ventures, and she had not attended any prior entrepreneurship courses. Janet knew that the job market conditions were poor for her even with a university degree, but she did not consider becoming an entrepreneur as an attractive and feasible career option for her. She was afraid of the challenges entrepreneurs face. According to her report, starting and running a business in the training was a “totally new experience”. The experience that it is possible to overcome the challenges of entrepreneurship and to successfully operate a business “opened her eyes”, as she said. Janet elaborated that the training was a turning point in her life, which changed her belief that entrepreneurship is an insurmountable series of tasks. She also explained that she learned to reflect after failures, learned from errors, and that she learned to start anew despite of unfavorable circumstances. She developed a “never-give-up” attitude and learned to use errors and failures as a valuable source of feedback. After the training, Janet started a poultry farm and managed to supply retail shops and hotels in Uganda’s capital city Kampala with eggs and chickens. One year after the training, she employed five full-time employees. The poultry farm was located in a village some hours away from Kampala, where she lived with her husband. Commuting between the village and Kampala was demanding. She decided to sell the farm and start an event management business, which she successfully set up 18 months after the training. Janet closed the event management business 24 months after the training and, instead, launched an information technology consultancy that developed computer software, designed webpages for companies and private persons, and installed networks for offices and homes. Janet had started the information technology consultancy because of her university education in computer science. It is interesting to observe that she had started with a business of low complexity, and over the years, she created a business in her field of study. When we met Jane again around four years after the training, she informed us that she still owned the information technology consultancy. Furthermore, she had started an additional business – one of the few ice cream parlors that you can find in the city center of Kampala. Through STEP, Janet has formed and pursued different entrepreneurial goals; she has changed from a non-entrepreneurial student to a successful portfolio entrepreneur starting and managing several businesses at the same time. Success Story of Msafiri Success Story of Popcorn Parlour info@doorways-training.org +49 4134 9099726 Wiesenweg 2 21406 Barnstedt Home Doorways About Us Our Projects Success Stories Clients and Partners Contact STEP STEP Impact STEP Projects STEP Success Stories STEP Publications PI PI Impact PI Projects PI Success Stories PI Publications Blog FAQs Support Us © 2023 Doorways gGmbH. All Rights Reserved Terms of Use Imprint +49 4134 9099726 info@doorways-training.org Wiesenweg 2 21406 Barnstedt

PI Training for Farmers MOZAMBIQUE CLIENT: MUVA DONOR: WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME (WFP) ​ Description of project: In a WFP funded project we adjusted the Personal Initiative (PI) Training curriculum for small-scale farmers and trained local trainers in the provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado. The Training of Trainer (ToT) workshops were conducted both virtually and on-site. Follow-up mentoring and coaching of the trainers aims to ensure a high quality implementation of the PI Training. PI Training for Female Factory Workers PI Training for MSMEs

PI Training for MSMEs MALAWI CLIENT: IBF INTERNATIONAL CONSULTING DONOR: MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE / RESERVE BANK OF MALAWI / THE WORLD BANK ​ Description of project: Personal Initiative (PI) Training for 2,500 MSMEs as part of the Financial Inclusion and Entrepreneurship Scaling (FInES) Project. The objective of the FInES project is to increase access to financial services, promote entrepreneurship and capabilities of MSMEs in Malawi including addressing COVID-19 implications. PI Training for Farmers PI Training in India

DOORWAYS Our Services New training development Coaching and mentoring Capacity building of our global partners Rigorous impact evaluations Training implementations Adaptations of existing training programs Project management (on-site and digital) STEP TRAINING AND PI TRAINING Training Programs Our two main training programs, the Personal Initiative (PI) Training and the Student Training for Entrepreneurial Promotion (STEP) are action-oriented, evidence-based entrepreneurship training interventions that have been developed by a research team under the guidance of Prof. Michael Frese and Prof. Michael Gielnik. Find out more about the different target groups and previous projects and results! STEP PI SPECIFIC PROGRAMS FOR OUR Target Groups While we remain true to our principles and methodologically work evidence-based as well as action-oriented in all cases, we can (and are convinced that we should) at the same time include target group and context-specific factors and content. In the past, we have successfully offered programs for diverse target groups. Agripreneurs Agripreneurship training programs to foster sustainable growth in rural areas ​ ​ Sustainable / Social Entrepreneurs Training programs that foster sustainable entrepreneurship to promote business ideas and implementations with a positive impact on society and the environment Workers Training programs for workers to promote wage employment and decent work conditions ​ ​ University, TVET and high school students Training programs for students that can be implemented at educational institutions (at various levels) ​ ​ Female Entrepreneurs Training programs that focus on strengthening female entrepreneurship and empowering women in business ​ ​ Illiterate Trainees Adaptations of training materials to underprivileged target groups with limited or no access to higher education ​ Adolescent Girls and Young Women Adaptations of training materials to underprivileged target groups with limited or no access to higher education ​ DOORWAYS PROJECTS Our Projects View All CONTACT Get in Touch Your Name Your E-Mail Address Message I have read and agree to the terms of use . Send DOORWAYS What We Do We promote entrepreneurship by developing, implementing, and evaluating interventions and training programs that foster entrepreneurial thinking and behavior. In our training programs, we use evidence-based training contents and apply action-oriented training approaches. Research has shown that action-oriented approaches, in which participants are learning by doing, outperform other (more conventional and lecture-based) training courses. While our training programs are based on scientific evidence and have been evaluated to the highest empirical standards, we are aware that no intervention is ever perfect. We therefore continuously re-evaluate our training programs to further deepen the theoretical and practical understanding of how our programs can be most effective in benefitting participants, societies and the environment. To this end, we invest in creating new training designs and formats in line with the UN’s SDGs. What We Do Read more about Doorways and the services we offer

PI Success Stories Find out more about the participants of PI Training and how the program has helped them and their businesses! SOME OF OUR PI Projects View all CONTACT Get in Touch Your Name Your E-Mail Address Message I have read and agree to the terms of use . Send info@doorways-training.org +49 4134 9099726 Wiesenweg 2 21406 Barnstedt Home Doorways About Us Our Projects Success Stories Clients and Partners Contact STEP STEP Impact STEP Projects STEP Success Stories STEP Publications PI PI Impact PI Projects PI Success Stories PI Publications Blog FAQs Support Us © 2023 Doorways gGmbH. All Rights Reserved Terms of Use Imprint +49 4134 9099726 info@doorways-training.org Wiesenweg 2 21406 Barnstedt Akouélé A success story from Togo Leila A success story from Togo Habibou A success story from Togo Yeshi A success story from Ethiopia

TRAINING PROGRAMS STEP Training STEP (Student Training for Entrepreneurial Promotion) is an entrepreneurship training program targeted particularly at young adults with limited or no entrepreneurial experience. It was founded by the Frese Group in 2008 and has since been implemented in partnership with more than two dozen institutions in low- and middle-income countries around the world. Read More © Erick Khagan and World Bank TRAINING PROGRAMS PI Training Personal Initiative (PI) Training is a psychological program targeted at entrepreneurs with existing businesses. It has been developed within the Frese Group and been implemented in the context of several internationally funded research projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Research indicated that it can be more effective than traditional business training programs. Read More DOORWAYS PROJECTS Our Projects View All WHO WE WORK WITH Our Clients and Partners - Public Sector CEED at Leuphana University of Lueneburg Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) International Finance Corporation (IFC) The World Bank’s Africa Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) The World Bank’s South Asia Region Gender Innovation Lab (SARGIL) University of Cologne World Food Programme (WFP) Y-RISE AGOVA - Zambia CMT - South Africa Hand In Hand - India IBF International Consulting - Belgium International Management Group - Japan MentorMe - Zambia RTM International - Bangladesh WHO WE WORK WITH Our Clients and Partners - Private Sector OUR TEAM About Us Want to know more about the minds and hearts behind the non-profit organization Doorways? Meet our team and learn more about our vision, mission, and values. Read More CONTACT Get in Touch Your Name Your E-Mail Address Message I have read and agree to the terms of use . Send Welcome to Doorways We are a non-profit organization and we are passionate about creating positive impact via entrepreneurship and empowering people STEP PI What We Do DOORWAYS What We Do We promote entrepreneurship by developing, implementing, and evaluating interventions and training programs that foster entrepreneurial thinking and behavior. In our training programs, we use evidence-based training contents and apply action-oriented training approaches. Read More