Practice Firm

OVERVIEW

A Practice firm (PF) works like a real company. Being present on the international market of PFs means constantly sustaining business relations with other practice enterprises. According to their line of business the staff will tackle all real life business cases – they will deal with supplies, marketing the products and services offered by the practice firm, push sales, do accounting tasks and take personnel management decisions and they have to cope with all the administrative and commercial craftsmanship one needs in a true business.
Our Practice firm MiraQs is member of the Tunisian Practice Firms Network (REET)

The Training Environment

To make the experience as realistic as possible, each learning space in APBS Practice Firm (MIRAQS) is divided into different sections that represent the different departments of a business such as reception, purchasing, human resources, operations and marketing.

The PF approach emphasizes learning in four key areas:

– Ownership:Trainees take responsibility for their own learning.
– Experiential: Trainees’ learning is authentic and realistic.
– Cooperative: Trainees learn with and from others and understand the dynamics of working as part of a team.
– Reflective: Trainees experience the consequences of their decisions and apply that learning to future challenges.

Benefits of the Practice Firm

Preparing Entry into Real World of Work

APBS Practice Firm (MIRAQS) prepares trainees for their eventual entry into the real world of work. It puts the theory they have learned in the lecture hall to practice in a work-based environment and is often

a first work experience forstudent trainees. It makes the connection to the real world of work, which can be very different from the academic environment. Trainees learn many different commercial and entrepreneurial skills such as:
• Administration Skills
• Accounting & Finance
• Digital Skills
• Social & Digital Media
• Human Resource Management
• Marketing & Sales
• Purchasing & Negotiating
• Business Planning & Communications
• International Commerce

Academic skills & Self-development

APBS Practice Firm reinforce academic skills and achievement, reignite interest in education, and raise the desire for self-development and the pursuit of lifelong learning.

Trainees are actively involved in the learning process and decision-making activities, increasing motivation, initiative, creativity and responsibility. Learning is experienced as a natural process, primarily through interaction.

Be prepared to choose a career

APBS trainees can try out different jobs and tasks and see where their career could take them. Through developing and managing their own enterprises, trainees learn professionalism, business acumen,

corporate knowledge,presentation skills, and teamwork, as well as hands-on knowledge of the expectations of the workplace and the economy, thereby improving their employability and spirit of entrepreneurship.

How does a Practice Firm work ?

Learning by Doing

From the viewpoint of training the practice firm allows for true-to-business practice and professional and didactic reappraisal.

This simulation of the economic reality supports the trainees’ creativity, self-starting qualities, entrepreneurship, responsibility, teamwork, language skills – in a nutshell, those key qualifications that are also relevant for life-long learning.

Process & Tasks in the Practice Firm

• Correspondence, using the most up-to-date software
• Dealing with incoming mail
• Using the telephone, the fax, internet
• Working on the PC, using graphics software
• Designing advertising media, like for example crafting catalogues
• Preparing and giving presentations
• Dealing with customers, suppliers, business partners
• Purchasing and selling
• Importing and exporting

• Dispatching and customs clearance
• Invoicing
• Money transfers with domestic and foreign business partners
• Banking business
• Entering business operations into the books
• Warehouse accounting and fixed assets accounting
• Calculating wages, salaries and commissions
• Cost accounting
• Settling the accounts with the revenue office and the national health insurance
• Hosting visitors and business partners
• Other business operations and tasks
• Using the most up to date software
• Filing and archiving documents

Key Players

Trainees

In APBS Practice Firm (PF), the trainees are the ‘employees’ and ‘managers’ of their business. They work in teams undertaking the tasks required by a particular PF department; for example, Finance and Purchasing, Administration, Human Relations, and Sales and Marketing.

Once they have been inducted into their business, they spend time in each department, or in one targeted department, learning the tasks and skills required to ensure their business is viable. Like real employees, they not only demonstrate their ability to complete a wide range of tasks, they also learn the importance of team work, business communication, goal setting, business planning, time management, and the numerous skills required to improve employability.

Trainers

The APBS certified trainer facilitates all the Practice Firm activities: motivating, challenging and supporting the trainees as they take on roles that are often very diﬀerent from their usual workplace skills learning activities. Initially the trainer will take a strong role in directing and structuring the Practice Firm activities,

however as the trainees gain more conﬁdence, the trainer slips into a facilitator role. Trainees work in groups under the general supervision of the trainer/facilitator while also taking responsibility for their own learning and development.

Partners

“La Direction du développement et de la coopération (DDC)” is the organ of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAE) in charge of international cooperation. In addition to democratic transition support, the DDC offers

innovative and pragmatic projects that contribute to economic development. Through these initiatives, it contributes to improving international competitiveness and macroeconomic stability, while financing urban infrastructure and the sustainable management of natural resources. It shares its experience in the field of professional training, supports young entrepreneurs and creates jobs.

« Le ministère de la formation professionnelle et de l’emploi » The overall mission is to ensure the development of the Government’s employment policy and to ensure its implementation and the evaluation of its results.

It is responsible for the design and implementation of plans, programs, instruments and other measures aimed at improving employability and facilitating the integration of youth, as well as assistance for the integration and reintegration of job seekers in specific categories on the one hand, and for the promotion of self-employment on the other.

“Helvartis” is a non-profit organization that manages the Swiss network of Practice Firms, consisting about 60 training companies where fifteen employees are working to set up and develop new companies in Switzerland and abroad.

It provides daily services and advice to training companies. In Switzerland, Helvartis holds the concept of a business practice company built upon the pedagogy of Learning by Doing.

“Swisscontact” is an independent Swiss foundation, close to the private sector and dedicated to international development cooperation. It has about 800 employees in 25 countries and has been stimulating economic, social and ecological

development since 1959. Swisscontact Tunisia opened its representation in March 2013. Its objective is to provide strong expertise in the fields of vocational training and the promotion of SMES.

“La Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie Tuniso-Suisse (CCITNCH)” is an independent body that promotes economic and trade relations within an approach based on the exchange and development of two-way investment.

The activities of the Chamber are based on a broad business network established in Tunisia and Switzerland which, given the investment opportunities in Tunisia, aims to enrich the means of cooperation between Tunisia and Switzerland. CCITNCH is also the privileged contact between the institutional circles and the private economic operators Tunisian and Swiss in search of information, assistance or advice in Tunisia or Switzerland.

“Le Réseau des Entreprises d’Entrainement de Tunisie « ReeT »” is a non-profit organization that holds in Tunisia the concept of “ee” training companies based on the pedagogy of Learning by Doing.

The ReeT governs Tunisian training companies under the supervision of Helvartis, the Swiss Central of Business Practice Companies which delivers the certification.
The Reet is also accredited by the Europen-PEN International.