– FINDINGS FROM THE FIRST TEN PROGRAMS 1999-2001

In a franchising relationship, the franchisor is responsible for arranging initial and ongoing training for the franchise owners. However, most of the young or smaller size franchisors do not have enough resources to arrange versatile and in-depth training for their franchisees. The Finnish franchisee training program is an answer to this need. It is a unique training given to prospective franchisees by a third party. The program aims to find people interested in franchising and to give them the essential skills and knowledge a franchisee needs. Additional goal is to help the trainees to choose a franchise. The organizing parties behind the programs are the government owned Employment and Economic Development Centres and a private consultation company specialised in franchising. The training program enables franchisors to concentrate on system specific training, while it strives for providing the participants with a realistic view of the time, financial and skills demands of franchise ownership and self-employment. Therefore, the program serves both franchisors and prospective franchisees. The first program was organised in 1999 in Helsinki. Subsequently, the programs have also been arranged in two other major cities, Tampere and Turku. In total, more than 200 trainees graduated from the first ten programs held in 1999-2001. The graduates comprise the samples of the current study. The data were collected in two separate phases. Mailed questionnaires and phone interviews were used to gather quantitative an