When SMEs succeed, Europe succeeds. ‘SME’ is a little acronym but it covers a huge diversity of companies, sectors and circumstances. Hidden within this large universe of companies across Europe are the champions of tomorrow. Since 2008 Europe has been suffering the effects of the most severe economic crisis it has seen in 50 years: in the majority of EU Member States small and medium-sized enterprises have not yet been able to bounce back to their pre-crisis levels. New companies, especially SMEs, represent the most important source of new employment creating more than 4 million new jobs every year in Europe. However, support measures for SMEs throughout Europe remain unbalanced with a substantial number of EU Member States still neglecting to take into account the needs or unique characteristics of small businesses, in particular micro-enterprises. Furthermore, despite some progress in recent years, it is still widely held that education fails to offer the right foundation for an entrepreneurial career. When most entrepreneurs start their micro-enterprises they already have a long list of training needs. Despite this, it is a well-known fact that micro-enterprise owners are, at best, reluctant learners in all partner countries. In many cases their participation in training and education is non-existent. As the key decision makers their influence over the learning habits, and disposition toward learning, of a vast cohort of workers throughout Europe is decidedly negative. As micro-enterprises are the engine room of the EU economy the negative impact of this aversion to learning is felt widely throughout our local areas, regions and countries as it stifles growth and impinges on the sustainability of many businesses. There is a significant 'real-world distance' between vocational education professionals/providers and owner-managers of micro-enterprises in all partner countries. This 'distance' has many facets and attributes, many of which are deeply embedded on both sides of the equation. Whether it is down to institutional policy and practice in vocational education which can result in the provision of courses that are perceived as cumbersome, somewhat dated and overly expensive by micro-enterprise owners or an indifferent attitude towards training among micro-enterprise owners underpinned by time poverty and a lack of regard for the relevance of the available training, these two sectors of society remain almost immiscible. The SYNERGY project is presented by a consortium of 7 partners representing Ireland, Italy, Romania, Cyprus, Greece, Germany and Finland. The consortium comprises universities, rural development companies, VET providers, business support agencies, research institutes and technical experts. The aim of SYNERGY is to “improve the quality and relevance of VET provision to micro-enterprises to support the transformation of the European economy into a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy by developing and implementing a bespoke learning environment for vocational education professionals and micro-enterprise owners to ensure the development of micro-enterprises and to enable this dynamic sector realize its true potential”. The objectives of SYNERGY are: (1) To support the development of a culture of learning within the micro-enterprise sector cultivating positive attitudes towards learning among micro-enterprise owners by ensuring that learning materials developed are relevant to their needs and appropriate to their learning preferences; (2) To support the continuous professional development of vocational education staff by providing a bespoke in-service training program that builds their knowledge and understanding of the business world and supports their work in non-traditional blended learning environments (3) To create a sense of community animating micro-enterprise owners and education service providers towards a common set of educational goals and objectives ensuring that service provision is tailored to address the needs of local businesses; (4) To design and implement a series of cost-effective, flexible, bespoke peer-to-peer learning micro-social networks to considerably increase the range and accessibility of educational services and supports; (5) To provide a suite of bespoke media-rich learning resources that address specific skill needs within the micro-enterprise sector identified through research with the target group; (6) To promote inter-cultural awareness and grow the potential for international business development for micro-enterprises by linking the on-line learning communities created in the different Member States.
At the heart of the SYNERGY Project was the belief that when SMEs succeed, Europe succeeds. Support measures for SMEs across Europe remain unbalanced with a substantial number of member states neglecting to take account of the needs and unique characteristics of small businesses, in particular micro-enterprises. This is the gap in services, particularly VET services, that the SYNERGY project team elected to address. Since September 2014, the team has been developing, delivering and disseminating the project and its innovative outputs aiming to bridge the gap between the current offering of VET support for micro-enterprises and the increasing need for specialized training among Europe's SMEs. There is a significant 'real-world distance' between vocational education professionals/providers and owner-managers of micro-enterprises in all partner countries. This 'distance' has many facets and attributes, many of which are deeply embedded on both sides of the equation. This was the background against which the SYNERGY project was set. The aim of SYNERGY was to “improve the quality and relevance of VET provision to micro-enterprises to support the transformation of the European economy into a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy by developing and implementing a bespoke learning environment for vocational education professionals and micro-enterprise owners to ensure the development of micro-enterprises and to enable this dynamic sector realize its true potential”. The defined project objectives included to: 1.) support a culture of learning within SMEs; 2.) support the continuous professional development of VET trainers building their knowledge and understanding of the business world; 3.) create a sense of community between micro-enterprise owners and VET providers; 4.) design and implement a series of cost-effective, flexible, bespoke peer-to-peer learning micro-social networks to increase the range and accessibility of educational services and supports; and 5.) to provide a suite of media-rich learning resources that address specific skill needs within the SME sector. In addition, a transversal objective across all of our activities was to promote intercultural awareness and grow the potential for international business development across our target groups and local stakeholders. The SYNERGY partnership comprised 7 partners as follows: Meath Partnership (Ireland) led the consortium and managed the overall implementation. It supported the work of all other partners to ensure a successful and timely completion of project tasks, hosted the transnational in-service training event and led the dissemination and exploitation actions. ARES from Campobasso, Italy - a VET Centre that led the development of curriculum resources for micro-enterprises including the mini-learning resources. AOA ARGES from Pitesti, Romania - a business network organisation led the testing and implementation phase of the project. CARDET from Lefkosia, Cyprus - an academic research and development organisation designed the research and quality assurance elements of the project and implemented the internal evaluation exercises. University of Peloponnese from Tripoli, Greece developed the in-service training for the VET professionals. University of Paderborn from Germany designed the pedagogic strategy and induction programmes for micro-enterprise owners and commissioned the policy paper. Innoventum from Joensuu, Finland as the technical partner developed the micro-social networks and the project website.The consortium brought together an appropriate blend of skills, expertise and experience required to deliver this project. Central to the development and implementation of the project was the continual cycle of validation of project outputs informed by feedback from local sub-groups, ensuring they had a direct and active role in designing and influencing the learning content developed. In adopting this approach, over the project lifetime, the consortium worked in partnership with the target groups to ensure that appropriate learning opportunities and exchanges were created and supported. The main activities undertaken by the consortium included: 1.) production of national state-of-the-art and best practices research and audit reports documenting the learning needs and preferences of SMEs, which acted as the evidence-base for the project 2.) development of a bespoke Train-the-Trainer curriculum with accompanying tutor manuals and learner workbooks, accredited at QQI Level 6 on the Irish NFQ supporting the CPD of VET practitioners; 3.) development of online social networking and e-learning platform that provides the target groups with opportunities to network and exchange knowledge, experiences and information; 4. ) design of a new Induction to Pedagogy programme for micro-enterprise owners using synergyexchange.eu and 5.) and a suite of online mini-learning resources developed using best practice in micro-learning and e-didactics.