Faculty of Economics, University of Split has strong capabilities and experiences in university education in the field of Business Studies at all levels – from undergraduate to doctoral studies. Together with two partner universities, University of Malaga, Spain and University of Middlesex, UK, University of Split, Faculty of Economics has strong multiannual experience within the scope of entrepreneurship. Partners will develop SBeA - e-learning, open educational resource. The main goal of the SBeA project is to produce a high-quality, personalized e-learning program for young entrepreneurs/students interested in entrepreneurship in order to provide them with necessary resources to bring their business ideas to life as well as to prepare them for entering the market. The program and collaborative working spaces for users of the program will be available through a customized virtual platform. SBeA combines face-to-face and on-line (blended) learning. The online training program will consist of 6 modules (3 per semester) and 2 training seminars/conferences of 5 days, where participants will acquire key entrepreneurial skills, knowledge about market, and develop their interpersonal and intercultural skills. The project stimulates a new way of learning and teaching through digital content and use of virtual resources, helping students to acquire digital skills, connect classrooms and digital devices and content, increasing efficiency and equity in education. In this way, the project is contributing to the Europe 2020 goals of boosting EU competitiveness and growth through better skilled workforce and more employment. SBeA combines customized support through mentorship and personalized learning for participants which is one of the main benefits of this program. The e-learning program will be available through an on-line platform which will allow learners, educators and researchers to create, share and discuss contents with peers. It will also contribute to alleviating costs for educational institutions and for students, especially among disadvantaged groups. The program will also ensure validation of skills acquired on-line, awarding ECTS. SBeA project is an innovative project with the following outputs given as an open educational resource: Student Business e-Academy program E-learning portal for young entrepreneurs/students Manual for e-learning program Guidebook for beginner entrepreneurs (start-ups) SBeA library Participants of e-learning academy will get new and recognised learning outcomes and competencies, at the same time unleashing their entrepreneurial potential. Mentored by senior entrepreneurs and teachers, they will adopt critical observation on their business ideas. Enthusiasm immanent to young people, in combination with new competences, mentorship and guidance will have a priceless impact on the development of their future careers. They will be able to instantly apply in their project what they learned directly from classes. International and multicultural environment will also create positive attitudes towards internationalisation of their business ideas. Habitual reliance on traditional sources of education, both of students and young entrepreneurs, with this contemporary educational source, will be shifted to more open minded and self-motivated search for other open educational resources upon their needs. Participating institutions will have derived benefits in several aspects. Besides the impacts on existing curriculums, greater transparency and recognition of programmes, universities as higher education and research institutions will encourage their young researchers to use this open academy, especially the researchers without any entrepreneurial knowledge. Furthermore, participating organisations will also benefit in the quality of education and educational practice, enriching their teaching methods and widening the possibilities in combining classic classroom and virtual lectures offering more space to additional learning outcomes.
SBeA project has produced a high-quality, personalized e-learning program, along with the other outputs, for young entrepreneurs/students interested in entrepreneurship, which provide them with necessary resources to bring their business ideas to life as well as to prepare them for entering the market. Project was jointly implemented by three partners: University of Split from Croatia as the coordinator, and Middlesex London from UK and University of Malaga from Spain as partners. Prior to this project, project partners have cooperated on several occasions, including the international entrepreneurship student conference organized in Croatia by Faculty of Economics in August 2014. All project partners have had previous experience in EU-funded projects, as well as the experience in projects related to entrepreneurial field, for which reason it was reasonable to expect taking up their collaboration to a next level with such innovative project as SBeA. Also synergy among partners was well worthy: MDX brought competences and experience from their Enterprise Development Hub(EDH@MDX), UMA brought experience with spin-offs and other incubations of university business projects in Technology Park of Andalusia, whereas University of Split has brought know-how and previous experience from various business programs available at all levels of studies at Faculty of Economics, including the Student Business Academy program that was ran for several years prior to SBeA project. All developed outputs are given as an open educational resource via e-learning portal available at the following link: http://e-learning.efst.unist.hr/. Following intellectual outputs were developed: Student Business e-Academy program E-learning portal for young entrepreneurs/students Guidebook for beginner entrepreneurs (start-ups) Digital startup game Besides the above mentioned outputs, the project partners have also created a SBeA library, available on the e-learning portal, with collection of useful business literature available at participating institutions, as well as the Manual for e-learning program. Along with the developed resources, project has organized four main activities: two multiplier events at the University of Split and two Learning/Teaching/Training Activities in Pakoštane, Croatia with University of Split as a receiving institution. SBeA project combined face-to-face and on-line (blended) learning: the online program and two training seminars/conferences of 5 days - SBeA training conferences, where participants acquired key entrepreneurial skills, knowledge about market, and developed their interpersonal and intercultural skills. The project stimulates a new way of learning and teaching through digital content and use of virtual resources, helping students to acquire digital skills, connect classrooms and digital devices and content, increasing efficiency and equity in education. In this way, the project has contributed to the Europe 2020 goals of boosting EU competitiveness and growth through better skilled workforce and more employment. Project also combines customized support through mentorship and personalized learning for participants. Participants of SBeA online program and the SBeA training conference have gained new knowledge and competences, and have learned to adopt critical observations of their business ideas through guidance by mentors from real sector and professors from universities. Learning and working in teams in an international and multicultural environment has also created positive attitudes towards internationalisation of their business ideas, but have also created great networking opportunities for participants. All of this has had priceless impact on the development of their future careers, since some students from pilot program are already starting their spin-offs. In the long-run, success of such project will shift some educational activities from traditional sources to other open educational resources, which is particularly helpful to young living in the remote areas, such as rural areas or islands. This way it provides all young with an equal opportunity to educate themselves in field of entrepreneurship and establishes connections with mentors from real sector. Also, the program will be adapted to visually impaired persons (VIPs) in accordance with available resources in the future.