One of the legacies of the conflict in Northern Ireland is the existence of numerous Catholic-Protestant interfaces. Unfortunately, growing immigration and ethnic diversity is generating new interfaces, causing ethno-religious tension in urban centres across Europe. If not addressed, these tensions can spiral downwards causing ghettoization, poverty and even open conflict, threatening the European goal of a peaceful and prosperous society for all. Given the neutrality of enterprise development within the public policy agenda and the emergence of innovative business models mixing social and economic objectives, now more than ever enterprise education and training programmes have great potential for catalyzing personal and community economic and social development in interface areas. Entrepreneurship in Interface has been carefully structured to generate improved access and quality of enterprise training for disadvantaged people living in interface areas, by updating the knowledge, skills and organizational capacity of the VET and community organizations who serve them. To achieve this, we will: a) Establish 4 “Enterprise in Interface Regional Alliances”, in which stakeholders from public, private and non-profit sectors collaborate to explore the needs and opportunities for promoting successful entrepreneurship in interface communities, identifying best practice service models and committing to collective and individual strategies in 4 Regional Action Plans. b) Create, publish and promote the “Enterprise in Interface Toolkit” to encourage the creation of further Alliances across Europe. c) Develop and publish a course curriculum and learning materials to train VET practitioners on emerging social innovation and enterprise models and the skills needed to effectively recruit and teach them to participants from such vulnerable backgrounds. d) Test, publish and strongly promote the course, to facilitate its inclusion in mainstream VET provision. The project will be delivered by six organizations from UK, Ireland, Belgium and Croatia with a strong cross-sector focus. Partners were selected on the basis of their direct experience in interface relations in relevant geographic areas, but the partnership also reflects diversity in mission (VET, education, community development) and market orientation (public, private, not-for-profit). We are: • East Belfast Enterprise, a Northern Irish enterprise development agency working in the heart of Belfast • Canice Consulting is a NI consultancy with a specialization in online and blended learning • Creative Spark, is a creative training facility on the interface between the traveller and settled communities in Dundalk, Ireland • Momentum is an accredited Irish training centre with strong focus on social inclusion • Rijeka Development Agency Porin is a regional development agency in Croatia • Association for the Development and Emancipation of Muslims (VOEM) is a national non-profit in Belgium using adult education and social dialogue to promote an open and tolerant society. Enterprise In Interface is highly innovative in terms of its strategic focus (no work has been carried out to date on the use of enterprise education as a transformative tool specifically in interface areas) and in using the Regional Alliances to generate ongoing, systemic improvements in the provision of enterprise training and support for the development of interface areas in Europe, region by region. In its lifetime, the project will directly impact on over 250 VET practitioners working in interface areas and high level representatives of stakeholder organizations from VET, higher education, non-profit sector and local government. They will gain: - Improved understanding of the new models of enterprise development and its potential as a driver for growth at individual and community level - Practical strategies and tools to help engage in interface communities and introduce new services in their organizations, for example how to increase recruitment in partnership with other organizations; how to establish neutrality and trust; methodologies for teaching social enterprise, community business, cooperatives etc. - a robust regional partnership formula for use in community development initiatives (or indeed other sectors) and improved networking to dozens of other regional actors and the opportunity to contribute to policy at regional level. By improving the quality and accessibility of enterprise training services at a this level, as delivered by local enterprise agencies and community organizations, our project facilitates the greater upskilling of otherwise disadvantaged individuals, helping them play a greater role in the economy and society, and this will be felt immediately at local level in terms of employment and the easing of tensions and conflict at community level.
Context The EU faces an increasingly unstable geo-political landscape across the Globe resulting in immigration pressures. Coupled with the increasing threat from Islamic terrorism and a rise in nationalist identities seen in recent referendums, this gives rise to the emergence of “interfaces” across the continent. Enterprise in Interface (ENTER) was developed following an examination of enterprise responses to division in society at interfaces within Northern Ireland. Given the neutrality of enterprise development and the emergence of innovative business models mixing social and economic objectives, enterprise education has potential to catalyse personal and community economic and social development in interface areas. ENTER was designed to improve access to enterprise training for disadvantaged people living in interface areas, by updating the knowledge, skills and organizational capacity of the VET and community organizations who serve them. Objectives Objectives were to: a) Establish 4 Regional Partnerships in which stakeholders from public, private and non-profit sectors collaborate and commit resources for a range of actions recorded in Regional Action Plans. b) Create, publish and promote the “Enterprise in Interface Toolkit” to encourage the creation of further Partnerships across Europe. c) Develop and publish a course curriculum and learning materials to train VET practitioners on emerging social innovation and enterprise models and the skills needed to effectively recruit and teach them to participants from such vulnerable backgrounds. d) Test, publish and promote the course, to facilitate its inclusion in mainstream VET provision. Participating organisations The project was delivered by 6 organizations from UK, Ireland, Netherlands and Croatia reflecting diversity in mission (VET, education, community development) and market orientation (public, private, not-for-profit) comprising: • East Belfast Enterprise, a Northern Irish enterprise development agency • Canice Consulting, a NI consultancy with a specialism in online and blended learning • Creative Spark, a creative training facility in Dundalk, Ireland • Momentum, an accredited Irish training centre • Rijeka Development Agency Porin, a regional development agency in Croatia • Stichting Business Development Friesland (BDF), a business innovation centre in Friesland. Main Activities The programme was underpinned by partnership working at a regional and trans-national level, working through face to face meetings, via Skype, social media platforms, telecoms and email. Trans-national meetings were held in each partner country and actions agreed for work in each region between meetings. In each region partnerships were formed to develop work programmes for local impact and to produce a regional action plan to guide further work. Outputs were disseminated via a range of channels, including the project website at www.enterproject.info Results/Impact The programme focused on the development and dissemination of a number of intellectual outputs with results as follows: Output 1 – Production of a Toolkit as a Guide to Establishing a Regional Partnership Results • Toolkit produced in English, Dutch and Croatian • Toolkit used to establish 4 regional partnerships, one in the UK, Ireland, Croatia and The Netherlands • 100 print copies distributed and 210 downloads of the English version • 59 of the Dutch and 90 of the Croatian version downloaded, a total of 359 Toolkits downloaded and 100 printed copies circulated, exceeding the target of 280 Output 2 – Regional Partnership Action Plans Results • 4 Regional Action plans produced, one in UK, Ireland, Croatia and The Netherlands involving 157 stakeholder representatives participating, passing the target of 40 – 48 representatives. Output 3 – Development of Course Curriculum Results • Course curriculum developed comprising 5 modules with powerpoint presentations, 5 learner exercise workbooks, 1 trainer manual • Materials comprise a mix of presentations, case studies, videos, group exercises and a you tube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuvZsN53XtMIEfQc_EsHYVQ Output 4 – Online Course & Multimedia Open Education Resources Results • On-line resources developed and available via the project website http://www.enterproject.info/online-course/ • Total of 25,032 visitors to the website, more than double the 12,000 target Output 5 – Pilot Test Report • Report completed with 54 individuals across the participating countries completing the pilot, passing the target of 50. Longer-term benefits Sustainability will focus on disseminating and using the intellectual outputs, particularly the Toolkit, Course Curriculum and On-line Resources. The website at http://enterproject.info provides access to the free resources, which will be disseminated widely for those working at interfaces to use and ensure that the impact of the ENTER programme continues long after the initial funding period.