NEEDS:The project "INTENSE – INTernational ENntrepreneurship Skills Europe" responds to the needs for internationalization of European Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME), the needs of Higher Education Institutes’ (HEI) students to gain international, entrepreneurial, and innovation competences and HEIs needs to stimulate and measure these competencies.OBJECTIVES: The objective of the project is to develop and implement an innovative and complex teaching module between HEI and SME, in order to stimulate entrepreneurial behaviour and internationalisation of students, HEI staff and SMEs. This leads to increasing employability of HEI students and HEI university staff. TOPICS: - Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship)INTENSE corresponds to the targets set in the “Agenda for the modernisation of Europe’s higher education systems” by improving the quality and relevance of higher education, by promoting mobility and cross-border cooperation and by linking higher education, research and business.-New innovative curricula/ educational methods/ development of training coursesThe project furthermore corresponds to the goals set in the EU communication “Opening up Education”, as INTENSE stimulates innovative learning practices, combines face-to-face and online learning and improves technical skills and problem-solving abilities of students in real-life situations.- Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship educationThe project will contribute to fulfil the strategy EU2020 indicator of graduates being employed, as INTENSE creates an international learning experience and thereby increases entrepreneurial competences among students.PROJECT TEAM:The core partners of the project consist of partner universities of applied sciences of HTW Berlin, HU Utrecht, UC Limburg, TUAS Turku, and the University EFOS Osijek. All partners set up national steering structures with students, SMEs and other relevant stakeholders.APPROACH:HEI will develop an interactive and transnational teaching module on SME internationalization. Via intermediary organisations such as chambers of commerce, HEIs will develop links and build a network with SMEs and entrepreneurs engaged / interested in international growth. INTENSE brings together these SMEs with teams of students and HEI staff in five European partner countries, which will help them to do cross-border business. Student teams act as real entrepreneurs supporting the SMEs internationalization. There will be a pilot run in academic year 2017/18 and a full run in 2018/19. The INTENSE project will develop and pilot an instrument to measure innovation competences before/after the implementation of the project among students, entrepreneurs and HEI staff members.MAIN Results:For students: INTENSE will compile innovative teaching material to train students in analysing the readiness for internationalisation and cross-border matchmaking of SMEs. The students work on real SME cases and develop individual situation analyses for the SMEs. In a virtual platform as well as in face-to-face meetings (ISPs) they get together with parallel teams from other participant universities to find potential customers/channels/buyers for the partner SMEs. Students will present their work during national multiplier events to potential future employers and therefore increase their employability.For HEIs: The INTENSE multi-media compilation of teaching material relevant for internationalisation for SMEs will be produced and made openly available. Staff from participating universities will be trained in this new learning module and in the innovation measurement instrument. To ensure the transfer of the project outputs to additional universities, a teaching manual plus a module description will be developed. Awareness for this innovative module will be raised by international multiplier events and by publications in relevant journals.For SMEs: Besides the tailor-made support of individual SMEs, INTENSE will gather relevant information and adaptations of some teaching material in a toolkit for internationalisation for SMEs. Awareness of the private sector, public institutions and students for the project result will be raised by national multiplier events.For policy makers: INTENSE lessons learned and recommendations how to stimulate internationalisation of SMEs, modernisation of universities and employability of students will be elaborated in a public conference with universities, public authorities and private sector. ImpactThe teaching module will increase the employability of students, through the acquired entrepreneurial and transversal competences. The INCODE Barometer will make these competences visible and recognisable among students, HEIs and employers. Open Educational Resouces (OER) will increase the numbers of beneficiaries of the module and the open access approach of the course will increase awareness and contribute to the establishment of OER.
Context: INTENSE – INTernational ENtrepreneurship Skills Europe is a transnational project of five European Higher Education Institutions (HEI). INTENSE responds to the needs for internationalisation of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME), the needs of students to gain international, entrepreneurial, and innovation competences and HEIs’ needs to stimulate these competencies by creating a holistic and joint teaching approach. The project was funded by the EU programme Erasmus+ from September 2016 to September 2019. Objectives: INTENSE promotes the internationalisation, entrepreneurial, and innovation skills of students, HEI staff, and European SMEs and established a network between these stakeholders. It established an innovative and complex teaching module, which stimulates entrepreneurial behaviour and the internationalisation of students, HEI staff, and SMEs. This contributes to the employability of students and HEI staff. Participating organisations: INTENSE was implemented by five HEIs (Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (HTW), Germany; Hogeschool Utrecht, the Netherlands; University Colleges Leuven-Limburg, Belgium; Turku University of Applied Sciences, Finland; J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia). The consortium is a mix of universities and universities of applied sciences with different backgrounds. All partners set up national steering structures with students, SMEs, and other relevant stakeholders. During the project, five additional HEIs joined the team and started to implement the INTENSE teaching approach. Main activities: INTENSE developed an interactive and transnational teaching module on SME internationalisation. This 15 ECTS teaching module includes material on international entrepreneurship, SME internationalisation, project management, and practical skills; additional teaching material of 5 ECTS was also created. Several rounds of the transnational student consultancy project, in which student teams act as real entrepreneurs supporting the SMEs’ internationalisation, were conducted. Student teams do not just consult their local SME, but also cooperate with student teams in the target market of the SME and gain insight into several SME projects while broadening their international competences and network. Furthermore, a toolkit was developed prioritising the entrepreneur’s perspective to support its quest to internationalise. INTENSE also re-developed and tested an instrument to measure innovation competences among students, entrepreneurs, and HEI staff members, and developed policy recommendations. Results and impact: More than 950 students benefitted from the INTENSE teaching material and were trained in analysing the internationalisation potential of SMEs in the last 1,5 years of the project. 290 students worked on real-life SME cases and developed individual situation analyses for the SMEs during transnational student consultancy projects. These students cooperated transnationally to solve their SMEs’ challenge and presented their work at multiplier events to potential future employers. Several students per country were offered a job from participating SMEs. The INTENSE teaching material is openly available on the INTENSE platform. Staff from participating HEIs were trained in this new learning module and in the innovation measurement instrument, in total 44 HEI staff benefited from international experiences during the project. A teaching manual plus a module description ensures the transferability of the project outputs to additional HEIs. Awareness for this module was raised by international multiplier events and by publications in relevant journals. Besides the tailor-made support that 49 SMEs received during the transnational student consultancy, INTENSE gathered relevant information on internationalisation on the SME toolkit, openly available to all SMEs. INTENSE lessons learned and recommendations on how to stimulate the internationalisation of SMEs, modernisation of HEIs, and employability of students was elaborated in a public conference with relevant stakeholders. Longer-term benefits: INTENSE contributes to the reforms of the 2011 EU Modernisation Agenda. It improves the quality and relevance of teaching & learning (KP2) of the participating and further joining HEIs. The fact that five additional HEIs already implemented the teaching approach emphasizes the quality and relevance of the teaching approach. Due to the design of the transnational student consultancy, INTENSE promotes the mobility of students & staff (KP3), extending beyond the funding period, and strengthens the “knowledge triangle" of education, research, and innovation (KP4) through the close cooperation in the steering group. INTENSE supports the implementation of the 2013 Communication on Opening Up Education, as all teaching material is openly available. INTENSE increases the employability of students and HEI staff, through the acquired entrepreneurial and transversal competences.