BACKGROUNDMicroenterprises are the backbone of EU economy, representing 90% of EU firms and providing 53% of EU jobs. Microenterprises face considerable challenges in their growth and competitiveness:1)Increased global competition and transition to knowledge economy are transforming the working life of microenterprises that need different occupational skills with more medium/high-level qualifications2)Economic crisis has a huge adverse impact on microenterprises, the first to suffer from stagnation due to their sizeThe EU recognises the need to boost microenterprises’ growth through training: in “Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan-Reigniting Entrepreneurial Spirit”, 2013, “Identification of Future Skills Needs in Micro/Craft-Type Enterprises up to 2020”, DG Enterprise clearly identifies specific needs and puts forward solutions in the “development of tools and skills trainings structures with a special focus on micro and craft-type enterprises”.Rural microenterprises face even higher challenges due to lack of access to support mechanisms, services and training.In “Continuing education and training in rural areas”Oct 2015, the EU Economic & Social Committee stresses that “governments need to recognise that investing in development of micro-, family and small businesses in rural and remote areasis a good long-term investment to stop migration, reduce pressures on services in cities, restore economic sustainability to local communities and help preserve the rural environment”.Also, the EU clearly states that “there is a requirement to develop new training for rural micro- and small businesses based on empirical evidence of the tasks that are actually carried out in these businesses. Training for rural businesses must be delivered locally, using ICT”.OBJECTIVEMICRO’s objective is to sustain growth and competitiveness of rural microenterprises by developing practical training resources to be delivered both face-to-face and through the Open Educational Resource. MICRO will bridge the capacity gaps to sustain growth and competitiveness of rural microenterprises while overcoming their isolationPARTICIPANTSMICRO partnership represents highly motivated and experienced partners from 6 countries, each with specific expertise and success stories about microentrepreneurship and bridging the “rural gap”. The partnership combines training/pedagogical accuracy (academic partner and VET providers) with market relevance (microenterprises) and rural penetration. This composition ensures geographical coverage as well as projection of dissemination and valorisation across the EU. Partners have complementary skills and expertise that empowers MICRO to achieving objective through sound and practical deliverables.ACTIVITIESA)Identify specific knowledge gaps and capacity needs of microenterprises in rural areasB) Design innovative multilingual training content, material and web based tools / OER platformC) Test and validate the main results with at least 200 microenterprises in rural areas in 6 countriesMETHDOLOGYMICRO relies on a practical, yet scientifically accurate, methodological approach: such a balance is provided by the type of partners involved (academic, business, NGOs and facilitators or rural development). MICRO’s methodology is sequenced along the following steps:--> gap assessment--> development of training (demand driven)--> pilot for user-based validation--> finalisation--> full roll-out and deployment through OERRESULTSMICRO’s results will be practical and relevant training solutions for microenterprises in rural areas, in multilingual versions and freely available without restrictions through the OER platform, that will also become the platform for the community of practice of microenterprises in rural areas by attracting / inviting stakeholders (VET, users, facilitators) from all over EUIMPACT&BENEFITMICRO will engage at least 200 microentrepreneurs (and entrepreneurs to be)to enhance their competitiveness and nurture their growth. MICRO will generate immediate and tangible impact at local levels reaching out to target groups and relevant stakeholders. Partners have already committed to maintaining the MICRO OER platform for at least 2 years after the end of the Erasmus+ cofinancing to sustain project results; the valorisation plan envisions the scaling up of the Platform to engae and involve other stakehodlers and contributors (VET providers, facilitators, microenterrprises, etc) to ensure that the tangible results are sustained well beyond project lifetime. The involvement of a nation-wide rural link and private sector guarantees sustainability of the project.
Context of the Project: The MICRO Project addresses capacity and training needs of microenterprises in rural areas across the EU to sustain their competitiveness, for enhanced growth, and further employment generation. The idea behind MICRO is to develop and deploy an Open Educational resource or OER, with open and widely available training content and modules, targeted at micro/craft enterprises. The OER content will support the development of basic and transversal skills, (such as entrepreneurship, ability to operate in the EU Single Market, self-employment, etc.) for rural micro-enterprise entrepreneurs in an innovative way. The innovative aspect of MICRO relies on its bottom-up and demand driven approach while consolidating on the expertise and experience of Vocational Education and Training (VET) practitioners and technical experts. The innovative aspect also relies on the openness of project partners in the utilization of feedback, making MICRO an open platform not only for training and capacity building, but also for networking, cross-border transaction facilitation, and for rural microenterprise match-making throughout the EU . Objectives: The objective of the MICRO project is to sustain growth and competitiveness of rural microenterprises by developing practical training resources that can be delivered both face-to-face and through the Open Educational Resource/Online/Virtually. MICRO will provide a mechanism to bridge capacity gaps to sustain growth and competitiveness of rural microenterprises while overcoming their isolation by creating; • A cost/resource-effective categorized online interactive platform easily used and understood by businesspeople, entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-to-be, SMEs and Micro SME workers, as well as general public. The MICRO Project OER responds to the social need of supporting a specific entrepreneurial groups and the rural business community. The MICRO OER also makes training available to rural female entrepreneurs who, in general, are too often at risk of job un-employment and marginalisation because of their gender. The MICRO Project OER provides "entrepreneurial training" for entrepreneurial spin-off activities often developed by rural women. • A series of user friendly, professional, and useful training records (training fiches) to support entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-to-be, in terms of first business experience and professionalization of their starting activities • Online multi-language trade and business glossary to help users identify concepts and terms in everyday activities, thus boosting market opportunities, creating synergies, building trade relationships, and building networks between entrepreneur target groups such as rural women entrepreneurs. • Tailored training courses specifically targeted to entrepreneurs that respond to the gaps identified Partner Profile: Seven partners participated on the MICRO project (Partner #); 1. Irish Rural Link Cooperative Society Ltd (IRL) Country IE 2. National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM) Country IE 3. Community Development Institute, Macedonia, (CDI) Country MK 4. EEO Group Consulting, Greece (EEO) Country GR 5. IHF, Brussels Country BE 6. IDP, Italy Country IT 7. Internet Web Solutions, Spain (IWS) Country ES Description of main activities undertaken: A) Design and Development of an Open ICT Platform, Project Logo, Website [IO1 OER Platform and project website in 6 languages] B) Identify specific knowledge gaps and capacity needs of microenterprises in rural areas in six countries [IO2 Capacity Gap Assessment] C) Design innovative multilingual training content, material and web based tools / OER platform (six languages) [IO3 OER-MICRO training courses developed in 6 languages] D) Test and validate the main results with at least 200 microenterprises in rural areas in 6 countries [IO4 200 SMEs trained in 6 Countries - Test and Validation of MICRO OER] MICRO relied on a practical, yet scientifically accurate, methodological approach: this balance was provided by the partner type (academic, business, NGOs and facilitators or rural development) making up the consortium. MICRO’s methodology was sequenced along the following steps: - Gap assessment - Development of training (demand driven) - Pilot for user-based validation - Finalisation - Full roll-out and deployment through OER. Results and Impacts obtained:The purpose of the Test and Validation phase of MICRO was to test the training courses developed and validate that they address the specific training needs and capacity gaps identified in the assessment phase. The feedback and comments from the 368 participants involved in the pilot deployment of the MICRO training provided the input to allow for fine-tuning of the MICRO web-based platform and the training content. The first task of this phase was to develop a Validation Plan outlining how the objective to collect reliable inputs and feedback from the partners was to be achieved.