In the competitive market of the third millennium, there is a need to equip businesses to become the enterprises of the future, where digitalisation of companies and e-leadership skills will be a MUST. Nowadays, novel digital technologies (particularly Social, Cloud, Mobile and Big Data) are transforming the way companies operate across all markets and creating new business opportunities for digital entrepreneurship.Large and medium companies are equipping themselves to cope with the digital transformation. In contrast, Micro Enterprises (MEs), have less opportunities to access training they need to concentrate key competences and abilities in very small teams.DiTEM will contribute to the development of Digital Entrepreneurship across the EU by facilitating the development and acquisition of e-leadership skills in Micro Enterprises (MEs), by providing an innovative learning path for entrepreneurs and managers of MEs to embrace and implement the Digital Transformation. The project will focus on Micro Enterprises because they are less prepared and able to face the challenges related to embracing digital technologies. DiTEM will help to minimise the risks faced by MEs as they seek to implement new digital tools and processes.DiTEM will also positively impact on a secondary indirect target group: organisations that provide training in business and enterprise development (VET trainers-business coaches). They will be able exploit DiTEM Training Tool to enrich their training offer and to support the digital transformation of European MEs.In total 200 MEs managers and business executives will be involved in the project: first in the initial training needs analysis and then they will benefit from doing the online training and being supported by online coaches.Target group VET trainers and business coaches: in total about 40 VET trainers and business coaches will benefit from project results. They will participate in VET training and then gain experience in delivering on-line coaching support to MEs. Via the mainstream dissemination activities (e.g. social media, website visitors, e-newsletters) and the multiplier events, the number of people and organisations reached is expected to be considerable (5000).The work-plan is organized on a 36 months’ basis: - The 1st phase will serve to conduct a training needs analysis. - In the 2nd phase the training course and the online learning environment will be developed and tested internally by the consortium;- During the 3rd phase, a set of training activities will be held in each participating country: partners’ staff trained to be DiTEM coaches and train the trainers, blended train the trainers activities (VET trainers to be DiTEM coaches), blended training for end-users (MEs’ business leaders). This phase will also serve to pilot test the developed products;- Based on the results of the pilot test and studies conducted in each project country, policy recommendation will be issued in the 4th phase. During the last months, dissemination activities (which will start from the beginning of the project) will be given a boost and an exploitation plan will be launched to promote the DiTEM training system and coaching.The project methodology is based on three principles:1. Develop products that are the best suited to the needs of the target group identified;2. Make the products of the project sustainable and usable for a large number of stakeholders after the end of the eligible period. The train the trainers activities and the involvement of VET providers is aimed to reach this goal;3. Promote a work-based learning approach for micro enterprises, based on a blended training course supported by online coaching. The focus of the training will be mainly on 4 digital technologies, such as: mobile solutions, social media, cloud computing and big data. Participants are expected to become able to:- understand and recognise the full potential of the proposed technologies for their activity and market; - set out a strategy to invest time and resources on the improvement of the digital performance of their company;- select the best solution available in the market;- Involve the relevant consultants or experts to make use of the technologies available.In short, they are expected to become e-leaders. Besides single MEs, the project intends to impact the entire European business Community, which will benefit from an open educational resource available online, supported by a network of coaches around Europe. A particularly important expected impact of the project is to influence policy-makers. The project will raise the awareness and understanding of VET and SME stakeholders regarding the potential and value of a more strategic and integrated use of ICT and open educational resources to drive SME growth and performance.
The project aimed to develop an innovative training system to support micro enterprises (MEs) to adopt digital transformation. It was agreed that e-leadership should be a core component of the support we offered to MEs. As a consortia, we undertook initial research in the form of a survey shared across all six countries. The findings of this research informed the content of the online platform units. In addition, we undertook a literature review of the current academic and professional articles in order to further identify the gaps in knowledge for MEs. Micro-enterprises were identified as the end-users for this particular project in recognition of the lack of specific digital transformation support targeted at this demographic. Furthermore, DiTEM built on previous studies and initiatives promoted by the EC which focussed on e-leadership skills for SMEs rather than MEs. Objectives We developed an e-learning platform in order to transfer knowledge and understanding of digital solutions to the MEs in a user-friendly and easily accessible manner. The platform provides an introduction to digital technologies. As a consortia we agreed that due to the nature and pace of technology development, the platform should be an explanatory rather that instructional platform. In doing so, we have ensured that this is accessible to MEs of all levels. At the end of each unit we provided signposting tools that they could adopt in order to start exploiting this form of digital transformation. The VET DITEM Manager coaching element to the programme was developed to complement the online platform, allowing the trainer to utilise aspects of the platform that are relevant to the MEs they are working with. This was a deliberate decision in order to address disparity in levels between MEs across the six countries. For instance, it was advised very early in the project that MEs in Bulgaria were at a significantly different level of adoption to those in the UK and Finland, therefore would be likely to utilise different aspects of the platforms to start their digital transformation journey. The combined format of the online platform and DiTEM coach has worked well and is a format we will continue to use post-project funding. Participating organisations At initial survey stage, we engaged with 224 businesses, from these 157 also took part in the pilot phase. The demographic was predominantly MEs (1-10 employees), however in Denmark they expanded the demographic to also include identified businesses with up to 20 employees, as it was felt that within that country the concerns they had mirrored those of MEs'. Description of undertaken main activities As outlined above the activities undertaken consisted of: - Initial survey to establish a baseline of understanding of the technologies amongst MEs across the six countries. The results of the survey helped to inform the level and depth of the content. - The next stage consisted of developing the online platform and the content for the individual units. We then trained 15 DiTEM coaches to complement the online platform through VET training. These coaches subsequently trained further trainers. - Once the pilot platform was ready for testing we undertook the pilot workshop phase of the project, which included each country delivering training to MEs and helping them develop a digital transformation plan. Results and impact As highlighted, we took the decision to have two key components to the project: face to face coaching and an online platform. The online platform provides an overview of the technologies available but not specific training on using the technologies- being too prescriptive would date the platform before it was even launched. From the workshops we have gained information about the needs from MEs and have compared with the results from the EU project LEAD, which analysed leadership skills for SMEs. In this project it is obvious that there is major difference between SMEs of 15 employees and SMEs with 200 employees. It appeared that the smaller SMEs had the same or similar challenges as the MEs. It therefore seemed sensible to limit future projects to MEs. Based upon the experience gained we identified key policy recommendations: - Training format for further training of MEs - Development of an ME platform – offering overview of tools, consultancy companies and technologies for MEs (and potentially SMEs) - A repository of activities across Europe that support digital transformation