The volume of data that governments, businesses and organizations manage has grown exponentially and, if turned into actionable, “smart” data, presents vast opportunities to drive productivity, innovation and competitiveness in Europe. The EC 2014 Big Data Strategy recognises that data-intensive sectors of the economy are growing by 40% per year. However, even while the UK, Germany, Ireland and Netherlands are leaders in big data at post-graduate and industrial level, if the digital economy is to flourish, data skills must move out of specialist R&D and be taught as a transversal skillset to students at all levels. This provides a challenge to the VET sector, which is currently held back by its own deficit in data skills. The Smart Data, Smart Regions project will respond to this challenge by directly improving the ability of entrepreneurship VET policy makers and practitioners to understand, teach and implement smart data within their institutions. Moreover, it will help them use data to adapt and optimise entrepreneurship development strategies at regional level, becoming “smart regions”. To achieve this, partners will produce the following intellectual outputs: a) Create and publish a STRATEGIC GUIDE TO SMART DATA IN YOUR REGION to make the case for an integrated, cross sector approach to smart data and facilitate the creation of Regional Partnerships. b) Establish 4 REGIONAL SMART DATA PARTNERSHIPS to bring together 50+ stakeholders from VET, HE, public and private sectors to develop 4 Action Plans for improving smart data’s role in entrepreneurship policy, education and support in each region. c) Develop ESSENTIAL SMART DATA OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: a curriculum, trainers’ guide and suite of interactive online learning materials for VET teachers and trainers in colleges, enterprise development centres, incubators, non-profits and public authorities. d) Produce a SMART DATA ONLINE PLATFORM, a multilingual, interactive portal to maximize target group engagement and long-term impact of the educational resources.The project methodology is highly participative at all stages. Alongside their leadership of an intellectual output each, all partners will contribute to a proactive dissemination strategy, including multiplier events in each partner country and an international launch, and focussed quality management and evaluation activities which include our target groups at each stage: - At least 50 high-level representatives of organizations from the fields of VET, entrepreneurship education, and wider economic development will participate directly in 4 Regional Partnerships- At least 60 professional teachers and trainers of entrepreneurship skills working in VET organizations will be trained in the Essential Smart Data open educational resources, benefitting approximately 700 VET students will benefit - At least 200 representatives of stakeholder organizations will participate in multiplier events. - Approximately 12,000 individuals will engage with the interactive online platform for the VET community interested in smart data skills. In terms of impact, Smart Data Smart Regions is a pioneering and transformative project because of its ability to overcome the smart skills deficit in two levels of the VET sector – practitioners and policy makers. As a result of the project, more and more VET institutions will effectively integrate smart data skills into their curricula as a vital transversal skill for the knowledge economy, meaning that thousands of students learning entrepreneurship at VET institutions and or start up entrepreneurs gaining assistance from business development service providers will being using smart data analysis for their own projects. In other words, the project will directly boost the ability of today’s students to become tomorrow’s successful entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and community leaders. The second target group - VET managers, policy makers and decision makers - will learn how to use data to adapt and optimise entrepreneurship development strategies according to their region’s needs and opportunities, creating genuinely smarter regions in the short and long term. They will be able to use data proactively to define future policy and will be more responsive to local needs and opportunities, creating a more tailored educational support system and generating more successful entrepreneurs. The end result: a significant long-term strengthening of the competitiveness of the local economy and an inbuilt capacity to continue learning and adapting to new contexts.The project has been designed to respond to a genuine need experienced by partner organizations and their counterparts in the vocational education, entrepreneurship support and economic development community at national levels so they each have a vested in ensuring immediate and sustained impact.
Context/background of the project: Smart Data, Smart Region (SDSR) worked to a clear objective: to improve the ability of entrepreneurship VET policy makers and practitioners to understand, teach and implement smart data within their institutions and to use smart data to adapt and optimise entrepreneurship development strategies at regional level. SDSR was developed as a lighthouse project, introducing the topic to the VET sector as a whole and integrating it to entrepreneurship education in a very practical way to reveal the scale of what can be achieved. Objectives a) Create and publish a STRATEGIC GUIDE TO SMART DATA IN YOUR REGION to make the case for an integrated, cross sector approach to smart data and facilitate the creation of Regional Partnerships. )b Develop ESSENTIAL SMART DATA OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: a curriculum, trainers’ guide and suite of interactive online learning materials for VET teachers and trainers in colleges, enterprise development centres, incubators, non-profits and public authorities. c) Produce a SMART DATA ONLINE PLATFORM, a multilingual, interactive portal to maximize target group engagement and long-term impact of the educational resources Number and profile of participating organisations; A6 participating organisations in four countries – UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany with a cross sector expertise base Omagh Enterprise Company Limited UK, NGO, enterprise stimulus organisation and VET body CANICE CONSULTING LIMITED, UK, Small and medium sized enterprise, elearning company LEITRIM COUNTY COUNCIL Ireland Regional Public body TeleRegions Net aisbl Belgium , EU-wide network STICHTING BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT FRIESLAND Netherlands NGO, enterprise stimulus organisation and VET body ZETIS GmbH Germany Small and medium sized enterprise, data specialist Main activities undertaken: Completion and successfully delivery of Smart Region Smart Data Strategic Guide (964 downloads) and six modules in a Smart Data Open Education Resources classroom course (1,024 downloads) and online course Successfully reaching all target groups including stakeholders from VET, HE, enterprise, education and economic development sectors. From public, private and non-profit organisations Successfully hosting 4 multiplier events in Northern Ireland, Ireland, Netherlands and Germany with 190 attendees Strong dissemination actions including project showcase in European Parliament, hosted by MEP Martina Anderson Long term impact Data skills improve the entrepreneurial mind-set and employability of students and Smart Data improves our understanding of social/economic trends, enabling VET providers to tailor their service and entrepreneurship support to specific opportunities at regional level. Given our classroom course has been downloaded 1,024 times by the end of the project, this is a strong impact which will have ongoing reach. Students can also access the training materials directly through the project website and Slideshare. Our STRATEGIC GUIDE TO SMART DATA IN YOUR REGION was downloaded 964 times which greatly exceeds the project target of 250 downloads). Overall SDSR has produced high quality products and results that can be transferred across many sectors to target stakeholders from VET, HE, enterprise, education and economic development sectors. From public, private and non-profit organisations all will benefit from being data aware. The ESSENTIAL SMART DATA OPEN RESOURCES curriculum, trainers’ guide and suite of interactive online learning materials for VET teachers and trainers in colleges, enterprise development centres, incubators, non-profits and public authorities will yield significant long-term strengthening of the competitiveness of the local economy and an inbuilt capacity to continue learning and adapting to new contexts. We feel that this has been achieved due to the interest in the project as there is a need for trainers to be trained in data skills to develop several sectors. This is proven through the huge interest in our classroom VET pack. Results and impact attained; • Strategic Guide (964 downloads passing target of 250 downloads and 380 copies circulated to our databases) • Classroom course downloads:1,064 • Online course: 324 have completed the course and196 accessed the course on Slideshare • Course pilot tested with 62 Participants in 4 partner countries: UK, Ireland, Germany and Netherlands with 91% of the participants likely/very likely to recommend the course • Strong & consistent dissemination campaign and over 42,000 visitors to the project website. Longer term benefits: As a result of the project, we will see more and more VET institutions effectively wanting to integrate smart data skills into their curricula, this in turn means that thousands of students learning entrepreneurship at VET institutions and or start up entrepreneurs gaining assistance from business development service providers will being using smart data analysis for their own projects.