CONTEXT Start-up companies are an essential part of European Commission priorities for the attainment of a sustainable and durable European economy growth. This program aims to empower entrepreneurs with the financial management skills and knowledge required in order to help them run and manage their businesses successfully and effectively. The B-CAPP project concerns a complete training program for financial planning/management of start-ups complemented by smart use of ICT for reduction of operating costs and cross border business activity leading to increase in competitiveness. The beneficiaries of B-CAPP, male/female entrepreneurs, aged 19 to 35 will: - improve their knowledge and skills; - acquire new skills; - continue their personal or professional development. OBJECTIVES Help entrepreneurs to improve their skills and knowledge about issues concerning financial management (e.g. Entrepreneurial Finance, Cash flow management & Basic accounting concepts, etc.) and smart use of ICT/eBusiness for reducing operating costs and generating revenues (e.g. Cash flow automation tools, eTendering, eCommerce, etc.). The objective is not to look into financial management concepts in a vacuum, but address them in direct relation to the adoption of proven ICT practices and tools as smarter use of ICT drives revenues and reduces operating costs. Therefore, sustainable financial management cannot be isolated from uses of ICT. PARTICIPANTS The partnership comprises 8 partners from 6 countries. A software development house an educational technology and knowledge dissemination company, two higher education institutes active in entrepreneurial training and support, 2 VET training consultancies with ECVET expertise and a foundation all active in entrepreneurial VET and a regional development agency specialized in the field of internationalization and training of companies. ACTIVITIES The B-CAPP partnership will design, develop, test, implement and disseminate an innovative training program (modular training course with online and conventional training materials facilitated by two innovative tools, the Financial Strategy Genie and the Skills Retention Service (LME) that will support the in-service training and up-skill of the target groups. The development of the training program will be based on the adoption of a user-centred approach. The assessment of the training program will include extended cycles of training activities and work place centred work including skills retention. Trainers will continuously give feedback to the project team about their experiences gained at the workplace. This not only will increase the motivation of the trainers, and give weight to their practical experiences, but will also provide the necessary cross-links between theory and practice. Upon suggestions of the trainers, the project team will perform the necessary adjustments to the training approach. METHODOLOGY The project methodology can be summarized as follows: - Make a comparative analysis from a critical viewpoint of the current state of play of financial/e-Business practices from start-ups in partner countries (analysed at proposal level initially) and identify winning practices (in financial management practices and ICT adoption) from countries topping the start-up charts on viability and growth. - Validate the needs of start-ups from partner countries in relation to knowledge and skills for implementing the winning practices and identify and describe learning outcomes for the Financial Sustainability Manager profile. - Elaborate a training methodology and a set of strategies for the start-ups. - Devise the list of actions to be implemented by the start-ups for materialising each strategy. - Design and develop the Financial Check Training course to support the implementation of the actions. - Localise the strategies, actions and content. - Implement the ECVET tools. - Design the Financial Strategy Genie to personalise the strategies at the level of individual start-up and deliver the actions for materialising each strategy. - Deploy, set-up and configure a Learning Motivation Environment offering a skills retention service - Re-purpose and integrate the content as interactive multimedia resources for skills retention. - Train a number of appointed instructors/trainers to the methodology, course and delivery tools. - Organise pilots. - Process results. RESULTS The outcomes of B-CAPP comprise the: - Financial Check Course (FCT): instructor led and e-Learning - Financial Strategy Genie: personalisation of training paths - Learning Motivation Environment: skills retention functionality - ECVET tools for the Financial Sustainability Manager for Start-ups LONG TERM BENEFITS Entrepreneurs will be in position to implement financial management strategies at their business which will ensure sound financial management, reduction of operating costs, increase of revenues through eBusiness resulting to less business failures.
The problem Start-up companies are an essential part of European Commission priorities for the attainment of a sustainable and durable European economic growth. Specifically, they will have a leading role in the European Digital single market as underlined in the “Start-ups and the Digital Single Market final report”. However, most entrepreneurs lack of the knowledge and skills required to effectively develop and manage their company. The solution The B-Capp project develops an open, all-inclusive training program for financial planning/management of start-ups comprising the smart use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to reduce the operating costs and cross border business activity leading to increase competitiveness and result to less business failures. After the completion of training, all participants in B-CAPP will be able to retain and improve their knowledge and skills, acquire new high-quality skills and continue their personal and professional development by implementing the recommended strategies. The target group The project foresees the following target groups: - Female/Male entrepreneurs, mainly aged 18-35 - Professionals dealing with management aspects of start-ups - VET training organizations, universities, trainers already providing entrepreneurship, financial management, eBusiness/eCommerce, ICT related training or looking to introduce such a training offering, business mentors, coaches - SME chambers, Business Innovation Centers, business incubation clusters, entrepreneurship associations, public officials responsible for entrepreneurship/growth/VET. Main objective The specific purpose of the proposed project is to help entrepreneurs improve their skills and knowledge in financial management (e.g. Entrepreneurial Finance, Cash flow management & Basic accounting concepts, etc.) and smart use of ICT/eBusiness for reducing operating costs and generating revenues (eg. Cash flow automation tools, eTendering, eCommerce, etc.).The objective is to address financial management concepts in direct relation to the adoption of proven ICT practices and tools as smarter use of ICT drives revenues and reduces operating costs. Sustainable financial management cannot be isolated from uses of ICT. The partners The partnership comprises 8 partners from 7 countries. A software development company, an educational technology and knowledge dissemination company, two higher education institutes active in entrepreneurial training and support, 2 VET training consultancies with ECVET expertise and a foundation all active in entrepreneurial VET and a regional development agency specialized in the field of internationalization and training of companies. Methodology The project started with a comparative analysis of the current state of play between financial and e-Business practices implemented by start-ups in partner countries and winning practices in countries outside the partnership (Germany, Sweden, Poland). The aim of the analysis was to identify the actual needs of the target group in order to form a training program tailored to them. The next step was the validation of the needs by representatives of the direct target group in order to address and describe the learning outcomes for the Financial Sustainability Manager profile. The training methodology and strategies recommended for the start-ups are based on the validated needs. Upon the results, the partnership developed an action-based course materializing the strategies and supporting their implementation in real working environments. To that end, nine modules were created comprising specific actions linked to ECVET points in relation with the learning outcomes defined in the validation phase. Together with the Financial Strategy Genie, a personalized tool delivering the action-based course in all partner languages, the Skills Retention Service, was deployed with re-modeled actions complementing the training program. Results The outcomes of B-CAPP comprise the: - Financial Check Course (FCT): instructor led and e-Learning - Financial Strategy Genie: personalisation of training paths - Learning Motivation Environment: skills retention functionality - ECVET tools for the Financial Sustainability Manager for Start-ups Long-term benefits With the support of B-CAPP Academy, a virtual space developed for sustainability of the training program, entrepreneurs will be in position to implement financial management strategies at their business which will ensure sound financial management, reduction of operating costs, increase of revenues through eBusiness resulting to less business failures.