Europe needs more entrepreneurs, more innovation and more high-growth SMEs. This is why it is necessary to stimulate the entrepreneurial mindset’s of young people. The important role of education in promoting more entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviours is now widely recognised. Entrepreneurship refers to an individual's ability to turn ideas into action. It includes creativity, sense of initiative, innovation and risk-taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve objectives. The entrepreneurship competence includes therefore transversal skills and attitudes as well as more specialised knowledge and business skills. In a broad sense, entrepreneurship should be considered as a mindset that supports everyone in day-to-day life at home and in society, and provides a foundation for entrepreneurs establishing a social or commercial activity (Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan). Web businesses are one of the primary creators of innovation and new jobs. The impact of web start-ups on economic growth and job creation will further increase as the functionalities of Internet expand. However, Europe has fewer web-start-ups than other regions, and those tend to grow less. Current VET programmes, for teachers and learners in this sector focus upon traditional business development and do not address the new digital innovation context. This project aims to enable the enhanced deployment of tools to foster the entrepreneurial mindset in VET education by VET trainers and educators and improve their competencies in order to address the key needs to: 1. Develop the skills, knowledge and capacity of VET trainers to enable them to support learners more effectively in the activities to foster entrepreneurial mindset of learners. 2. Develop a VET programme to support the changing needs of the EU workforce/economy in particular through providing training programme for VET in order to give them all the skills to start new businesses and especially web-businesses 3. Ensure ECVET validation of programmes created and correspondence with I-VET and C-VET curricula E-mprove(r) will develop a new VET curriculum in web-business competency framework for enterprise trainers and educators of VET sector. As nowadays English is a primary skill, especially in web business, there will be a translation of material in all languages, but the prevision to have main courses in English so that users can enhance their language skills. • a training and development programme with comprehensive materials and on-line resources to support blended learning • a detailed Trainer Guidance manual which incorporates pedagogy and technical support Through the testing and piloting of the Programme materials the project will include 24 VET trainers and educators and 240 VET Students/trainees from partner countries. The programme materials and key communications will be translated into four languages from English, and will be openly available on-line through the project website. This project will therefore focus on developing an effective VET model for trainers and educators which will directly assist them in acquiring new knowledge and skills; and will enable the future delivery of VET programmes on how to start and run a Web business and enable their learners to use the acquired skills effectively and with the greatest impact. Creating on-line tools and programme to help Vet educators to implement web business oriented programme in their activities is a tool for continuous professional development of VET teachers, trainers and mentors in both school and work-based settings, with a focus on developing effective open and innovative education using ICT. For what concern strengthening key competences in VET, the project develop digital and technological competences both of students/trainees and educators/trainer. The project also provide VET organisation and vet educators with an open and innovative practices imbedded in digital era that can be spread among others operators, in fact will be create an e-learning platform and OER on the topic of web business for VET curricula. E-mprove(r) operates through a Strategic Partnership from four member states. The partners are from the social, private and public sectors and all dealing with educational topic, especially ICT, Business, VET education and Technological education. The transnational cooperation allows partner to develop a programme that can be usable in different context and I-VET and C-VET programme in Europe providing a standardized quality, recognition and validation of the learning materials the projects creates. Moreover, it develops synergies among different organizations from different background enhancing future collaboration in the fields providing more efficient projects, addressing beneficiaries’ need of different countries and backgrounds.
Context: Europe needs more entrepreneurs, more innovation and more fast-growing SMEs. This is why it is necessary to stimulate the entrepreneurial mindset of young people. The important role of education and training in promoting more entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviours is now widely recognised.Web businesses are one of the primary creators of innovation and new jobs. The impact of web start-ups on economic growth and job creation will further increase as the functionalities of Internet expand. However, Europe has fewer web-start-ups than other regions, and those tend to grow less. Current VET programmes, for teachers and learners in this sector focus upon traditional business development and do not address the new digital innovation context. Objectives: The objectives of the project were to enable the enhanced deployment of ICT tools to foster the entrepreneurial mindset in VET education by VET trainers and educators and improve their competencies in order to address the key needs to: 1. Develop the skills, knowledge and capacity of VET trainers to enable them to support learners more effectively in the activities to foster entrepreneurial mindset of learners. 2. Develop a complementing VET course/programme to support the changing needs of the EU workforce/economy in particular through providing training programme for VET in order to give them all the skills to start new businesses and especially web-businesses.Description of undertaken activities:E-mprove(r) has developed complementing VET materials and courses in web-business competency framework for the VET sector organisations’ trainers and educators and their students/trainees.The project has arranged a joint training activity that was aimed at developing skills and competence of the staff to deliver e-learning training/conventional training on the topic of the project and ensure a consistent standard in the pilot activity delivery in the respective partner country.Within the E-mprove(r) project we have arranged conventional pilot courses to test, evaluate and improve the content of the courses involving VET students and teachers.The project has also arranged multiplier events, spreading activities, workshops, focus groups, personal meetings in order to spread information to other VET-related organisations and individuals about the materials, tools and courses the project has created.To plan, coordinate, monitor, implement, evaluate and follow up the above-mentioned activities the partners arranged 4 transnational partner meetings. Number and type/profile of participants:Over 2000 people from the target groups were reached by the project dissemination activities.Over 300 people reached by the multiplier events.240 registered users on the learning platform going thru the courses that lead to course certificate.24 trained VET educators who acquired or improved skills in creating and running courses using Moodle platform.240 VET-students, adult learners, course participants taking part in the evaluation activities of the produced project materials.4000 people reached thru the Facebook page, mails, Facebook, Web.Over 100 companies and their representatives, VET institutions, training entities and agencies, high-schools, associations, networks, chambers of commerce, authorities reached by in-person contacts to deliver and spread information about the project results.Results and Impact Attained:According to the conclusions of the focus-groups applied throughout the various phases of the project’s lifecycle, the project has had a significant impact on the organizations involved and the project participants. The analysis of the various phases showed that the majority of the participants representing our target groups consider the methodology to be constructive, specifically in terms of the knowledge and skills required to start an on-line business and the financial implications that self-employment and on-line/web business might bring, in addition to improving their self-esteem and motivation in (re)defining and complementing their individual VET paths. The ability to go through the material on-line, use step-by-step instructions to achieve the result, to test one’s knowledge at any point of time was also appreciated by the participants improving the participants’ learning performance. In reference to most of the partner organisations and their staff involved in VET training, the project provided new insight on entrepreneurial training, complementing VET training with on-line business opportunities and self-employment as a strategy for improving the social and labour inclusion of VET students, vulnerable people and even providing a new dimension for the employed. The partner organisations and their 24 trainers involved, have either acquired or improved their digital competence skills by producing or testing, evaluating, being trained to deliver vocational training modules and courses that incorporate the modules on web business.