The DISCOVER project offers an innovative counselling and training tool for inclusive entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is often seen as potential engine for innovation and employment, as vehicle for economic growth. The Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan was one of the European Commission's answers to the economic crisis. The Action Plan focused on entrepreneurial education, on removing administrative barriers and on reigniting the culture of entrepreneurship in Europe. Also persons who might not be the classical entrepreneur but for whom starting-up often is the only chance for active labour market participation were addressed as potential founders. Starting-up and leading an own business requires a certain attitude but also relevant knowledge, skills and competences. Not everyone is an entrepreneur and a personal assessment before starting-up is a crucial aspect to minimize risks and increase the chances for a successful business. The DISCOVER project offers this personal assessment, in combination with preparatory consultancy and an Online Competence Trainer as tool for start-ups and consultants. The ProfilPASS is a well-known German tool which helps persons in getting aware of their skills and competences and use the findings for future planning. The DISCOVER project aims at adapting the ProfilPASS and develop a tool customised for potential entrepreneurs. This new ProfilPASS for Entrepreneurs will support people interested in starting-up, especially the target groups mentioned in the Entrepreneurship Action Plan like women, migrants and senior citizens, to reflect about existing entrepreneurial skills and competences, to get aware of strengths but also of possible further training needs. Based on these outcomes, they can - individually or together with a counsellor - attend personal and individual online training to close the gap between existing skills and training needs. The Online Competence Trainer not only offers customised training built on the ProfilPASS for Entrepreneurs results but also serves as resource and networking area for counsellors. The ProfilPASS for Entrepreneurs and all additional results will be open educational resources, available at the web page. Counselling and training instruments will be available for free. But in order to assure the quality and effectiveness of the counselling and training process, professional coaches are needed. Therefore during the project not only a handbook for counsellors working with the ProfilPASS will be developed, but also multiplier training organised. Two persons from each country join this training and will get the permission to offer counselling by themselves but also to train others in the ProfilPASS for Entrepreneurs method. This assures a cascade effect and supports the sustainability of the new offer beyond the project lifetime and independent from the project countries. In a test phase, the new counselling and training materials and methods will be tested in each project country. The results will be evaluated in order to guarantee the quality and usefulness of the products. The main impact will be a contribution to successful starting-up processes and more sustainable businesses, thanks to a realistic view of strengths and training needs, more targeted training options and information.
DISCOVER was initiated in the context of the Europe 2020 strategy, which recognises entrepreneurship and self-employment as key to achieving smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. But founding one's own start-up also means risks. So what makes a person a successful entrepreneur and how can the risks be minimized? The Discover project addressed these questions and dealt with entrepreneurial skills and competences. Not everyone is an entrepreneur and a personal assessment before starting-up is a crucial aspect to minimize risks and increase the chances for a successful business. The DISCOVER project results offer this personal assessment, in combination with preparatory consultancy and an Online Competence Trainer. Potential start-ups are given the opportunity to evaluate self-employment as an option for their professional future by actively exploring their skills. The DISCOVER project started in October 2018 and since then the partnership has successfully developed and implemented the ProfilPASS for Start-ups as an innovative counselling and training tool for inclusive entrepreneurship to motivate and support people interested in starting a business in terms of active labour market participation. As intended, the project results are thus aimed specifically at people who have no experience with self-employment and business start-ups, as well as at counsellors who would like to work with the ProfilPASS system in the context of coaching potential founders. With the ProfilPASS for Start-ups, DISCOVER offers these potential founders a way to assess their skills and competences, based on the ProfilPASS philosophy that considers not only formal but also informal and non-formal competences to be relevant for their entrepreneurial venture, and based on the EntreComp framework that describes relevant competences for entrepreneurship. The intensive personal assessment helps to minimise risks and increase chances for a successful business, as participants become aware of their strengths, but also of areas where they need further training. A complementary online competence trainer serves as a tool for business founders and counsellors to strengthen those competences that had a weaker assessment result with interactive exercises and materials. To ensure sustainable quality and effectiveness of the counselling and training process, the DISCOVER project has also produced a manual for counsellors working with the ProfilPASS, detailing the counselling process, session plans and materials. In addition, there is a protected area on the project website with relevant resources specifically for counsellors working with the project target group. The ProfilPASS for start-ups and all other results are available as OER via the project website. At the staff training in May 2020, two people from each partner country were trained to offer counselling themselves and to train others in the ProfilPASS method for start-ups. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this training was organised and conducted online, instead of on-site at DIE as originally planned. The training participants then conducted train-the-trainer sessions in their respective countries to ensure the intended cascade effect and support for sustainability beyond the project period. Overall, the project team is positive that the DISCOVER project achieved its goal of supporting people to successfully start sustainable businesses by providing them with a realistic assessment of their strengths and training needs, targeted training opportunities and relevant information. During the test phase, the new guidance and training materials and methods were piloted in each project country. The evaluation results provided positive feedback, not only underlining the quality and usefulness of the products for users and advisors. Overall, the project team is positive that the DISCOVER project has achieved its goal of supporting people to reflect deeply on their capabilities in terms of entrepreneurship and to successfully start sustainable businesses by providing them with a realistic assessment of their strengths and training needs, targeted training opportunities and relevant information.