Artisan and traditional crafts represent a valuable European heritage that must be protected and cared, and that requires the preservation of knowledge, skills and abilities of traditional and guild trades as well as the economic and commercial viability of these firms, which allows their practitioners to live on them. ARTCademy is a knowledge-based project which aims to preserve and strengthen the European artisan and traditional crafts sector, in two ways: first, keeping and protecting ancestral knowledge concerning to traditional jobs particularly these in risk of disappearing; second, providing to these sector’s firms tools and skills for their survival and development as profitable businesses. In order to achieve this aim, two concrete actions are defined: 1.To preserve traditional knowledge about craft professions through the information and knowledge management. A repository of artisan knowledge called “CRAFTpedia” will be created and fed for this purpose. 2.To address the training business needs of craft microenterprises to maintain its competitiveness in the European market. An online platform with Open Educational Resources and business training material “Biz-Training” will be developed and deployed. The partnership brings together 9 partners from 7 countries and includes target groups’ representatives, HEI, VET providers and entrepreneurship facilitators: the proposal is a platform to complement each partners’ specific expertise in this domain. This composition ensures geographical coverage as well as projection of dissemination and valorisation across the EU. Partners will carry out the following activities: 1. Develop a OER platform and a virtual knowledge community 2. Create a repository of Artisan Knowledge “CRAFTpedia” with 10 categories. 3. Design innovative multilingual training content on business “Biz-Training”, material and web based tools for the OER 4. Test and validate main training modules and content with at least 250 entrepreneurs, artisans microenterprises and craft-type enterprises. The methodology is based on a “collate -> analyse -> develop -> test & validate -> deploy” approach and combines academic pedagogical accuracy with VET demand-driven practical approach. ARTCademy is devoted to artisan microenterprises, entrepreneurs-to-be and facilitators of entrepreneurship which are committed to the high added value of the artisan sector and its contribution to the economy and society. Dissemination and exploitation plans have already been drafted to sustain visibility and mainstream results, both during the project and in the 2 years after completion. Valorisation activities will reach at least 48.000 recipients in 4 years (2 years of project + 2 years beyond). Active and wide exploitation focuses on VET providers, business facilitators and policy makers at all levels of governance, from local to EU. All training courses and resources in multilingual versions will be made freely available to all interested parties through the platform without restrictions of sort. Such open attitude enables ARTCademy to generate impact in the immediate term on target groups of artisans, micro-craft enterprises, entrepreneurs to be and participating organisations and stakeholders. ARTCademy is fully in line with Erasmus+ Horizontal Priority: Social and educational value of European cultural heritage Vet Priority: Further strengthening key competences in VET Horizontal Priority: Open and innovative practices in a digital era
Traditional and artistic crafts are part of a valuable European cultural heritage that deserves to be protected and cared, for which it is necessary to preserve the knowledge, skills and competencies of traditional trades, as well as to promote the economic and commercial viability of this sector companies avoiding their practitioners to live from it. ARTCademy is a knowledge management based project born with the aim of helping to preserve and strengthen the European artisanal sector and its trades, through two ways: first, preserving and protecting ancestral knowledge typical of traditional trades, especially those at risk of disappearance; second, providing companies in the sector with tools and skills for their survival and development as profitable businesses. ARTCademy aims at artisanal micro-enterprises, future entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship facilitators who are committed to recognizing the added value of the artisanal sector and its contribution to balanced and sustainable economic and social development. The project methodology has been based on the approach of quality management systems following the process of the well-known EFQM matrix (collect, evaluate, develop, execute and review) and combines conceptual and academic rigor with the practical approach required by vocational training. To achieve its goal ARTCademy has developed two types of actions: 1. The conservation of traditional knowledge of craft professions has been supported by the management of information and knowledge, through the creation of a repository of artisanal knowledge called CraftPedia 2. Improving the business and management skills of artisanal micro-enterprises to promote their competitiveness in the global market has been implemented through the development of an OER platform for business training material called Biz-Training. The consortium of 9 partners from 7 European countries includes representatives from target groups, higher education institutions, VET providers and entrepreneurship facilitators by creating a group of partners with complementary skills and knowledge that ensure the availability of knowledge for project development, extensive geographical coverage and adequate dissemination of results and their value across the EU. In accordance with the approved grant proposal and grant agreement, the partners have implemented 99.53% of the budget through the following activities: 1. Development of an OER platform and a virtual community named Green Art House. 2. Creation of a CraftPedia artisanal knowledge repository that was priory designed organized into 10 categories (150 trade fiches) and has been completed with 11 categories and more than 200 fiches in each of the 7 languages of the project, an increased achieved thanks to the transfer of budget not consumed due to the Covid-19. 3. Development of Biz-Training, a multilingual business training package in text, audio and visual format available in open on the OER platform, which in the proposal compromised the development of 10 courses and has finally completed 12, at 3 levels (basic, intermediate and advanced). These courses are displayed in fiches following the methodology of micro-training and add up to 60 training fiches, 5 / course, plus two videos (one basic course and one of an advanced one). 4. Testing and validation of intellectual products (OER platform, CraftPedia repository and BizTraining modules, among 250 participants of the target groups). This output, not funded by the grant agreement, has been carried out under pandemic status in a virtual way in order to ensure the quality of the results. The project has displayed dissemination and exploitation plans to ensure visibility of the results, both during their development and in the 2 years after their end. Valuation activities have far exceeded 600,000 measured direct impacts, thanks to active exploitation focused on target groups of entrepreneurs and craftsmen, VET suppliers, business facilitators and policy makers up to European level, as well as among the general public. All training resources and consultation materials in multilingual versions are available free of charge without restrictions through the OER platform and will continue for two more years, allowing ARTCademy to generate a greater-than-immediate impact on target groups, participating organizations and other stakeholders. ARTCademy is fully in line with Erasmus+ priorities such as the social and educational value of European cultural heritage, strengthening key VET skills and using open and innovative practices in a digital era.