Storytelling is not usually taught in institutional learning places as career opportunities. The Storyteller is quite a new profession and does not usually have a training background. The project aims at creating a new professionalism based on storytelling for SMEs and corporates in response to the new challenges in the marketing and communication strategies field. Corporate storytelling means "communicating through stories", creating narrative universes through which being able to arouse emotions in the public and captivate the attention in an emphatic way. OBJECTIVES: The main objectives of the project are: 1) Define a new professional figure, the Corporate storyteller; 2) Create an innovative training to improve marketing and branding strategies of SMEs; 3) Improve the employability of low-skilled and unemployed people willing to become storytellers by training them on marketing and branding for SMEs; 4) Provide local and regional authorities with tools and methodologies that favor the increasing of the quality of innovation support systems for unemployed and SMEs; 5) Improve the competitiveness of EU companies by providing an innovative training TARGET/ The project will involve different target groups, more precisely VET providers, trainers, educators, researchers, involved in delivering VET education and training for SMEs; Associations, Business Incubators or innovation centers, Public Bodies; local and regional policy makers; unemployed and low-skilled people interested in the topic. ACTIVITIES: The project will be designed around five work-packages, among which the activities will be distributed in order to attain the three Intellectual Outputs: WP1 regards the Project Management phase, aiming at managing partners' time and budget; WP2 includes the Dissemination and Communication plan and activities concerning the visibility of the project. It will include also the Learning Activity (M26), and the 5 multiplier events. WP3 concerns the Research activity and Development of the Geographical map and database of best cases of corporate storytelling in Europe (IO1); WP4 regards the development of a skill-set of competences for the new professional figure: the Corporate Storyteller (IO2) WP5 includes the Development of Training Content creation (IO3). PARTNERSHIP: The project is built up by a consortium of 6 partners from 5 different countries, chosen according to the different expertise of each, useful to cover the successful development of the project in all its phases. The partners are the CCIL (Luxembourg), CBE, (Belgium), The Hive (Italy), Fatti di Storie (Italy), Economia Creativa (Spain), and BIC INNOBRIDGE (Bulgaria). IMPACT: The impacts envisaged by the project are the following: - Support to SMEs managers and staff with modern learning materials and methodologies, increasing the awareness of the importance of storytelling and the economic opportunities linked to it; - Training methodologies, materials and tools available to VET providers and career guidance agencies, in order to improve competences and employability of low-skilled and unemployed; - Increased awareness of low skilled and unemployed people about the European ecosystem for corporate storytelling; The project activities are designed in a view of longer term benefits. The high level of interactivity and flexibility of all the project materials and tools is guaranteed by the availability of the Internet based content on the project’s website, which is planned to be maintained for at least 5 years after the end of the project. STORYLINES will create easily transferable educational and promotional models and its high adaptability will permit to transfer the outputs in different countries, even beyond the partnership.
Storytelling is not usually taught in institutional learning places as career opportunities. The Storyteller is quite a new profession and does not usually have a training background. The project created the base for a new professionalism based on storytelling for SMEs and corporates in response to the new challenges in the marketing and communication strategies field. OBJECTIVES 1 Long-term objective of the project was to lay the foundations for a change in awareness of the need for a new professional figure such as that of the Corporate Storyteller in the job market 2 The creation of a training, able to support SMEs in terms of marketing and branding strategies 3 Increasing the quality of training materials for future jobs in order give better opportunity to the unemployed people, students and SMEs through the methodology and the contents of the results of the project 4 Improve the competitiveness of EU companies by providing a new training for the creation of a new professionalism. PARTICIPANTS The participants directly involved in the project activities were about 137. They were involved in the main activities such as the creation of the geographical map of the best case and the creation of the CV for the new professional figure: the corporate storyteller, the multiplier events and the learning activity. Their profile was different and changed according to the activity in which they have been involved. Due to the limitations related to covid-19 the participants were involved mostly online. Both in the creation of the geographical map of the Atlas (IO1) and the creation of the skill-set framework (IO2), the type of participants involved were SMEs, consultants, founders, entrepreneurs, company staff, university professors and storytelling experts. The profile of participants in multiplier events and learning activities was more varied and ranges from unemployed, universities students, young professionals in the field of communication and corporate communication, high school teachers; SMEs' managers from different sectors, marketing experts, Chamber of Commerce; journalists, communication experts, marketing experts, and freelancers; Banks, Foundations, NGOs, local action group, Italian Trade Agency, European Training Foundation; Startup founders, Startup coaches, business consultants and entrepreneurs. ACTIVITIES The project was designed around 5 Work Packages (WP): WP1. Project Management phase, aiming at managing partners' time and budget. WP2. Dissemination and Communication plan and all the activities concerning the visibility of the project. WP3. Research activity and Development of the Geographical map and database of best cases of corporate storytelling in Europe (IO1). WP4. Development of a skill-set framework of competencies for the new professional figure: the Corporate Storyteller (IO2). WP5. Development of the Training Content and the validation of all project results through the Learning Teaching Training Activity (IO3). RESULTS & IMPACT The main result was the definition of a new professional figure: the Corporate Storyteller. This was possible thanks to the set of 3 outputs produced by the Storylines project. The partners worked on creating a geographical map of the best cases of communication strategies and storytelling experiences on SMEs app.storylines.eu/atlas. Subsequently, thanks to teamwork, they developed a specific set of skills (hard and soft skills) relating to the figure of the Corporate Storyteller. This output was validated by 3 experts external to the partnership. The experts consulted by the partners are: Adity Saxena Professor from Amity University - India, Haibo Li Professor from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden and Christine Erlach founder of NARRATA Consult. Finally, in the IO3, the work focused on the creation of the teaching material, and on the development of the learning activity for its validation. You can find the course released on the Moodle platform here: training.storylines.eu. Thanks to the results of the project, SMEs, managers and staff can have a booster of support through the modern learning materials and methodologies, increasing the awareness of the importance of storytelling and the economic opportunities linked to it. Moreover, the training methodologies, materials and tools are available to VET providers and career guidance agencies, to improve competencies and employability of low-skilled and unemployed. The project through the people and organizations involved in the outputs and the events contributed to increased awareness about this new professionalism: the Corporate storytelling. LONGER-TERM BENEFITS The project activities were designed in a view of longer-term benefits. The high level of adaptability and flexibility of all the project materials and tools permit to transfer the outputs in different countries, moreover, the results remain available on the project’s website 5 years after the end of the project.