EIDE (Emotional Intelligence and Digital Entrepreneurship in VET) project brings together partners from different backgrounds (business/ICT field, VET providers and social partners/NGO) in order to address one of the most important nowadays priority. Entrepreneurial activity, due to its positive effects (fostering innovation, job creation, encouraging competitiveness) is vital for economic growth and economic prosperity. Through its activities and outputs, it proposes an innovative approach of two factors influencing entrepreneurial success: emotional intelligence and digital skills. Individuals in entrepreneurial occupations often meet business situations requiring unique skills in social interaction. In fact, emotional intelligence has overwhelming implications in decision-making, negotiation, leadership, searching for opportunities, initiative, stress management and customer relations. The second crucial trait of highly successful entrepreneurs is the ability to keep up with the latest trends (social, technological, economical). ”Digital transformation of European industry and enterprises” report shows that the transformative power of digital is enormous and unexploited. The project will be implemented by 7 partners from Poland, Belgium, Romania, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, over a period of 24 months and it responds to 3 types of needs (beyond the partnership): *Needs of the VET providers (schools and non-formal training providers): VET providers need a framework, innovative didactic materials, staff trained and the involvement of business and social partners so they can equip their students with social interaction and business digital skills; *Needs of VET students: VET students, as more likely to start a business after high-school or to get employed need to develop an unique set of entrepreneurship skills to increase their chances to succeed. *Needs of companies: Companies need intrapreneurs, employees with a high level of business awareness, social interaction skills and business digital skills making them able to work independently and effectively without receiving directions all the time. Objectives: To create, develop and test innovative materials and curriculum framework which allow VET providers equipping VET students with two crucial entrepreneurial success skills: emotional intelligence and digital entrepreneurship skills. To rise awareness among VET providers and education authorities concerning the potential of digital skills and emotional intelligence skills and their role as business success factors. To equip at least 30% of the students of the participating organizations with emotional intelligence and digital entrepreneurship skills by the end of the project. Target groups: VET students and recent graduates, VET teachers, trainers/mentors VET schools/institutions, social partners, companies, SMEs In order to reach the project’s aim, development of four innovative and transferrable intellectual outputs is foreseen: O 1- EIDE E-learning course for Students- Emotional Intelligence and Digital Entrepreneurship- 12 modules; O 2 - EIDE Part I - Emotional Intelligence Training for Entrepreneurial Success Manual and Guidelines for VET Teachers and Trainers Part II - Digital Entrepreneurship Manual and Guidelines for VET Teachers and Trainers O 3 - Emotional Intelligence and Digital Entrepreneurship Curriculum Framework O4 - EIDE Train the trainer online course Those products will be pilot tested and validated by 240 students and 140 teachers over the lifetime of the project. Measures for open access and sustainability are planned, to ensure the usability of the project beyond project’s lifetime. The project management and methodology will be tailor-made, involving development of personalized project management, quality assurance and dissemination plans, internal project documentation and monitoring/evaluation tools, with clearly defined preparation, implementation, dissemination and monitoring/evaluation phases. Due to the presence of partners with a high level of experience and multiplication potential, the project will benefit from increased visibility and impact at national and European level. The expected impact at the level of VET learners, VET professional and participating organizations will involve development of unique social and technical skills, increased skills relevance and enhanced ability to effectively respond to nowadays economic world requests. To widen the impact and visibility of the project, a number of 6 multiplier events, totalizing a number of 135 national and international participants is foreseen.
EIDE (Emotional Intelligence and Digital Entrepreneurship in VET) has been implemented between October 2018 and November 2020 by 7 partners (PL, BE, IT, ES, RO, UK)with different backgrounds (business/ICT field, VET providers and social partners/NGO) in order to address one of the most important nowadays priorities - entrepreneurial activity, which, due to its positive effects (fostering innovation, job creation, encouraging competitiveness) is vital for economic growth and economic prosperity. Through its activities and outputs, it proposed an innovative approach of two factors influencing entrepreneurial success: emotional intelligence and digital skills. The project’s main aim was to contribute to the common European efforts of fostering entrepreneurial skills in all fields of education and fill some specific gaps existing between formal education and training systems (especially VET) and the real world. EIDE was highly innovative and ‘pioneering’ by bringing together different and apparently unrelated ‘facets’ of entrepreneurial education. It addressed the needs of 3 main target-groups: *Needs of students within the VET system Students enrolled within the pre-university VET system, although the most likely to start a business after acquiring a qualification, seem to be neglected compared to those in theoretical high-schools when it comes to entrepreneurial education. Through EIDE we intended to support them and broaden their area of choices, and break the stereotype that VET education only produces workers. *Needs of VET Providers and VET Teachers EIDE created learning resources for students, teachers and schools so that emotional intelligence and digital entrepreneurship can be integrated within the existing curricula. *Needs of companies Through the learning resources created and activities undertaken, EIDE also supported the needs of companies for intrapreneurs – employees with a high degree of business awareness, social interaction skills and business digital skills making them able to work independently and effectively without receiving directions all the time. The objectives of the project, which we successfully reached were: To create, develop and test innovative materials and curriculum framework which allow VET providers equipping VET students with two crucial entrepreneurial success skills: emotional intelligence and digital entrepreneurship skills. *To rise awareness among VET providers and education authorities concerning the potential of digital skills and emotional intelligence skills and their role as business success factors. *To equip at least 30% of the students of the participating organizations with emotional intelligence and digital entrepreneurship skills by the end of the project. In order to reach the above-mentioned objectives, the following outputs have been created: *O 1- EIDE E-learning course for Students- Emotional Intelligence and Digital Entrepreneurship- 12 modules; *O 2 - EIDE Part I - Emotional Intelligence Training for Entrepreneurial Success Manual and Guidelines for VET Teachers and Trainers Part II - Digital Entrepreneurship Manual and Guidelines for VET Teachers and Trainers *O3 - Emotional Intelligence and Digital Entrepreneurship Curriculum Framework * O4 - EIDE Train the trainer online course Those products were pilot tested and validated by students and teachers over the lifetime of the project. Measures for open access and sustainability were planned and implemented, to ensure the usability of the project beyond project’s lifetime. Those outputs become even more relevant and useful during the coronavirus pandemic when schooling moved online and VET schools were the least prepared for the switch, lacking online training resources, as their activity is usually more practical. Due to their digital, open, easy to use and compatible format (can be used on any devices, including smartphones), they were broadly used and highly appreciated by the beneficiaries. All the outputs are sustainable, transferrable (to other education fields/target groups), scalable and relevant, with open and unrestricted access. The project management and methodology has been tailor-made, involving development of personalized project management, quality assurance and dissemination plans, internal project documentation and monitoring/evaluation tools, with clearly defined preparation, implementation, dissemination and monitoring/evaluation phases. Due to the presence of partners with a high level of experience and multiplication potential, the project benefitted from increased visibility and impact at national and European level, being able to reach very relevant stakeholders such as EU Parliament members and large numbers of companies. EIDE had and will continue to have significant impact at the level of VET learners, VET professional and participating organizations by involving development of unique social and technical skills.