Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are of paramount importance to dominate the economies in terms of not only numbers, but also to make a key contribution to employment and value added for both - the European Union (EU) and the partner states. Since 2008, a series of measures have been adopted, which are intended to improve the framework conditions for SMEs. Several of these measures aim at the Euro zone or need to be implemented on a national or regional level. From the EU Commission’s perspective, one of the important fields of action is to strengthen the entrepreneurial spirit in SMEs via improving new mentoring skills for SMEs. Both EU Commission researches on SMEs and the business administration literature indicate that the solid experience of the SMEs are not sufficient to produce a digital competency framework and skill card in SMEs. In parallel with these findings, the previous EU projects conducted by MSKU (HARBIF and as partner organisation in 5POINTS) proved that SMEs are not able to tackle the new management tools and they are not aware of their capacity and capability for change to enable them to compete on local, domestic and later on global markets on their own. Or in other words, in order to change their skills in the digital era, the SMEs need a different eye, which reveals their own capacity. The He-Men Project, as it appears in the "cartoon", solves the problems for his society by having its power in the name of greyskull, will provide a privilege to develop unique mentoring skills and exchange good practices among SMEs in order to remind them - “They Have the Power”. In addition to this, the He-Men project will aim to develop digital mentoring skills of SME mentors by spreading a reverse mentoring approach. On the one hand, the He-Men project will bridge generational gaps between older and younger employees in SMEs, on the other hand it will spur innovation and new product and service ideas by more actively soliciting input and advice from younger workers in the digital transformation era. The He-Men project partnership will develop such intellectual outputs – a Competence map, a Mentoring Community e-solution, Training materials, an E-learning platform and a Methodology for group peer mentoring activities. The He-Men project primary target groups can be defined under two groups: - The first group are the potential mentors who are either young employees of the SMEs or owners of the SMEs and mentees who are either senior workers of the SMEs or owners of the SMEs. - The second group are the potential mentors, who are the young people that wish to further their employability and contribute to building their futures via a reverse mentoring approach. The Secondary Target Group of He-Men includes universities, VET institutions, professional organizations, Chambers, research centers, policy makers, public authorities and other stakeholders. The partnership is composed of 5 organisations from 5 different countries: The leading partner Baltijas Datoru akademija (BDA) from Latvia, Mugla Sitki Kocman Universitymsku (MSKU) from Turkey, Warsaw University of Technology from Poland, ADINVEST Europe from Belgium and eLearning & Software from Romania. The partner organizations are experts in mentoring, coaching, training, consultancy and assurance services in SMEs and VET training. The partnership involves stakeholders and interested organizations to support the sustainability of the project beyond the project life cycle.
From the EU Commission’s perspective, one of the important fields of action was to strengthen the entrepreneurial spirit in SMEs by improving mentoring skills. Both EU Commission’s research on SMEs and the business administration literature indicated that the experience of SMEs is not sufficient to produce a competency framework and skill card for SMEs. In parallel with these findings, the previous EU projects conducted by the partner MSKU (HARBIF and 5POINTS) proved that SMEs are not able to tackle the new management and digital tools and that they are not aware of their own capacity and capability for change to enable them to compete on local, domestic and later on global markets on their own. Or in other words in order to improve and change their approach in the digital era, the SMEs need a different eye that reveals their own capacity. The goal of the HE-MEN Project, as it appears in the cartoon with the hero who solves the problems for his own society, was to develop tools for the improvement of mentoring skills and for the implementation of a reverse mentoring approach and programme.
The necessity for the HE-MEN project dedicated to the subject matter of reverse mentoring was brought up mainly by the process of digital transformation connected with SMEs for the past several years. The knowledge required therefore was often not covered through the experience of the older generation. The young employee in turn is very familiar with digital topics and thus can support the executive in gaining knowledge, as well as gaining a better understanding of digital technologies and opportunities. Before applying research was done and the 2017 European SME-Action Programme underlined guiding principles to support SMEs in the digital era. This guide promoted the upgrading of digital skills in European SMEs and all forms of innovation in the digital era. In this regard, EU regulations pointed out that SMEs’ financial and investment instruments should be enriched by mentoring, coaching, and training support. Both the results of EC documentation and the literature review provided evidence of SME needs for counseling/mentoring in the varied digital business domains.