The initiative wants to develop an innovative model of promotion of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education based on the key concept that education, and in this case entrepreneurship education, happens everywhere, particularly in those environments where first education is provided (family). With that focus that entrepreneurship education has to be "taught" at school and outside school, that is as a formal and non formal education transversal content, the aim of this project is that parents have to receive a basic training to enhance and facilitate (as facilitators) the first steps of the community and society in entrepreneurial learning and attitude, so that they all acquire basic and transversal entrepreneurial skills. If this environment and its actor are not ready to transfer entrepreneurial competences, skills and knowledge, the community will not be able to start thinking, acting and seeing itself as entrepreneurial. Therefore the consortium is made of partners that ensure coverage of all competences needed to work with the target group like a partner with experience in research and analysis , an Intermediary Body in charge of local policy for employment and entrepreneurship, one European network representing target group (parents), two experts organizations on the topic of entrepreneurship education, a technical partner in charge of the networking and e-learning platform, and the last partner with wide experience and representation of training activity for community actors, operators (families, teachers, social workers). The structure of the project that will last for 30 months will be based on five phases. The first one will be an analysis and research work to better understand context and needs of actors with regard to entrepreneurship and family dynamics. The second step will focus on project implementation mainly through the development of the project training package for parENTrepreneurs. The third phase will consist on creating a set of tools to further support the learning process of parents: a social learning platform, an handbook for parents interested in continuing alone their training and a guide on how to assess competences developed. Two sets of training pilot sessions, first at European level and then in a Barcamp at national level, are foreseen. The programme will include different contents (concepts, techniques and tools, alternative education references, entrepreneurship examples, etc.) that will be addressed through a learning by doing method. All the contents developed for, during and after the pilot sessions will be available for any EU stakeholder through a social platform. It will be the channel used for a repository of lessons, tools, videos, and exercises making the experience of the target group lasting even after the pilot phase. Each partner will also host a final dissemination event to make public the results of the two-years project so that any local, regional or national entity is able to exploit this EU-shared knowledge. We expect several impacts for the project. The direct impact on the parents participating in the trainings will be partly intangible (motivation, awareness) and partly tangible (knowledge acquisition, posterior use of the techniques learnt for their daily work). The local/regional community of each partner/participant will also be more aware of the need to work on new approaches towards entrepreneurship. The partners will improve internal competences making them able to exploit project results and outputs to expand their field of activity. The indirect target groups include families, school teachers, children and young people, but also policy makers, by having a community aware of the importance of entrepreneurship for all. The VET sector and trainers will also be reached.
ParENTrepreneurs wants to support parents in understanding how to approach the topic of entrepreneurship and sense of initiatives during everyday life, improving their role as educators in the family and local communities. It also wants to train and provide useful tools to parents in order to increase their awareness of the importance of having a more active approach towards life at all ages, from childhood to adult age. By training parents in entrepreneurship education and link entrepreneurship with parenting skills the project will create a group of parents able to transfer and inspire other parents working as educators for more and more adults to be more aware of the important role they cover. The partnership considers parents as the first educators in the life of community actors, therefore developing in them competences that will make them able to transfer sense of entrepreneurship through daily interaction is key. Therefore ParENTrepreneurs wants to promote EC Key Competence 7 "Initiative and Entrepreneurship" among a target group of educators (parents) which covers a key role in the education of citizens, from their children to other community actors.
European policies have long focused on the importance of stimulating an entrepreneurial spirit as a key element in education and training, and the necessity to train all educators so that they were able to facilitate this. It was also suggested that it was important to reinforce the presence and cooperation of families to work on common strategies for entrepreneurship education. The 2020 Entrepreneurship Action Plan also highlights the decisive action that has to be taken" to unleash Europe's entrepreneurial potential, to remove existing obstacles and to revolutionise the culture of entrepreneurship in Europe. Investments in changing the public perception of entrepreneurs, in entrepreneurship education and to support groups that are underrepresented among entrepreneurs are indispensable if we want to create enduring change". It also says that "Only if a large number of Europeans recognise an entrepreneurial career as a rewarding and attractive option will entrepreneurial activity in Europe thrive in the long term". Parents as key education actors have to receive a basic training to enhance and facilitate the learning of their children as well as their own in acquiring basic and transversal entrepreneurial skills.