Promoting entrepreneurship in Europe has been a core objective of the European Union ever since the Lisbon European Council decided in March 2000 to improve the EU’s performance in the areas of employment, economic reform and social cohesion. The development of entrepreneurship has important benefits, both economically and socially. Entrepreneurship is not only a driving force for job creation, competitiveness and growth; it also contributes to personal fulfillment and the achievement of social objectives. Moreover, numerous factors play a role in the decision to start up a business: for example, the existence of a suitable opportunity or market; the perception that starting a company might be difficult due to red tape; financial obstacles; or the need to acquire new skills. That is why the EU considers that it has a duty to encourage entrepreneurial initiatives and unlock the growth potential of its businesses and citizens. Europe’s economic growth and jobs depend on its ability to support the growth of enterprises. Entrepreneurship creates new companies, opens up new markets, and nurtures new skills. The most important sources of employment in the EU are Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The Commission’s objective is to encourage people to become entrepreneurs and also make it easier for them to set up and grow their businesses. Entrepreneurship is an individual’s ability to turn ideas into action. It includes creativity, innovation, risk taking, ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve objectives. Only 37% of Europeans would like to be self-employed, compared to 51% of people in the US and China. Some of the challenges to be tackled to increase the rate of entrepreneurial activity include: providing education that offers the right foundation for an entrepreneurial career; building core skils to overcome the difficulty in accessing finance and markets; mitigating the fear of ‘punitive’ sanctions in case of failure. The European Commission’s initiatives promoting entrepreneurship were summarised in an Entrepreneurship Action Plan adopted in January 2013. These initiatives aimed to reignite Europe’s entrepreneurial spirit by educating young people about entrepreneurship; highlighting opportunities for women and other groups; easing administrative requirements for entrepreneurs and making it easier to attract investors. The proliferation of mobile technology devices and the habits and preferences of the young digital natives who use them on a daily basis for the widest possible range of activities presents both an opportunity and a challenge for educators. If these devices can be successfully harnessed to deliver entrepreneurship learning resources in formats that are coherent and attractive to today's digital natives then the growth of the entrepreneurial spirit which is of considerable importance to all local economies may be achieved. The AppHop project consortium takes up the challenge to develop and test a completely new entrepreneurship curriculum, based on the EntreComp Framework, but presented as a series of randomized breakout challenges for access on smartphones. There are three intellectual outputs foreseen and task allocation for their development is as follows: IO1 – AppHop Compendium of Digital Breakout Entrepreneurship Resources - Digital Breakout learning resources will address 3 competence areas identified in the EntreComp Framework and resources will be provided to develop each of the 5 competences under each key competence area. In total 15 digital breakout resources will be developed by each of the 8 project partners IO2 – AppHop In-service training programme – In-service training to support the CPD of VET tutors will also be provided. this training will enable tutors to develop their own digital breakout resources IO3 – AppHop Online Interactive Portal – a bespoke online interactive portal will be developed to provide access to the new resources
The consortium had a variety of aims and objectives to achieve via the implementation of the App Hop project. The key aim was to develop an innovative suite of resources that supported VET educators and students to improve their entrepreneurial knowledge and competences. This was achieved by the development of an extensive compendium of Digital Breakout Challenges that support the acquisition of key entrepreneurial competences as well as additional transferable skills in students. We aimed to empower VET educators by supporting their professional development by improving their understanding of entrepreneurship, challenge-based learning and the potential uses of digital technologies. This was achieved through the development of a comprehensive profession development resource in the form of an In-service Training Programme aimed at providing all the theoretical and practical information, advice and guidance necessary for VET educators to implement the App Hop project as part of their educational provision. The project also wanted to promote the notion of entrepreneurship as a potential career option for VET students as they enter an ever-changing and challenging employment landscape that has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Lancaster and Morecambe College (LMC) established the consortium and applied for the App Hop project to address a number of issues facing VET education. The core themes of promoting entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial competences, championing the challenge-based learning methodology and harnessing the power of digital technologies in education were our major focus. The consortium was relatively large and brought together a diverse range of Vocational institutions, training providers, SMEs and NGOs. Each partner was chosen on the strength of their specialisms, expertise and previous experience in educational projects. LMC had previous working relationships with some of the partners but it was our first opportunity to work with ECQ (BG), Innovation Frontiers (GR) and RightChallenge (PT). The need for an increased focus on entrepreneurial competences and entrepreneurship as a potential career avenue has become increasingly pertinent as a result of the pandemic. Upon completion of their studies, our VET students will enter an increasingly fluid and changeable labour market where flexibility and adaptability are major factors in being 'successful'. App Hop strived to empower both VET students and educators to address this reality.