The Keeping Traditions Alive through Social Enterprise (KTASE) project has been designed collectively by all partners to provide an innovative and valued contribution in the fields of Cultural Heritage, Social Enterprise and equipping young people with skills to use in the workplace and wider society. From European to local level Social Enterprise is recognised as having a valuable contribution to make in building social cohesion / wellbeing and economic growth. 2018 was the European Year of Cultural Heritage status, highlighting the value of keeping the traditions found across Europe alive and ensuring enriched societies. The project contributes to both of these key agenda in terms of relevance and has been structured to ensure the results can be replicated in full or part both within and beyond the partner countries Partners from five countries will work closely together to achieve the project aims and objectives; which are to pass traditional craft skills from older people with skills and knowledge to young people. The next stage is to teach the young people on the principles and practical steps to setting up a social enterprise and finally to support them to use the craft skills and social enterprise knowledge to make and market craft goods. Through the process young people will be supported by the traditional crafter, the project partner and local business / NGO Mentor, who collectively will ensure that young people maximise their learning and results. This process will be achieved through developing and piloting two courses, one entitled "Intergenerational Traditional Craft Sharing" and the other entitled "Develop My Social Enterprise." Each course will embed the principles of learning by doing / non-formal learning and link to young people building their competences as outlined in the Youthpass Certification. The two training courses will have parts adapted for e-learning and alongside this we will collect videos, design quizzes and other materials which will provide content for the Platform entitled "Social Enterprise and Traditional Crafts Online Starter Kit." The e-learning will open up opportunities to a wider audience and leave a valuable legacy. Within our Sustainability we will create an online craft webshop to market the goods created by the teams, which can be used as a resource beyond the project. In addition to the training we will hold one staff / trainer short-term training event and two blended mobilities for young people, to add value learning from their peers and inter-cultural dialogue to their individual experience. This will feed into providing a trans-national learning dimension We will remain throughout the project active in our dissemination and through sustainability partners will maintain provision into their own activities and seek all opportunities to roll out the courses developed in full or part to other localities in the partner countries / elsewhere in Europe.
•To show young people that they can have fun while practicing traditional crafts, and that traditional crafts could also be a source of income for them •Enabling intergenerational learning •To show that the preservation of traditions and traditional skills is of great importance for society, the skills acquired could also be useful for the individual keeping traditional crafts alive. •Enable young people to appreciate their own local heritage •To provide youth with valuable employment/active citizenship skills •Create F2F and online training packages which could be transferable to other countries outside the project partnership (Intergenerational craft sharing course, Develop my Social Enterprise Course) •Linked product sales & promotion to National Days /Traditional Craft Days in partner countries Engaging business and business mentors to encourage and guide young people to create Social Enterprise In Lithuania, their goal was to show young people that it's worth keeping traditions alive by fostering a culture of communication and innovation. Youth, who live in rural communities, should have an opportunity to increase the quality of their own lives by gaining personal benefits.
The consortium applied for this project because the research showed lack of options for young people within the rural settings and Social Enterprise could be way forward by using traditional crafts to create their own business. It was also a continuation of the project called "Social Enterprise as a Tool to work with youth worker". Our goal also was to develop new innovative tools to make contribution in the field of young people and social enterprise. This project aim was not only to preserve traditional skills, but to show young people that they can have fun while working with traditional crafts, and that traditional crafts could also be a source of income for them. Young people sometimes associate tradition with something that is outdated, boring and unfashionable. We wanted to show them the opposite and prove to them that preserving traditional skills and heritage is not only a huge benefit for our society, but that it can also be a huge benefit for young people as individuals. The needs addressed were, teaching how to appreciate the traditional crafts and local heritage, how to set up the Social Enterprise and market crafts, in some cases the benefits of organic harvesting as well as Intergenerational learning.