Cultural management MA programs are facing dualistic demands - on one hand, from potential employers, such as art organizations, nonprofits and governmental institutions, for practical skills and knowledge on the current practices of the art field; and on the other need for analytical skills, capacity to be critical and make transformations. Those programs programs need to pay more and careful attention to balance the academic content with current management tools in wide spectrum, such as leading skills, accounting, communications and as well as policy development but also adding the multidiscplinary approach preparing student to adapt their skills and competences to many different professional scenarios. In the changing society, it is not enough to know the current practices and ways of doing work, as the work life is changing rapidly due to digitalization, globalization, and use of artificial intelligence in the fields of art and culture, It has become crucial for young professionals to enter the work life with already highly functional networks, field specific expertise and possession of key contacts, besides the academic and transferable competencies. The aim of the projects is to create a learning model that allows both development of analytical and academic competences and capturing the current field practices and tools and influence agencies responsible for occupational profiling to highlight the importance of a Mentor as occupation and further advocate for its definition in other partner countries. The project partners will co-create a new comprehensive understanding of mentorship as a framework for professional life- long learning as well as part of academic education. The project will have its focus on how to establish and maintain a sustainable interaction between students, potential employers and field practitioners, simultaneously creating a model enabling lifelong learning. We aim to renew the understanding of mentoring, creating a novel way for “mentorage” that allow co-creation of knowledge. We aim to capture both the needs of practitioners to share their knowledge and this with the aim to be as accessible and comprehensive, simple experience of a mobile and PC app. The needs of students to learn the skills of current practices and gain support for their career building in the context of international (global) labour market are also in focus. The participants for the project activities will be students of cultural management programs (app 50) and practitioners (app 70) from arts and cultural fields in European context. The project creates new knowledge and skills for teachers and trainers (app 20) of the field; also arts and management curricula leaders and administrators (app 10); established practitioners of arts and cultural field i.e. leaders of arts organisations and cultural projects who are or will become mentors or internship partners for students, regional, national agencies responsible for quality in HEI and occupational profiling. Based on the pre project analysis we create workshops in all participating countries with involvement of students and practitioners to co-create further the model. We aim to capture both the specifies of cultural setting in addition to a more universal learning model development. In this stage,we shall use design and arts based methods for enabling and facilitating co-creation. A number of focus group and interviews with practitioners, educators, leaders, national agencies for education will take place in order to establish professional profile of Mentor in CCI and inform related policies in to make the profession of Mentor internationally recognisable and thus ease the transferability of CCI workforce across Europe. The main outcomes of the projects are: 1) mentoring model that enables both career building support and development of practical knowledge and skills for students as well as allows lifelong learning for practitioners through mutually befitting interactions. 2) Interactive PC/mobile app guiding and informing stakeholder interested in becoming mentors that will also serve as matching platform between mentors and mentees. 3) Policy informing paper putting together suggestion for formulating professional standard and occupational profile of Mentor in CCI to be further disseminated across member states. The projects outcomes will be integrated to the curriculum of participating HEI’s. In addition, the model and app will be made available in European context through networks and open sharing platforms and other networks. Moreover, the results and of policy papers will be presented in academic journal and conferences for wider audiences. The new model and app will be flexible to encounter the changes in society and labour markets, occurring, for example due to digitalization and use of artificial intelligence. It will be agile and the design of the model encourages constant reflection and updating dynamically.
The objective of the REMAM project was to find novel approaches, not only joining in traditional manner organizations with mentors with mentees, but instead approaching mentorship as an universal quality and need for the majority of learners. Thus, partners connected their expertise and shared the existing practices to challenge the conventional understanding of mentorship to beyond the mentor-mentee paradigm offering to all interested parties on a very wide variety levels and scope, such as students, arts management universities, creative and cultural sector professionals, local, regional and national governments and European Commission, the possibility to develop their understanding of mentorship and capacities related to it.
Cultural management MA programmes are facing dualistic demands – on the one hand, from potential employers, such as arts organizations, non-profits, and government institutions, for practical skills and knowledge on current practices in the art field; and on the other hand, the need for analytical skills, capacity to be critical and make transformations. They need to pay more and careful attention to balancing academic content with current management tools, but also a multidisciplinary approach preparing students to adapt their competences to many different professional scenarios. In a changing society, it is no longer enough to know the current practices of doing work, as it is changing rapidly due to digitalisation, globalisation, and the use of artificial intelligence in the fields of art and culture. It has also become crucial for young professionals to enter working life with established and highly functional networks and key contacts. Mentorship, serving as a tool for bridging between practice and academia, has been widely acknowledged as an excellent tool for self-development. That is why the REMAM project tackled its various aspects especially in the context of (MA) study programmes with a focus on cultural fields.