To quote John Howkins “Creativity can lead to innovation. Innovation seldom leads to creativity.” In other words, creativity is a mindset that needs to be cultivated to drive innovation, and the creative and cultural economy offers a plethora of tools to do so. Despite this, society tends to perceive culture and creativity as an indulgence, not as means to promote innovation. This is reflected in our education, our policies and our approach to work: Both young students and “seasoned” professionals are often steered toward careers and skills that focus on sciences that create easily quantifiable value, those that are considered to be affiliated with entrepreneurial skills. However, despite the lack of validation from business and education, many people do wish to pursue a carrier in the creative and cultural sector. They see gaps in the market or pressing challenges that need solutions. They begin to address these, as part-time creators or workers within the growing gig economy. However, they try to build a stable career around their solutions, they realize that the shift to entrepreneurship is not easy – it’s hard to access traditional business skills, and the existing language, culture and practices of the entrepreneurial lifestyle do not work for them. The lack of outlets for their creative training and skills often leads to a crisis of confidence – and a reluctant return to the traditional workplace. On the other hand, the European Commission developed the Europe 2020 strategy, an initiative designed to support growth and jobs across the EU, according to which the culture sector is able to increasingly contribute to employment and growth across Europe. Following the adoption of the Europe 2020 strategy and the European Agenda for Culture, the Commission has placed an increased emphasis on support to Cultural and creative industries (CCIs) because the sector is generating an increasing number of jobs while at the same time is contributing to innovation in other sectors, such as information and communication technology. Cultural Heritage entrepreneurship, in specific, represents an important component of cultural entrepreneurship that becomes an important factor contributing to countries' GDP, labor force market development, to export and import of goods and services (WIPO, 2003). While it is widely expected that culture and heritage automatically inspire innovation and new creative entrepreneurship, at the same time, entrepreneurship is one of the challenges that the cultural sector, with a focus on cultural heritage, is facing which can be addressed by the development of research teaching and curriculum development (Zaman, 2015). Therefore, the iCREATE project will develop and deliver an integrated package for their Cultural Entrepreneurship Acceleration, generating entrepreneurial creative thinking for sustainable cultural heritage management and business startup. The iCREATE projects offer young people a Tailored Training Framework based on their Training needs Analysis. It includes tools and approaches that accelerate Cultural and Creative Industry (CCI) entrepreneurship within and around cultural heritage from the creation of the business idea and value proposition until the business start up and first steps toward sustainability. In order to do that iCREATE project partner, seeks to develop: Research analysis for the level of competences in management, entrepreneurship, and innovative thinking for people in the creative and cultural Industry, including social entrepreneurship in cultural heritage entrepreneurship. iCREATE aims to develop and test a Tailored Training Framework that delivers tailored training for young people (secondary, post-secondary, and HE), employed in cultural institutions or unemployed, all aspiring to become entrepreneurs and who want to start own business in cultural heritage domain. MOOC for improvement of skills and knowledge of young people in the cultural sector and for business startup. The MOOC envisages three parts, - 1st Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship and conception of the business idea - 2nd Start and Sustain the business. - 3rd Online tools and methodological guides that will guide them through the startup process. A step by step guide on all the administrative activities that need to take place when launching a company, in the CCI ie. Life cycle of a company from registration to pay taxes and social insurance. The project seeks to train at least 120 aspiring entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative industry as well as 15 trainers on the developed materials of the project. The project partnership is compiled by six partners from 5 countries and the project outcomes will be disseminated through the Multiplier events that are going to take place in all partner countries for the benefit of youth aspiring entrepreneurs.
The main objectives of the project included creating materials and tools for young people aspiring to cultural entrepreneurship, study their needs and challenges, study the key competencies relevant to young people in the cultural and creative entrepreneurship sector. More specifically the objectives of the project included: 1. Research and define the competencies of young learners in the cultural and creative entrepreneurship sector 2. Development of MOOC courses delivered through a virtual learning environment in the creative sector business. 3. Elaborating open & innovative training program with materials & e-tools for less time-consuming & cost-effective teaching & learning on how to be a successful entrepreneur & realize their professional ideas concerning CCIs, with emphasis on Cultural Heritage which will be presented, promoted & preserved in a global & long-term perspective, knowledge & skills in how to register a company, how to be creative, how to manage the company, what are the different types of startups etc. 4. The project training for trainees to improve their competencies for the current labor market. 5. Create a concrete guide for youth on registering and running a company in the creative sector.
In today's world with economic and social challenges that arise for young people, entrepreneurship is one of the key solutions to achieving economical and personal sustainability. There are in general, many resources for the development of young entrepreneurs. Still, there is however lack of support materials for young entrepreneurs in cultural sources specifically in terms of learning and development. Therefore, iCREATE: Cultural and Creative Entrepreneurial Mindset of Youth project aimed to develop outcomes for generating creative thinking for sustainable cultural management & business startup, including social entrepreneurship in creative&cultural entrepreneurship.