By implementing this project, our objective was to offer a transformative educational experience that would benefit all participants involved. In terms of the desired outcomes the project aimed to enhance the academic and professional development of students and staff by providing them learning experiences in a different culture and academic environment. Participants would develop intercultural competencies and acquire a global perspective enabling them to be better equipped to thrive in an increasingly interconnected world. This project had various objectives: 1. Creation of a Sustainable Entrepreneurship Curriculum model. We wanted to work with Open College Network NI (OCNNI) as a partner to establish/adapt current/create a new certification to promote sustainable entrepreneurship. 2. Introduction of Entrecomp as an Entrepreneurship Framework to align entrepreneurial activity to sustainable entrepreneurship initiatives. 3. Development of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) platform for sustainable entrepreneurship projects to be created, disseminated and supported to become social entrepreneurship/co-operative businesses. 4. Physical space on campus to host the Enterprise Hub to deliver and support entrepreneurship initiatives.
Belfast Met is committed to improving excellent education and skills for work and life to its students. This commitment is in line with the Education and Training 2020 Vision, founded on the belief that learner success, in terms of personal development, and achievement of employment is the key goal of the college. This in turn is dependent on the quality of the overall student learning experience. We applied for this project to build on the success of our previous very successful KA1 mobility project ICE for GRIT where we collaborated with Koning Willem 1 College (KW1C). This project was originally designed to partner with Stichting Onderwijsgroep Tilburg in the Netherlands, part of the Dutch Alliance network of VET Colleges along with KW1C. We wanted to use this as an opportunity for us to continue to develop relationships and networks with European partners. We also wished to ensure that our students, many of whom are from areas of high social deprivation, or otherwise underprivileged and disadvantaged backgrounds had the opportunity to travel abroad, engage with industry within Europe, experience a different culture, improve and develop their transversal skillset. To recognise the achievements of our learners and their ongoing skills development through accreditation and all learners engaged on the project were enrolled on a Level 2 Award in Innovation & Enterprise in Practice thereby providing knowledge, skills and enriching their overall experience.