SMEs are the backbone of our economies: they make up 99% of businesses in the UK, Ireland and across Europe and create 85% of new jobs. Yet the business environment is changing rapidly, not least due to developments in digital technology. If the EU is to meet its “Start-up and scale-up” initiative to help more businesses grow faster, more work must be done to teach business managers and entrepreneurs they skills they need to adapt to the digital global economy. BEGIN responds by creating and mainstreaming a new blockchain training model that enables entrepreneurship education providers to teach blockchain technology to their SME and entrepreneur learners. We start from the assumption that blockchain technologies and the infrastructure surrounding it has matured sufficiently so that the digital skills and investment required to integrate blockchain technologies into SME/start-up business models are now accessible. However, new training must not be solely technical: it must address the attitudinal, knowledge and skills barriers that SMEs – and the wider entrepreneurship VET sector – faces. Our model includes three innovative resources: - Guide to Blockchain Skills Development for SMEs and Start-ups, a publication that introduces the importance of blockchain training for SMEs with high growth potential, illustrates this with a series of case studies examples, and educates entrepreneurship educators and VET managers on how to approach skills’ building in this field. - BEGIN Problem-based Learning Resources, a suite of OERs is designed for use by entrepreneurship educators in small groups or coaching scenarios. Structured around a curriculum outlining key learning objectives, resources include scenario-based learning activities and a trainers’ guide to help educators adjust to this new methodology. - BEGIN Online Course, a multilingual, interactive learning course in which SME managers and entrepreneurs can access training directly independently of their location or time of day. The project is expected to generate the following impact on our target groups: - Entrepreneurship educators working in business centres, colleges, incubators and accelerators will increase their own knowledge regarding blockchain and Digital Ledger Technologies, and develop their own skills for teaching it. This includes an improved mastery of a new approach to vocational skills development -problem-based learning – and abilities to teach EntreComp and DigComp related competences. - Managers of SMEs and start up entrepreneurs develop the entrepreneurial and digital skills to identify, evaluate and integrate blockchain technologies to boost their business growth. These skills enable them to participate more fully in the digital economy and contribute to business growth. - Managers and leaders of organisations that provide entrepreneurship VET, including enterprise development agencies, business centres, and colleges, benefit from an improved awareness regarding the importance of blockchain skills as relevant and valuable to entrepreneurship curricula. Furthermore, thanks to the availability of resources and the online course, they are be able to accelerate the introduction of blockchain training and increase the quality of this training by blending digital and traditional teaching strategies.
The main objective of the project was to improve the capacity of entrepreneurship education providers to teach blockchain technology to their SME and entrepreneur learners. Specific objectives were as follows: a. Develop, test and implement a new blockchain training model with 60+ entrepreneurship educators by month 20, who will then introduce the full training approach in their organisations. b. Cultivate the digital and entrepreneurial competences of 140+ SME managers and entrepreneurs so that they can identify, evaluate and/or integrate blockchain technologies bymonth 22. (Growing to 600 users per year after project completion). c. Enable 400+ entrepreneurship educators, managers and stakeholders to access the knowledge and resources to effectively teach blockchain integration for SMEs by month 24.
SMEs are the backbone of our economies: they make up 99% of businesses in the UK, Ireland and across Europe and create 85% of new jobs . Yet the business environment is changing rapidly, not least due to developments in digital technology. If the EU is to meet its “Start-up and scale-up” initiative to help more businesses grow faster, more work must be done to teach business managers and entrepreneurs the skills they need to adapt to the digital global economy. In order to have entrepreneurship educators and business advisors capable of developing these key competences among SME managers & entrepreneurs, it was imperative that we (NEN and our BEGIN partners) addressed the knowledge & skills deficit regarding blockchain and DLTs within the VET sector itself. Blockchain is now reasonably well known on one level: it has already transformed the business model of many multinational corporations & made headlines in newspapers & business magazines. We found a definitive need for this project in our organisations and networks, prior to the BEGIN project, surprisingly only 15% of entrepreneurship educators could explain blockchain in basic terms, and none felt prepared to educate others on its use.