e-icom project (E-Learning for International Commerce Digital Marketing) is conceived as an initiative to develop pedagogic resources on International Marketing to support initial and continuous VET courses in training cycles connected with Trade, Marketing and Advertising.It started as a cooperation between the lead partner in Spain, a VET provider, and the Chamber of Commerce of Madrid, who got inspired by the products of a previous Erasmus+ funded project on the same topic, M.IN.D (Marketing, Internationalization & Development). The i-com partnership gathers partners in Spain, Italy and Greece with a balanced composition of one VET provider and one relevant chamber of commerce in the three countries. Some of the partners in Italy and Greece come from the M.IN.D partnership.The project has the ultimate goal to facilitate the employment of young people in the Export sector and contribute to the competitiveness of the companies of the three represented countries, especially SMEs, by providing a higher qualification of their staff, having in mind the current diagnosis of the European institutions, which estimates that more than 30 million jobs in the EU depend on exports outside the EU and 90% of future global growth is predicted to happen outside Europe's borders (European Council, 2018).The main challenges of VET according to the recent publications of the European Centre for Development of Vocational Training relate to the cooperation between the education sector and the enterprises and it is in this area where the e-icom project wants to intervene.The partnership represents the interests of several hundreds of thousand companies of which only a fraction export at all. Through the training cycles implemented by the participating organisations, the partnership reaches directly some 2.500 trainees yearly in initial and continuous VET in the topics covered by the project.The main results to be developed in the project are a MOOC on International Marketing and a pedagogic and promotional audiovisual resource containing the lessons learnt in the implementation of the project. They will be produced in all the languages of the partnership with inputs from all partners. They will include specific sectorial examples and testimonials from all the participating countries to bring an international value to the final products.The partners count with the professional and technical resources to develop fully the intended products. A short-term staff mobility has been incorporated to the work plan to contribute to the exchange of practices and opinions in the conception and production of the main results. In order to maximise their quality, the products will be tested and validated in all countries incorporating suggestions of external stakeholders. Multipliers events are foreseen in all countries to promote the results and contribute to their sustainability.The two main results will be open to the public and directly accessible from the webpage of the project and electronic platforms best suiting their promotion, including the platform of results of the Erasmus + program.

The FABUSS Project (FAmily BUsiness Successful Succession) was co-funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ Programme – KA2 Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices – Strategic Partnership for Youth. The project started on 1st February 2017 with a total duration of 24 months. It aimed at helping young people (18-35 years old) who wish to take over their family business and become able and effective successors.The partnership of 9 organisations (https://www.fabuss-project.eu/partners/) from 6 countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, FYROM, Greece, Italy and Portugal), with the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry (www.acci.gr) as Lead partner and Coordinator, having in mind that these aspiring successors need skills and knowledge to effectively develop their businesses, set the following main objectives:•To increase young peoples’ awareness of benefits that family businesses may have for their own career planning,•To identify and inform prospective family businesses successors of problems that might emerge during and after transition and of how these could be overcome,•To promote efficient and effective transition of family businesses ownership and management, and•To upgrade family business successors’ operational, innovation and leadership skills, thus enabling them to maintain past achievements, introduce modern management approaches and promote their competitiveness and growth potentials.The achievement of the FABUSS project’s objectives was ensured through the organisation and implementation of a series of activities in partner countries and the delivery of the following products:1.FABUSS Surveys: Two Surveys were conducted: One on the “environment” for Family Businesses in partner countries and a Second one on Skill Gaps and Training Needs of those who wish to take over their Family Business. Six National Reports were delivered, accompanied by a Synthesis with Executive Summary in all partners’ national languages.2.Six Modules of Innovative Training Material developed along 3 Axes: 1. Awareness of family business management issues, 2. Preparation of effective next generation leaders, 3. Structuring effective governance and business succession mechanisms. All Modules were translated in partners’ national languages.3.FABUSS e-Learning Platform, hosting training materials and accessible to registered Family Business successors.4.Legacy Report, investigating and presenting the project results’ sustainability and development prospects, after its completion, in partner countries and beyond.All FABUSS products and deliverables have been uploaded on the project’s multilingual website: www.fabuss-project.euThe project reached some worth mentioning achievements:•210 young people, who wish to take over their Family Business, participated in training sessions in partner countries.•20 Trainers attended Training of Trainers Workshops.•89% of training participants consider the training offered to be “very useful”, 94% think the experience gained is “valuable”, 85% declare more confident to consider Succession Planning.•15 “Successors”, from different partner countries, participated in online Transnational Learning Exchanges.•182 people, of the “previous” and the “next” generation, participated in Intergenerational Workshops in partner countries.•More than 528,000 people were reached through “information dissemination” activities organised in partner countries.In order to investigate the long term sustainability prospects of project results and the factors and policies conditioning such prospects, selected stakeholders were interviewed in the partner countries, commented on the project results and proposed policy measures that may contribute to successful succession. Analysis and interpretation of interviews material are presented in the project’s Legacy Report. Some key points are:•Without exception, all those interviewed, support the idea that the project’s products and results should be retained, maintained and developed.•Results should be widely disseminated and the associated benefits for Family businesses be shared with new target groups and potentially in more countries.•Sustainability of project products and results will depend on the effectiveness of a range of “support measures and structures”. These include active engagement of actors such as Chambers, Associations or even specialised entities, initiatives for continuous monitoring of family businesses’ knowledge and skill gaps and of associated training and coaching needs. Support services may extend to provision of special incentives for family businesses to make use of available services.•While most of the suggested initiatives relate to the so-called “supply side”, a lot of importance is also placed on the “demand side”, mainly emphasising the need for more users to be considered as potential beneficiaries. In this sense, both “generations” should be targeted, rather than only actual or intended “successors”.

"The ""MIND - Marketing, Internationalization & Development"" project aims to:• carry out a process of transnational cooperation to analyse, design, test, validate and disseminate a European framework for the qualification of the Vocational profile of International Marketing Manager to:a) support SMEs to define internationalisation processes to define strategies to choose the foreign country/market, the entry methods and correct positioning with respect to the competition, the most suitable communication strategies, particularly as regards agro-food products;b) analyse internal and external resources to identify market opportunities and relative strategies to adopt;c) determine the international marketing strategies based on an analysis of competition and market segmentationd) guide SMEs to define export plans, on the basis of competitive strategies and marketing.• reduce the mismatch between the demand for skills of production systems and the provision of training offered by VET actors • facilitate access to a plurality of online OER, even after project end, for at least 3 years, to allow people to acquire/consolidate the organizational/managerial, commercial, relational and marketing skills, functional for strategic planning of international SME projection.These objectives will be fulfilled by:1) ANALYSIS OF TRAINING NEEDS, defining the vocational profile of the International Marketing Manager, divided into skills, denominated and described in the knowledge and skills/abilities, indicating the EQF level, the expected results and indicators of possession and use. Through the organization of the Focus Groups, the profile will be shared with:a) representatives of a group of agro-food SMEs, to ascertain whether the knowledge and abilities/skills described are really considered necessary, in order to define even the minimum standards of possession/exerciseb) a group of people representing the target group (long-term first time job seekers/unemployed, with degrees in economic subjects), to identify the average level of knowledge and exercise of skills/abilities of planning and management skills in international marketing for SMEs, on which to base the contents of the OER.2) CREATION OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES, that constitute the “MARK.UP-MARKETING UPSKILLING” multimedia product, to develop/reinforce project beneficiaries’:a) knowledge of:• Success Factors and factors that influence foreign markets• Segmentation Strategies of international markets• Positioning strategies• SWOT Analysis• Competitor analysis• Strategies to enter and work in foreign countries• International Marketing Mix Strategies • Drafting an Export Planb) ability of:• analysis, • strategic thinking, • negotiation, • programming, • organisation,• decision making,• results orientation,• initiative,• propensity to new things,• forward thinking, • managing uncertainty and difficulties3) THE CREATION OF THE ""MAR.CO - MARKETING COMPETENCIES” LEARNING ENVIRONMENT, a Knowledge Hub featuring educational materials and operational tools, able to help people acquire the skills and competences of the reference vocational profile.4) TESTING OF OER, TEACHING MATERIALS AND INTERNATIONALISATION SUPPORT TOOLS by a group of beneficiaries to develop the skills of the target vocational profile, in order to:- make early corrective measures to learning contents and/or methods of use, in a logic of fine tuning for subsequent dissemination to the general public;- acquire the knowledge and skills needed to conduct a check-up on SMEs businesses interested in international business development5) CONDUCTING A COMPANY CHECK UP to understand the ways and means to be used to guide SMEs in the strategic routes of entry, development and permanence in international circuits in relation to:- analysis of internal resources (human, financial, technical) and competition- support in innovation- selection of foreign markets with the highest potential- definition of export plans- definition of International marketing mix strategies 6) CONSTRUCTING ""MIND STORY"" A DIGITAL BOOK, to narrate the actions carried out, the results achieved, the personal and professional experiences of beneficiaries, the information collected with the business analysis, including (video) interviews with testimonials expression of the partnership reference territories"