The Age Friendly Communities project is transformative since it creates lasting impact for businesses, particularly SMEs and their employees; using innovative VET work-based learning methods to enhance critical digital and entrepreneurial skills that help companies respond to the increasing demand for new products and services within the Silver Economy. Rapid demographic ageing is not only a major societal challenge but also a major opportunity for new jobs and growth. However, the silver segment remains underserved despite being the biggest opportunity in the market. Products and services are not designed to meet older people’s needs and despite being worth half of the market, only 10% of marketing spend is aimed at this group. Thus the aim of our Age Friendly Communities project is clear; to support individuals working in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to develop entrepreneurial, innovation and digital skills through innovative WBL that support their professional development but also innovate the products and services demanded by older people. As result, older people are being offered improved and more appropriate products and services, and regions will benefit from increased economic activity and development. In order to achieve this we set out the following project methodology. The main activities undertaken include: A work based learning toolkit was developed to guide VET providers, business support organisations and wider stakeholders to effectively guide work based learning for SME’s in their region. See appendix 1. Four regional stakeholder partnerships were established as part of this process bringing together 58 stakeholders. They were consulted for needs analysis, mapping of existing supports, the development of regional action plans and dissemination activities.A set of open education resources on Digital Technology Skills was developed comprising a wealth of information in over 250 slides. A summary is included as appendix 2. 60 SME’s/16 trainers were trained in its usage.A 2-day Age Friendly Product/service innovation bootcamp was developed. 67 SME’s took part in these bootcamps across the four regions and each received a bespoke commercialisation action plan. Our joint syllabus and bootcamp overview are included as Appendix 3 and 3b respectively.An online collaborative exchange platform was developed and over 250 users engaged in its implementation. The work based learning toolkit, the full suite of IO2 materials, information relating to IO3, summaries of our regional plans and much more are available on the collaborative platform www.agefriendlyeconomy.eu Impact As stated previously, this project is transformative in three main ways, directly tackling key challenges associated with growing the Silver Economy and deficits within the industry. First, it updates the skills of businesses’ staff; ensuring companies have capacity to adapt to changing consumer demand and behaviour. Second, it improves competitiveness through innovative work-based and lifelong learning programmes. Third, it promotes the commercialisation of innovative products and services to meet growing demand. Age Friendly Economy has drawn together organisations through establishing enduring local learning and employer networks and through Strategic Road Maps for Regional WBL and promoting wider impacts across the EU and beyond. Increased numbers of participants will enhance their potential through the acquisition of new skills and training. This will lead to improved productivity and increased commercialisation by SMEs. The project has been successful in responding to a genuine need experienced by partner organisations in the education, entrepreneurship support, voluntary and economic development sectors who will benefit from using the outputs and sustaining the impacts of the project in the long term. Our independent post project evaluation report is included at appendix 4.

Europe needs more entrepreneurial citizens: creative, confident individuals who innovate to solve problems and convert ideas into value across enterprises, organizations and the public sector. Entrepreneurship is now understood as a mind-set, a set of transversal competences of value to ALL individuals. The failure to widen and improve the scope of entrepreneurship education for young people in VET beyond the business planning aspects undermines the ambitions and employability of students, perpetuates youth unemployment, and limits opportunities for value creation for local and regional economic development. MASTER was designed with a clear objective: to increase the proportion of VET students acquiring an entrepreneurial mind-set and engaging in early stage entrepreneurial activity by widening the scope of training, raising awareness and improving the pedagogic capacities of VET policy makers and educators. The regional aspects of this project facilitate improved collaboration between stakeholders in the entrepreneurship ecosystem and boost sustainability of the project. In order to achieve this we set out the following project methodology. The main activities undertaken include: - A needs and opportunities analysis was developed stating the case for an integrated, cross sector approach to student entrepreneurship education. The paper was developed after an in-depth review of literature and extensive consultations from each of the partner countries and at EU level to explore the enablers, barriers, needs, opportunities and existing support available that relates to the development of entrepreneurship education. - 5 Regional Alliances were established in Ireland, Holland, Spain, Northern Ireland and Denmark which brought together 61 stakeholders from VET, private and public sector. The Alliance was involved in consultation for the needs analysis, mapping existing supports, learning from best practice, the development of Regional Action Plans and dissemination activities. - Jointly develop a Student Entrepreneurship Support Toolkit and pilot at least 10 innovative entrepreneurship training activities across five jurisdictions. The training activities were; Arguing your business idea; Bono's thinking hats; Business Model Canvas; Business Pitch; CIE Model; Intellectual Property Workshop; Launch Game; Radiant Thinking; Random Request and Self-Reflection. The toolkit includes detailed summaries, lesson plans and tips for replicating the activities, this is supported by the project website which includes essential and additional resources to assist teachers in rolling out these activities in their own settings. - The project outputs and findings have been widely disseminated via a multilingual project website and comprehensive dissemination strategy.The unique structure of the MASTER project provided a reliable means of ensuring ongoing, systemic improvements to increasing the proportion of VET students acquiring an entrepreneurial mind-set and engaging in early stage entrepreneurial activity, region by region. Thanks to improved entrepreneurship education in their colleges and institutions, more students will acquire entrepreneurial mindsets, enhancing their employability, and students with start ups will be better linked to the wider entrepreneurship support system to gain focussed support to help push their startups forward upon completion of their course. VET institutions have gained more prominent positions in the entrepreneurship system. Through the Regional Alliances they have built collaborative relationships with the enterprise development and VET entrepreneurship sectors. Overall, their teaching programmes have been strengthened and diversified enhancing the performance and appeal of the VET college. Regional economies will be strengthened by new business starts and cohorts of more entrepreneurial students will enter jobs in the region and drive intrapreneurship and innovation in the organisations they work for. In addition cohorts of more entrepreneurial students will enter jobs in the region and drive intrapreneurship and innovation in the organisations they work for. The project has been successful in responding to a genuine need experienced by partner organisations in the vocational education, entrepreneurship support and economic development sectors who will benefit from using the outputs and sustaining the impacts of the project in the long term.