The current COVID-19 crisis has heavily accelerated the need for a digital transformation in the educative and training systems across Europe, but there are still many limitations in terms of e-teaching and more training in this field is needed. As a result, the project IKSE aims at supporting the process of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and demonstrate responsiveness, adaptability, and flexibility, contributing to building digital education readiness and to mitigating the impact of the crisis on education.Consequently, IKSE will focus on building capacity to implement online, blended, and distance teaching and learning; to develop digital pedagogical competences of VET Actors, Professionals and End Users enabling them to deliver high quality inclusive digital education. Moreover, it will support them in using high-quality digital content such as innovative online resources and tools in the field of Social Entrepreneurship.Thus, the partnership will promote networking of institutions across the EU, sharing of resources, expertise, and collaboration with digital technology providers and experts in educational technologies and relevant pedagogical practice. It will help to develop tailor made solutions adapted to local challenges and realities. Consequently, IKSE focuses on the follow objectives: In first place, to deploy innovative digital tools and methods to deliver quality and inclusive education through online/virtual means, including blended teaching, training and learning. In second place, to support learners, teachers and trainers in adapting to online/ distance learning. In third place, to promote safer and more responsible use of digital technology. And fourthly, to define how to best incorporate digital online technology into subject-specific teaching, training and learning, including work-based learning. For that, the project will count with the following participants•InnoGrowth - European Association for Innovation and Growth- NGO (Bulgaria)•Aris - professional training and research center (Italy)•Universitat Jaume I de Castellón – public body (Spain)•Ankara Directorate of National Education - public body (Turkey)•National Agency for Microcredit - public body (Italy)•Bulgarian-German Vocational Training Centre – public body (Bulgaria)Associated partner: Ministry of labor and social policy (Republic of Bulgaria)Thought an innovative methodology, IKSE will support the taking up of digital technologies and of innovative and open pedagogies in education, focusing on Innovative Keys for Social Entrepreneurship for already and newcomers youth and adult social entrepreneurs. It will also promote gender equality and address differences in relation to the access and use by underrepresented groups, such as, but not only, people with disabilities.IKSE’s methodology will also use the European frameworks on digital competences of educators, citizens, and organizations, including the development and use of open educational resources, open textbooks, and free and open-source educational software. Additionally, it will especially promote the design and use of innovative methods and tools for teaching, training, learning, and assessment as drivers of improvements in lifelong learning in the field of social entrepreneurship. IKSE project has 2 main target groups: e-learning Designers and VET Key Actors; and social entrepreneurs and Managers. The project is aimed at producing several outcomes: in first place, a toolbox regarding e-learning international best practices for digital learning design and social entrepreneurship. Then, an E-learning training course for E-learning designers and VET Key Actors which focus on digital learning main competences - within the EQF, ECVET, and EQARF. In third place, it will deliver the design of 4 Drivers for Social Entrepreneurship Key Competencies to manage e-learning efficiently. Those drivers will be managing, social impact, digital innovation and circular economy. Moreover, IKSE will develop a e-learning platform and several learning materials for IO 2 and 3 that will include how to create innovative design for platforms and training courses, innovative tools and methodologies for e-learning and standards of establishment for e-learning and material production. Finally, the project will develop a roadmap of e-learning implementation and a set of policy recommendations. It will be complemented for several online events for courses delivery for staff and VET actors training. Though these outcomes, IKSE bets for a to making a more digital, fair and inclusive Europe.Additionally, to disseminate effectively IKSE outcomes, the partnership will use the main EU platform such as eTwinning, the School Education Gateway and EPALE Platforms to work together before, during and after the project activities. Partnership will also organise transnational learning, teaching and training activities of individuals, including blended mobility.

The statistics indicate that the field of entrepreneurship of migrants is growing and expanding, even in opposition to the negative trend recorded by Italian companies during the economic crisis. An analysis at European level shows that the situation is similar in all countries. It is a field that must be protected, nourished and encouraged, not only because it generates income and employment growth, but mainly because it has been and is an effective tool of social and economic integration.The project proposes to give an effective and coherent response to the issues highlighted by migrant entrepreneurs and that emerged from investigations conducted in Italy and Europe. The economic difficulties, which have resulted in lack of access to traditional bank financing channels often being towards migrant subjects without guarantee and hence not bankable, plus the lack of adequate preparation or the failure of business and management. Another critical point was seen in the retrieval of specific information as the means of access to microcredit and entrepreneurial documentation necessary to support the request and the procedure for preparing a business plan. Furthermore, the excessive fragmentation of information and therefore the need to address multiple agencies and offices is, according to the findings, a long and dispersive process and often a real disincentive.The main project’s goals have been to create a new professional able to work with migrants and with competencies of microcredit and intercultural communication; and to elaborate an educational path for migrant entrepreneurs, that it takes account of the problems, which they incur. The idea was to create a partnership consisting of organizations, working with migrants, with different but complementary competencies. The partnership was composed of: the Ente Nazionale per il Microcredito (lead organization), Ce.S.F.Or. vocational training institution (IT), Accion contra el hambre (SP) international NGO organizing entrepreneurial course for migrants, Nantik Lum (SP) microfinance organization , Wisamar (DE) NGO specialized in intercultural communication and Mediter (BE) NGOs network specialized in islamic finance and intercultural communication.The path outlined by the project was articulated through several crucial and equally competing phases to achieve the project objective. Each partner was experienced on the project theme, and the starting point was the analysis of good practices, in order to identify valid and replicable ideas. The good practices that emerged were collected in a report available on the project website. The good practice exchange has been the first project activity, and in the light of what emerged, we then proceeded to the experimentation of a new training methodology for the improvement of the professionals who work in this sector. This innovative training course was experimented during the week of training course held in Rome which represented the second activity of the project. Twenty operators from our partner organizations, took part in it and, starting from a re-elaboration of the trainings’ contents, we finalized the OUTPUT1, which is an e-learning course for operators working with migrants at different level. The course, in English, is available and free on the ENM platform. The project also developed a free training course for migrant entrepreneurs to acquire or consolidate business and management skills. This course was realized by the operators previously trained during the workshop, and thanks to their experiences and acquired skills, they developed a structured path taking into account the specific needs of the migrants. The course is available and free on the project website in English, Italian, French, German and Spanish.The innovative methodology of the project allowed us to develop a training course that compensates the lack of similar courses, and which allows interested operators to acquire transversal knowledge that makes them more competent in their field. The creation of this professional figure have positive repercussions on the single operators, on the organizations they work for, at local and national level and last but not least, on migrants interested in starting an activity because they can count on the support of qualified professionals.

<< Background >>ProCCS aims to support one of the sectors that was most affected by the Covid-19 crisis and, in spite of its huge contribution to the EU economy, is currently fighting for its own survival, in particular after the second wave of contagions and the consequent restrictive measures adopted by national governments. The whole sector is in desperate need of support and - most of all - new solutions and tools to tackle this hard challenge and overcome this difficult phase. A change of perspective and the development of new skills are absolutely crucial for professionals of the CCS, who are in need of an increasingly broad and more sophisticated set of competences than before.It is a well-recognised fact at EU level that the Cultural and Creative Sector (CCS) is amongst the fastest growing sectors of the economy. Nevertheless, the challenges in accessing finance is one of the most critical obstacles to its growth and, as stated in the “EENC- Opportunities for CCSs to Access Finance in the EU”, access to finance is prevented by specific characteristics of CCS organisations. Among them:● Characteristics of CCS activities: lack of tangible assets, high uncertainty of market demand, generation of value over long and uncertain periods of time, lack of knowledge of funding opportunities;● Characteristics of CCS organisations and entrepreneurs: perceived lack of business skills, CCS entrepreneurs’ fear of losing control of their business, etc.● Specific market conditions: lack of good market intelligence, pressure on existing business models (due to digital shift, among others), etc.These challenges have been debated at EU level in recent years to such an extent that in 2016 the EC launched the CCS Guarantee Facility to ease access to finance for micro-businesses and SMEs in the CCS and engagement with financial intermediaries. In fact, the CCS is largely composed of micro-enterprises, non-profit organizations and creative professionals that often lack access to financial support and do not have the specific skills for realising and managing their business ideas.Moreover, the current crisis caused by Covid19 is being particularly critical for the CCS due to the sudden and massive loss of revenue opportunities. The suspension of activities and the cancellation (or postponement) of events, shows and festivals generated a chain of negative effects, which were difficult to compensate even when venues could reopen and events could be organized (with limited capacity). For all these reasons, it would be crucial for the entire CCS to bridge the skills gap of professionals in the sector and facilitate access to credit by creating dedicated channels and providing solid information on the economic potential of the CCS to financial intermediaries so that they can overcome a traditional distrust of the sector and support its growth.For these purposes, the project proposal was conceived by the Ente Nazionale per il Microcredito, involving important organisations so as to constitute a powerful task force cooperating to address this challenge at European level. The consortium is composed of 5 organisations from 4 different countries. It is characterized by a highly transversal nature, involving different types of organisations covering the full range of the activities foreseen by the project: a national public body (ENM, Italy) expert in the implementation of microfinance policies and tools at European and national level; an innovation and business centre (InnoGrowth, Bulgaria); a business incubator part of a worldwide network (ImpactHub Leipzig, Germany); one umbrella organization supporting the CCS at EU level (Culture Action Europe, Belgium); one consultancy company (Euradia Italia) specialized in institutional relations, project management and communication.<< Objectives >>ProCCS project aims to support the overall Cultural and Creative Sector by reinforcing the competences of professionals active in the CCS and connecting them with the business and microfinance sector, supporting cultural entrepreneurs in the implementation and financing of their business ideas. The whole sector is in desperate need of support and new solutions and tools to tackle this hard challenge and overcome this difficult phase. A change of perspective and the development of new skills are absolutely crucial for professionals of the Cultural and Creative Sector, who are in need of an increasingly broad and more sophisticated set of competences than before. With these premises, the specific objectives of the project are:● To create a European community of mentors who are specialized in providing complete online training and tutoring to professionals active in the Cultural and Creative Sector● To support the development of a sense of initiative, managerial and entrepreneurial skills of CCS professionals● To support the development of microbusiness ideas in the CCS by easing the access to credit and funding opportunities● To support financial intermediaries in better understanding of specificity and peculiarity of the CCS and to reinforce their awareness of the economic potential of the sector itselfBy achieving these objectives, the project will make it possible to address the needs of the identified CCS target groups, favouring new collaborations between the world of micro-credit and the cultural and creative one as well as the acquisition of new managerial and digital skills and knowledge. Indeed, in the current circumstances, the importance of digital skills becomes absolutely crucial, both in terms of organizing and promoting their professional activity and exploiting learning opportunities.In particular, in order to achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the project will be addressed to the following main target groups, which will be actively involved in its different phases:● T1. CCS Professionals coming from the performing art sector (i.e. dance, theatres, opera), which is one of the Cultural and Creative Sectors with less experience in doing business. Due to its venue and visitor-based nature, the shockwaves of the COVID-19 crisis are felt particularly in the performing arts sectors with up to -90% loss in turnover between 2019 and 2020. Thanks to the ProCCS project, they will have the opportunity to develop their sense of initiative and their managerial and entrepreneurial skills, so as to support their employability as well as to facilitate access to credit and financing opportunities and thus be able to support their projects and their business ideas;● T2. Operators in non-financial tutoring and monitoring services (hereinafter referred to as “tutors”), coming from partner’ organisations. They will improve their skills on online learning methodologies (i.e the use of virtual learning platforms) thus promoting their digital readiness, as well as on how to improve the attractiveness and effectiveness of their training activities and therefore organize ad hoc training activities to meet the specific learning needs of professionals of the Cultural and Creative Sector;● T3. Financial intermediaries from organizations outside the consortium: they will be involved in activities from the start of the project and thanks to the collaboration with different sectors, from vocational education and training to business incubators and accelerators, finance and microcredit, they will have great opportunity to increase their knowledge and better understand the value and the strong economic potential of the Cultural and Creative Sector.<< Implementation >>The project partners will deploy their action at different levels, addressing specific and complementary target groups. In first place, the project aims to promote digital readiness in trainers and tutors, so as to enhance their competences related to online learning methodologies and improve the attractiveness and effectiveness of their training activities. Secondly, CCI professionals will be involved in the process of testing and validating the training and tutoring model developed by the partnership. They will acquire new key competences through online learning activities in order to support their employability and increase their capacity to access credit and funding opportunities. At a third level, in order to support the development of microbusiness ideas in the CCS, the project will address financial intermediaries, by providing them with sound information on the potentials of the CCI, thus establishing the conditions for a cross-sectorial approach involving cooperation between players in different sectors, both in the private and public spheres, from vocational education and training to business incubators and accelerators, finance and microcredit.The entire project is based on a sound intervention logic aimed at establishing a clear connection between activities, expected results and specific objectives. To facilitate a smooth implementation of all project activities and to ensure a balanced distribution of workloads among the partners, the project activities are structured in different Work Packages, each with its own set of activities and expected results. Some results are particularly relevant to the achievement of each specific objective, being related to each specific target group addressed by the project. In particular, the achievement of SO1 is closely linked to the development of the first results of the project (R1) and depends on the success of the implementation of the dissemination activities, including multiplier events as key moments to engage independent professionals and external stakeholders. The joint staff training event also represents an important preliminary step to establish an international community of mentors, characterized by high skills related to digital learning environments, who are promoting a professional training model for CCS professionals to promote access to credit and microfinance.The achievement of SO2 is closely linked to the development of both R1 and R2 as an international group of highly qualified and trained mentors will be able to train and support the small business idea of the CCS professionals involved during the pilot phase to test and validate the online course (R2).The achievement of SO3 is closely connected with the provision of pilot courses and subsequent validation of the online course (R2), as well as the creation of a receptive environment ready to provide financial advice and support CCS professionals.Finally, the achievement of SO4 will be fulfilled by the creation of the toolkit addressed to financial intermediaries to support business start-up in the CCS (R3).<< Results >>The ProCCS project, thanks to the strong collaboration of all partners in the implementation of the activities, will make it possible to achieve important tangible and intangible results. The main tangible results are 3, each of them addressed to a specific target group, so as to facilitate a multi-layer and holistic approach. In addition, within the process for the development of the 3 main outputs, a series of relevant intermediate results will be achieved as following described.R1. Training course for tutors (addressed to T2):● A preliminary survey on learning needs carried out by partners at national level to identify the learning needs of tutors● Pilot courses will be held at local level by ENM and Innogrowth to test the effectiveness of the methodology and training tools and contents. Pilot courses will involve at least 10-15 participants each, for a total of 20-30 professionals trained. Their feedback and the learning materials will be validated and collected in a Handbook, translated into partners’ languages and disseminated in partners’ countries and at EU level● A Joint Staff Training Event (C1) will be hosted by ENM in Rome. 10 foreign participants selected from trainers and tutors will be involved throughout the pilot phase to share methodological guidelines and establish common ground for the delivery of training activitiesR2. Distance training course addressed to professionals of the CCS (T2):● A preliminary survey on learning needs will be carried out by partners at national level to identify the learning needs of CCS professionals leading to the creation of guidelines, a research report and a set of key teaching and training key competences. The research phase will be followed by pilot courses and will involve at least 10-15 CCS professionals per country. The pilot courses will generate small business ideas to be tutored by the project staff and financial intermediaries. ● An evaluation report with participants’ feedback and a Handbook (in English and in partners’ languages) containing the methodology for a training course addressing CCS professionals will be designed.R3. Toolkit addressed to financial intermediaries to support business start-up in the CCS (addressed to T3):● Research of best practices will be designed, collecting innovative methodologies in the financial intermediaries training, related to CCS enterprises and digital skills for training.● Round tables will be run to assess the designed training course and methodology and ensure it answers to the final beneficiaries needs, where at least 15 participants will attend, for a total of 60 participants. ● After the review from external stakeholders, a Toolkit addressed to the financial intermediaries will be designed, translated in partners’ languages and distributed at national and EU level.The 3 tangible results will be available even after the end of the project to keep supporting the growth of the CCS. All project results will be disseminated at European level, taking advantage of the huge potentials of the partnership in terms of communication and belonging to extended EU networks of relevant stakeholders. 5 multiplier events, including a huge final event in Brussels, will be organized in all countries involved in order to support the whole process and promote the project’s results among the widest possible audience.The main expected intangible results will be the following ones:● improved transversal skills of tutors, both in the financial and CCS;● improved managerial and entrepreneurial skills of CCS professionals to get access to credit and funding opportunities;● acquisition of specific skills from financial intermediaries linked to the assessment of the loan request originating from cultural enterprises;● Increased awareness of financial intermediaries on the economic potential of the CCS.