"The S.M.I.Le. - Sales Management, Inter-culture, Learning project intends to create, test, validate and disseminate, as a new educational standard, the competence dictionary of the emerging vocational profile of the Cross Cultural Sales Agent, a key figure of b2b sales processes in intercultural contexts, both in -house and on-the-field, for operations of strategic and operational commercial negotiation abroad. The expansion of reference markets in which companies compete, due to increasing globalization, implies the need to integrate intercultural aspects of ethical, juridical, linguistic, managerial, technical, communicative and negotiating nature into sales strategies that are fundamental to create the buyer-seller trust relationship and the success of sales processes in contexts different from purely domestic ones. In this scenario, characterized by the reduction of the physical distance between companies and the parallel increase in the cultural gap between them, there is a significant skills mismatch between the training supply of VET actors and the needs of businesses related to the need to develop and/or consolidate one’s business. In light of what has been shown for the context and the needs identified, the Project intends to establish a stable and multi-actor European network aiming to: • reduce the misalignment between the need for specialist and inter-cultural skills, typical of the target profile and the training supply, through a ""VET provider-business"" co-elaboration process of both the target profile and the related training programme • favour processes to acquire the competences/skills/knowledge related to the target profile by using digital teaching tools and innovative pedagogical methods, as well as practical testing, in real work situations • increase the employability of people with a higher education diploma and/or a degree in economic subjects in partner territories. These objectives will be pursued by implementing the following IO: • Cross-Cultural Sales Agent competence dictionary to promote its introduction within regional/national vocational qualifications systems/frameworks • A training programme with classroom sessions, e-learning, work-based learning and movie education, according to a blended methodological approach to develop the distinctive skills of the target vocational profile, to favour its adoption as a training model at European level • 40 people (10IT, 10EL, 10BG, 10PL) unemployed/first time job seekers with a diploma and/or degree in economic disciplines will be course beneficiaries • OER, i.e. the training pills referring to the following integrated macro-fields of knowledge/skills: - SALES - BEHAVIOURAL AND INTERCULTURAL - MANAGEMENT - LANGUAGE functional to defining proactive sales plans, as well as to negotiate and conclude win-win commercial negotiations in international/intercultural b2b contexts • company check-ups of sales processes carried out by training course beneficiaries on a sample of SMEs from their respective territorial contexts, to highlight the positive impact of the work-based learning approach on learning processes • educational short films to stage typical situations of sales processes in intercultural contexts realized by the learners at the end of the training course, which also represent the result of the implementation of movie education as an innovative methodology able to favour experience-based learning thanks to the ability to combine emotional and cognitive aspects and to activate problem-based learning processes • the ""S.AGE."" open, flexible Learning environment based on the logic of informal, social and collaborative learning that will allow access to the OER, other in-depth learning materials, tools to conduct company check-ups of sales processes and short films. The project also foresees the implementation of a short-term joint staff training event for a group of partnership trainers for Movie Education methodological alignment and technical alignment on cross-cultural selling to conduct cross-cultural Sales & Storytelling Labs The realization of these outputs, aiming to develop elevated cross-cultural skills of crucial importance for the effectiveness of sales processes and the socio-economic development of the European productive fabric, requires the activation of transnational cooperation mechanisms capable of standardizing, at European level, the adoption of didactic and methodological approaches inspired by the logic of cultural pluralism, from the definition phase of the competence set of the target vocational profile to the testing of the training model and of the resources/methodologies to support learning processes"

"The project developed a set of digital and entrepreneurial skills for students of humanistic extraction of the European partner universities, useful to innovate the range of products and services to promote and access cultural assets in a digital key, with land branded content experiential marketing solutions and the most advanced technologies as innovation catalysts to support the evolution of digital-based services in the cultural supply chain.In recent years, cultural and creative industries (CCI) have represented an increasingly important employment basin in the EU labour market. They employ around 8.3 million people, equal to 3.8% of the entire EU force, generating an added value of around €558 bn, equal to 4.4% of EU GDP (Mapping the creative value chains. A study on the economy of culture in the digital age, 2017). In most EU countries, the CCI, even in the most acute phases of the crisis, have demonstrated greater resilience than the more traditional industries, connoting their ability to innovate and trigger spill-over effects into other sectors. Digital transformation is changing the way the public interacts with the arts and culture and the way in which the CC sectors interact with their audience. In this sense, at EU level there is a need to focus more proactively and effectively on the development of digital skills applicable to the CC sector and on the potential of these industries on the economic and sustainable growth of the EU.In line with this evidence, the project objectives were achieved by realizing the following intellectual outputs:• DESIGN OF THE NEW ""DIGITAL HUMANIST"" CURRICULUM based on three dimensions:-cognitive (learning by thinking) to be used in blended mode, mixing classroom and e-learning with the use of OER-operational (learning by doing) in on the job training, to conduct check-ups at CCIs-behavioural (learning by acting) with the creation of digital cultural communication stories• Creation of 29 OER and the relative assessment tests with Chroma Key techniques combined with motion graphics, to develop skills in students to valorise the cultural assets of the area, using the most appropriate technologies and innovation to communicate identity and local values. The OER will be made available free of charge for at least two years after the end of the project on the e-learning platform ""Erudire"" (www.erudire.it), upon registration• Design of the Handbook to create digital, cultural stories to manage all types of communication in the cultural field by applying the techniques of the territorial narration series (from web-series to sketch-coms) and the TECHNICAL MANUAL FOR TEACHERS containing the tools to use to hold workshop sessions with the students.• Creation of the DIGIT learning environment in the new and experimental form of Educational TV programme in 4 episodes linked to the 4 skills of the Curriculum that alternates sessions in the studio, in which the presenter introduces the topics, with interviews with teachers and experts and short clips videos, extracted from the ""ALICE"" series, produced and distributed by CONFORM, which act as a bridge between the informative session and the actual training session, through the use of ""Key Words"" spoken by the actors on stage and interactive elements that appear on the screen to allow the learner to access the OERs and further information materials sought and/or developed by the partnership.• Conduction by the learners of company check-ups at the CCIS sought by the partnership to analyse cultural communication processes, highlighting strengths and areas of improvement for the digital transformation of cultural contents.A 5-day virtual learning, teaching and training activity was held which involved a pool of teachers from the partnership for the methodological alignment aimed at developing the learners’ skills necessary to manage territorial and experiential brand-land marketing processes and projects. The partnership aimed at a structured dialogue between universities and the CCIs at transnational level to generate a relational, scientific and methodological capital of high added value that cannot be achieved with regional and/or national initiatives. This aspect stems from the HE transnational cooperation strategy in the CCE sector, which is strategic for EU competitiveness, as it integrates those activities that derive creativity from culture and develop services for other sectors, conveying contents and innovation to the rest of the economy generating a broad cultural ecosystem, ranging from advanced manufacturing to artistic craftsmanship. The search for and implementation of high quality standards in HE supply implies the need to cooperate and standardize methodologies to guarantee transparency/comparability/mobility of teachers and students (Bologna Process)."