The project is expected to be an important element of a chain of projects of the promoter aimed at the development of a virtual training environment for SMEs. This project will extend its services to a major group, part of the lifelong learning cycle: adults with low level economic education. Also the project will differentiate between sub groups with different education background who may need different learning contents and also varied pedagogical approaches. So far these groups have been exposed to the challenges of entrepreneurship in a limited way only but the changing economic and social environment means that entrepreneurship will be central in their life. This need is emphasised by the current financial and economic turmoil. 99% of businesses in the EU are SME’s, i.e. 2/3 of all private sector jobs. Small firms are, in fact, the real giants of our economy, accounting for 80% of the new jobs created (DG Enterprise). There is a political will to recognise the central role of SME’s in the EU economy (see Small Business Act). But, despite its huge economic importance, entrepreneurship is not a preferred career option (60% of the citizens say that setting up their own business has never even occurred to them). Our Leonardo project will help reverse this trend on the local basis in Hungary and Romania and set the right mindset at the levels of the mentioned large target groups. This is in perfect conformity with the explicit priorities of the Hungarian and Romanian governments. BBS, in the frame of international co-operations worked out joint online curricula on Master level in multilingual settings. These activities have been carried out in standard e-learning frames. Now the project will diversify the output and offer: on one side research-based learning modules covering basic knowledge on SMEs localized on and tailored to (level + pedagogy) the target groups and on the other side the project will produce an other output facilitating the development of entrepreneurial skill groups by using Web2.0 techniques and business games in order to make the approach more attractive for the target groups. The experience of the transfer deliverer member of the consortium is a token of the success. SME federations with strong vocational education profile are invited to the consortium with well defined special tasks.During pilot trainings the pedagogical activities will be validated by samples of 2 strands of the adult target population, and usefulness in real life situations will be measured. The Finnish sub contractor has a strong experience in on line knowledge assessment and so will evaluate the student achievements at the end of the pilot courses. A professional evaluator is also invited to the consortium.Impacts on the structure and staff of the education institution members as well as on the two target groups’ entrepreneurial mindset are foreseeable.
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