This Skills Alliance aims at creating a new professional figure for the Retail Trade sector: the Future Retail manager for efficient and flexicure SMEs (FURM), endowed with innovative management skills, tools and intervention methods needed in order to face the main trends affecting the sector during the current crisis: (1)Globalisation; (2)Mass customisation and Lifestyle changes; and (3)Labour flexibility.The FURM will be able to create learning conducive environments at the workplace, properly coordinating workers in a Flexicure way, balancing ‘lean’ thinking with a developmental approach to HR management and improving the image of the sector. Thus resulting in improved working conditions in the retail sector, and in the creation of preconditions to attracting and retaining a future workforce.ACTIVITIES- Development of sectoral methods for anticipation of skills needs;- Identification of the new skills for Future Retail Managers;- Designing and implementation of specific initiatives that stimulate sector SMEs to invest in training and flexicurity;- Development of a new model of training provision within an overall lifelong learning strategy for the retail sector, taking into account barriers existing among SMEs;- Set-up of the EQF of the new professional figure of the FURM, endowed with more advanced skills needed to: (1)quickly pick up new trends, explore new markets and channels, invest in customer relations, (2)providing attractive working conditions as well as learnconducive and flexicure environments; (3)organise the retail process to better manage mass customisation and lifestyle changes;- Developing flexible devices for validation, transfer and recognition of learning outcomes, using ECVET principles;- Development of the Info-Formative Toolkit for the new FURM – with a strong use of simulation and blended learning modalities;- Piloting the training on at least 120 FURMs;- Set up of an European Peer-Development Network for FURMs.