Call for Applications for Participation to Project:

Towards Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Skills

Background

With increasing expectations on policymakers and practitioners to develop more cost-effective ways of developing human capitalgood practice sharing has been identified as one option to reduce time, cost and effort in bringing innovation and value to the education and training system. The European Commission,in its recently published strategies ‘Rethinking Education’ and ‘Entrepreneurship Action Plan’ refer to the necessity to ‘embrace and exploit’ the good practitioner experience as a means for job creation and prosperity[1]. Good practice developments, however, are constrained by two factors in particular. Firstly, access to good practice is often confined to specific events (e.g. conferences, seminars) and closed networks with many education and training providers, in particular,particularly on hearsay to enable access to more innovative developments in their field. Secondly, good practice for the most-part is subjectively defined i.e. training providers adept at self-marketing make particular efforts to publicise their activities without any systematic effort to assess its viability for transferability to another environment.

Through this project ETF[2] addresses these two concerns by road-testing a peer review mechanism to improve confidence in good practice sharing and to determine options for more open access to good practice.

Aim and objective

The aim of the project is to explore how the good practice provisions of ETF Council Regulation[3] can be more systematically addressed to support partner countries in developing more cost-effective ways of promoting human capital development.In 2012 practitioners from 12 countries from ETF partner countries and the European Union[4] took part in Phase I of the project in which a methodology was developed and road-tested to improve confidence and exchange between training providers in the following thematic areas:

  • training for young people’s start-ups (up to 30 years of age);
  • training/mentoring for women entrepreneurs;
  • promoting skills for small enterprises to trade internationally.

The objective of Phase II of the project in 2013 will be to build upon the work undertaken in Phase I of the project tofurther develop and road-test the peer review methodology (and support tools).

The Good Practitioners

The project will involve 12 pre-identified practitioners operational in the three policy themesmentioned above (4 practitioners per theme).

The good practitioners will be any organisation which designs and delivers education and training in the above three thematic areas. This could include:

  • business support organisations with a developed training profile (e.g. Chamber of Commerce, SME agency);
  • training organisations which develop training for specific target groups(employment service, vocational training centres, specialist NGOs);
  • small businesses themselves which have in-house training to promote knowledge, competences or skills (this could include more innovative ways to promote human resources e.g. staff rotation, on-the-job mentoring, e-learning).

The good practitioners will work as a team. The outcome of the 2012-2013 project could ultimately be carried forward for more strategic applications by ETF from 2014 onwards.

The Selection

A five member panel from ETFwill select the good practitioners on the following criteria:

a)evaluation process

b) transferability

c) sustainability

d)innovation

e) dissemination

ETF will also seek a geographical balance from each of its partner regions.

Only applications submitted from practitioners in countries which did not participate in Phase I of the project will be considered to participate in the project.

Results will be communicated to applicants by20 March 2013.

The Workshop

All good practitioners will be invited to a two-day workshop in Turin11-12 April 2012whose objective is to improve the peer review method and tools. The workshop will be facilitated by ETF experts as well as practitioners from Phase I of the project in 2012. After the workshop, the experts will continue to liaise with the ETF and fellow experts on improvements and finalisation of thegood practice tool kit. The tool kit will be completed by mid-July 2013.

The Brussels meeting

The good practitioners will participate in a one-day meeting in BrusselsinNovember 2013 (dates to be confirmed). The meeting will comprise Members of the European Parliament, the Economic & Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions, European Commission, UEAPME (business organisation). A number of good practitioners who participated in Phase I of the project in 2012 will also attend.

The meeting will show-case a number of good practices from both phases of the project in 2013 and in particular the value of the peer review methodology and tools.

Call for good practices

ETF is presently seeking applications from good practitioners to participate in the project. Four good practices will be selected for each of the three policy themes.

For each of the themes mentioned above, ETF is seeking to identify a) two good practices from EU member countries and b) two good practices from ETF partner countries.

Good practices should have a very clear and explicit human capital dimension i.e. education, training or other staff development feature (e.g. mentoring). Consequently, networking which may have an inherent human capital development line would not be sufficient unless it forms part of a clearly definedhuman capital development initiative.

To assist ETF with the selection of the good practitioners, a form is attached to this note which interested parties should complete and return to ETF by 22 February 2013.

Costs

ETF will pay

  • Turin workshop: travel, accommodation and subsistence costs for an expert (ETF project expert) from each good practitioner organisation selected to participate in the project;
  • Brussels meeting:travel, accommodation and subsistence costs for an expert (ETF project expert) from each good practitioner organisation selected to participate in the project.

The project does not involve professional fees.

Good practitioners may also indicate in the application form whether they wish to participate in the project on a self-paying basis[5], in the event that they are not selected in the first instance.

Applications from countries which participated in Phase I of the project will also be considered on a self-paying basis.

For more information

Contact Denise Loughran at ETF: tel: +39 011 630 2231, Email:

Annex 1: Eligible Participant Countries for Phase 2

European Union / EU Partner Countries
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Cyprus
  • CzechRepublic
  • Denmark
  • Estonia
  • Greece
  • Hungary
  • Ireland
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Malta
  • The Netherlands
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • Slovakia
  • Slovenia
  • Spain
/
  • Albania
  • Algeria
  • Azerbaijan
  • Belarus
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Croatia
  • Georgia
  • Turkey
  • Kazakhstan
  • Kosovo *
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Israel
  • Libya
  • Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
  • Moldova
  • Montenegro
  • Morocco
  • Occupied Palestinian territory
  • Russia
  • Syria **
  • Tunisia
  • Turkey
  • Turkmenistan
  • Ukraine
  • Uzbekistan

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

** Due the specific circumstances in the country, practitioners from Syria will not be able to participate in the project.

Annex 2

ETF GOOD PRACTICE FORM

To be considered for participation in the project, please submit this form completing all sections as fully as possible. Completed forms, should be addressed to

Deadline for submission of forms: 22February 2013

Title
Provide full title of the training initiative
Contact
Name
Organisation
Address
Email
Telephone
Website
Summary of initiative & budget
Please provide a concrete description of the training initiative, including how long the training has been running and approximate annual running costs (max 300 words)
Objective(s)
a)
b)
Impact, results
Please provide summary details of the impact of the training initiative and/or results to date
Target groups
Who are the primary target groups of the training (e.g. pupils/students, unemployed, war widows, immigrants, refugees, women, start-ups, growth enterprises)
Evidence of dissemination and replication of the initiative
How is information on the training initiative shared (website, newsletter, conferences, other)?
Have the training initiative been replicated (in whole or part) by another training provider? Provide details.
Success factors and innovation
Provide 3 success factors associated with the training initiative.
What do you think is innovative about your training environment?
Evaluation
Has the training initiative been independently evaluated? Please provide conclusions of evaluation (and website access to the report, if available)?
What factors point to or have been key to the continuity of training initiative?
Sharing and co-developments
What aspects of the training initiative are you prepared for share (e.g. curriculum, training materials, assessment tools; teacher/trainer experience)?
Cross-cultural cooperation and languages
What value does your organisation see in working with training providers from different countries and cultures?
Will the experts proposed to join the project be able to work effectively in English?
Willing to participate on a self-paying basis? Yes No

[1]European Commission (2012), Rethinking education: investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes.

European Commission (2013), Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan. Reigniting the entrepreneurial spirit in Europe.

[2]Based in Turin, Italy, the European Training Foundation is the EU’s specialist agency promoting human capital developments in some 31 countries from the EU’s pre-accession, Southern and Eastern Neighbourhood regions and Central Asia.

[3]European Commission (2008), Regulation (EC) No 1339/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 establish a European Training Foundation, Art.2 (f), Official Journal of the European Commission L354, OPOCE

[4]Armenia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Serbia, Tajikistan, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom

[5]Costs to be incurred include travel, accommodation and €100 per person to cover meals for meetings in Turin and Brussels