Acquiring place BRANDing competences at work through continuing VET to increase the attractiveness of EUropean cities Erasmus Project

Project Title

Acquiring place BRANDing competences at work through continuing VET to increase the attractiveness of EUropean cities

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Regional dimension and cooperation

Project Summary

Acquiring place BRANDing competences at work through continuing VET to increase the attractiveness of EUropean cities (Brand-EU) is a project that involved 7 public bodies from 5 European countries.
The participating partners had in common the size, were all medium-sized cities anf the situation: not many people decide to move in or businesses decide to invest due to a general lack of attraction of the cities. In particular, businesses do not find it profitable to invest in our cities due to this lack of attraction. There is a lack of knowledge on communication and skills. More attention should be given to present the cities as a system, also because there is a lack of awareness about what you they have to offer.
Starting from these considerations the partners have identified that civil servants needs to be equipped with competences on place branding strategies in order to boost the attractiveness of the local areas.

OBJECTIVES
The general objective of the project was to raise the attractiveness of European cities through the exchange of best practices on the place branding strategies designed and implemented by Municipalities in collaboration with stakeholders in order to create more favourable condition for local development. In order to achieve the general objective above the projects will aim at:
1. Developing high quality place branding skills in the staff of municipalities and local stakeholders
2. Increasing the collaboration between municipalities and local actors for common place branding strategies
3. Creating more training opportunities for municipalities and local actors’ staff at transnational level
The target groups involved in the activities during and after the project will be: civil servants; political representatives; and local actors, including SMEs, category associations, chamber of commerce, associations for the promotion of the territory etc.

ACTIVITIES
The activities of “Brand EU” were implemented on two levels:
– At transnational level the participating organisations undertook an intense exchange of their best practices on place branding. Four transnational events have been organised to coordinate the project (1 online) and 3 joint staff training events aimed at increasing the competences of the participating staff.
– At local level the partners defined along the years their Place Branding Strategies on the basis of the skills acquired through of the training activities carried out at transnational level. This process included also a strong involvement of stakeholders in order to build local network of cooperation oriented at raising the attractiveness of the European cities participating.

PROJECT RESULTS
The project increased the competences on place branding in the civil servants of the participating municipalities. At the same time “Brand EU” raised the attention on investing in continuing VET as a way to re-skill the staff of public authorities and develop strategies that have an impact on local development (like in this case place branding strategy)
In the long run, the tight collaboration between municipalities and stakeholders will increase the attractiveness of the cities involved, and create more appealing conditions for citizens and businesses to settle.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 100867 Eur

Project Coordinator

Comune di Imola & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Orust Kommun Vuxenutbildningen
• TROLLHATTANS KOMMUN
• Instituto Municipal de Promoción Económica, Formación y Empleo
• DUBROVACKA RAZVOJNA AGENCIJA DURA DOO ZA POSLOVANJE NEKRETNINAMA I USLUGE
• Public Benefit Organisation of Municipality of Rethymno
• COMUNE DI FORLI
• SWEDEN EMILIA ROMAGNA NETWORK