INTEGRATE – storytellINg To promotE miGRAnTs Entrepreneurship Erasmus Project

Project Title

INTEGRATE – storytellINg To promotE miGRAnTs Entrepreneurship

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

CONTEXT:
One of the main societal challenges in Europe is the integration of migrants creating long-term and future proof solutions. As Europe remains a favorite destination for people seeking international protection a greater number of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, is trying to start a new life. Though the Member States are developing various integration measures, there is little attention towards their integration into the economic system. This is particularly evident, especially for migrant women. The non-existence of policies for the integration of migrants in the labor market or their upskilling towards entrepreneurial oriented solutions highlights also the need for business stakeholders to understand better the integration barriers this group faces and the need to invest in their integration. The migration challenge can be turned into an opportunity to create more growth and jobs and to promote more inclusive societies: Europe needs all its talents and migrant entrepreneurs represent a source of untapped potential for the creation of new jobs. Already 6.6% of self-employed people in the European Union were born outside of their country of residence, which is more than 2 million people. Of these foreign-born self-employed people, 47% were born outside of the European Union10. Some studies show that on average immigrants are more prone to set up their own business compared to EU citizens with a non-migrant background. Therefore, INTEGRATE Project aims to use the impact of personal stories to change individual and societal attitudes towards migration and to foster migrant’s entrepreneurial engagement.

GENERAL OBJECTIVES:
The proposed project will deliver entrepreneurial training with a special focus on Storytelling to exploit the cultural background of migrants and foster their social inclusion.
The aim of the training courses is to provide entrepreneurship and innovation education activities, particularly to improve their communication ability to build confidence, provide migrants with skills to design their professional plans or ventures, evaluate the feasibility of their ideas, and acquire skills to start and run a successful new business.
Finally, the proposed project will develop an innovative ICT tool to transfer competences to the target group. The proposed project will develop an LTTA that will combine face-to-face training courses with online education.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
– Promoting entrepreneurship to support the social inclusion of migrants in Europe.
– Developing innovative entrepreneurial training course for Migrants based on the most recent communication strategies to exploiting personal cultural background
Through the definition of the specific objectives, the Intellectual Outputs of the project were then defined:
IO1: Training course for migrants focused on storytelling and entrepreneurship that will include migrant entrepreneurs video stories
IO2: Guidelines for trainers on how to support migrants through INTEGRATE training
IO3: Online Platform to foster entrepreneurship spirit exploiting personal cultural background.

TARGET GROUPS:
-Migrants Entrepreneurs/ Migrants with an Entrepreneurial spirit
-VET Teacher/trainers/coaches
-SME’s/ Organization supporting entrepreneurship
-Policymakers (secondary target)

TRANSNATIONAL DIMENSION:
Approaching cooperation on a transnational level will be critical for the project activities since only a European confrontation as well as cooperation among the actors involved will boost the adoption of effective innovations, systems, competencies, and new professionalism. The integration of migrants in the labor market is intrinsically a transnational effort since most of the European countries are facing similar problems but the knowledge base they need in terms of new skills, digitalization and communication cannot entirely rely on one country’s intellectual resources. For these reasons, INTEGRATE includes 7 partners from 5 different countries: CCIE Sweden (Sweden), NOVARE (Sweden), i-strategy (Italy), CNOS-FAB (Italy), CBE (Belgium), WISAMAR (Germany), EMPHASYS (Cyprus).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 243548 Eur

Project Coordinator

Italienska handelskammaren & Country: SE

Project Partners

• Novare Potential
• COOPERATION BANCAIRE POUR L’EUROPE
• A & A Emphasys Interactive Solutions Ltd
• WISAMAR BILDUNGSGESELLSCHAFT GEMEINNUTZIGE GMBH
• ASSOCIAZIONE CNOS-FAP REGIONE PIEMONTE
• i-strategies