Creating leaders for the future: no limits to enterpreneurship and disability Erasmus Project

Project Title

Creating leaders for the future: no limits to enterpreneurship and disability

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Inclusion – equity; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal)

Project Summary

Creating Leaders for the Future” (CL) is part of the Key Action for Cooperation in Innovation and Exchange of Good Practices of the Erasmus + Program: Strategic Partnerships for Adult Education (KA204).

People with disabilities in working age represent 16% of European citizens. They are a source of talent and a fundamental cog in the development of Europe. However, their risk of poverty is alarmingly higher than that one of other citizens: 21.1% compared to 14.9% of the rest of the population, largely because of their exclusion from the labor market (Greve, 2009; Hauben et al., 2012).
The 2020 Strategy of the European Union wants to promote the participation of people with disabilities in society and in economy. Therefore, it contemplates ways and tools for the creation of a fully inclusive society.

The project is based on available data regarding disability, entrepreneurial ecosystems and the current state of entrepreneurship in Europe. Namely, among the most outstanding data, we should highlight:
– People with disability face specific barriers in entrepreneurship activities
– Entrepreneurship represents an interesting job inclusion option for this group of citizens
– Training in entrepreneurship is not always thought taking into account the needs of people with disability
– Entrepreneurial ecosystems are fundamentally systems of interaction formed by multiple actors
– Small enterprises account for 99% of all EU companies

The general objective of the CL project is to design a route for the promotion of entrepreneurship in people with disabilities, based on the detection, identification and analysis of unmet needs and gaps in the offer of training in the field of self-employment and entrepreneurship. It aims at:
1. Providing entrepreneurs with knowledge in business
2. Getting to know mechanisms for accompaniment through mentoring
3. Facilitating a networking space between the academic, business and entrepreneurs
4. Promoting the full socio-labor integration of beneficiaries

The consortium created for CL was formed by 5 European entities, whose areas of action are complementary and synergistic: Spain and Poland as experts in disability, social and labor inclusion, training for employment of adults; France as an expert in entrepreneurship, social and solidarity economy; Italy as an expert in European cooperation for the territories.

The project carried out the following activities:
• Elaboration of questionnaires for entrepreneurs with disabilities and administration to 149 participants
• Elaboration of analysis sheet of good practices for public and private entities, related to the promotion of entrepreneurship and administration to 20 participants
• Collection, analysis of results and preparation of final reports
• Elaboration of draft guidelines for the implementation of entrepreneurship promotion actions in people with disabilities, aimed at public and private entities operating in the field of labor inclusion and the promotion of self-employment
• Organization of 5 focus groups for the validation of contents and methodology
• Design, layout and publication of final guides (intellectual outputs)
• Dissemination: Creation of a specific web page; Online publication, and sending to partners’ databases of 6 newsletters; Creation of informative brochure; Creation of profiles in social networks (Facebook and Twitter); Participation in media (press releases, radio programs); Presentations of the Project; 1 multiplier event in all participating countries

The results of the work carried out have been 2 guides to train entities in the design of a new and improved training model for entrepreneurship, aimed at guaranteeing equal opportunity in self-employment and entrepreneurship for people with disabilities, and using a practical, simple and flexible methodology: the “Guide to contents and methodology for training in inclusive entrepreneurship for disability. Ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship among people with disabilities”‘ and the “Guide to inclusive activities to support entrepreneurship training for people with disabilities. The ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship among people with disabilities”.

In addition, the Project has generated:
– the Report “European Experiences in Entrepreneurship for Persons with Disabilities: Analysis and Report of Key Findings”
-a “Questionnaire for entrepreneurs”
-a report on the main results of the Focus Groups

Among the long-term benefits we should highlight:
• mutual knowledge between complementary European entities and new joint collaborations outside the CL project
• for the participating professionals, improvement of the technical training (knowledge), competency (work with transnational teams and languages) and curricular skills
• improving the positioning of entities acting in each country, thus reinforcing their social and economic territorial impact

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 121199 Eur

Project Coordinator

FUNDACION PRIVADA PREVENT & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Fundacja Aktywizacja
• Consorzio I.E.S. – Inclusione Europa Sviluppo Soc. Coop. Sociale
• Centro Liber Formación, S.L
• Mine de Talents