Gen-Z: Developing competences and opportunities for social media entrepreneurship Erasmus Project

Project Title

Gen-Z: Developing competences and opportunities for social media 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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

Despite the endless cavalcade of online think pieces about millennials, there’s a new generation that demands our focus and attention. Generation Z, born after 1995, is starting to grow up, with the oldest members of the cohort now approaching 21 years old. Millions are now entering the workforce, with another 60 million or so to follow over the next two decades. Unlike millennials, who might remember a time when computers were not commonly found in the living room or home office, members of Generation Z are true digital natives. They are not only technically savvy, but also expect technology to be a natural — and frequent — part of learning, work and everyday life. Generation Z is more likely to value independence and therefore is poised to become the most entrepreneurial generation ever.

Nowadays, social media has become pervasive in empowering young Europeans in their educational, academic and professional life, and Gen Z is the first generation to innately understand the true power of social media. They understand social media allows them to circumvent traditional recruitment channels and talk directly to potential employers, and they know that if they want to start a business, they can have direct contact with their customers. This entrepreneurial energy has the potential to provide huge economic benefit for businesses that are willing to embrace it. Our young people literally represent our economic future and we must provide them with appropriate platforms and support.

In light of the challenges and opportunities arising from social media and a clear need for better support for VET learners with cutting-edge approaches, Gen-Z project aims to join efforts for empowering this generation to become social media entrepreneurs and at the same time developing their key competences and employability skills. A further by-product of this project will be to enable linkages where Gen-Z beneficiaries will be able to support other businesses with their own capacity to use social media to improve their businesses.

A key aspect to achieve this is to ensure that we also equip VET professionals so that they have the confidence and acquire the necessary know-how to teach social media business to VET learners Gen-Z.
In this context, partners from United Kingdom, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Spain, will:
•identify role models to serve as good and ethical examples of social media entrepreneurial activity;
•develop and test a bespoke training curriculum on social media businesses for VET learners;
•develop and test a blended in-service training for empowering VET trainers, teachers and mentors;
•develop a social media entrepreneurship learning hub, for both VET learners and VET trainers, teachers and mentors.

The project will benefit from the direct participation of 16 social media entrepreneurs, 96 VET learners Gen-Z, 80 VET trainers, teachers, mentors and 16 associated partners in activities related with the development of the outputs, including research, contents development, piloting, external validation. Moreover, 280 key stakeholders include generation Z learners and graduated, VET teachers, trainers and mentors, career counsellors, experts, VET/school/HE/AE/youth players, policy-makers and entrepreneurship associations, will attend the eight multiplier events in partners’ countries. And more than 1200 stakeholders in partners’ countries and across Europe will be reached through the project dissemination and exploitation activities and have the opportunity to deploy Gen-Z.

The Gen-Z project wants to bring together the opportunity provided by the world of social media and the motivation that drives this generation of youngsters, to develop their employability and entrepreneurship skills. We believe that by making the project’s outputs digital, open and freely available to all, the resulting learning, skills and outcomes to be deployed is massive, not only in partners’ countries but also across Europe and generate longer term benefits for other generation z youngsters, educators and educational providers.

Project Website

https://genz-project.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 224468 Eur

Project Coordinator

West Lothian College & Country: UK

Project Partners

• INSTITUTO PARA EL FOMENTO DEL DESARROLLO Y LA FORMACION SL
• CENTRE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY LTD-CARDET
• STOWARZYSZENIE CENTRUM WSPIERANIA EDUKACJI I PRZEDSIEBIORCZOSCI
• Mindshift Talent Advisory lda
• The Rural Hub CLG
• INSTITUTE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT
• Evolve Global Solutions Ltd