Digital Transformation of European Micro enterprises Erasmus Project

Project Title

Digital Transformation of European Micro enterprises

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship)

Project Summary

The project aimed to develop an innovative training system to support micro enterprises (MEs) to adopt digital transformation. It was agreed that e-leadership should be a core component of the support we offered to MEs. As a consortia, we undertook initial research in the form of a survey shared across all six countries. The findings of this research informed the content of the online platform units. In addition, we undertook a literature review of the current academic and professional articles in order to further identify the gaps in knowledge for MEs.
Micro-enterprises were identified as the end-users for this particular project in recognition of the lack of specific digital transformation support targeted at this demographic. Furthermore, DiTEM built on previous studies and initiatives promoted by the EC which focussed on e-leadership skills for SMEs rather than MEs.

Objectives
We developed an e-learning platform in order to transfer knowledge and understanding of digital solutions to the MEs in a user-friendly and easily accessible manner. The platform provides an introduction to digital technologies. As a consortia we agreed that due to the nature and pace of technology development, the platform should be an explanatory rather that instructional platform. In doing so, we have ensured that this is accessible to MEs of all levels. At the end of each unit we provided signposting tools that they could adopt in order to start exploiting this form of digital transformation.

The VET DITEM Manager coaching element to the programme was developed to complement the online platform, allowing the trainer to utilise aspects of the platform that are relevant to the MEs they are working with. This was a deliberate decision in order to address disparity in levels between MEs across the six countries. For instance, it was advised very early in the project that MEs in Bulgaria were at a significantly different level of adoption to those in the UK and Finland, therefore would be likely to utilise different aspects of the platforms to start their digital transformation journey. The combined format of the online platform and DiTEM coach has worked well and is a format we will continue to use post-project funding.

Participating organisations
At initial survey stage, we engaged with 224 businesses, from these 157 also took part in the pilot phase. The demographic was predominantly MEs (1-10 employees), however in Denmark they expanded the demographic to also include identified businesses with up to 20 employees, as it was felt that within that country the concerns they had mirrored those of MEs’.

Description of undertaken main activities
As outlined above the activities undertaken consisted of:
– Initial survey to establish a baseline of understanding of the technologies amongst MEs across the six countries. The results of the survey helped to inform the level and depth of the content.
– The next stage consisted of developing the online platform and the content for the individual units. We then trained 15 DiTEM coaches to complement the online platform through VET training. These coaches subsequently trained further trainers.
– Once the pilot platform was ready for testing we undertook the pilot workshop phase of the project, which included each country delivering training to MEs and helping them develop a digital transformation plan.

Results and impact
As highlighted, we took the decision to have two key components to the project: face to face coaching and an online platform. The online platform provides an overview of the technologies available but not specific training on using the technologies- being too prescriptive would date the platform before it was even launched.

From the workshops we have gained information about the needs from MEs and have compared with the results from the EU project LEAD, which analysed leadership skills for SMEs. In this project it is obvious that there is major difference between SMEs of 15 employees and SMEs with 200 employees. It appeared that the smaller SMEs had the same or similar challenges as the MEs. It therefore seemed sensible to limit future projects to MEs. Based upon the experience gained we identified key policy recommendations:
– Training format for further training of MEs
– Development of an ME platform – offering overview of tools, consultancy companies and technologies for MEs (and potentially SMEs)
– A repository of activities across Europe that support digital transformation

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 375243,11 Eur

Project Coordinator

THE MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY & Country: UK

Project Partners

• CRYSTALCLEARSOFT ANONYMOS ETAIREIA PAROCHIS YPIRESION LOGISMIKOU
• Exponential Training & Assessment Limited
• IT-FORUM
• EUROCREA MERCHANT SRL
• Business Innovation Center Innobridge
• TURUN AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY