Young and innovative entrepreneurship in the EU Erasmus Project

Project Title

Young and innovative entrepreneurship in the EU

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

Context and background:

Our students read about multinational and international trade, but come across very few real-life examples in their direct environment or in the local economy. More and more students start out with little experience in international business and find their way to the job market with limited business capacities (such as sales skills, negotiating with clients and suppliers, business communication, making a business plan etc.). A business-orientated school should be able to fulfill this growing demand, but at the moment there is no ready-made guideline to follow, and starting up an international project looks like a big jump for many inexperienced schools.

Objectives:

The project’s main goal was to develop workable, sustainable and ready-made methods for a school to transfer knowledge and experience about the international trade from the actual work field to the student. By using these methods in the trial-and-error context of the project, we found different ways to stimulate and reinforce student empowerment to take care of international business relations. We came across methods to motivate students to leave their comfort zone (friends, fools & family) at presentations and sales moments. The project included local companies from the participating countries, which were contacted on the students’ own initiative. The basic idea was to make the students search for innovative products or services in cooperation with the local entrepreneurs and learn to sell those in the other EU countries with help from groups of students from the other countries. All the students were consultants in the matter of making contact with the local consumer (B2C) and as well as possible local entrepreneurs (B2B). This included marketing, distribution, branding and regional studies.

Number of participants:

About 4,000 people have benefited directly and indirectly from the project. The target groups involved the students and the staff in the participating business schools, the partner companies, the local entrepreneurs (visitors of the B2B-market), the local authorities, other local citizens (visitors of the local B2C-markets), and the host families.

Description of undertaken main activities:

The main activities were the four short-term exchanges of students and the activities between the exchanges. During the exchanges, we had two local markets in Spain and Denmark (B2C) and one market for companies in Belgium (B2B). Furthermore, the students participated in the daily classes and they had lessons in business-related subjects e.g. business culture, social media and marketing, IT, and drawing a business plan. We also visited local companies in the countries, the city halls, the Chamber of Commerce in Austria and the European Parliament in Brussels.

The preparation for the exchanges:

First of all, we selected the students for the project and introduced them and their parents to the strategic partnership. Then we contacted internal and external stakeholders of the project. After that we found the companies to participate in the project. Once we had made contact with the companies, the students started to do the analysis of the companies’ products market opportunities in foreign markets. These analyses were done on a macro level. When the analyses were finished we started to plan the summits. We discussed the program and activities. The students “met” via Skype where they got to know each other. They also made a digitalized presentation of themselves and their schools. Shortly before the summit, the students prepared marketing materials to bring with them abroad.

Furthermore, we installed an IT-platform for communication, evaluation of the activities, as well as for dissemination of the project processes and project aims. The students were searching for the local products which were carried out during the project in each participating country in several workshops, local school preparation tasks, and international meeting activities, the students were prepared for international selling techniques and the implementation of marketing tools.

Results and impact attained:

The reflections of the exchanges consisted e.g. of writing press releases, presentations of the students, the schools, the partner products and of our Erasmus+ project. Furthermore, we have been able to disseminate our project and our results on the homepage and the Facebook page of the project, on the schools’ Facebook pages, at parents’ meetings and at meetings with new students. Additionally, we succeeded in showing the results of the project in local newspapers and on radio and on local TV.

Longer-term benefits:

In the future management, teachers and students at business schools will be able to benefit from the results of the project and of the Business Guide.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 117880 Eur

Project Coordinator

Frederikshavn Handelsskole & Country: DK

Project Partners

• BHAK/BHAS Liezen
• Sint-Gummaruscollege
• IES ARUCAS DOMINGO RIVERO