AspiRing enTrepreneurIaI families to perpetuate cultural buSiness Across geNerations Erasmus Project

Project Title

AspiRing enTrepreneurIaI families to perpetuate cultural buSiness Across geNerations

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship)

Project Summary

ARTISAN focuses on improving and extending the offer of high quality learning opportunities that are tailored to individual adult learners’ needs. The project focuses on family members in artisan and agro-tourism family businesses. The family-in-business, includes senior and/or junior members from the family that controls the business and plays a critical role to the survival, continuation, and growth of the family business. Artisan and agro-tourism businesses are firms that produce and/or sell a country’s cultural tradition and products that stem from the country’s tradition. More specifically, the project’s main aim was to develop training programmes, tools, and structures that can help to enhance the entrepreneurial skills and competences of this target group. Past studies showed that entrepreneurship is an area that families in business attribute strategic importance to, and they control this practice as a mean of controlling the strategy and direction of their business. As a result, our project come to fill an apparent need of families-in-business to enhance their entrepreneurial potential and thus their abilities to control and manage more effectively their business and its direction. Thus, we are very niche in our focus, aiming to support the continuation and growth of artisan and agro-tourism businesses (and thus the continuation and enhancement of the cultural component that they carry) through the enhancement of the entrepreneurial skills and potential of family members nested in these enterprises.

The choice of the partners was made after careful consideration to ensure that the project would bring together the best possible expertise and knowledge on the topic at hand and would allow the development of realistic and valuable programmes through relevant cross-national collaboration, knowledge inter-exchange, and complementarities amongst the group. The project partners include the following seven organisations from 6 different EU countries: UCLan Cyprus (CY), GrantXpert (CY), Castilla La Mancha (ES), University of Beira Interior (PT), University of Palermo (IT), EDHEC (FR) and ISOB (DE).

The project delivered seven key intellectual outputs:
• IO1 – State of the art (led by UCLan Cyprus);
• IO2 – Empirical Report and Analysis (ISOB);
• IO10 – Entrepreneurial training courses and material (EDHEC);
• IO5 – Train-the-trainers Handbook and Guidebook (University of Palermo);
• IO6 – Casebook (UCLan Cyprus);
• IO7 – Entrepreneurial enhancement Web platform (UCLan Cyprus);
• IO9 – Final version of Offline and Online Programme (EDHEC).

The methodology that was utilised to deliver the intellectual outputs was broken down into a series of steps, involving the following key phases: Review of existing literature & programmes; Research amongst families-in-business; Analysis of primary data; Plan on entrepreneurial training provision; Design of entrepreneurial training plan; and Pilot testing and evaluation. The key activities that the project organised in the context of the execution of the project, include: Project management, Secondary and Primary research and analysis, planning and programme design, translation and localisation of programmes, pilot testing and evaluation, Dissemination and Quality assurance.

According to the feedback received during the life of the project, the project had a positive impact on a great number of stakeholders, including the project partner team members and their organisations, main target groups and their respective family businesses, and other organisations and groups, including associations in the artisan/agro-tourism sectors, central and peripheral government tourism/culture authorities. In total 541 people participated in our research stage, 81 people participated in the pilot testing seminars as participants and as trainers, 439 people joined our final dissemination events physically and online and a great number of family businesses and other relevant organisation have been reached during the life of the project through the different dissemination activities that took place.

The impact of the proposed project can be of higher value to the national and broader European economy, aspiring to inform policy on how to set the structures for the continuity and strengthening of family businesses in sectors that are critical to preservation and reinforcement of Europe’s cultural tradition.

The main target of the project sustainability activities is to continue with a wider implementation of the ARTISAN training programme through customised face to face trainings and through the offering of consulting services to different families in businesses according to their needs.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 272558,99 Eur

Project Coordinator

UCLAN CYPRUS LIMITED & Country: CY

Project Partners

• ISOB INSTITUT FUR SOZIALWISSENSCHAFTLICHE BERATUNG GMBH
• UNIVERSIDADE DA BEIRA INTERIOR
• UNIVERSIDAD DE CASTILLA – LA MANCHA
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PALERMO
• ECOLE DES HAUTES ETUDES COMMERCIALES DU NORD
• GRANTXPERT CONSULTING LIMITED