Chinese for Business Erasmus Project

Project Title

Chinese for Business

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 addressing more than one field

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship)

Project Summary

Chinese for Business (C4B) project was carried out in the period 2014 -2016 as a continuation of the Chinese for Europeans (C4EU) project, implemented between 2010 – 2013 in the framework of the Lifelong Learning Programme (action: KA 2 Languages).
A key aim of the project C4B is to promote the development of professional competences of the employees, of the European Union SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) sector, in the field of Chinese language and Chinese business culture. In addition, the project supports establishment of business relations with Chinese companies, professional development of employees skills using ICT, as well as Open Educational Resources creation and usage.
The project is dedicated for two target groups. The first and the most important project target group are entrepreneurs and the EU institutions supporting businesses (including the SMEs sector employees, stakeholders related to EU – China relations, students, trainees and interns who are starting their own business or professional career). The second group are individuals and organizations interested in learning Chinese and the culture of China. It includes all the teachers and the schools involved in the Chinese language learning and teaching process, as well as adults who are looking for profiled business materials for learning Chinese.
The project was performed by five institutions from four European Union countries: Belgium, Italy, Poland and Portugal. All of those institutions are experienced in establishing business relations between Europe and China, each of them in the different perspective: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (University) is engaged in teaching a Chinese language, Fondazione Italia Cina (a nonprofit organization) supports the cooperation between EU and China, Sociedade Portuguesade Inovação, C. E. F. I., S. A. (consulting company) is focused on the promotion of links between science and business, including EU – China relations, EduActive (technology company) is specializing in distance learning systems creation, including those intended for teaching Chinese language, Mescomp Technologies SA (production and trading company) is cooperating with Chinese companies in the field of production and trade exchange for over 20 years.
Project activities were focused on a three main areas: (1) preparing training and information materials, as well as ICT solutions, (2) implementation of didactical materials and ICT solutions with continuous evaluation, (3) dissemination and exploitation of project results. All of the above actions have been implemented, monitored and evaluated in accordance with the quality policy prepared by the project partnership.
As a result of these actions the four main products (results) were created: (1) Chinese Language Course – this course is designed for EU entrepreneurs interested in establishing cooperation with Chinese companies, (2) Cultural and Business Guide – a collection of the practical hints on China, which support the language course in both cultural and business context, (3) B2B platform – the tool that allows the use of the practical language knowledge for the purposes of business cooperation and presentation of one own company, (4) SAS system – dedicated ICT tool which integrates the educational, informational and business results of the project.
In a framework of all the actions aimed at dissemination of the project results many meetings with representatives of the target groups were held. These meetings were conducted using three types of activities: (1) linguistic workshops (2) cultural-business workshops, (3) stakeholders seminars. These meetings were held in all project partner countries.
Moreover additional disseminating activities on: local, regional, European and international levels were performed. All additional disseminating activities were divided into two types: direct and indirect. The first of these included informal meetings with individuals and selected groups, second were focused on the on-line action specifically on Social Media and on SEM.
As a result of dissemination and exploitation we reached approx. 40 000 users coming from all over the world. Approximately 13 000 users are using the project results actually. The results were highly rated by both the evaluators and the users. Average grade obtained in the evaluation of the results was 5.4 / 6.0.
As the partnership, we see a great potential of the C4B project results. We are confident that in future years the project will effectively implement the strategic goals of the European Union in the field of development of business contacts between EU and China. We are more than sure that the project will contribute to improving the quality of Chinese language teaching as well as broadly understood entrepreneurship and business itself.
The results of the project Chinese for Business (C4B) are available for free at: www.chinese4.biz

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 243241,66 Eur

Project Coordinator

Mescomp Technologies S.A. & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Fondazione Italia Cina
• SOCIEDADE PORTUGUESA DE INOVACAO – CONSULTADORIA EMPRESARIAL E FOMENTO DA INOVACAO S.A.
• KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
• EDUACTIVE Sp. z o.o.