Self-Employability in Remote Regions of Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Self-Employability in Remote Regions of Europe

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Open and distance learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

SOLOPRENEUR is fully in line with Erasmus+ priorities and objectives:
HORIZONTAL Priority 1 Development of relevant and high-quality skills and competences
VET Priority 4 Further strengthening of key competences
Horizontal Priority 3 Open education and innovative training

CONTEXT: The EU job market is undergoing a dramatic transformation with impressive high-rate of unemployment, need for upskilling, and a generalized paradigm shift from “stable jobs” to “dynamic employment”. Economic, social and technology trends are also accelerating the creation of a new category of professionals: the Independent Professionals, also referred to as “Solo Entrepreneurs”.
In Europe there are 9 Ml free-lancers: Europeans are adjusting to this paradigm shift but with great difficulty. EU reports highlight the pressing need to sustain and turn this phenomenon into a driver of growth and employability:
=> EU Parliament “Precarious Employment in EU: Patterns, Trends and Policy Strategies” 2016 states that freelancing accounts for around 10 % of employment, and that main risks for self-employed include lack of training and stress
=> EU Commission “The Future of Work: Skills & Resilience for a World of Change” 2016 recognises the potential of self-employment and the need for the VET systems to adjust.
=> EU Commission “Rethinking Education Strategy. Investing in Skills for Better Socio-Economic Outcomes”

The above challenges are exacerbated by the geographical distance in the remote regions of Europe: “SoloPreneurship” in remote regions is even more difficult due to the lack of VET opportunities, low awareness of the potential of self-employment, cultural mindset and low understanding of the potential of ICT to develop a professional future through self-employment.

In this context SOLOPRENEUR aimed at developing innovative training and learning solutions to enhance employability of job-seekers, underemployed/temporarily unemployed and those who are seeking better or new opportunities through self-employment. SOLOPRENEUR specific objectives were to support the acquisition of skills and tools to enhance self-employability. This has been achieved by developing adequate training solutions, material and on-line tools.

Project results – innovative and practical training – have been made widely available to the target group of job-seekers, underemployed/temporarily unemployed and entrepreneurs to-be through the SOLOPRENEUR Open Educational Resource platform.

Partners carried out the following activities:
1. identified specific capacity gaps and needs with regards to Skills and tools for self-employability
2.Designed innovative multilingual training content, material and web based tools / OER platform
3.Tested and validated the main results with more than 2.000 target groups

SOLOPRENEUR is devoted to job-seekers underemployed, temporarily unemployed and those who want to start their own business. Dissemination and exploitation plans have been drafted at project start to sustain wide spread of results, both during the project and in the 2 years after completion. Valorisation activities will reach at least 48.000 recipients in 4 years (2 years of project + 2 years beyond). Active and wide exploitation focuses on policy makers at all levels of governance, from local to EU also thanks to activities planned in Brussels. The partnership represents highly motivated and experienced partners from 6 countries. This composition ensures geographical coverage as well as projection of dissemination and valorisation across the EU. All partners have consolidated experience in training, employability support and labour market integration.

All the training courses and resources in their multilingual versions have been made freely available to all interested parties through the SOLOPRENEUR Multilingual Open Educational Resource platform without restrictions of sort http://www.solo-preneur.eu/ whose back office is accessible from http://www.solo-preneur.eu/private/ (User nationalagency, password:nationalagency)

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 283270 Eur

Project Coordinator

OPEN IT MARTINIQUE & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Radio ECCA, Fundación Canaria
• Husavik Academic Center / Þekkingarnet Þingeyinga
• PN CONSULTING-MAPTIC
• INSTITUT DE HAUTE FORMATION AUX POLITIQUES COMMUNAUTAIRES
• INTERNET WEB SOLUTIONS SL
• RIVENSCO CONSULTING LTD
• IDP SAS DI GIANCARLO COSTANTINO (ITALIAN DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS)