Nurturing Intangible Cultural Heritage for Entrepreneurship

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge/skill considered by the UNESCO to be part of a place’s cultural heritage; it comprises nonphysical intellectual property, such as folklore, customs, beliefs, traditions, knowledge and language.EU official papers confirm that Intangible Cultural Heritage is crucially important for socio-economic development:a) Council of EU “Conclusions on Cultural Heritage as a Strategic Resource for a Sustainable EU”b) EU Commission “Towards an Integrated Approach to Cultural Heritage for EU”c) EU Commission “Getting Cultural Heritage to Work for EU”ICH is more important for the EU economy than the entire automotive sector: over 300,000 people work in the EU cultural heritage sector. Almost 8 million jobs in the EU are indirectly linked to heritage (tourism, interpretation, security). For each direct job, the heritage sector produces 26.7 indirect jobs. This compares with 6.3 indirect jobs created for each direct job in the car industry.Notwithstanding this great potential, ICH is seldom capitalised as a topic for training to empower professionals to develop ICH-related economic opportunities, as old professions are evolving and new professions are developing.The EU identifies specific challenges and needs in its report “Skills, Training & Knowledge Transfer for Traditional and Emerging Heritage Professions” (Oct 2017):a) It is necessary to identify and map professions; demonstrate their position in the European Qualification Frameworkb) The “traditional” sectoral skills need to be updated. Training of cultural heritage managers is not well understood or prioritised: “management” is instead a priorityc) Successful ICH management across EU is vulnerable to variations in standards, practice, inconsistent career guidance and supportd) Training should be broader, go beyond “traditional” competences and skills involved in cultural heritage professions. New subjects need to receive increased attention:- transversal skills (management, communication, fundraising, sustainability)- ethics- new forms of heritage, such as digital heritage- transversal approach and multidisciplinary work.OBJECTIVE of NICHE (Nurturing Intangible Cultural Heritage for Entrepreneurship) is to enhance entrepreneurship in the ICH sector by developing innovative training for the underserved cohort of professionals (and prospective ones) who operate in ICH to promote entrepreneurial initiatives in the sector, enhance its competitiveness and sustain its growth.The objective is to develop professional profiles of ICH operator to leverage ICH, widen and create economic activities through increased entrepreneurship.NICHE is fully aligned with the Priorities of Erasmus+, specifically:VET Priority #5: strengthen key competences in initial and continuing VETHORIZONTAL Priority #9: Socio-educational value of EU cultural heritage, its contribution to job creation, economic growth and social cohesionVET Priority #4: Enhance access to training and qualifications for allPARTICIPANTS include 9 partners from 8 countries, all endowed with ICH and intangible assets. Partners provide for the complementary expertise, knowledge and competence to develop highly innovative and quality deliverables. Partners represent the various facets of ICH, VET and entrepreneurship ecosystems.NICHE also involves directly 180 learners among the target group and at least 5,000 stakeholders of the ICH domainACTIVITIES & RESULTS: partners will carry out a series of well-defined activities that will lead to the production of tangible and operational results, and develop:1) EQF compliant professional profile of ICH professional2) Training courses based on Learning Outcome and in line with EQF 3 to 5 on innovative topics for the ICH sector, such as management, fundraising, multifunctional work, digital Cultural Heritage3) A pan-EU Open Educational Resource that becomes the focal point for ICH professionals to widen and deepen their skills and competences to be more competitive and respond to the demand of a fast evolving and growing marketIMPACT and LONGER-TERM BENEFITS of NICHE are multifaceted as the project will provide tangible and operational impact on> Partners will have new and innovative training content, widening their offering and entering in new domains of entrepreneurship> Target groups will have acquired new competences and skills needed to unlock the potential of ICH in an operational fashion to develop ventures> VET system as a whole benefits from the NICHE training and tools that will be widely available for free, in open access modality and in multi-language versions to amplify impact> ICH ecosystem benefits from a renewed vision assisted by training and operational tools to develop ICH-related actions> Policy makers and stakeholders will have access to findings, knowledge and resources to advance evidence-based policy formulation and programmatic actions