Enterprise in Interface

ContextThe EU faces an increasingly unstable geo-political landscape across the Globe resulting in immigration pressures. Coupled with the increasing threat from Islamic terrorism and a rise in nationalist identities seen in recent referendums, this gives rise to the emergence of “interfaces” across the continent. Enterprise in Interface (ENTER) was developed following an examination of enterprise responses to division in society at interfaces within Northern Ireland. Given the neutrality of enterprise development and the emergence of innovative business models mixing social and economic objectives, enterprise education has potential to catalyse personal and community economic and social development in interface areas.ENTER was designed to improve access to enterprise training for disadvantaged people living in interface areas, by updating the knowledge, skills and organizational capacity of the VET and community organizations who serve them. ObjectivesObjectives were to:a) Establish 4 Regional Partnerships in which stakeholders from public, private and non-profit sectors collaborate and commit resources for a range of actions recorded in Regional Action Plans. b) Create, publish and promote the “Enterprise in Interface Toolkit” to encourage the creation of further Partnerships across Europe.c) Develop and publish a course curriculum and learning materials to train VET practitioners on emerging social innovation and enterprise models and the skills needed to effectively recruit and teach them to participants from such vulnerable backgrounds. d) Test, publish and promote the course, to facilitate its inclusion in mainstream VET provision.Participating organisationsThe project was delivered by 6 organizations from UK, Ireland, Netherlands and Croatia reflecting diversity in mission (VET, education, community development) and market orientation (public, private, not-for-profit) comprising:• East Belfast Enterprise, a Northern Irish enterprise development agency • Canice Consulting, a NI consultancy with a specialism in online and blended learning• Creative Spark, a creative training facility in Dundalk, Ireland• Momentum, an accredited Irish training centre • Rijeka Development Agency Porin, a regional development agency in Croatia• Stichting Business Development Friesland (BDF), a business innovation centre in Friesland.Main ActivitiesThe programme was underpinned by partnership working at a regional and trans-national level, working through face to face meetings, via Skype, social media platforms, telecoms and email. Trans-national meetings were held in each partner country and actions agreed for work in each region between meetings. In each region partnerships were formed to develop work programmes for local impact and to produce a regional action plan to guide further work.Outputs were disseminated via a range of channels, including the project website at www.enterproject.info Results/ImpactThe programme focused on the development and dissemination of a number of intellectual outputs with results as follows:Output 1 – Production of a Toolkit as a Guide to Establishing a Regional PartnershipResults•Toolkit produced in English, Dutch and Croatian •Toolkit used to establish 4 regional partnerships, one in the UK, Ireland, Croatia and The Netherlands•100 print copies distributed and 210 downloads of the English version •59 of the Dutch and 90 of the Croatian version downloaded, a total of 359 Toolkits downloaded and 100 printed copies circulated, exceeding the target of 280Output 2 – Regional Partnership Action PlansResults•4 Regional Action plans produced, one in UK, Ireland, Croatia and The Netherlands involving 157 stakeholder representatives participating, passing the target of 40 – 48 representatives.Output 3 – Development of Course CurriculumResults•Course curriculum developed comprising 5 modules with powerpoint presentations, 5 learner exercise workbooks, 1 trainer manual•Materials comprise a mix of presentations, case studies, videos, group exercises and a you tube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuvZsN53XtMIEfQc_EsHYVQOutput 4 – Online Course & Multimedia Open Education ResourcesResults•On-line resources developed and available via the project website http://www.enterproject.info/online-course/•Total of 25,032 visitors to the website, more than double the 12,000 target Output 5 – Pilot Test Report•Report completed with 54 individuals across the participating countries completing the pilot, passing the target of 50.Longer-term benefitsSustainability will focus on disseminating and using the intellectual outputs, particularly the Toolkit, Course Curriculum and On-line Resources.The website at http://enterproject.info provides access to the free resources, which will be disseminated widely for those working at interfaces to use and ensure that the impact of the ENTER programme continues long after the initial funding period.