Exploitation Centres

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CENTRES

CENTRES (Creative Entrepreneurship in Schools) project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union

PLAN OF EXPLOITATION OF RESULTS

CENTRES – CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SCHOOLS

Project N°. 518238-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-COMENIUS-CNW

Project Co-ordinator: British Council Poland

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TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 3

2. OBJECTIVES OF EXPLOITATION ............................................................. 5

3. TARGET GROUPS ...................................................................................... 6

a) Direct Target Group .................................................................... 6

b) Indirect Target Group ................................................................. 7

c) Long-term beneficiaries ............................................................. 7

4. ENSURING THE VALORISATION OF PROJECT RESULTS ..................... 8

5. PROJECT RESULTS ................................................................................... 9

6. MAIN INSTRUMENTS OF DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION ........ 10

7. GENERAL DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION ACTIVITIES ............ 11

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1. INTRODUCTION

CENTRES – Creative Entrepreneurship in Schools is a 36-month long project focused on developing new training methodologies which combine teaching creativity and entrepreneurship at the secondary school level. The project is funded by the European Commission, EACEA under the Lifelong Learning Programme. CENTRES main goal is to work out a set of tools and methodologies to support and improve teaching/learning processes, especially to empower students at secondary school-level to gain an insight into their own potential and develop entrepreneurial competences accordingly, which put them in a stronger position in the society and the labour market. The now established importance of the creative industries to the European economy, and the challenges that creative businesses share in attracting young people with the right kind of skills and competences, mean that entrepreneurship education at secondary school-level is now a key issue. The CENTRES network aims to promote ways in which entrepreneurship skills that meet the needs of the creative industries can be developed within secondary schools in close partnership with creative businesses. CENTRES is based on an innovative pedagogical approach of bringing creative people, entrepreneurs and pupils together to engage in practical learning, based on real life situations and mentoring. The tools and methodologies developed by the project are going to be validated through pilot activities in schools, which will be carried out in partners’ countries (Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Poland, Slovenia and the UK) during the project. At the final phase of the project i.e. at the International CENTRES Conference in Brussels in May 2014 the CENTRES results will be promoted and disseminated. Through sharing ideas and experiences across European networks CENTRES aims to contribute to increased skills development of the youth and future employability in Europe. Concrete outputs of the project are:

An online community of interest centred around an online knowledge bank containing best practice models, methodologies, materials and guidelines to assist schools and other educators in delivering entrepreneurship education in partnership with creative businesses;

Practice-based recommendations to policy-makers at national and European level on how creative entrepreneurship education can be mainstreamed within education.

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CENTRES project is being implemented by a partnership of 8 countries. Project partners are institutions with different fields of expertise, ensuring complementary competences and experiences:

The project is structured in eight workpackages, namely: WP 1 – Project Management; WP 2 – Online Knowledge Bank; WP 3 – Pilot activity in schools; WP4 – Policy recommendations; WP5 – International Conferences; WP 6 Quality plan; WP 7 – Dissemination, WP 8 – Exploitation of results; WP 7 – Dissemination campaign and WP 8 – Exploitation of results. Work Package 8 of CENTRES project includes exploitation activities to be completed during and beyond the lifetime of the project. WP8 is led by the partner P1. All partners are involved in the exploitation activities to ensure that project results are transferred to the target groups at national and local level. The present document, Exploitation Plan, defines the activities to be carried out in the project to enhance the successful exploitation of the project results.

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2. OBJECTIVES OF EXPLOITATION

The exploitation strategy of CENTRES project is of crucial importance to achieve successful results. In order to fully understand this strategy, it is crucial that partners base themselves in common concept of exploitation: Exploitation: Exploitation includes activities of mainstreaming (actual transfer of successful results to appropriate stakeholders and decision-makers) and multiplication (convincing end-users to adopt or apply the results of the projects).

The main objectives of the Exploitation activities are:

To promote and raise awareness about the project contents, developments and results;

To successfully transfer the results to appropriate decision-makers to achieve their sustainable promotion and support;

To convince individual end-users to adopt and/or apply the results, also after the project and support by its partnership has ended.

In order to clear the exploitation strategy for CENTRES project, the following chapters try to answer central questions such as:

Which will be the project results?

What kind of needs does the project respond to?

Who are the final or potential users or beneficiaries of the project’s outcomes?

Additionally the Exploitation Plan indicates:

Types of dissemination and exploitation activities to be carried out;

Means/Instruments that will be used;

Calendar of exploitation activities.

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3. TARGET GROUPS

Target groups are entities and/or individuals that can potentially benefit from the project results. For a productive and effective exploitation of the project outcomes, it is essential that target groups are identified at an early stage of the project. CENTRES has the following main target groups:

a) Direct Target Group

The direct target group (primary target group) includes organizations and individuals that can be direct users of the project results. These are especially:

Educators and multiplicators: teachers, headteachers, organisations involved in entrepreneurship education and other learning providers in Europe These are the end users of the Online Knowledge Bank. Dissemination activity will be used to inform them about the knowledge bank through education databases, the consortium’s networks and other networks, social media, conferences, media coverage.

Those based in the consortium’s countries will be directly involved and benefit from project through participation in the pilot activity conducted. Representatives from education will be invited to attend the international conferences and many will be part of CENTRES online community. Expected impact: access to tools and methodologies on the Online Knowledge Bank to be used in schools.

Secondary school students in participating European countries They will be involved and directly benefit from the pilot activity. Expected impact: Improved entrepreneurship skills and understanding of the career opportunities within the creative industries, leading to more young people choosing these types of careers.

Policy-makers and other stakeholders responsible for education policy and practice at European and national level e.g. Ministries of Education and Culture, local education authorities, EU institutions

They will be involved in the project through participation in events and conferences organised by the network and through direct engagement by partners as well as partners’ networks, media coverage etc. The third international conference will be held in Brussels and involve European and national policy-makers.

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Expected impact: Policy-makers better understand how creativity and entrepreneurship skills can be mainstreamed in national education systems and take action to do this.

b) Indirect Target Group

The indirect target group (secondary target group) includes organizations that can lead indirectly to long term beneficiaries of the project, such as:

Stakeholders with an interest in entrepreneurship education and the CCIs from across Europe

This includes representatives from the direct target groups above, as well as other organisations involved in education, research bodies and the CCIs (employers, creative entrepreneurs, industry associations) and other Comenius projects. They will be the extended network, reached through conferences, online activity and direct contact with partners. In addition, creative entrepreneurs in the participating countries will be directly engaged with schools through pilot activity. These are: - Trainers/Teachers Associations;

- Creative industries associations;

- Youth Creative Entrepreneurship Associations;

- Public authorities responsible for the development and implementation of the new

training/educational policies.

c) Long-term beneficiaries

It is also essential to identify the long-term beneficiaries of the project. CENTRES aims to develop and validate a new training methodology which combines mentoring schemes, best practice examples of teaching creative entrepreneurship in schools. CENTRES partners will identify concrete organizations and individuals in their countries belonging to both the primary and the secondary target groups. On the basis of this research, a database will be elaborated containing the contacts of the relevant organizations and individuals. Furthermore, partners will identify key organizations and networks at European level through which project results can be transferred. The identification of key stakeholders will allow partners to share project results more easily and carry out more focused exploitation activities. This will also increase the probability that the project results are applied by the target group beyond the project and will be done in connection with the dissemination activities.

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4. ENSURING THE VALORISATION OF PROJECT RESULTS

Previous to the implementation of the project, the project consortium identified that the interface between the fields of entrepreneurship and creative industries in education is worth exploring with a view to raise professional qualifications to equip pupils leaving secondary education with better skills in entering the European workforce market in the field of creative industries sector. This previous assessment concluded that the project and its outcomes will have relevance on a European scale. In order to ensure that the project results are exploitable, i.e. represent value for the target group and are applicable, these will be developed in a way that they are adapted to the real needs of the primary target group. Project activities will identify and take these needs into consideration the following way:

The consortium will first run a series of pilot activities exploring methods in creative entrepreneurship education;

The tools and methodologies will be shared via CENTRES Online Knowledge Bank;

This will be followed by a thorough evaluation of the pilot activities and identification of challenges and issues which will constitute a base for formulation of policy recommendations;

The elaborated policy recommendations will be disseminated at the national and international level by the consortium;

The results of the project will be presented and discussed among an international conference in Brussels in May 2014;

The final report will be produced taking into account 3 State of Innovation Reports (produced by external consultant after each of the CENTRES International Conferences).

Furthermore, the constant evaluation of the project and its outcomes throughout the project lifetime will also provide feedback to partners on whether the project outcomes are in accordance with the identified target group’s and project beneficiaries´ needs.

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5. PROJECT RESULTS

The exploitable project results are identified as follows:

A. Online Knowledge Bank resources:

Learning tools developed by Partners (including evaluation tools for teachers, pupils and entrepreneurs);

Methodologies developed by Partners;

Best practice examples of teaching creative entrepreneurship;

3 State of Innovation Reports (written after each of the CENTRES International Conferences);

An on-line community sharing ideas and experiences on the creative entrepreneurship education.

B. Policy recommendations:

Outcomes of the policy workshops implemented in the 8 partners’ countries, including all the information and resources necessary to the subsequent results and, at the same time, information and commentaries about the level of application of acquired skills by the workshops participants in their own courses;

Policy recommendations based on the evaluation of the pilot activities;

Outcomes of the final CENTRES International Conference in Brussels (including the 3rd State of Innovation Report).

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6. MAIN INSTRUMENTS OF DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION

The main instruments to transfer the project results to the identified target groups will be:

Project website and Online Knowledge Bank as well as CENTRES Facebook page;

Mailing lists – list of stakeholders at national and international level;

Marketing and promotion strategies used by the partners, specially to promote the policy workshops and the State of Innovation Reports (being produced by the end of each CENTRES International Conference);

Publishing policy workshops information on each partner’s website and link to it from as many relevant places as possible;

Informing relevant associations and public bodies (asking for targeted mailing lists);

Policy workshops and/or thematic articles promoting the pilot sessions in relevant publications (specialized newspapers, newsletters, periodicals, web-news, etc.)

Promoting CENTRES project to other partner organizations and networks face2face and via social media;

Presenting CENTRES project at appropriate events such as seminars; conferences or project meetings at national and international level (face2face + twitter);

Promoting the project at the policy workshops (face2face + twitter);

International CENTRES Conferences: in Kraków - Sept 2012, London – January 2013 and in Brussels – May 2014 (face2face, social media, including twitter and YouTube);

Face-to-face meetings with stakeholders and decision makers;

CENTRES partners’ websites, newsletters, Facebook Pages;

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7. GENERAL DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION ACTIVITIES

Type of activity Date/Duration Target audience

Partners involved

Information e-mail about website From the launch in May 2012 to the end of the project September 2014

Primary and secondary target groups

All partners

Promotion of the pilot activities in participating countries

From August 2012 Primary and secondary target groups

All partners

Articles/News/Press releases to promote the project

During project duration Primary and secondary target groups and national contact lists

All partners

Promotion of the 1st State of Innovation Report

From June 2012 Primary and secondary target audience

All partners

Presentation of the project at workshops/seminars/meetings/conferences at the national level

From May 2012 Project partners organisations, primary and secondary target groups, contact lists

All partners

Presentation of the project at the international conferences

From June 2012 Primary and secondary target groups

All partners

Promotion of the 2nd State of Innovation Report

From February 2013 Primary and secondary target groups

All partners

Policy workshops in all countries From October 2013 Primary and secondary target groups

All partners

Presentation of project results at the CENTRES International Conference in Brussels in May 2013

15th of May 2014 Primary and secondary target groups

All Partners

Promotion of the 3rd State of Innovation Report

From June 2014 Primary and secondary target groups

All Partners

Promotion of the project final report (including 3 State of Innovation reports)

From August 2014 Primary and secondary target groups

All partners

Documents

Exploitation Centres