WP 1 – PREPARATION
Mapping competences of young entrepreneurs
The first stage of the project foresees to define a competency framework for the training in relevant topics. This map will provide the state-of-the-art of the range of competencies (described under roles, technical, participative and social skills, and expertise) of the project target and allow a better analysis for the identification of the most suitable training.
The areas on which the competency framework will be working for further identify the training needs to be offered at IDE are:
- Strategic, operational, marketing, financial and human resources
- consulting;
- Development of business and investment plans;
- Assist in the development of project concepts;
- Fundamentals of project management;
- Project management;
- Monitoring and evaluation of projects.
- Fundraising;
- Research, analysis, monitoring and evaluation.
- Comprehensive diagnostics management of the organization;
- Business process optimization and implementation of electronic document
- Consulting licensed activities and to work with government agencies;
- Industry consulting and outsourcing;
- International trade and export consulting;
- ISO Certification;
- Access to IPO;
- Business Intelligence.
Once defined the skills and competencies, a specific training program for CA partner teachers will be designed by the European partners.
WP 2 – DEVELOPMENT
Development of the Youth Centre and web-platform
This working package will set up:
- The physical resources centre at each partner university: the aim of this Youth centres is to offer students a place to address themselves to follow the trainings and develop their own start-up projects in case if their internet accessibility or technical resources are limited; a place to improve their knowlege and meet other students participating in the trainings and workshops. It will also include a timing for face-to-face monitoring and tutoring for those students who require it.
- The development of the online web-platform which will host all the materials and handouts on trainings provided and description and modes of the project student’s are working on. All developed training materials will be available on this platform, including course descriptions, assignments, teachers support, lectures and videos, which can be used on-line and also downloaded. The platform will contain an extensive library with suggestions for further reading for each course. Videos will contain key lectures, materials and case studies. Users will have a possibility to upload their own reports and discuss issues around the reports with other users in the same group using forum on the platform. The possibility of using open source as the learning management system platform has been positively considered by the current partnership during the project proposal discussions.
WP 3 – DEVELOPMENT
Implementation of training programs
The training offer and materials will be carried out in this working package as well as the delivery of the training. The training design process will be jointly carried out by European and CA partners and will define the overall training programme, timings, methodology and evaluation process. Three levels of training will be carried out in this working package:
- 1st stage: Doing business and creating Start-ups as main topics to be offered in Europe to CA teachers and trainers. (years 1 and 3).
- 2nd stage: Training of trainers on teaching business development and effective use of web-platform. (year 1).
- 3rd stage: CA teachers and trainers offer the Doing business and creating start-ups training and f2f monitoring. (years 2 and 3).
WP 4 – DISSEMINATION & EXPLOITATION
MIND dissemination strategy
Two levels of dissemination will be worked:
Micro level dissemination: Identify local primary target users (partner HEI teachers and non-academic staff), secondary target users (business sector and local public institutions), project stakeholders; Analyze primary target users (expectations); test and circulate available results within immediate environment, with special focus on primary target groups and secondary target groups.
Meso and macro level dissemination: feeding back the micro results and publicizing project outcomes – workshops, round tables, newsletters, press releases, website, leaflets, and communities of practice.
Project MIND will have a strong international presence thanks to its website which will include:
- The web-platform
- A restricted area for project management.
- A dissemination area for news, events, round tables, newsletter and a social network of teachers and non-administrative staff.
Three round tables are foreseen the long of project but other open events, which may be interesting for dissemination, will be taken into consideration.
Addressing a wide range of stakeholders (both international and national) is a core activity under dissemination:
- The aim is to maintain and improve the momentum of communication about the project achievements.
- Strengthen the awareness, launch the longer term sustainable interest for MIND project and Youth Centers.
- Carry a Policy message: invite the stakeholders addressed personally to consider it as best practice.
- Encourage the stakeholders to support the initiative in their own environment.
WP 5 – MANAGEMENT
Management of the project
The MIND Project Management Structure guarantees an efficient and well-balanced decision-making style, where all the partners and different project components contributed to the quality of the project outcomes. The bodies that were involved in the Management and Decision-Making process are the following:
Project Coordinator
The Project Coordinator (ULPGC) will be in charge of day-today management and project co-ordination as well as of the integration of project procedures, outputs and services.
Steering Committee
The Steering Committee, composed by the coordinator of the project and one representative person of each partner institution will be in charge of major management decisions.
Work Package Leaders
Each Project Work Package will be assigned to a partner, who will act as a WP Leader/s. In order to guarantee the quality of project outputs, the allocation of project Work Packages among the partners has been made accordingly to each partner organization’s specific interests and expertise. The WP Leader/s will have the task of coordinating all contributions to guarantee compliance with the set time schedules and coherence with the work package activities and results as well as coherence with activities, results and outcomes of MIND as a whole. The WP Leader/s will be at the same time responsible that the resources allocated to the work package and to notify to the project coordinator possible deviations from the working plan.
External Stakeholders / European Commission
Project activities will be carried out under the constant monitoring of the European Commission and, due to the nature and objectives of the project, the project partners will pay attention in involving relevant External Stakeholders in the assessment of project milestones.
The interactivity (triangulation) between the Project Co-ordinator, the Steering Committee Group and the Work Package Leaders will provide collection of quality results.
WP 6 – QUALITY
MIND Quality management system
Evaluation is an ongoing process, made of “formal” procedures as well as of “informal” interactions. Integration between monitoring/evaluation activities, quality principles and project management at the project level helps facilitate the management of contingencies. Monitoring and evaluation feeds into Project Management providing it with instruments for project self-review (periodic self-assessment by individual partners). Moreover, the Steering Committee meetings include specific sessions aimed at reviewing project activities and products and at highlighting strengths and weaknesses of the partners’ work.
In this respect, ULPGC (as project coordinator) will coordinate efforts so to:
- Facilitate co-ordination between local evaluation activities and the overall project plan.
- Provide common guidelines to the partners.
- Facilitate the integration of local experiences so to provide inputs to the summative project evaluation.
- Provide links and feedbacks between the evaluation activities and the project management, to handle contingencies, which may occur during the project lifecycle.
Evaluation is relevant to a variety of actors:
- Project partners, for whom it is a tool to improve the project activities, to take corrective measures, and in the end of the project to draw a conclusion.
- External stakeholders.
Evaluation methods will be mainly:
- Trainees reports and surveys.
- Peer review between CA and European universities.
- Interproject coaching.
WP 7 – SUSTAINABILITY
MIND sustainability strategy
Opportunities and threats related to sustainability
At the academic level, opportunities:
- Considering the project is university wide, the SWOT analysis will support getting a deeper view of the partner universities.
- The project will involve the management staff of the partner universities, which is mainly academic.
- Getting involved the business sector from the beginning to ensure their support to the student’s proposals.
- The overall view of strategy will support fostering involvement.
- The impact on academic programmes is foreseen implementing strategy in management.
- Threats:
- Faculty is not usually convinced on the usefulness of strategy so from the beginning awareness can be a supportive tool.
- The offer of trainings apart from regular classes might be difficult for some Central Asian countries in terms of connection or even unexperience.
At the project level, opportunities:
- The consortium has already worked together in other LLP projects and are willing to engage new projects in Tempus.
- Involvement of the consulting company and other business structures.
- List of roles and responsibilities in management assigned and assessed to balance the workload.
- Newsletter for project visibility.
- Threats:
- Cultural specificities.
- Support from national authorities, opportunities:
- Agencies for quality
The following activities will be carried out:
- Agreements with quality agencies of each partner country.
- Contact the business sector for support.
- Negotiate agreements on supporting the web-portal and use of it as public data to be offered to stakeholders.
- Involvement in the project round tables and other events.
- Attendance of project members in national education conferences.