The Primary Objective of SPEC is to initiate a replicable model of learning that enables enterprise centre managers, tenant businesses and learners to adopt sustainable and responsible business practices. Focusing on the dimensions of sustainable practice such as: sustainable buildings (NZEB), energy and resource efficiency, sustainable eco-systems and collective action, the SFEC programme will assist the participant cohort in developing practices that will make a transformative contribution to addressing climate challenges. Many enterprise centre managers want to take measures to improve the sustainability of their centres and gain expertise/learning that they can pass onto their tenants but there is currently no VET training or offering of best practices available to help drive change or improve their own environmental practice as part of an innovative pedagogical process . SFEC’s effort to align national priorities, needs of local communities and high-impact sustainable initiatives through the establishment of robust business models will result in more sustainable, scalable and replicable solutions. OEC, NASEC and ANCES have vast dissemination networks that the project will utilize. The transition to a low-carbon economy means a new economic model is necessary, focused on low-carbon growth, resource efficiency and sustainable development. That presents significant transformational challenges for enterprise where sustainable transitions are highly dependent upon technological solutions: industrialisation has catalysed a linear economy in which take-use-dispose culture is accentuated. A transition to a circular, sustainable economy is essential. The SFEC project will work to:1) Identify best practices that enterprise centres can replicate to reduce their carbon footprint, improve their services/supports and future proof their infrastructures (IO1)2) Guide enterprise centre leaders through strategic sustainability planning which will bring sustainable practices and ideas to fruition via concrete actions (IO2)3) Empower enterprise centre leaders to become Sustainability Educators and Agents of Change capable of teaching and training SME and start up clients about the principles of sustainability and green business (IO3)4) Develop a self-learning sustainability and climate-action online course for Enterprise Centres tenants and wider SME’s to enable them to operate in an environmentally and socially responsible manner and align their sustainability goals with those of the enterprise centres where they are based (IO3)Our target participants span four categories:• Organisations linked to target groups: Enterprise Centres networks in partner countries and across Europe, and businesses and representative bodies for innovation supports companies • Policy makers in terms of energy and sustainability and economic development • Partners’ links to associates, peers, stakeholders and policy makers at regional, national and EU sustainability development networks.• Media - specialist education, energy and sustainability sector press and sustainability influencers will be a useful means of recruiting the aforementioned target groups and we will target relevant sections of media to reach stakeholders across the other three key target groups.Impact is at every level of the project. SFEC will develop the competences of leaders in enterprise centre management in sustainable business practice to include: sustainable buildings (NZEB), energy and resource efficiency, sustainable eco-systems, collective action, state of the art digital technologies and working practices. Impact will take place at every organisational level: Board of Directors, Management Team, Operational Staff, Volunteers. Enterprise centres business advisors, mentors and VET educators will increase their awareness of the importance of sustainable practice capabilities as a specific competence, will grow professionally with the ability to teach new skills through pedagogic strategies & new exposure to digitally adept teaching tools.SME owner, managers & employees, who have not traditionally had access sustainability practices and climate mitigation actions training, will acquire the skills & confidence to undertaken new sustainability projects & are likely to actually do so in the first 6 months after completing the course. This will contribute directly to their professional development as they will strengthen their eco innovation mindset & skills. Last, but not least, will be the economic advantages conferred by the greening of their businesses. SFEC will help partners gain an in-depth specialist knowledge of the contemporary climate change mitigation actions for business and the future-proofing sustainability practices as an innovation driver. SPEC also has impact on Sustainability Advocates: Non-affiliated members, public or otherwise, who may be interested in learning about best practices in the sector.

<< Objectives >>With the Fairpreneurs project we want to combat youth unemployment and facilitate social participation as well as promote socially and environmentally sustainable entrepreneurship by enabling Youth Educators to train young entrepreneurs to start a fair and sustainable business while addressing their specific challenges. Our innovative resources will contribute to a more sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem, and thus to a fairer, more inclusive and greener economy.<< Implementation >>Through extensive desk and field research, including interviews with target groups and beneficiaries, we will create a case study compendium illustrating sustainable business practices. The research results will also be used to create a curriculum that will serve as the basis for the creation of a training package, including OER, and for the development of our Fairpreneurs Business Assessment which evaluates the SDG-Readiness of start-up concepts and generates comprehensive personalised feedback<< Results >>With the project, we will increase the relevance and impact of Youth Entrepreneurship Education by providing Educators with modular, flexible and innovative training materials, that enable them to exploit their potential impact on a more sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem, providing learning opportunities to visionaries and thus foster a more level playing field for young people. By doing so, our project corresponds to the EU Digital Education Action Plan and the European Youth Strategy.

CONTEXT Small and medium enterprises have undisputed significance in driving Europe’s economic growth, accounting for 85% of new jobs and 66% of private sector employment. As such, the quality and relevance of the vocational entrepreneurship education provided for new and existing entrepreneurs plays a key role in achieving the 2020 goals of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.Business failure is increasingly recognised as an important topic within enterprise education and for good reason: more than half of European businesses will not survive past the 5-year mark. Yet, failure is accepted by many as a normal feature of the macroeconomic and the focus has been put strongly on helping entrepreneurs learn from failure, with a view to starting over from scratch. While important, this approach overlooks the huge economic, societal and personal consequences of business failure: entrepreneurs pay a high cost in lost investment and income, and in self-esteem and career trajectory, not to mention the knock-on effects of unemployment for others.Although current SME business failure rates are almost back to pre-recession levels, our knowledge of macroeconomic cycles instructs us to use this time to prepare for the next recession. In addition, Brexit presents one of the most significant challenges to small businesses not only in the UK but to main trading partners within the EU: Germany, Netherlands, Ireland and Spain. For these reasons, it is more important than ever to provide emerging and established businesses with the skills needed to weather the turbulence.OBJECTIVEOur goal is clear: provide early stage entrepreneurs and established SME owner-managers with the knowledge and skills needed to identify and interpret early warning signals of business crisis, and to take timely, corrective actions, thereby facilitating growth, or survival, in unpredictable or adverse situations.ACTIVITIES & RESULTSEASI will develop an EARLY STAGE INTERVENTION FRAMEWORK. Developed in collaboration with our HE partner, this comprehensive but accessible digital document will share up-to-date knowledge on Early Warning Signals of business crisis, will present detection and intervention opportunities, and make a clear case for their beneficial application to SME leadership and overall business resilience. Produce an EASI CURRICULUM + OERs. Including a curriculum, learning objectives, lesson plans, assessment guides, and access to a variety of original teaching content in digital format, these free resources provide business advisors with a complete toolkit for teaching early stage intervention skills to entrepreneurs as part of their business development programmes, either in classroom or in blended (digital) learning formats. Create the EASI ONLINE COURSE. Based on the OERs, this training course will be optimized for computers, tablets and smartphones. It will reinforce classroom teaching and enable SME owner managers and entrepreneurs to develop and test their early stage identification and intervention skills.PARTICIPANTSOur main Participants are early stage entrepreneurs and established SME owner-managers providing them with the knowledge and skills needed to identify and interpret early warning signals of business crisis, and to take timely, corrective actions, thereby facilitating growth, or survival, in unpredictable or adverse situations.We will also work directly with a second target group: business advisors working in providers of vocational entrepreneurship education: enterprise support organizations, Chambers of Commerce, incubators, colleges etc. A third key target group is policy makers who can mainstream provision and our partner organizations, as our mission effectiveness is directly related to the topic.IMPACTThe overall impact will be an increase in the number of advisors incorporating early stage warning signals of business crisis and intervention strategies to mitigate risk into their training programmes and becoming more digitally competent in using digital technologies. By improving the skills and attitudes of business advisors we will impact not only the effectiveness of entrepreneurship training to individual trainees and groups, but be able to create waves of change regarding entrepreneurship teaching in VET as a whole.