Companies with a social impact take advantage of the growing awareness of society toward social and environmental problems, transforming these challenges into enormous business opportunities. From a broader point of view, the business reason should be related to the great social and environmental challenges. Entrepreneurs are the engine of economic growth in Europe. It is a well-known fact that SMEs are the most important form of business organization in Europe, representing 99.8% of all enterprises. What is much less known is the growing importance of co-working spaces, which have become a common working place for free-lancers and young entrepreneurs, with more than 14.000 operators around the world. Coworking is a multi-dimensional booming industry and a strengthening cultural movement re-modelling the very notion of what workplace is, dedicated to providing support to those entrepreneurs who wish to go beyond the traditional schemes. However, several needs are usually identified by coworking spaces, coworkers and entrepreneurs, among which the need to improve the level of social interaction in the coworking space to increase the social impact of their activitiesThe main objective of COWLECTIVE is to address the training needs of entrepreneurs in coworking spaces in key transversal skills based on new updated research, and strengthen their business activities in terms of social and environmental impact. COWLECTIVE is a EU partnership designed to develop core and innovative learning methods that best encourage success in business activities, answering the need for education and training thanks to an innovative proposal based on participation and ICTs.The main target of COWLECTIVE are entrepreneurs in a coworking context, as well as future and wanna-be entrepreneurs in VET and C-VET contexts. They are mostly aged 25-40 entrepreneurs with high creative and technological profile, but need to upskill their soft skills to increase the social impact of their projects. Other target are all organisations that provide VET and C-VET training as well as services of support to entrepreneurs (i.e. co-working spaces, schools, entrepreneurs associations, chambers, incubators; local or regional institutions), as stakeholders. For them, COWLECTIVE will answer the need of educational resources to better provide their supporting services. COWLECTIVE proposal arise from a European partnership made of 5 EU organisations from Denmark, Poland, Spain, Italy and Greece, under the leadership of COWORKING+. Together, they will implement a series of activities and expected outputs, among which: -a Mobile report about social and environmental entrepreneurs’ skills demand according to representatives from the sector, entrepreneurs, trainers, and assessors. -a COWLECTIVE training package on the main skills needed by entrepreneurs to rise the social and environmental positive impact of their companies. This training will be developed on an online platform which will include social modules for a higher degree of collaboration and interaction. -a COWLECTIVE learning method for social impact, including recommendations on the training package, collective learning tools and network. COWLECTIVE will rely on a methodology of interaction and participation of the target groups, involving representatives of the target groups since the very beginning of the project and the development of a mobile report on skills need. COWLECTIVE will bring together the entrepreneurs with supporting stakeholders to create a wide community, sharing together good practices, business ideas and pitches, support for understanding the societal main challenges, customers’ expectations, potential impact, among others.As a result, COWLECTIVE expect to increase the level of education services provided by coworking and similar collaborative working spaces, as well as the skills of entrepreneurs oriented toward the development of companies with a significant positive social and environmental impact. COWLECTIVE expect to reach at least 500 entrepreneurs during the project life. At long term, it expects to rise the local, regional and European growth thanks to a strong network of micro and small companies implementing sustainable activities, thus contributing to territorial smart growth.

<< Objectives >>The main objective of SUSNET is presenting best practices concerning sustainable collaboration and training partners about how to create effective partnerships that support the achievement of SDGs within sustainable local, national and international networks. For this, we will:- Define sustainable topics, providing a comprehensive panorama of sustainable collaboration.- Provide Best Practices for creating sustainable networks- Better knowledge about engaging stakeholders in sustainable ways.<< Implementation >>We will implement 3 main activities:Elaboration of a Sustainable Concept Guide, that defines the main areas of application of sustainability for companiesProduction of Best practices Guidelines: a compilation of exemplary sustainable networking activitiesProduction of a stakeholders guide oriented toward the creation of sustainable networks engaging their communities in collaborative sustainable practicesFor each one of these activities, a training mobility will be organised by one partner.<< Results >>As results, we expect to:- Better the knowledge about the areas of application of the sustainable goals in collaborative frameworks for SMEs, entrepreneurs and others from our networks- Increase partners’ internal capacity of creating partnerships that contribute to the UN sustainable development goals, by applying conscious criterias that foster the responsible behaviours and reduction of environmental impacts- Impact positively our communities by committing them towards similar journeys

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of Europe's economy. They represent 99% of all businesses in the EU. In the past five years, they have created around 85% of new jobs and provided two-thirds of the total private sector employment in the EU. The European Commission considers SMEs and entrepreneurship as key to ensuring economic growth, innovation, job creation, and social integration in the EU. The majority of SMEs and SME activity is concentrated in the largest EU member states. Together Spain, France, Italy, Germany and the UK account for more than 60% of the total number of SMEs as well as the share of total employment. Most of those small businesses are micro companies, what according to the EU definition are companies with less than 10 employees. Taking these factors into account, the election of the right fellow travellers is one of the key decisions for a small entrepreneur, because the chances of success or fail will largely depend on the people he/she chooses. Employees are a critical component of any business, but though in big corporations, with a specific HRM department, this election is an almost systematic process, in SMEs it is even more important. Employees are part of the delivery of the product and service. Their performance, commitment and loyalty to the job are critical, but even more in a SME. Obviously the election has to do with technical competences, but in a micro company, with a more direct and human contact, there are other aspects which are essential.A good hire is one whose skills, knowledge and abilities match well with the requirements of the job and the culture of the small business. Even more today, when studies on Europe’s future skills needs indicate that demand for specific skills in the most dynamic sectors may continue to rise in the future. Reports from the World Economic Forum such as ‘The Future of Jobs’, edited in 2016 and updated in 2018, set the new skills demanded by the labour market in the next decades in opposition to the old and declining ones. Both coincide in the necessity to develop “human factor” as differentiating element in the era of technology and robotization, fostering the soft skills (communication, creativity, cognitive flexibility, emotional intelligence, decision making, complex problem solving…) as mandatory and required weapons for those workers or entrepreneurs who want to be successful in such a changing scenario.This project is aimed for young entrepreneurs without training in human resources abilities. The soft skills for managing human resources will help entrepreneurs for the success of the company. One of the most important factors for competitiveness and success in entrepreneurs and SMEs are the importance to know how to manage your staff. The project consortium is composed of 6 organisations from 5 different EU countries (DE, SP, PO, UK and ES) in a comprehensive partnership under the coordination of Coworking Plus, consisting of a solid group of training companies with long international experience in the application of soft skills in their programs and a high demand of this kind of formation: GROWTHCOOP (Spain) and Eurospeak (UK). APSU (Portugal) will add its wide range of contacts with Portuguese companies, while Eesti People for People will contribute with its long experience in international and national training activities. Finally, INDEPCIE (Spain) is a training company specialized in coaching, EI and soft skills, which will add a plus of expertise to the program.To achieve the objectives, the partnership has identified three Intellectual Outputs:IO1 Self-Evaluation in Human Resources soft skillsIO2 Development of the Open Educational Resources in human resources soft skillsIO3 Intellectual Output 3: Inspiring Success Stories in soft skillsBy creating training tools for improving the knowledge of entrepreneurs to understand and detect soft skills, the consortium expects to achieve the overall objective of the project: to help entrepreneurs and SMEs in the implementation and development of human resources on their own companies.The project wishes to set new tools and methodologies to support start-ups and SMEs in whatever sector in enhancing their productivity, competiveness and efficiency. The consortium will use the outcomes of the project, exploiting them with different targets, in further initiatives of the same topic, disseminating them through all its channels and applying them in its internal working dynamics. Companies, teams and organizations involved in a training in soft skills are expected to show a high increase of positive work environment, team work, talent development, productivity, creativity and innovation. Moreover, and in a lower and extensive level, final customers of those companies will be direct beneficiaries (summarizing, the base of European citizens) will enjoy of a healthy emotional environment in their daily contact to all the actors involved in the project.

<< Background >>SMEs 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 entrepreneurship education provided for new and existing entrepreneurs play a key role in achieving the 2020 goals of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Statistics show that more than half of European businesses will not survive past the 5-year mark. As such, business failure is recognised as an important topic. But to date, the emphasis has been placed on accepting failure and helping entrepreneurs learn from the experience, and start over again. But this overlooks the huge economic, societal and personal consequences of business failure.STAY AFLOAT project is designed to help entrepreneurs and SMEs identify and interpret early warning signs of a business crisis. It aims to increase the number of business advisors (coaches) who are incorporating early-stage warning signals of business crisis and intervention strategies into their training programmes. By improving the skills and attitude of business advisors, the effectiveness of entrepreneurship training will be increased, and waves of change will be made through entrepreneurship teaching.Business Advisors and organisations will be used for both developing the tools created for the programme and trained to deliver the model. The three key outcomes / results of the programme are:1. Stay Afloat Framework – a digital document containing up to date knowledge on early warning signals of business crisis, including detection and intervention opportunities.2. Stay Afloat Curriculum and Open Educational Resources (OERs) – a complete toolkit for business advisors for teaching early-stage intervention skills to entrepreneurs as part of their business development programmes.3. Stay Afloat Online Course – based on the OERs and optimised for digital delivery, enabling SMEs and entrepreneurs to develop and test their skills.<< Objectives >>STAY AFLOAT aims at supporting individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences, especially after the recent 2018 Proposal for a Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, that replaces the 2006 recommendation with 8 competences which include “entrepreneurship competence”, a concept “aligned with the JRC Entrepreneurship Competence Framework. In addition, creativity and the ability to plan and manage processes are highlighted as essential dimensions of an entrepreneurial mindset”. Under this priority the project will act in order to foster employability and socio-educational and personal development, as well as participation in civic and social life; in a fast-changing world, this includes an entrepreneurial mind-set, critical thinking and creativity, as well as forward-looking skills in fields that are strategic for smart economic and social development. This priority will include actions to develop businesses and intermediary bodies; support work-based learning, improve the quality and effectiveness of learning mobility experiences and the development of national and cross-country sectoral skills strategies. This can contribute to higher quality of education and training and support permeability between the different education and training pathways, because the project will work on several attitudes, knowledges and skills which are never taught to entrepreneurs or managers. Thus, the project works in the improvement of entrepreneurship, employability and productivity by giving entrepreneurs and their teams a set of extra skills and weapons for their performance thanks to the contact with Emotional Intelligence. As a direct consequence, the whole team of a company will benefit of those skills, generating better professional skills and thus, reinforcing the results and sustainability of companies for a productive and sound European society.In line with Erasmus + Programme, the project will support the setting up of upskilling pathways by making available skills identification and screening, recognition of flexible modes of learning and through the validation of skills acquired through informal and non-formal learning.Furthermore, STAY AFLOAT will increase demand and take-up through effective outreach, guidance and motivation strategies which encourage low-qualified adults (in this case, those entrepreneurs without an adequate training or formation in this field) to develop and upgrade their entrepreneurship competences towards higher qualifications.The project’s training methodology is based on the Open Educational Resources (OER) approach and online learning, thus developing digital and physical training materials that will be available under a creative common license allowing their use and distribution free of charge. The OER material will be made available in English and all project languages.<< Implementation >>The project is double focused. On one hand, it wants to assist entrepreneurs (especially those low skilled) to discover and develop the talents that are vital to starting, growing, and sustaining a thriving enterprise. On the other hand, it wants to work with coaches and facilitators in order to give them the resources and knowledge they need to fully support current and future entrepreneurs in understanding the skills based on coaching and EI, and their unique talents. With that guidance, entrepreneurs will develop their talents into strengths to achieve greater business effectiveness and success.The project aims at helping entrepreneurs during the first five years of a new company to overcome the most important challenges by using coaching and Emotional Intelligence skills and tools. The project wants to promote sustainability of young companies and therefore employability, developing a training system for coaches and entrepreneurs in order to generate the skills and abilities needed in this key moment for entrepreneurship.The KOM will set the scene, going through goals and dividing tasks and responsibilities. It will be a key point in the establishment of the Executive committee, Promotion and Communication Committee and Quality Committee. According to the sections described in this form, the first set of activities will be directed toward the establishment of working groups, who will be responsible for activities concerning the detailed working plan for the 3 Results of the project. The creation of the website and virtual collaborative environment for sharing all consortium documents will be also a basic step.Transversal activities will cover project management, monitoring and evaluation, communication and exploitation of the results and contents of the project. They will last the whole duration of the project. Management and implementation activities led by the coordinator will also include the Quality Control activities, risk assessment activities, financial management and coordination of all partners in financial reporting and content reporting, organising project meetings and online meetings, monitoring and addressing all issues as they arise.An internal area for project management will be generated to facilitate communication, exchange of ideas, comments, files and materials between partners, as well as collaboration in the general management of STAY AFLOAT. This area will be essential in the success of the project, because it will be the permanent meeting point for partners. The 5 TPMs will facilitate cooperate and partnership working among project partners and support the management and delivery of key activities and outcomes.The training systems (R1 and R2) will be implemented at a regional scale for regular personal contacts, keeping travel efforts low, and strengthening regional networks. They are the core of the project and all transversal, management and preparation activities are focused on the right execution of innovative and attractive training systems for the targets depicted in the description of the project. The training systems will be tested and adapted in all project countries. Training guides for learners and facilitators will be developed to support the use of the OER training system also within formal training.MEs will promote the Results created by the project and facilitate ongoing engagement with target groups in order to maximise the impact of project activities. Focus group discussions with representatives of the target groups will be held in all 8 countries to identify core issues and needs of target groups will be quantified through questionnaires.All the results, conclusions and information of the project will be available on the website and platform, but the consortium also wants to stress the importance of the face-to-face contact between the facilitator and the final users (managers, leaders and workers in general) in order to implement this approach.<< Results >>STAY AFLOAT project is designed to help entrepreneurs and SMEs identify and interpret early warning signs of a business crisis. It aims to increase the number of business advisors who are incorporating early-stage warning signals of business crisis and intervention strategies into their training programmes. By improving the skills and attitude of business advisors, the effectiveness of entrepreneurship training will be increased, and waves of change will be made through entrepreneurship teaching.Business Advisors and organisations will be used for both developing the tools created for the programme and trained to deliver the model. The three key outcomes of the programme are:R1. Stay Afloat Framework – a digital document containing up to date knowledge on early warning signals of business crisis, including detection and intervention opportunities.R2. Stay Afloat Curriculum and Open Educational Resources (OERs) – a complete toolkit for business advisors for teaching early-stage intervention skills to entrepreneurs as part of their business development programmes.R3. Stay Afloat Online Course – based on the OERs and optimised for digital delivery, enabling SMEs and entrepreneurs to develop and test their skills.

<< Background >>Paris Agreement aims to substantially reduce carbon emissions, thus, limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. At the current progress rate, the world is set to fall short of this milestone. However, if business and policy leaders swiftly align with sustainability objectives, this goal could still be within reach. According to the European Green Deal, the production and use of energy across economic sectors account for more than 75% of the EU’s emissions. Thus, further decarbonising the energy system of business community is critical to reach the objectives in 2030 and 2050. Conversely, climate change poses challenges as well as opportunities for business and, broadly speaking, for the entire economy. Businesses have to provide new services or products with less harmful impact on climate, responding to a changing policy, regulatory, and market environment. HEIs should also respond to this need, fulfilling their civic role to address societal challenges, ranging from embedding climate-related discussions into courses on risk assessment, leadership, regulatory environments, markets, all the way to offering “green” courses.HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR NEEDS- Despite the importance of climate change education for sustainable development, the response from education systems worldwide, in promoting relevant initiatives and programs is considered insufficient. The REBUILT project will create a future-oriented curriculum on business and climate emergency, thus, helping HEIs to “green” their curricula and offer programs and courses on sustainability-related issues. - Additionally, REBUILT proposes an inter-disciplinary cooperation between HEIs, business support actors and SMEs, thus, encouraging the links of HEIs with their surrounding innovation ecosystems and strengthening the links between education, research, and innovation. - Also, with its emphasis on online learning environments, REBUILT supports the transition of the HE sector to the digital age. BUSINESS SECTOR/GREEN ECONOMY NEEDS Responses to climate crisis have created a market shift in multiple forms. Climate change regulation will impact virtually all sectors of the economy, creating both vulnerabilities and opportunities, while the environmental implications will impact supply-chain logistics, infrastructure stability, asset allocation, and risk decisions. Companies should reassess energy use, operational and logistical models, and resource acquisition strategies to develop effective mitigation and adaptation strategies befitting their culture and based on their timetable, objectives, vulnerabilities, opportunities, and competitive positioning. For this, the private sector requires capable professionals that understand risks and uncertainties related to climate change and have the competences to respond. REBUILT aims to upskill and reskill professionals and provide them ‘green’ skills through the REBUILT learning programme, and to help the current and future workforce adjust to new working methods, perform new tasks and take up new jobs. PUBLIC SECTOR/POLICY MAKERS/NGOsAs climate change has been widely accepted to pose challenges to every vital socioeconomic sector, it is more than ever important to provide comprehensible and accessible information and knowledge to the community and to present this knowledge in a friendly way. Public sector, policymakers, regulators, and NGOs will learn to address the climate crisis from a systemic perspective and gain the skills to integrate sustainability practices into business.<< Objectives >>The overall objective of the REBUILT project is to develop and cultivate an effective innovation ecosystem of Higher Education Institutions, Business Communities and Research Institutions that contributes towards achieving an urgent environmental turning point. The specific objectives of the REBUILT project include:- Improve the match between curricula of Higher Education Institutes and human capital needs of businesses in a joint effort to address both business challenges and opportunities from climate change.- Develop future-oriented curriculum for Higher Education students and professionals on reengineering business under climate crisis.- Promote the lifelong learning dimension of Higher Education including by facilitating the take-up, validation and recognition of the short learning courses leading to micro-credentials - Develop short stand-alone online courses leading to microcredentials for Higher Education students and professionals on how businesses can act swiftly to combat climate emergency and transform the way they operate. - Develop skills strategy and a low carbon transition action plan to assist businesses to adapt to climate and environmental change. - Provide necessary interdisciplinary skills required in business on issues relating to climate and environmental change. - Raise awareness about environmental and climate-change challenges. - Reflect on opportunities for collaboration as a key part in doing business in the climate emergency. - Gather partnerships of European Higher Education Institutes, research and business entities, and promote the notion of the so-called ‘knowledge triangle’. - Support the Higher Education sector in becoming even more inter-connected, innovative, inclusive and digital.- Help Higher Education Institutes to fulfil their mission to address societal challenges, such as climate change. - Contribute to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.<< Implementation >>REBUILT shall implement the following activities: 1-PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION ACTIVITIES1.1. Project Management Handbook and Tools/Templates1.2. Management Board Set-Up1.3. Communication with partners/agency1.4. Coordination and Communication Platform1.5. Consortium Agreements1.6. Monitoring of Process, Budget, Dissemination 1.7. Progress, Interim and Final Reporting1.8. Transnational meetings #1 | #2 | #3 | #42-QUALITY ASSURANCE & EVALUATION ACTIVITIES2.1. Elaboration of QA Plan2.2. Set-up of Quality Assurance Committee2.3. Set up of External Group of Advisors (EGA)2.4. Set up of Focus Group (FG)2.5. Elaboration of a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan2.6. Elaboration of Monitoring and Evaluation Reports3-DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES3.1. Stakeholder Analysis3.2. Dissemination Plan3.3. Portfolio of Dissemination Material3.4. Project Website3.5. Project Social Media3.6. Newsletters-Press releases and media presence-Policy briefs-Multiplier Events-Participation in EPALE and other EU platforms4-EXPLOITATION ACTIVITIES4.1. Exploitation Plan 4.2. Promotional Video 4.3. MoU4.4. IPR and commercialisation agreementACTIVITIES RELATED TO PROJECT RESULT 1: REBUILT LEARNING PROGRAMMER1/Task 1: REBUILT Learning Strategy & Curiculum DesignR1/Task 2: Microlearning programme content developmentR1/Task 3: Accreditation & Use of microcredentialsACTIVITIES RELATED TO PROJECT RESULT 2. REBUILT ONLINE CAMPUSR2/Task 1: REBUILT Online Campus design & GDPR policyR2/Task 2: REBUILT Online Campus developmentR2/Task 3: Micro-learning online course developmentR2/Task 4: Virtual libraryR2/Task 5: Online course pilot testingR2/Task 6: Online course roll-out and monitoringACTIVITIES RELATED TO PROJECT RESULT 3. REBUILT LOW CARBON TRANSITION ACTION PLAN FOR BUSINESSESR3/Task 1: Development of the REBUILT Low carbon transition action plan for businessesR3/Task 2: Monitoring the implementation of the action plan & Exchange of experience R3/Task 3: Online good practice database & toolsACTIVITIES RELATED TO THE MULTIPLIER EVENTSE1: National virtual event in DenmarkE2: National virtual event in GreeceE3: National virtual event in SloveniaE4: National virtual event in BulgariaE5: National virtual event in CyprusE6: National virtual event in BelgiumE7: Closing event/Conference<< Results >>REBUILT will achieve the following OUTCOMES:HEIs:- Will use micro-credentials to improve access to lifelong learning opportunities- ‘Green’ their curricula- Will become more inter-connected- Collaborate with the business community - Enrich their digital resources and capacities- Increase the digital capacities of academic staff- Scale online learning to reach students everywhereHE students:- Will benefit from specific knowledge absent from their curricula, accompanied by the appropriate certification and recognition - Will learn how to support a green business/social responsibility profileProfessionals:- Will understand the business implications of climate change, identify opportunities for innovation, and enhance their competitive advantagePolicymakers:- Will learn how to address the climate crisis from a systemic perspective General public:- Will be informed about environmental and climate-change challenges- Will be informed about of carbon costs and impacts of everyday activities and the ability - Will be motivated to reduce emissions on an individual and professional basisOutcomes will be achieved through the successful implementation the REBUILT activities and the delivery of the following project’s RESULTS:1- REBUILT LEARNING PROGRAMMEFour learning modules built upon the European approach to micro-credentials, carefully designed using learning outcomes and ECTS, quality assured against transparent standards in line with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG), and delivered online in an engaging, interactive way. The modules represent the learners’ journey from understanding the problem →tackle the problem → experience the future → reimagine the future → address the emergency → drive collective action→ shape the future, and can be either followed stand-alone or complemented with other forms of teaching. 2 - REBUILT ONLINE CAMPUScomprising of:- The REBUILT Virtual Learning Environment- The REBUILT online courses and online assessment - The REBUILT virtual library / digital collection of resources- The REBUILT forum for discussions/thematic workshops- The online courses pilot testing and delivery 3. REBUILT LOW CARBON TRANSITION ACTION PLAN FOR BUSINESSES comprising of - The REBUILT low carbon transition action plan for businesses and- the online good practice database, with practical insights from real-world examples of successful low carbon initiativesAdditional Material Results:- Project Management Handbook and Documents- Consortium agreements- Quality Assurance Plan- Monitoring & Evaluation Plan- Stakeholder Analysis- Dissemination Plan- Portfolio of Dissemination material- Project website, with an attractive display space for all project public deliverables. - Social media, including the REBUILT Alumni LinkedIn group, which will provide opportunities for collaboration as a key part to doing business in the climate emergency.- Newsletters: at least four newsletters will be sent to identified stakeholders to contribute to project dissemination.- Policy briefs and recommendations: two policy briefs and one policy recommendation will be created and widely disseminated among key stakeholders and policy makers. - Press releases and media presence – presence in EU platforms (esp. EPALE, OpenAIRE, Zenodo)- Multiplier events: Six national virtual events and one final closing event/conference. - Exploitation Plan- Promotional video- Memorandum of Understanding- IPR and commercialization agreement- Reports: Progress Reports, Interim and Final Reports, Quality Assurance and Evaluation Reports, Dissemination Logs and reportsAll partners will actively apply the project outcomes and results in their daily practices after termination of the project. The REBUILT website, which will give access to all project’s public results and the Online Campus will be online for at least 5 years after the project end.