Search for European Projects

Green Entrepreneurship Training - Underpinning Prosperity
Start date: Sep 1, 2016, End date: Aug 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

There is little doubt that the development of the green economy can make a significant contribution to restoring Europe’s economy to growth by harnessing new business and employment opportunities that green businesses offer and many countries are looking to green growth as the way out of the current economic crisis. The global market for environmental goods and services is vast and it continues to grow quickly. UN research indicates that green investment programmes create more jobs per Euro or Dollar spent than many other stimulus programmes (SEF Alliance, 2009).The Sustainability Imperative' published in the Harvard Business Review 2012, insists that "sustainability and the green economy is the next transformational business mega-trend comparable to mass production, manufacturing quality movement, IT revolution, and globalization". It further acknowledges that "firms seeking to gain a competitive advantage must know what to do and how to do it" and that "countries must act now to support green initiatives as this unstoppable mega-trend will make or break economies around the world". Although we are still at a relatively early stage of this new mega-trend, it can be expected to continue to grow exponentially.Educationalists can either fuel entrepreneurship of stop it in its tracks, however, responding to new mega-trends with fit-for-purpose curriculum resources is just the latest in a long line of challenges that educationalists have faced in recent years. It is this challenge that the GET-UP project consortium is committed to addressing by developing a suite of bespoke curriculum resources to support young green entrepreneurs. There is no green entrepreneurship curriculum at any level available in any of the partner countries and when one considers that tomorrow’s green entrepreneurs will create sustainable jobs and wealth for their communities; commercialize new green innovations that will make people’s lives better; and contribute to achieving national economic growth in harmony with environmental protection; there is significant need for educational and training interventions that make the ground fertile for young green entrepreneurs to thrive.A green entrepreneurship curriculum is not just an entrepreneurship curriculum with one or two modules added. Green entrepreneurship revolves around a set of core principles that set it apart from everyday entrepreneurship. Green entrepreneurs propose business models that are not only economically profitable but also create a positive environmental and social impact. Green entrepreneurs are aware of the need to change the way society has understood development and prosperity during the last century. They aim at integrating the environmental, economic and social axis into the core business of the company and strive to provide eco-innovative solutions to the way goods and services are produced, consumed and offered. Green entrepreneurs provide the breeding ground for starting and sustaining a green economy by providing green products and services; by introducing greener production techniques; by boosting demand for green products and services and by creating green jobs.While the primary innovation will be the bespoke green entrepreneurship curriculum, consortium partners will ensure that best practice in pedagogic instruction and the highest design standards in the production of learning content are achieved. More and more people are waking up to the innumerable benefits of on-line education and training. Flexibility, accessibility and affordability allied to a persistent need for up-skilling are the main reasons that this modern phenomenon will continue to thrive into the future. While the growth in popularity of on-line learning has brought about an increase in the number of on-line learning courses it has not had any noticeable impact on the quality of course-ware available. GET-UP will harness advances in technology to generate engaging and inspiring learning content. For many educators the growth of on-line learning has created uncertainty and many feel that their professional standing has being undermined. The realisation that the ”sage-on-the-stage” model of education and training is no longer the pre-eminent or only source of learning has led many tutors and the establishments they work for to question the veracity and quality of on-line courses. GET-UP will address these concerns.
Up2Europe Ads

Coordinator

Details

7 Partners Participants