Up-Skilling Unemployed and Low Skilled Workers in Self-Centred Innovation Approaches, to Empower their Self-Employability Potentials through Start-Ups and SMEs (UInno)

The acquisition of transversal competencies for adult entrepreneurs regarding innovation utilization and management is especially important now, considering the Capital Markets Union (CMU) action plan as priority of the European Commission in the framework of strengthening Europe’s Economy and stimulate investment to create jobs. At the CMU Public Hearing it was mentioned that as a main obstacle for CMU could be the lack of user-centre innovation on the side of entrepreneurs and SMEs. Moreover, the OECD and EC have published “The Missing Entrepreneurs 2015”, which examines the potential of inclusive entrepreneurship policies and programs in the European Union and they identified that expanding business start-up provides support for disadvantaged groups can tackle unemployment and social exclusion. In this context the EU has prioritize the support of start-ups in all of its major business, market and economy directives. However, start-ups face common challenges in their development and expansion, with the issues of innovation management and bring new ideas into the market be on the top of the list according to the Forbes and the Start-Up Magazine. It is unusual for small business owners and new entrepreneurs to have an innovation management skills set which is often a cause for concern, given that failing to keep records up to date can seriously impact the survival of a business. Additionally, according to a series of researches conducted at EU and globally, the luck of basic innovation and design thinking knowledge from the vast majority of potential new entrepreneurs, constitute a basic reason for their demotivation to actually implement their vision and create their own start-up. UInno aims to overturn this challenge and demotivation and provide the necessary tools and knowledge in user-center innovation and digital skills to all EU citizens to initiate their own start up, fulfilling the vision of the Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan. In this context, UInno proposes the development of an adult training package to equip with basic skills and knowledge on innovation primarily marginalized EU citizens (including migrants and refugees) who are potential entrepreneurs and start up creators. The UInno training package will be provided in a full digital format based on eLearning pedagogies, work-based online learning, and collaboration. The UInno project aims to boost self-employment and successful develop social entrepreneurship by long-term unemployed and people from vulnerable groups, through open and distributive approaches based on the pioneer approach of User-Center Innovation practices in the digital era.

Project outcomes:

• Collection of existing models of best practices.
• Digital innovation learning platform.
• Training toolbox with online tools.
• Adaptation and Policy Package for policy-makers.

Partner organizations:

• SOCIEDADE PORTUGUESA DE INOVACAO (Portugal)
• IED (Greece)
• BEST Institut GmbH (Austria)
• Innovation Training Center, S.L. (Spain)
• CAMERA DI COMMERCIO I.A.A. DI TERNI (Italy)
• Center for Social Innovation Ltd (Cyprus)

If you are interested in the project’s developments or want to find out more about the project’s progress, please visit the website or Facebook page and get in contact with the team.