Currently, in the European Union, over 300 000 people are employed in the cultural heritage (CH) sector. It has been estimated that about 90% of jobs will require digital skills in the future (EU2020). Thus, education and training institutions need to adjust to the changing environment and provide training for improving digital skills and knowledge. The European Cultural Heritage Entrepreneurship (ECHE) project helps to develop and assess entrepreneurial skills for cultural heritage entrepreneurship (CHE) and improve digital competences in young people by supporting personalised learning approaches, collaborative learning and strategic use of ICT. Special focus of this project will be on youth with less opportunities (rural location, low, socio-economic status etc). In general, the project will support cooperation, it will promote new activities for youth, enhance coherence and acceptance in communities.

Target Groups (Participants)

“Who will benefit from this project?”

• unemployed youth with limited opportunities
• youth workers and trainers from different EU institutions

Main Objectives of the Project

“What are the goals of this project?”

The main objective of this project is innovation. The activities of this project are mainly designed to promote ECHE in youth with fewer opportunities in life, living in rural areas, immigrants and refugees. Participants will develop digital competences, civic competences, cultural awareness, research, enquiry, creativity, innovation, critical thinking, flexibility, self-direction, integrity, leadership and responsibility. All these skills are cornerstones for the personal development of participants.

The main goals are:

1. To develop youth friendly solutions that combine transfer of knowledge, acquisition of new skills with entertainment) that foster CHE skills for youth through direct collaboration and co-production with the target group representative youth workers unemployed youth.
2. To provide information to the youth, policy makers, researchers, teachers and the general public about the ECHE, and ECHE project outcomes.
3. To enhance communication and cooperation between project partners.

Measures

“What interventions or measures will be used to achieve the main goals, to induce change?”

There are three main approaches that are used to reach the goals:

1. Youth friendly information and communication technology (ICT) solutions:

• ECHE computer game “Be the architect of your life” will be developed and freely distributed among youth. The ECHE interactive computer will help to learn new ECHE skills, enhance cooperation and strategic use of ICT. It will include scenarios how to become an entrepreneur in the field of cultural heritage in Europe.
• ECHE mobile application will be developed and freely distributed among youth. The mobile application will bring innovative solutions to a large number of people, and will also serve as a “road map” for events like the meetings and information days, upcoming trainings or workshops in the area for each user.

2. Dissemination of information:

• ECHE policy paper will be written and freely distributed among all interest groups. This document will emphasize different ways in which youth (especially risk groups) can be involved in the CHE activities in the coming years.

E-Book and Future World” videos/animations. The e-book and videos will be interdisciplinary, and will help to learn new skills and enhance conceptual thinking.