National Enterprise Network (NEN) welcomed all the Smart-up projects partners to Milton Keynes, UK for the kick-off meeting of the project. It was a highly productive meeting around a topic of significant importance, not just in the UK but across Europe. Carol from NEN was the Chair for the meeting ensuring everyone was given the opportunity for their input and the meeting progressed as per the Agenda.
The meeting facilitated the discussion of the partners roles and responsibilities within the project and their aims and views of Early stage intervention in business failure.
The tangible results of the project was discussed at the meeting and the partners concluded that it will include:
- Output 1- EASI 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.
- Output 2-Produce an Smart up 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.
- Output 3-Create the Smart up 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.
The first meeting was a complete success and really set the tone for how the partners hope the project will continue to run for the future!
