Digital communications are revolutionising our economy and society, enabling disruptive innovation and creating new business models. In the words of JC Juncker, President of the European Commission, “Europe's path to growth is paved with tablets and smartphones.” (1) Yet the digital landscape is complex and as new business models emerge, our education and VET systems are lagging behind. The gap between real world opportunities and teaching is most acute in the creative industries where generic online retail strategies do not apply, but new collaborative models abound: online marketplaces, outsourcing communities, crowdsourcing funding are just some of the many opportunities which facilitate personalised marketing and pricing, while also ensuring secure payment and intellectual property rights. Now, more than ever, the creative and cultural sector can benefit from “going digital” Creative Entrepreneurship Online (CEO) aims to enable integrated action among VET providers and wider stakeholders to radically improve training for creative sector entrepreneurs, enabling them to harness online business models to grow professionally and increase their commercial success in domestic and international markets. In order to do so, we will: a) Establish sustainable, cross-sector collaborative relationships between VET providers, HEIs, and wider stakeholders via 3 Regional Alliances to optimise the creative sector knowledge triangle, create 3 Regional Action Plans for improving the quality and relevance of training and support on offer and creative spillovers to other sectors. b) Create and publish a “CEO Toolkit” to facilitate the replication of Regional Alliances across Europe. c) Create and publish a course curriculum, guiding VET practitioners on the topics and skills most needed by creative entrepreneurs in today’s digital landscape. d) Develop an intensive blended learning “Be a CEO” course to help potential creative entrepreneurs to set up online business in 30 days. e) Trial and publish the course, and engage in dissemination activities to facilitate its inclusion in mainstream VET provision. Our unique methodology puts participants and stakeholders at the heart of the project as a means to ensuring immediate results, wide relevance and fulfilment of needs of all parties concerned. Specifically we will test materials thoroughly by training 40+ creative sector entrepreneurs and work directly with the enterprise centres that provide training and support for creative enterprises; and we will build sustainable, synergistic relationships between stakeholders in VET and enterprise education, higher education, creative sector bodies and wider economic stakeholders, through the Regional Alliances. (12+ actors in each region, 36+ in total.) CEO is the first project of its kind to directly address the most recent developments in online business for the creative sector. This new category of training enables entrepreneurs to identify a much wider range of “sellable skills and services”, and to think of ecommerce not as simply selling and shipping a product, but as an evolving marketplace for selling creative services by the hour or by project, for funding new projects, for collaborating at distance with artists, and in doing so, crossing borders seamlessly, as part of a real single market. As a direct result of the project, - creative entrepreneurs will be equipped to use at least one, if not more online strategies within 30 days, will gain a competitive advantage and are more likely to increase turnover from domestic and international markets. - VET providers, especially enterprise centres and business development centres, will benefit from an immediate addition to their portfolio of training services and improved staff capacity for training in online business models. - Universities and colleges will also be able to improve teaching for young, prestart creative entrepreneurs by adopting the curriculum and course. (It will be designed so that training modules can be taught/learnt independently of one another if needed, leading to a flexible needs-based learning). On a wider level, key players in VET / enterprise education, higher education, creative sector and economic development will gain improved understanding of the new parameters of the creative sector, as well as access to specific policy tools and operational strategies that will help enable them to catalyse the evolution of creative enterprises. Based on this process, the commitments that each organization makes as part of the Regional Action Plan, and the strong social capital created, these organizations will be better able to fulfil their organizational mission (be it enterprise training, creative sector growth, economic development, etc) and to do so in a cost effective way (by pooling resources) which maximises economic growth and creative/cultural identity at regional level.