REASON FOR THE PROPOSAL In the wake of the economic and financial crisis, the European Union has taken significant steps to fight rising levels of unemployment and return to economic growth. The European Commission (ref. A Budget for Europe 2020) proposed to increase the amounts allocated to innovation and SME development through the stimulation and support to new entrepreneurs. In effect, a Start-up activity is difficult, there is high risk and more than 50% of new businesses fail within the first 5 years. A strong and well-performing Vocational and Educational Training can help deal with the challenge required by start-uppers in a really competitive economy coming out from the global recession. This need was identified during several projects the partners were involved in: in the field of VET, where there is a lack of anticipation of skill requirements and formative routes for new entrepreneurs. “VET4Start-Up” seeks to address the problem by a pan-European strategic partnership that will encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship. OUTPUTS, RESULTS AND PRODUCTS The project aims to educate and train anyone interested in start-up thanks to an e-learning platform MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) and other useful and tailored materials and resources. VET4Start-UP will seek to improve the level of key competences and skills needed by new entrepreneurs through Vocational and Educational Training. The project aims to: • Research and in-depth analyse from across Europe successful GOOD PRACTICE examples about start-up activities; • Promote the development, testing and implementation of INNOVATIVE PRACTICES/METHODOLOGIES in VET such as MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), interactive presentations, workshops, creative problem solving guide exercises and simulations; • Create the profile of an “EUROPEAN START-UP ADVISERS” thanks to an intensive training and support based on ECVET system and then recognised and validated by a specific Memorandum of Understanding; • Create a WEBSITE with a DATABASE OF MATERIALS TRANSLATED into all partners’ National languages to promote and encourage an extensive exploitation of results; • Encourage entrepreneurship (including social entrepreneurship) creating an e-learning Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) FOR START-UPPERS with animated videos in 3 modules both practical and theoretical about mind-set and skills necessary, design of the new enterprise, risks, challenges and opportunities including acceleration and incubation methodologies, creative problem solving technology, testing and simulation games –the MOOC is going to be tested and improved during 7-day intensive sessions called Joint Staff Training Event – an APP for mobile device is going to be released in order to ensure the accessibility in innovative way ; • Disseminate the project outputs and results throughout Europe with a DATABASE OF MATERIALS AND EBOOKS available through open licences (ref. Creative Commons) and through a series of MULTIPLIER EVENTS organised in each partner’s country in order to present in 1-day seminar the project intellectual outputs. IMPACT ENVISAGED The partnership will bring together a large group of partners and stakeholders both public and private with the synergic power to reach a very large and diverse audience of new entrepreneurs and their advisers. The partnership will stimulate and support successful entrepreneurship and has the potential to improve economic growth. The project activities will be focused on the recognition and validation of knowledge, skills and competences acquired through VET, assessing and creating a profile of “EUROPEAN START-UP ADVISERS” in line with ECVET system. In fact, the Partnership will formalise a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in order that the pathway created by credit transfer and accumulation will be used by a large number of advisers trained to teach and transfer in own country the project results and outcomes. The project is completely in line with the European Policy Priorities: Europe 2020 strategy, ET 2020, ICT and OER, Multilingualism and VET.