Accessing New International Markets and Training Entrepreneurs
The ANIMATE project brings together business support organisations and professionals in different countries beginning with UK, Germany, and Italy that are engaged in the provision of business support services to SMEs, social enterprises, start-ups and potential high growth business target groups and, crucially, have a significant number of member/client businesses that wish to operate in European and international markets, but lack access to the appropriate information, advice and support.
The ANIMATE partners each contribute the key elements of business support, training and technology that are required to meet the specific remit of the partnership which is to examine the services available to smaller businesses wishing to operate internationally and understand the extent to which business support professionals are equipped and trained to advise business in this area.
Within the participating countries, project partners will seek to identify best practice examples for business support services and Vocational Education and Training (VET) frameworks for the benefit of SMEs, social enterprises, start-ups and potential high growth businesses.
Dependent on the project findings, the partnership has the potential to: make recommendations for the development of new vocational training material for business support professionals; initiate long-term partnerships between the participating organisations and countries; and strengthen European co-operation within the development of VET systems for business support professionals.
The businesses, organisations and people that make up European economies operate in increasingly globalised and interconnected world where the creation of new jobs is dependent on the success of newly and recently created businesses - the majority of which are small in scale but with high growth potential.
For many of these businesses, the ability to operate internationally and export their goods and services will be crucial to their success in a challenging and changing market. In the participating countries, the existing business support frameworks and vocational training provision for business advisers do not provide an effective response to their needs.