Kre8r - Turning Creative Skills into Sustainable Businesses

The Kre8r project has a number of key objectives but primarily the project is focused on increasing the labour market relevance of VET by providing bespoke pedagogic resources that will improve the attainment levels of high-level basic and transversal competences. The creative industry sector has been singled out for its growth potential as Europe recovers from the depths of the recent economic crisis. Developing bespoke curriculum resources that specifically address potential for graduate entrepreneurs in this important sector and supporting new entrepreneurs represents a significant connection between VET provision and microenterprise owners and an increased responsiveness within VET provision to market demands. The creative sector spans a wide range of business areas from technology based products and services to fashion design; from music and video production to computer gaming. Providing a bespoke curriculum to support entrepreneurship in this sector makes perfect sense as the cost of establishing a creative sector business can be quite small and the requirement for minimal capital outlay makes it particularly appealing and relevant for today’s young graduates emerging from college. It is an accepted fact that the quality of teaching is the key deciding factor in the achievement of educational outputs and the Kre8r project recognises the key role to be played by VET professionals and wants to ensure that they can benefit from the provision of essential in-service training. While entrepreneurship curricula are not in themselves innovative or new there is a need to provide bespoke learning resources that address the specific needs of different target groups and this project will develop a bespoke, targeted entrepreneurship curriculum for young people embarking on a career in the creative industry sector.
This curriculum will include all the normal entrepreneurship development modules like;
- introducing entrepreneurship;
- creative thinking, initiative, self-confidence;
- idea generation and evaluation;
- testing and prototyping your new product
- conducting market research;
In addition, the bespoke curriculum will include a comprehensive suite of investment readiness modules specifically addressing the creative industry sector that deal with a wide range of business development issues that are fundamental to attracting loan or equity finance for fledgling businesses. The perception of creative businesses held by many financiers is that they are run by individuals with passion; that many are lifestyle businesses with low growth or scalable potential; that they rely on "flakey" business models; produce products and services that have no protect-able intellectual property; are very difficult to value; and are characterised by poor marketing and poor management skills.
To counteract this the proposed new curriculum will also include modules that address how to;
1. present the creative entrepreneur and his/her management team - business management systems; strategic planning; financial management; marketing;
2. present the investment opportunity - how to effectively sell yourself and your product; understanding your product in the marketplace; alleviating investor/financier fears and concerns;
3. show that you have a relevant business model - routes to the market; estimating returns and revenues; vulnerability to competition and market change;
4. present the scalability of your creative product or idea and a true market valuation - market intelligence; competitive advantage; competitor analysis;
5. protect your intellectual property - understanding intellectual property; ownership of intellectual property; control of intellectual property assets.
Partners 1. Boreal Innovation – Marseille, France
2. The Rural Hub CLG – Trim, Ireland
3. Acrosslimits Limited – Naxxar, Malta
4. Right Challenge Association – Lousada, Portugal
5. Fundatia Centrul Educational Spektrum - Romania
6. Ballybeen Women's Centre Ltd – Belfast, Northern Ireland
7. Centrum pro komunitní práci Severní Morava – Czech Republic
This project runs from December 2017 to November 2019.
https://www.facebook.com/Kre8r_Project-160605034592722/