<< Objectives >>The project Master 4.1: Enhancing quality assurance and promotion of the master craftsman exam will improve master craftsman exams. The project will be managed to ensure it meets the objectives outlined in the planning phase. The overall objectives of the project: 1)To improve programs and quality assurance processes in the master craftsman exam;2)To raise awareness for master craftsman exams. Our main beneficiaries are assessing committee with 150 representatives, VET students, 100 crafts etc.<< Implementation >>The project will implement activities in: the WP2Master craftsman exam program, catalogs development and digitalization; WP3 Enhancing master craftsman exam quality assurance and evaluation; WP4 Enhancing chambers of craft's digital marketing competencies. Within activities will be developing programs, evaluation, questions, methodology, educative video, “Code of Conduct”, webinars/trainings, educational curricula; online trainings and marketing campaign and national conferences<< Results >>This result will be achieved with the delivery of the following output: Enhanced programs and evaluation questions for master craftsman exam; 1 methodology for developing programs and catalogs; 1 program for master craftsman exam for confectioner; 1 set of questions for master craftsman exams; Update 2 catalogs; 1 video;1 “Quality Assurance Methodology” and 1 video;1 “Code of Conduct”,4 webinars/trainings; 3 National conferences; 1 educational curriculum; 6 online trainings and marketing.

Master craftsman occupations are highly regarded and acknowledged in the EU and project countries. Master craftsman exams enable the career progression, opening craft business and taking apprentices. Also, by becoming the master craftsman one gets the competitive advantage because it emphasizes the excellence and quality of products and services. Croatia and Slovenia have a long tradition of organising master craftsman exams and are facing the challenge of mismatch between exam questions and contemporary trends and technologies. On the other hand, North Macedonia and Montenegro have to develop master craftsman exam programmes and questions yet, since they have master craftsman exams only for one occupation each.In order to ensure standardization of master craftsman exam questions, the methodological framework with guidelines for the development of master craftsman exam questions will be designed. Together, partners will design questions for general parts of exam – parts for economy, law and pedagogy. Each partner will design questions related to the occupational theoretical part of the exam for occupations which have been chosen for the project.Furthermore, in order to improve the quality of exams and simplify the organisation of exam, the online platform for the preparation and organisation of master craftsman exam will be developed. The part of online platform will be open to the public so that everyone could get the opportunity how master craftsman exam looks like and how to prepare for taking the exam. All partners will introduce the online platform in their countries and pilot it during the project.General aim of Master 4.0 project is to increase the usage of innovative approaches and digital technologies for teaching and learning as well as to promote the lifelong learning.Specific aim of the project is to improve preparation and organisation of master craftsman exam by improving exam questions and programmes in accordance with labour market needs and contemporary technological trends and introducing ICT for preparation and organisation of master craftsman exams.Project target groups will be following: master craftsman exam candidates, potential craftsmen and entrepreneurs candidates, continuous vocational education institutions, expert and general public.Master 4.0 project includes 6 partners from 4 countries and 1 associated partner. One partner from each country is included in master craftsman exam organisation. Remaining partners were chosen based on their experience in the development and preparation of education programmes, exam preparation materials and exam questions. Also, a partner with the experience, knowledge and skills to develop online platform for preparation and organisation of master craftsman exam is included.Project coordinator is the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK) from Croatia. Partners are Algebra College from Croatia, Chamber of Craft and Small Business of Slovenia (OZS), Chamber of Crafts Skopje and „Sreken Zhivot“ organisation from North Macedonia and NGO Chamber of Crafts and Entrepreneurship of Montenegro (ZanaPredaK). The associated partner is Chamber of Crafts of Montenegro.Master 4.0 project results are following: the improvement of master craftsman exam questions and programmes, the development of online platform for preparation and organisation of master craftsman exams and piloting of online platform. Other intellectual outputs results which will be possible to use after the project ends: the methodological framework with guidelines to develop master craftsman exam questions – it will be used to develop questions from general parts as well as from professional theory part for selected occupations during the project and for other master craftsman occupations after the end of project; the manual for administration of online platform, which will be used by staff responsible for organisation of master craftsman exams in project countries.Project partnership will enable future exchange of information and knowledge in the area of preparation and organisation of master craftsman exams in partner countries and will make the recognition process for master craftsman occupations in partner countries. Project partners will continue to finance the online platform for preparation and organisation of master craftsman exams with their own funds, national funds or from master craftsman exam expenses. After the end of project, partners will continue to search for synergies with other relevant projects, networks and initiatives in order to secure the connectivity and sustainability and to increase available resources. All partners will use every opportunity to disseminate project results after its end at conferences, publications, partner web sites and networks, etc.

There are political incentives for start-ups and scale-ups, like the Commission's Start-up and Scale-up Initiative. It is supposed to bring Europe's innovative SMEs different opportunities to grow and find there place in the global competitive market. There are also supporting tools for the beginning of the entrepreneurial life, but few companies survive beyond the critical first few years. There are numerous mentors and advisers, forming a huge consulting society, each of them claiming high competence and ability to lead a company to the top of the world. It is very difficult for the entrepreneurs, especially having not much experience, to assess the value, which a specific consulting could bring. The strong EC commitment is to improve this situation. There’s not much of a support system for more mature, small companies with proven business models. With this project creates support system in the field of adult education and training. The Steps2Scale developed a harmonized qualification framework for the profession Scaling up adviser which doesn’t ‘exist in any EU country. With the creation of a harmonized occupation profile the consortium also creates the first network and community of scaling up mentors and envoys. In order to prepare the first scaling up advisers, the project also developed a harmonized training and learning methodology which was field tested during the project implementation. The Steps2Scale studied and implemented the best existing practices throughout EU. Professionals from different communities and possessing a variety of expertise gave valuable recommendations, which were, mostly, reflected. During the project course it was presented before similar project in the Alps region and received extremely positive feedback. In addition, the quality of the products is guaranteed by the logical three phase approach applied to them: development, testing and finalizing. The project reached thousands of representatives of the target groups and stakeholders through various communication channels. It is targeted to start-ups and spin-offs with at least 5 years of experience, balanced business plan and defined local market niche; SMEs with innovative product which is already well placed on the local market and has export potential; SMEs with export strategy and potential, but still local players. 82 entrepreneurs from the target group were trained while testing the training and learning methodology. The project partners utilized almost every opportunity to promote the Steps2Scale: Enterprise Europe Network meetings, side events with appropriate topics, similar projects etc. Consortium is convinced that high level of awareness among the business environment and the respective decision making public bodies. All developed materials are already published and available on the dedicated website, which will serve as an open platform after the project end, where members of the scaling-up community will exchange ideas and knowledge and interested entrepreneurs and educators (more than 50,000 already registered) will have direct access to the Scaling-up Envoys network. The deliverables were published in the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform as well. This way more people can benefit from the project even after its end. The Steps2Scale will create an environment that fosters competitiveness, business thinking, innovation and creativity. The scaling-up adviser is the profession of one more competitive and fast growing future of the EU. The project partners believe that with Steps2Scale will lay the foundation with knowledge which will eventually result in more scaling up SMEs in Europe.

We provide a model, framework and tools, including digital, to not only help companies of different size and stage of development connect but also to develop the skills, knowledge and competences of the personnel for Industry 4.0The results of our project develop new educational approach (by the platform), content and materials to foster collaboration and innovation management based on the new standards group CEN/TS 16555.The main project goal is to provide skill improvement opportunities to companies’ staff (managers and employees) in order to connect international start-ups, scaleups, and established companies operating in specific verticals with focus on modern technologies and innovation (Industry 4.0) through a robust model of collaboration under the paradigm of open innovation. In terms of the latter (OI) we focus on business-to-business collaboration as key target are start-ups, scale-ups from one side and mid-sized and large corporats - from another. The specific target group is the staff of both groups - companies in start/growth and established companies. We will target primarily mid- and upper level managers and secondary - employees - in innovation and collaboration roles.Upskilling lab 4.0. as it is revealed by the name aims to establish a model and conditions for collaboration in the Lab conditions for testing and developing innovations for two groups of businesses: in growth - start-ups and scale-ups and established - mid-sized and large. The projects will evolve through iteration cycles as we develop innovations and non-existing training products.The main results are the intellectual outputs with the intermediate results generated at the development steps (activities):O1 Screening model for collaborationO1/A1 Research phase O1/A2 Organisation of focus groups O1/A3 Synthesis report O1/A4 Definition of screening parameters O1/A5 Development of the model O1/A6 Verification and translation O2 Skills development framework O2/A1 Business-to-business open innovation O2/A2 Collaboration management framework O2/A3 Development of skills cards O2/A4 Framework development O2/A5 Verification and translation O3 Upskiling toolkits O3/A1 Training toolkit for start-ups/scale-ups O3/A2 Training toolkit for mid-sized and large companies O3/A3 Pilot testing O3/A4 Finalization and translation O4 Gamified platform O4/A1 Development of collaboration tools O4/A2 Development of collaboration games O4/A3 Beta testing O4/A4 Pilot testing O4/A5 Update and translations O5 Implementation guidelines O5/A1 Templates for data collection and testing O5/A2 Development of case studies and good practices O5/A3 Development of the guidelines O5/A4 Finalization and translation We will involve the target groups since the very beginning of the project during the research phase and the focus groups as O1/A1 and O1/A2.Managers and employees at: start-ups, scale-ups; mid-sized and large companies.We will organize 5 multiplier events - one in each country in months 22 and 24: four national events with 50 participants (200) and one international conference with 70 participants. - 270 in total. In addition we will organize a short-term staff training event in month 18 hosted by Inqubator Leeuwarden.Through social media we will reach out in two years:- project website - 3000- our organisations' websites - 6000- social media accounts - FB page/group of the project, our organisations' pages - 6 partners x 1500 subscribers - 9000- newsletters - we will send regular newsletters - twice a year to our subscribers following the GDPR - 6 partners x 4 times x 500 subscibers/partner - 3000.The project will go through the following phases: 1ST PHASE: INITIATION (during and before application stage); 2ND PHASE: IDEATION AND DEVELOPMENT; 3RD PHASE: IMPLEMENTATION - months 18-21; 4TH PHASE: FINALIZATION AND CLOSUREThe overall logic behind the project is to develop a sustainable model and to impact at all levels as follow - virtually by the last two outputs and physically by direct involvement of the participants in the testing phase and the first outputs development. In mid- to long-term:- Beneficiaries of the results will be able to launch a new line of services and products for those who are already working in Industry 4.0 domain or plan to do so.- Overall innovation level within companies will increase- the screening model together with the skills development framework and the online games and tools can be used by a more users either as stand-alone results or as a complete package and transferred to other training organisations, business service providers, business associations, chambers of commerce. The ultimate goal of the project is to have such Lab as a sustainable model within the partnering organisations.

<< Objectives >>The labor market particularly in the crafts sector has changed in the recent years and training companies are increasingly facing challenges such as integrating migrants, school/ university drop-outs, underachievers, making use of digital tools in apprenticeship and many more. The project will develop an innovative blended learning training course for in-company tutors/ VET trainers in dual education to enhance their skills for successfully coping with the special needs of apprentices of today.<< Implementation >>Activities foreseen are: 1) Needs analysis and definition of a comprehensive blended learning curriculum, covering the competence areas in which in-company tutors need to improve their skills; 2) Set-up and development of blended learning platform, learning content & media, assessment tools. 3) Pilot training with min. 100 participants; 4) Evaluation by direct target group (tutors/ trainers) and indirect target (apprentices) and optimisation of the blended learning curriculum and course<< Results >>Key results will be a blended learning curriculum and a fully developed blended training course for in-company tutors and VET trainers, based on identified labor market needs. In the pilot trainings 100 VET trainers/ tutors will be trained in DE, AT, IT and SI. After evaluation and further optimisation, the blended learning course will be permanently implemented by the project partners and promoted to VET providers across the EU.All results will be available in DE, EN, IT and SI language.