o Info Project SRL

THE ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN WOMEN’S LIFE

Short Version

Entrepreneurship is one of the 8 Key Competences meant to assure the building of the European Knowledge Based Society.

To what extent are the European citizens aware of the opportunities open to them by acquiring entrepreneurship competences?

What is to be done in order to make them willing to acquire new skills and competences when they reach a certain age? Which are the most affected categories by lack of key competences?

Our partnership is meant to answer some of these questions by studying the actual situation of women aged 45-55 who are either not satisfied with their actual job or who are unemployed.

For this we will elaborate a survey related to the complexity of this situation in all partner countries aiming at getting a panoramic view of the causes that had led these women to the position of not fully successful persons.

We will also try to find out, within this European partnership, the best ways to help them regain the self esteem and to successfully integrate on the labour market.

The results will be presented during an international conference on the theme “ Women’s Integration on the Labour Market”, a product of this partnership.

C.1.1.

The aims of the project “THE ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN WOMEN’S LIFE” are:

· to see to what extent the European women, mainly unemployed, are aware of the necessity of possessing the 8 key competences included in the Framework on Key Competences of the European Union (Communication in the mother tongue , Communication in a foreign language, Mathematical literacy and basic competences in science and technology, Digital competence , Learning to learn, Interpersonal and civic competences, Entrepreneurship , Cultural expression)

· to see to what extent the European women, mainly unemployed, are aware of the opportunities open to them by acquiring entrepreneurship competences

· To see what is to be done in order to make them willing to acquire new skills and competences when they reach a certain age

· To find ways meant to help women aged over 45 to regain their self esteem and to successfully integrate on the labour market by providing them a set of modern skills and competences.

· To present the results of the project through a magazine, brochures, the Blog of the project and the website.

· To organize an international Conference “Successful Integration on the Labour Market”

C.1.2. The Partnership.

Info Project SRL – International Centre for Adult Education –(RO) is an institution that has as main object of activity adult education.It was set up in April 2004 with the strong belief that long life learning is inseparable to anybody’s wish to be strong, informed, creative and adapted to the society he/she is living in.The projects promoted by the company, the training courses and the events organized are directed to those who wish to better meet the requirements of the 21^st century. Info Project promotes European citizenship, skills and competencies in the field of ICT, skills and knowledge necessary for professional reconversion . It stimulates the study of foreign languages and the cooperation with similar institutions from Romania and abroad . Info Project is today an Authorized TOEIC /TFI Testing Centre, TOEIC/TFI and TEF Training Centre, ICT training Centre and an Authorized Translation Center ( English & French).It is also member of Maramures Chamber of Trade and Commerce. The employees and collaborators of Info Project are people with experience in coordinating European projects. They have also proved competences in creating and working in international networks. That is how Info Project invited the 6 partners from 6 countries to join together for promoting a Grundtvig 2 project for entrepreneurship for women.

Centre d’Information du Droit des Femmes Phocéen, (CIDF)(FR) is an Information Centre on women’s rights. It’s a non profit association based in Marseille (France) which belongs to a national network.

Its aim is to support women in any kind of subject they need. Principally, the CIDF, with 21 people working, give information on laws and employment. It’s always looking to improve women’s conditions of life.

The organization has been involved in several European projects concerning issues related to a better integration of women on the labour market.

SITE23 Limited(HU) is an enterprise established in 1999 with the following objectives:

· to collect expertise in distance teaching and multimedia development in the field of language teaching and to organize traditional and online courses in IT English

· to serve as a centre for teaching material design and development and to design and develop new language examination systems for accreditation procedures etc.

In the past period the company has carried out activities like publishing language learning materials, participating in projects on developing online materials, organizing language courses and doing theoretical research in the field of LLL and multimedia design. Its research activities focus on methodological issues related to digital material design and self-evaluation methods applicable in online environment. Its past involvements in EU projects have greatly enhanced the staff’s experience in issues like international cooperation, educational policy priorities and human rights.

C.1.3. Roles within the Partnership

The coordinating institution will be in charge with the communication, problems or decisions. However the partner institutions will work together in the Project on an equal and cooperative basis. The planning and evaluation phases are shared and are organized together, with specific tasks (e.g. updating of the Blog , technical production of materials: common synthesis, website, Brochures, volume for the Conference) given to each institution on the basis of its resources, proposals, characteristics. No institution will ever work in isolation: its activity will always be useful for an exchange and it will contribute to the research through the preparation of materials reflecting its own local reality and international themes as well. The data collected, processed and summarised on the local level will be sent to all the participants of the Project via the e-group and will become material to be consulted by the whole group, useful both for the preparation of the end products and for the building up of a complete mind map related to the chosen topic.

At the same time, there will be mixed work groups (made up of trainers, representatives of institutions/agencies involved in the labour market and learners ( target group) from different countries) that will keep in touch thanks to information technology and will plan the same study issues.

All the partner institutions will organise and participate in project meetings (transnational mobility) according to the established calendar of the project. Emphasis will be put on the participation of members of the target groups.

Info Project, the international coordinator, will organize the first and the final project meetings, the last meeting being an International Conference with the participation of all partners and with guests from institutions interested in the project. It will be in charge with the final common reports , with the common survey, with the e-group, with the Blog , with the project site, with the e- materials for the magazine and with the volume including the magazine and the materials presented at the Conference. All teams will participate in the project meetings organized in Romania, Hungary,and France. Learners will also attend the meetings. All teams will contribute to preparing all the materials and common products: the common questionnaire/survey, the translation of the questionnaires, the processing of the data. They will also contribute with materials to the common magazine with photos, articles, trainers’ and learners’ testimonies. They will send to the international coordinator materials for the common report and they will send their mid-term reports and final reports to their national agencies. All the teams will contribute with materials to the volume published with the occasion of the international conference. Each partner will contribute to making the common questionnaire during the first project meeting. Each partner will give the questionnaire to the interested target groups. The results will be sent to the project coordinator who will write a common report. The final results will be discussed during the second project meeting. Starting from the results the activities of the project will be adapted so as to best meet the expectations of the project. .Each partner will organize activities with the target groups according to the plan of activities. All partners will organize project meeting.

The first and the last project meetings will be held in Romania, organized by the coordinating institution.

The second and the third meetings will be organized by :SITE 23 (HU), Centre d’Information sur les Droits des Femmes Phocéen (FR).

All the partners will contribute to making the common products ( e-group, blog, common questionnaire, translation of questionnaires, processing data, reports, e-magazine, volume for the International Conference, articles in the local newspapers, the project site in English ).Each team will organize displays of the project products and brochures meant to present the objectives and the results of the project.

C.1.4. How will effective communication and cooperation between the participating organisations/institutions be ensured?

Apart from the project meetings, all contact between the participants will be made using information and communication technology: telephone, e-mail, Internet. These methods will be used during all the phases of the project (planning, implementation, evaluation, dissemination of the results) and will be used both for individual communication (personal e-mails for example) and group contact (forum, blogging,).The team members and the target groups will be encouraged to improve their information technology skills.The communication for writing the project has very well been ensured by the e-group activeteam@yahoogroups.com which has been used since the announcement of the call for partnership.

C.1.5. Impact pf the Partnership

The teams of all countries involved in the planning, implementation and evaluation of activities will acquire skills in: the project management;in cooperating with the target groups;in elaborating research materials ( questionnaires and syntheses) on the labour market ;communicating with the partner teams;using ICT;using English as the language of communication within the project ;organizing workshops on entrepreneurship.

The team representing the international coordinator will develop their skills in producing the common products of the project and in organizing the international conference.The target group will acquire skills in entrepreneurship and will develop their self esteem learning how to start a business on their own by participating at the workshops.

They will develop skills in using the ICT and English mainly during the participation at the project meetings and Conference. During the project meetings members of the target groups from the hosting countries will be invited to attend the activities and to contribute to the materials produced together. The important thing is that it is always clear, during the Project, “who does what” and “why they do it”, that the division of the tasks is planned correctly, in a functional way and that each team is responsible for his own area of activity, able to plan, produce, evaluate, under the guidance, obviously, of project coordinators and experts and with the help of collaborators .

Role of the Associated partners:

AJOFM Maramures ( Maramureas Agency for Employability) will put at our disposal the data basis of unemployed women that will constitute the target group.

CJAPP Maramures ( Maramures Centre of Pshichopedagogical Assistance) will offer expertise for the local survey on the labour market and for the processing of the data.

Petre Dulfu County Library will assure the space for the Conference.

C.1.6. How will the Partnership be integrated in the current activities of the participating organisations?

All of the activities of the Project will be carried out by the staff and by the collaborators of the involved institutions.

C.1.7. How do you intend to evaluate the success of the Partnership, in terms of the extent to which it has achieved the objectives and impacts set out in your answers to questions C.1.1. and C.1.5. above?

In order to evaluate the progress of the Partnership and its impact on the participating institutions and target groups assessment and evaluation will be carried out in each phase of the work and will refer to the process (analysis of the situation at the beginning of the work, correctness of method, continuity of the project, respect of timing) and the result (assessment of achievement of the objectives, coherence of project-result, quality of final product produced, possible developments). The tools used for evaluation will be questionnaires (for the target groups and external collaborators), questionnaires to check the learning process, monitoring of the target group meaning their reaction towards the activities of the workshops. All the activities will be monitored and documented also through the project meetings, the reports written by the coordinators, the regular compilation of a register-diary of the project, describing the various stages from the planning to the evaluation. We will keep the evidence of the number of project products and of the articles published in the local media regarding the activities of the project.

C.1.8. How do you intend to disseminate and use the results, experience and, where applicable, ‘end products’ of the Partnership? Please refer to the steps that the participating organisations intend to take to disseminate and use these results amongst: (1) the participating organisations / institutions, (2) other organisations / institutions in the local community and (3) where applicable, the wider lifelong learning community.

We will give a special attention to disseminating and using the results, experience and end products amongst the participating institutions, other institutions and the local community:

The project proposes a constant sharing of results among all the participants:

1. with the partner institutions: through information technology, through project meetings, through the exchange of material collected or produced.

2. with the other organizations involved: through e-mail contacts and especially meetings in specific phases of development of the project that include joint initiatives( elaboration and processing of questionnaires, organization of the conference) .

3. with the local community: through the involvement of those interested ( mostly unemployed women) in the workshops, conference, public debates, (including informative articles in the local press);

For all the categories above the blog and the website constituting the diary of the project can be easily consulted, also as testimonies of life experiences. The Blog offers another possibility for communicating, exchanging ideas, offering food for thought, giving information .

We will also: organize special places in which the project products are being displayed; organize an International conference at the end of the project, conference which will be presented in all local, national and international networks; display the content , activities and results of the project on the project Blog, project website and on the partner websites

C.1.9. If your Partnership concerns intercultural dialogue, please explain how you will address this theme.

Our project involves institutions from 3 European countries with different cultures. The meetings will offer all of them the opportunity of a rich intercultural dialogue by discovering the habits and traditions of each country visited.

Activity Planning Table (not including mobility, see Mobility Activities table) [1]

Ø Please summarise in the table below the planned Partnership activities for each of the organisations in the Partnership.

Ø NEW Partnerships should fill in this table for the entire duration of the Partnership (2007-2009) including its preparation, implementation, evaluation and dissemination stages.

Ø RENEWAL applications should describe the activities envisaged from the beginning of the year 2007/2008 until the end of the Partnership.

Ø The eligibility period starts on 1 October 2007 and goes on until 31 July 2008 or 31 July 2009, depending on the length of the Partnership.

Planned Date ("from" - "to"; to be expressed in months)	Location(s)	Activity description Describe the nature of the activity planned	Objectives	Actor(s) involved Identify the organisation(s) and, if relevant, the function of the individual(s) involved in the activity	Expected result Describe the expected results / outcomes of the activity concerned
October 2007	All partner countries	Organizing the working teams	Establishing the tasks within the team Starting the creation of the Blog of the project which will be continuously updated	The project coordinator and the team members from all partner countries The International coordinator	The project teams The Blog of the project
October 2007	Baia Mare, Romania	First project meeting	Presentation of partners Fixing the calendar of the project Establishing the working methodology Elaborating a plan for a survey of the existing situation of women aged over 45 on the labour market with emphasis on unemployed women . Elaborating a questionnaire meant to: - put into evidence the level the information about the 8 European Key Competences is known by the target group - find out which of these competences the target group is more familiar with - find out if the women belonging to the target group are aware of the necessity of possessing these competences in order to be able to find a convenient job	The project teams of all countries The team from CJAPP Maramures , specialized in elaborating and processing research documents on the labour market	Team work Established methodology Common questionnaire
November – 2007 February- 2008	All partner countries	Translation of the questionnaire in the native languages Giving it to a number of 90 women aged over 45 from each partner country, 60% of them being unemployed women	- Finding out information about the target group	The project teams The target groups Representatives of institutions or agencies involved in the labour market	90 filled in questionnaires in each partner country
March April 2008	All partner countries	Processing the results of the questionnaires	- Finding out the common situation and the differences in the partner countries - Elaboration of a synthesis in each country -Elaboration of a common synthesis	The project coordinators The international coordinator and the team from CJAPP Maramures	National Syntheses in English A common synthesis in English
May 15-18 2008	Budapest, Hungary	Project meeting	Presentation of the common synthesis/report Evaluation of the results of the synthesis Establishing together ways to make the target groups willing to start a business on their own. Elaborating a common material related to entrepreneurship as it is described in the “European Framework of Key Competences, November 2004”	The project members participating at the meeting	The common final synthesis/report. Working methodology with the target group in the future A common material on entrepreneurship
May 2008	All partner countries	Preparing and Organisation of a workshop in each country	Translation of the material on entrepreneurship in each native language of the participating countries. Presenting the target group the opportunities offered by entrepreneurship skills in order to become successful in life .	The project teams Target groups from each country	Common document translated in French, Hungarian, Romanian, Familiarization of the target group with the entrepreneurship skills
June 2008	All partner countries	Producing of dissemination materials	Elaborating a common document on entrepreneurship in the form of a magazine ( in English) in paper and e-format( DVD) Elaborating a brochure meant to present the results of the first year of the project	The coordinators and the project teams	Magazine in English Brochure in English
June 2008	All partner countries	Elaboration of the national reports	Evaluation of the activity developed in each country along the year Evaluation of the products Drafting the main lines of the report of the project	The project members participating at the meeting	Draft of the final report
July 2008	All partner countries	Elaboration of the common report	Evaluation of the common activity developed along the first year of the project	International project coordinator Project coordinators	The common report
August-September 2008	All partner countries	Elaboration of the reports for the national agencies	Evaluation of the results of the activity in each country	Project coordinators	The national reports
October 2008	All teams	Preparations for the project meeting in France Creation of the website of the project	Assuring the efficiency of the meeting Assuring the dissemination process of the project on an international e- platform	All teams The international project coordinator	Materials for the project meeting The project WEB site
October 23-26 2008	Marseille, France	Project meeting	Presenting the results and the conclusions of the project from each partner country. Establishing the calendar for the second year of the project	Project teams	Calendar for the second year of the project
November – 2008 February -2009	All partner countries	Workshops on entrepreneurship	Organizing in all partner countries 3 workshops of 8 hours on entrepreneurship with about 60 women Presentation of the project and of the materials made in the first year of the project	Project teams Target groups	3 workshops on entrepreneurship with the participation of a total of 420 women from the 7 partner countries.
		Project meeting	Common workshop with the participation of representatives of the target groups	Project coordinators 2-4 members of the target groups from each country	Common workshop in English ( translation assured, if necessary)
March-April 2009	All project teams	Preparation of materials for the Conference Registration of participants Establishing the location of the conference	Preparation of a Conference on Key Competences	The coordinating team CJAPP Maramures AJOFM Maramures Petre Dulfu County Library, Baia Mare	Organization of the conference Volume including the materials to be published during the Conference.
May 2009	Coordinating institution	Preparation of the Conference	Preparation of a Conference on Key Competences
June 2009 17-20, 2009	Baia Mare, Romania	Project meeting	International Conference	All teams CJAPP Maramures AJOFM Maramures Petre Dulfu County Library, Baia Mare Audience	Conference on Key Competences
July 2009	All partner countries	Elaboration of the common report	Evaluation of the common activity developed along the second year of the project	International project coordinator Project coordinators	The common report
July 2009	All partner countries	Elaboration of the reports for the national agencies	Evaluation of the results of the activity in each country	Project coordinators	The national reports for the national agencies

Mobility activities

Please present in the table below all mobilities that the participating institutions have planned for the Partnership duration (2007/08 and, unless your application is for a 1-year renewal, 2008/09). Add lines if necessary. Please note that mobility activities can only take place between organisations/institutions receiving funding to participate in the Partnership, or to events organised by Lifelong Learning Programme projects or networks, e.g. Grundtvig Network conferences. When planning your mobility activities, please consult section D (Grant request) to check the types of funding available.

Mobility description[2]

Sending partner

Sending country

Receiving partner

Receiving country

Approximate starting date

Duration

(days)

Nr of learners

+ Nr with special needs

Nr of staff[3]

+Nr with special needs

Nr of persons from associated partners, if relevant

Total nr of persons

Project meeting

1. CIDFP

2. Site 23 LTD

Info Project

October 2007

5 days

Project meeting

1. CIDFP

2. Info Project

SITE 23

Hungary

May 2008

5 days

Project meeting

3. Site 23 LTD

5. Info Project

CIDFP

France

October 2008

5 days

Project meeting+ Learner Mobility

1. CIDFP

3. Site 23 LTD

Info Project

June 2009

5 days