Year 2011

Project Type Transfer of Innovation

Status granted

Country UK-United Kingdom

Marketing Text Are you thinking of expanding your business to another European (EU) country or taking a work placement? Are you aware of the cultural differences between your own country and your destination and the impact these may have?

The “Passport to Trade 2.0” project will provide you with a business cultures guide, which includes social media etiquette for 31 EU countries. This information will guide your organisation in online as well as face-to-face networking and trading in these European countries.

If you are a student thinking about taking a work placement in another European country have you considered how this process will work? The information researched and developed by this project will help your with your work placement considerations and offer you some practical advice.

Summary This P2T 2.0 project will transfer the innovation of the previously successful Passport to Trade Project (P2T) by:
a) increasing the number of European countries covered by the existing P2T project website www.businessculture.org from 25 to 31 countries
b) augmenting the resource with social media etiquette
c) adding guidelines and training material on industrial placements for both SMEs and placement students
d) increasing the number of languages in which the web site content is offered by 6
e) creating search & social media optimised website content

Aim
The aim of this project is to transfer the innovation of the P2T project to 6 new countries, research the latest mobility needs of SMEs and placement students in 31 countries and develop multimedia on-line training material that helps in increasing European SME mobility & increasing student mobility for work & study placements.

Description Passport to Trade Project (P2T) Objectives include:
1. review literature on good practices in social media etiquette & placements provision
2. develop an European Mobility Framework (EMF) based upon the actual usage data captured in the website since it was launched in Oct 2007
3. Survey at least 1550 participants across 31 European countries about their mobility needs
4. based on EMF, develop multimedia training material for all 31 countries
5. survey linguistically disadvantaged SMEs and students in Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Greece, Finland, Romania and Italy to develop essential mobility information and training material in their own languages

Consortium
The consortium partners are selected on the basis of skills and knowledge they bring to the partnership and to represent the cultural variety in the EU and also higher education (placement students) and SMEs (placement student beneficiaries). It consists of 5 previous project partners (UoS, SPIN, TIS, URENIO and Turku) and 3 new partners: TDI, UKL, VUT who will bring new insights and expertise in their own areas.

Outcomes
The understanding of factual needs of SMEs & placement students will guide our conceptual understanding of business collaboration tailored information for SME’s as well as being able to inform a) SME mobility policy & b) industrial placement mobility policy. The tangible outcomes will include a EMF, a one stop online resource on mobility, a guide to social media etiquettes for SMEs & placement students and training materials

Impact
P2T2.0 will impact on mobility practice of SMEs & placement students in 31 European countries. This will increase the mobility of SMEs and Students in EU by developing content about business & social culture of various EU countries. This will also help the SMEs in utilising the search & social media marketing tools & techniques much more effectively and enable them access new markets & increase profits

Themes - Intercultural learning
- Open and distance learning
- Enterprise, SME
- ICT
- Lifelong learning
- Vocational guidance
- Continuous training

Sectors - Administrative and Support Service Activities
- Information and Communication
- Education

Product Types Film
material for open learning
website
open and distance learning
teaching material

Product information A website resource will be developed which will have information for organisations and students to facilitate their mobility in Europe. In particular it will help those who are looking to take part in trade and student placements.

Projecthomepage http://www.businessculture.org