USING INTERACTIVE INFOGRAPHICS TO BUILD ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCES

Background European Commission has incorporated the promotion of entrepreneurship into its Europe 2020 strategy, which recognizes entrepreneurship and self-employment as one of the key enablers of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and also a key strategy to mitigate the impact of the financial crisis particularly on young people who were perhaps one of the most affected groups. To this end, the European Commission is focusing on encouraging young people to start their own business and on supporting young social entrepreneurs. Supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs is an ongoing challenge for front-line youth workers and they are expected to respond to these persistent problems with little in terms of training support to develop new methodologies to keep pace with the digital and social media habits of youth today. For the youth of today technology is ubiquitous. Over time technology has fused itself with learning, both in education and personal development. Smart phones, tablets and laptops are just some of the devices that are frequently used by a large proportion of the population of Europe, particularly young people. In 2016, 91% of young people in the EU made daily use of the internet. (Euro Stat).. Objectives The INFOGRAFIA project developed and piloted a completely new type of entrepreneurship training through the provision of a full suite of innovative interactive inforgraphics addressing the 3 key themes of Into Action, Resources and Ideas & Opportunities which are the pillars of EntreComp. Each of the interactive infographics comprise a combination of at least 3 or 4 different learning resources that address the specific topic chosen. This help to ensure that all learning styles are catered for and that the learning outcomes can be reinforced throughout the learning experience. To support the implementation of these resources the project also developed and piloted an In-service training programme for front-line youth workers to build their skills to develop interactive infographics; an Online interactive portal - INFOGRAFIA MOOC that hosts all the learning materials developed and is accessed through QR code contained on the hard copy infographics developed. Implementation Ensuring achievement of the project objectives we delivered these activities: - establishment a local stakeholders forum comprising 4 to 6 front-line youth workers. - Production of drafts of value propositions for each intellectual output - Impact+ exercises at the beginning of development phase and later during the project duration to assess whether the desired impact has been achieved. - Development of clear branding identity to be rigorously applied to all promotional materials, all project outputs and all online environments developed. - The project website and the selected social media channels - The 3 key actions that the project consortium regards as essential to achievement of project objectives and planned results are (1) the engagement of stakeholders; (2) the development of quality learning materials with clear learning outcomes; (3) the dissemination and exploitation of project outcomes and results. - Development of IO1 - Compendium of Interactive Infographic Entrepreneurship Resources - and IO3 - INFOGRAFIA MOOC. - Development of IO2 The In-service Training Programme. based on the content of IO1 and IO3, - C1 Short-term Joint Staff Training Event in Greece - C2 Blended Mobility of Youth in the Ireland Achievements IO1 - Toolkit - Compendium of Interactive Infographic Entrepreneurship Resources The project team developed and successfully implemented the toolkit - a set of 15 interactive infographics. Each infographic deals with one of the 15 entrepreneurship competences identified in the EntreComp - The European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework. Each individual interactive infographic comprises a series of 4 different learning elements accessible via QR codes displayed in the infographics IO2 - In-service Training The training programme helps those who provide support to young people at the beginning of their careers, namely teachers, youth workers, mentors, or coaches. One of the most important decisions of a young person is the choice of a future profession, the choice of a professional career. IO3 - INFOGRAFIA MOOC Infografia Mooc is an open educational portal where all teaching resources of the Infografia project are available free of charge to all target groups. The preparation of learning resources, infographics and the educational portal was challenging, but the result is worth it. Infografia Mooc can be found at www.infografia-mooc.eu