PEAK Entrepreneurs Bitesize Modules
with Learning Journey and Guidebook
LEARNING MODULES
One of the main outputs of PEAK is the creation of Open Educational Resources. These are in the form of Learning Modules that will be online and with free access after the end of PEAK project. There are six bite-sized Learning Modules each one dedicated to a different topic. The Modules are bite-sized in order to be user-friendly on digital devices for young learners. The literacy research at the beginning of the project along with the information and knowledge acquired through interviews with young entrepreneurs in mountainous areas in all partners’ countries pointed out the main concept axes and key-elements needed to be included in the Learning Modules. After their completion, there was a pilot-testing of the user-friendliness, the information/knowledge contents, etc. of the Modules, from youth educators experienced in the field. Feedback was evaluated and incorporated in the final version of the Modules. All Modules follow the same structure: Introduction – Learning Outcomes – Information/Knowledge – Quiz – Inspiring case studies – method – Conclusions. Each one applies a different method, i.e. SWOT analysis, Next Canvas Business Plan, Mind mapping, etc., so that learners are exposed to a variety of tools that will be able to use in any kind of entrepreneurial analysis. Apart from the six Modules, IO3’s outputs also entail a Train the Trainer Guidebook and a Learner’s Notebook. In the Guidebook there is a short description of the PEAK project and elaborate guiding for the trainers in order to use the Learning Modules in their training activities. The Notebook refers to the personal itinerary of each learner and helps them to track down their learning journey.
Modules
The Learning Modules are:
- Becoming a Youth Mountain Entrepreneur. This Module focuses on the introduction into the field of entrepreneurship and provides information and knowledge on why and how young people can think of and start their own business journey in mountainous areas.
- Our Opportunity for Mountain Entrepreneurship. This Module focuses on how to identify the gaps in entrepreneurship and, in specific, to enhance opportunities and potentials of mountainous regions and turn them into business ideas.
- Sustainable Mountain Tourism, Food and Agriculture / Farming Innovation. This Module is divided in two parts: a and b, each one focuses on tools, analysis and methods that encourage entrepreneurship in the field of tourism and agricultural activities. The Module emphasis on the concept of sustainability and innovative thinking and how these are incorporated in entrepreneurship, in mountainous areas.
- Environmental Sustainability Approaches for Mountainous Businesses and Communities. This Module focuses on the implantation of sustainable business practices. It explores the importance of businesses in mountains, different examples of sustainable opportunities and the way young people can adopt sustainable practices in entrepreneurship.
- Mountain Marketing. Key things you need to know to attract customers / clients. This Module focuses on different ways of communicating a business in mountainous regions, on the importance of developing a good brand around an idea and on how to attract customers and create a sustainable market around the business.
- Women and Entrepreneurship. This Module focuses on the specific barriers and obstacles that women face when it comes to entrepreneurship. It examines the additional difficulties imposed in mountainous areas and it provides information/knowledge on overcoming these through theoretical material, inspiring case studies, practical advice, etc.
Learning Journey. The learning journey workbook is a useful tool that allows you to keep track of learning developments. You can put down on paper what your starting skills are and define step by step where improvements are to be made and/or where the most difficult points are where you may need to dwell a little more.
Train the Trainer. This guidebook will help you to understand the concept of youth entrepreneurship and its special challenges in mountainous areas. It will provide you with all relative material appropriate for training young people who would like to start their own business in some mountainous region.
BENEFICIARIES
Those mostly benefited from the outputs of IO3, are young people willing to start their own entrepreneurial path in mountainous regions. They can have online and free access to an integrated learning/training package that they can adjust to their personal programme and needs. Women, in specific, are able to find information and training tools addressing several of the barriers they face, in entrepreneurship. Youth educators in the field of entrepreneurship are also benefited; they have access to innovative training material that can adjust and incorporate into their activities. In the long run, PEAK benefits local mountainous communities. Through entrepreneurship young people can find alternative solutions and opportunities for employment that can prevent them from leaving their home-places and set up a worth-living future in mountainous, rural and remote areas. This is a positive contribution to reverse of the depopulation of these areas and the sustainable development of Europe’s mountains.