In today’s rapidly changing world, entrepreneurship is becoming increasingly complex and challenging. New technologies are emerging all the time, and the business landscape is constantly shifting. To stay ahead of the curve, entrepreneurs need to be constantly upskilling and developing new skills. How can a company think about its future? How can it innovate? How can it observe changes in order to take an active part in them? The Interreg Central Europe – CapacityToTransform project seeks to answer these questions by putting people and their skills in the spotlight of the challenges faced by small and medium-sized enterprises.
Back in 2018 the report by a pilot project from the European Commission titled New Professions, New Educational Methods, New Jobs – showed the complexity of bringing upskilling in small enterprises. The findings show that growth opportunities combined with the lack of available external candidates are the main driving forces for SMEs to upskill their employees while the biggest barrier is lack of time and resources. It is important for SMEs to identify an immediate benefit to the company to commit the scarce resources to training during working hours. Other obstacles are the lack of information on available and relevant trainings, the cost of training, inflexible timetables and distance. A focus on delivery and short-term objectives at the expense of a longer-term vision appear to be an overall issue for the SMEs preventing them from planning their skills policy. The research showed that the needs of SMEs vary and that the specific skills lacking depend on the type of SMEs. However, there are universal tools for business intelligence, marketing, e-commerce or client relationship management that are common and useful to all SMEs.
Today, a few years later, we can certainly confirm these opportunities and challenges. However, at the same time, it is becoming increasingly important to address not only the challenge of digital transformation, but also the challenge of the green transition towards sustainability. Many national and international sustainability and green development agendas and frameworks, as well as international and national recovery plans, call for a green transformation (e.g., UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Paris Agreement on Climate Change, UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Sustainable Development Goals). Given the landscape of international development institutions, multilateral agencies, policymakers, and governments working on greening the economy, it is not surprising that there are many and often diverging visions and strategies. These positions reflect long-standing debates about how to reconcile economic development, the environment, and sustainability.
Each narrative embodies a different perspective on what needs to be transformed and how, and each reflects different contexts, agendas, and theories of change. The result is that green skills include the technical, generic, and transformative knowledge, for that is skills and competencies are needed to contribute to a socially, economically, and environmentally just society. In this wide panorama of challenges and opportunities small and medium enterprises can find themselves very confused in how to reach such an off-business objective. In their help can be creative and cultural industries that have a long and established connection in having a pivotal role in developing and sharing narratives and agendas that can also strongly influence the way people connect to the world. The recently published Brainstorming Report ‘Culture and Creative Sectors and Industries driving Green Transition and facing the Energy Crisis’ by Voices Of Culture – the structured dialogue between the cultural sector in the European Union and the European Commission – states that three are the main points in which CCIs can leverage towards a green transition: – the power of culture and creativity to inspire change by creating new narratives; – their potential for embedding sustainability in other industries; – their capacity to lead strong narratives and role-model progress towards a greener society.
The objectives of Interreg Central Europe – CapacityToTransform project is to bring all those themes and make an agile process for small businesses, cultural and creative to make new networks, understand the future scenarios, get to know possible technology and solution providers while investing in upskilling their most important asset: people.
The project is prospecting several pilot actions, some of them specifically tailored to regional sectors for sharing the vision that upskilling in the digital and green transformation is the best investment in the future. The actions will include roundtables, meet-ups, lectures on specific technologies and all the tools for achieving an in-depth understanding of the transformation needed in the future: scenario design, design sprints, masterclasses. The goal is ambitious but at the same time the team already has all the credentials to act effectively through a network of 11 partners who will be able to gather information and research on the innovation needs of the different companies they will involve in their regions.
As an integral part of the group of institutions that includes business support organizations, cultural centers, the Università Iuav di Venezia, Italy, – a university specifically committed to design practices – is engaged in envisioning how to read the territory and introduce methods for initially building a level of awareness of the challenges of the future.
The Capacity2Transform (C2T) project, supported by Interreg Central Europe, steps forward with an innovative concept in which Business support organizations (BSOs) together with Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) operate together to create new model of supporting the business transformation of non-technological sectors with focus on people and not technology as such.
Technical green skills alone cannot ensure the shift in mindset required to address the root causes of social inequalities that perpetuate climate vulnerability. Non-technical transversal (soft) skills, encompassing both generic and transformative abilities, play a pivotal role in facilitating the transition toward a more equitable future. While generic transversal skills like collaboration, teamwork, critical thinking, empathy, leadership, and resilience have gained recognition, transformative skills, such as disruptive thinking, navigating complexity, political engagement, coalition building, collective action, embracing diversity and inclusion, and valuing indigenous knowledge, are essential components of a broader framework for altering mindsets and challenging the structural inequalities that underpin climate vulnerability. To successfully integrate these approaches, a robust policy environment, a culture of dialogue, and political commitment from both governmental and non-governmental entities are imperative to dismantle unsustainable systems.
How can one directly perceive the opportunities that the digital and green transition poses to companies?
The working team of the Iuav university responds through the construction of pathways that deal with human resources at an advanced level, the so-called people and culture, and through the use of scenario design and speculative design, techniques of storytelling and forecasting. This comprehensive life-long education plan allows participants to experience the trends of the present and gain experience in order to be ready. The essence of Capacity2Transform is about future-proofing Central Europe’s economic landscape. By embedding sustainability and digital prowess within its sectors, the region stands to reap immense rewards: more competitive industries, a stronger economy, and a greener footprint.
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