ICPE Participation in the 2nd International Conference: The Future of Training and Consulting for Young European SMEs on 18 - 19 May 2011, Warsaw, Poland

ICPE, represented by Mr Tomaž Rogelj, ICPE Executive Manager, actively participated as project partner in the 2^nd International Conference: The Future of Training and Consulting for Young European SMEs, which was held on 18 - 19 May 2011, Warsaw, Poland. SME Trainet Program purpose is to discuss and identify good practice examples of trainings for SME with national experts and to develop strategies how these could be spread in countries and EU.

SME-TraiNet is a project funded by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning programme with the objective of establishing a stakeholder network that tackles the above outlined problem by fostering the dialogue between European young businesses operating in the crafts and services sector, and European guidance and training providers. By bringing together these stakeholders, the partnership's main goal is to improve the current training and support structures to the target group of young businesses and SMEs.

The Leonardo project partnership consists of twelve partner organisations from ten European countries with the WIFI-IKT, Vienna being the project promoter and coordinator. Further members of the consortium include VET and guidance providers for SMEs, such as vocational training institutions, chambers of commerce and crafts and universities on the one hand, and of SME associations and trade unions on the other hand. In detail, the partner organisations located in Northern, Eastern, Western and Southern Europe are:

- ABIGEM, Turkey (European-Turkish Business Centres Network)

- AKOL, Finland (Trade union of adult educators)

- AMIEDU, Finland (Vocational training provider in adult education)

- CLA, Italy (Consortium for Employment and Environment, Vocational training agency with the main goal of supporting Italian SMEs)

- EDUPOLI, Finland (Vocational training provider in adult education)

- EMC, Bulgaria (European Management Center, VET provider and consultancy in the field of management and training in Bulgarian companies)

- EMI-ECO, Estonia (Vocational training provider in adult education)

- HWK, Germany (Hamburg Chamber of Crafts and Industry)

- ICPE, Slovenia (International Center for Promotion of Enterprises, UN sponsored intergovernmental organisation)

- LAHTI, Finland (Lahti University of Applied Sciences)

- SCCI, Slovakia (Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry)

- WIFI-IKT, Austria (Institute for Economic Promotion at the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, umbrella organisation of regional Institutes of Economic Promotion providing guidance and training for Austrian enterprises)

- ZRP, Poland (Polish Craft Association, umbrella organisation of the Polish Chambers of Craft)

Project approach and research methodology: the approach to building up a stable network in the field of SMEs is tripartite: firstly, desk research on current training and support structures in all participating countries is carried out in order to assess the currently available training and support offer available in the project countries and in order to identify the main stakeholders in the field to be involved into the network activities. In a second step, two workshops, based on the results of the national studies are carried out in all partner countries. The main aim of these workshops is to discuss identified good practice examples with national experts and develop strategies, how these could be disseminated in the country and potentially transferred to other European nations. The third activity is to hold two international conferences representing a platform to raise awareness at the political level and to discuss and exchange good practices identified in the national workshops at European level.

In a first step of the 36-month project, all partners carried out extensive desk researches

At the conference were discussed trends and new approaches in European policies in regard to entrepreneurship and SMEs. Results of the review of the Small Business Act and consequences for the future EU policies were presented.

The second part of the conference was dedicated to working groups session on innovative services and training offers meeting the current and emerging training needs of young European SMEs.