The Report on training needs of rural micro-enterprises is now available on the MICRO website!

23rd June 201713th October 2017 IhfEurope

The Report consolidates the findings of primary and secondary research that partners carried out in 6 countries to gauge the training needs and preferences of micro-enterprises located in rural areas. The report is available at www.microsmetraining.eu/assessment.php?lang=EN

The MICRO project (Enhancing Competitiveness of micro-enterprises in Rural Areas) will develop training tailored on the needs of micro-enterprises in rural areas to enhance their competitiveness. The training will then be made available in multilingual versions and for free access on the dedicated Open Educational Resource: http://www.microsmetraining.eu/

MICRO brings together experienced partners from six countries (Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Macedonia and Spain) coordinated by Irish Rural Link (IRL), with extensive experience in EU-funded projects.

This project composite report draws on a range of European literature to confirm that all over Europe micro-enterprises are the backbone of employment and sustainable development outside of the public sector and are key actors to ensuring economic growth, innovation, job creation and social integration in the EU.

While micro-enterprises social and economic role is well known, micro-enterprises and micro-entrepreneurs are not well researched, understood, or recognised for their contribution. Seldom the rural dimension is taken into account when defining training programmes for micro-entrepreneurs. The MICRO project has collected primary research to identify the propensity of rural micro-entrepreneurs to engage in training to grow their micro-enterprises. From the research much has been learned about the reasons why rural micro-entrepreneurs do or do not engage. The research also identifies training topics that are priorities for rural micro-entrepreneurs. These findings underpin the preparation of rural micro-entrepreneur focused open access training that will be piloted by the MICRO project partners during 2017-18.