Nurturing Intangible Cultural Heritage for Entrepreneurship: the NICHE proposal has been approved!
On 8th July the Icelandic Centre for Research (Erasmus+ National Agency in Iceland – education and sports) communicated the approval of the NICHE – Nurturing Intangible Cultural Heritage for Entrepreneurship proposal, under the KA2 Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices – Strategic Partnerships for VET.
NICHE aims at enhancing entrepreneurship in the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) sector by developing innovative training for the underserved cohort of professionals (and prospective ones) who operate in ICH to promote entrepreneurial initiatives in the sector, enhance its competitiveness and sustain its growth.
ICH is more important for the EU economy than the entire automotive sector: over 300,000 people work in the EU cultural heritage sector. Almost 8 million jobs in the EU are indirectly linked to heritage (tourism, interpretation, security). For each direct job, the heritage sector produces 26.7 indirect jobs. This compares with 6.3 indirect jobs created for each direct job in the car industry.
In this context, Partners will carry out a series of well-defined activities that will lead to the production of tangible and operational results, and develop:
- EQF compliant professional profile of ICH professional
- Training courses based on innovative topics for the ICH sector, such as management, fundraising, multifunctional work, Digital Cultural Heritage
- A pan-EU Open Educational Resource that becomes the focal point for ICH professionals to widen and deepen their skills and competences to be more competitive and respond to the demand of a fast evolving and growing market
NICHE will be co-funded by the Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Commission and will last 24 months between 2020/22. The project has been submitted and will be implemented by a partnership of nine organisations from seven European countries (Iceland, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Sweden).
In the project, IHF will provide technical, operational and management contributions, being involved in all activities and “stages” of implementation to contribute to the production of deliverables and outputs. Moreover, IHF will be proactively involved in securing the engagement of target groups and stakeholders in project activities throughout the most relevant stages of analysis, development and deployment and piloting.
IHF will establish an operational connection between the NICHE project and European policy and practice, also greatly contributing to its mainstreaming at European level. In particular, IHF ensures the “European Dimension” of the project as it carries out all the technical tasks from a “European Perspective”, i.e. carrying out analysis of relevant EU policies, trends and initiatives; extrapolating EU relevant case studies, lessons learned and best-practices.
For further information on NICHE and other IHF asbl initiatives:
| www.ihfeurope.eu |
