On 26 April 2024, the LEAD (LEarning And Development in micro- and small enterprises) project was tested with small and medium-sized enterprises. LEAD is one of the ERASMUS+ Cooperation Partnership project. The project involves four universities (UPN, UCP, WUEB, TalTech, in addition to BGE) and two professional advisory organizations (CEPOR, Mac-Team).

The pilot training aims to assess the e-learning curriculum for the "Managing and Developing Human Resources in Micro- and Small Companies" e-course. This e-learning program is highly recommended for small and medium-sized business owners, as well as individuals working in universities and other organizations. We believe that the dual target group (MSE owners) will greatly benefit from the project and its outcomes by acquiring essential methodological and social competencies that promote both individual and collective learning at the company level. The training was conducted by Gábor Réthi, PhD project manager, and Edina Nikolettiné Virág, a university lecturer.”

On January 24^th, Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP) - Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, received in its Campus in Porto-Portugal, 16 participants from micro and small companies in the agri-food sector from various regions of the country to start a Pilot Training Action on Human Resources Management and Development. The companies represented were agri producers and milk producers. 

On the 22^nd of April, a pilot training of students and SME entrepreneurs (altogether 25 people) took place at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech). The pilot was led by Prof. Wolfgang Gerstlberger and co-instructed by Tarmo Tuisk. The module that was piloted was chosen by the instructors “Paths of Organisational Growth.” Previously all participants were encouraged to pass the module in e-Learning format to ease and facilitate their learning processes during the face-to-face training. 17 students had worked on e-Learning modules and 15 entrepreneur-professionals did so. Altogether there were 17 student participants and 7 SME participants in the classroom. 

In today's dynamic business environment, creating a stimulating work environment and continuously investing in employee development are key factors for achieving excellence in companies. On April 9th, CEPOR and SELECTIO Group gathered around thirty owners of micro and small businesses and organized a workshop on managing human resources in micro and small enterprises. The workshop was held as part of the LEAD project - Learning and Development in Micro and Small Enterprises as a pilot training activity.

On the 10th of October, 2023, at TEHNOPOL Saturn premises, members of the Sustainable Value Chain Unit from the Department of Business Administration organized a training workshop titled "Propel Your Business to Global Success". This event, part of the Erasmus+ project named LEAD, was designed to guide startups and small to medium-sized Estonian enterprises (SMEs) in their pursuit of international growth. 

We are happy to introduce our dissemination materials. At the following link, you can find the LEAD project flyer and the first Newsletter. If you want to know more about the updates of the project, take a look at our dissemination materials.

Follow the link: The LEAD Dissemination Materials

Timeline of the LEAD MSE project as per January 2022.

1st objective of the project: to collate the increasing volume of literature on the training needs of MSEs and present the results in the form of a multidimensional study.
The preparatory Study will have a chapter with recommendations to different level decision-makers on their possible role in putting – where and how – incentives to strengthen motivation of the MSEs for improving pre-planned training development in their companies.

2nd objective is to transform the outcomes of the multifaceted analysis into a Practical Handbook for easy use of it for the varied user groups: students, owners/managers of MSEs, future qualified advisors of MSEs in HRD, called Business Coaches.
This Handbook is expected to give guidance for the owner/managers of micro and small enterprises for the elaboration of a strategy of staff (owner/manager included) further trainings, for the student target group (future MSE owners/managers) and for MSE advisors as specialization. A special chapter will be devoted to the proposed procedures of motivation of MSEs to start planning of further training of the staff.

3rd objective, on the basis of the Project Results of the above two objectives, is to develop a Comprehensive Training Curriculum (Materials) for owner/managers and also for students (future company managers).
This will show how to conceptualise the necessary further trainings for the governance and the employee staff depending on the characteristics and development status of the company taking into account the life cycle of the company and also its following development phases.

The ‘LEarning And Development project for Micro and Small Enterprises (LEAD-MSE)’ ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnership (nr: 2021-1-HU01-KA220-VET-000033052) is a project funded by the European Commission.

The aim of the project is to develop a comprehensive training material and guide that promotes a learning- and development-oriented leadership approach among micro and small company owners/managers by making them capable to manage the training and development activities in their companies, including among others the identification of competence needs and the active facilitation of workplace learning.