Блог
Cultural BEES To Enter Decisive Phase
We are about to enter a new phase of the Cultural BEES project, organized by JA Bulgaria and supported by the European Union. Following the initial step of mapping the creative industries in the country, this fall we are about to start involving them in the development of educational materials for young entrepreneurs.
The project spans several European countries and is being developed by a consortium comprised of JA Bulgaria, JA Cyprus, JA Italy, Isola Catania, University of Economics Varna, University of Nova Gorica, Matera Hub, and others.
Cultural BEES is a Creative Europe project aiming to develop and implement a training program and digital toolkit that support the promotion of entrepreneurship skills in the Cultural and Creative Industry (CCI) among youth.
Inspired by the Junior Achievement training model “Inspire-Prepare-Succeed,” the project is aimed at providing the target groups, 15–18-year-old students and 18-30 year old young people, with the necessary skills, knowledge, and tools to succeed in their careers within the CCI sector.
In the spring, JA Bulgaria and the University of Economics, Varna conducted a survey to map the national CCI ecosystem and its attitudes. We then submitted the results to our project partners for analysis.
The objectives of this phase of the Cultural BEES project include conducting a comprehensive analysis of the current and future skills needed for professionals in the CCI sector. It aims to identify essential digital and transversal skills crucial for success in this industry. Engaging key stakeholders through ecosystem forums is another priority, fostering discussions and collaboration within the CCI community.
The results, collected between May and July 2024, are to be presented in a Forum Report next month. That detailed report will help identify the priority skills for training target groups, such as 15-18-year-old students and young people aged 18-30. These findings will provide the foundation for developing the Cultural BEES training curriculum in the next work package, ensuring alignment with CCI sector needs.
PROJECT SUMMARY
The Cultural BEES program is designed to support the target groups in developing their ideas, projects, and businesses in the CCI sector and to provide them with the means and skills to ensure that their projects are sustainable, inclusive, and innovative. This will be achieved through a combination of face-to-face training sessions, self-paced online learning, and virtual communities.
Within the project, it is planned to carry out large-scale piloting of the developed methodology, including the training of 1000 students at secondary and tertiary level education in three European countries: Cyprus, Bulgaria and Italy.
NATIONAL ECOSYSTEM FORUM OVERVIEW
On March 1, 2024, the first national forum for Bulgaria the took place.
In the cozy and casual space on the second floor of the Regional Center for Contemporary Arts "Toplocentrala", artists, educators, entrepreneurs, NGOs, students from the Training Company gathered to start working on equipping 15-30-year-old young people with the necessary skills, knowledge and tools for a successful career in the field of cultural and creative industries.
After the introductory part, presenting the objectives of the project, the participants were divided into working groups. The lively discussion that unfolded looked for the main reasons for the status quo and entrepreneurial solutions for them. Representatives of organizations ranging from the National Academy of Arts, Sofia Municipality, Sotheby's, Varna University of Economics, Baba Residency, Beyond, startups and creative collectives to students from the JA Training Company with interests in the continuation of cultural heritage, presented their perspectives and personal experiences.
What would attract a high school graduating youth to a career in the creative industry? What preparation does he need to apply for it? Can cultural heritage be preserved and developed with entrepreneurial methods – how can I transfer my troupe in folk dances or my grandmother's stories to the professional sphere? These were just some of the questions that stirred up the spirits and raised the voices in the discussion groups. Some saw an irrevocable key role of the state and the need for a national policy, others had already found individual solutions and could not wait to share them in order to develop the sector person by person.
At the end of the two-hour discussion, passions were difficult to calm down in order to summarize the conclusions. As we expected, this is only the beginning of the process and solutions will be found gradually, comprehensively and long-term.
The next step that emerged from this first national forum was the preparation of a survey that would collect practical data on attitudes not only among the artistic community and professionals, but also among young people. With the help of Prof. Genka Rafailova from the University of Economics in Varna and Elena Nikolova from Beyond, JA developed two questionnaires that she distributes to the creative and cultural industries, pupils and students. You can fill in the questionnaire here.
On Friday, April 19, at the Regional History Museum in Varna. Prof. Genka Rafailova introduced the project and presented the attendees with the following topics for reflection:
1. How can entrepreneurship contribute to the sustainable development of the cultural heritage sector?
2. What skills, knowledge and tools are needed to implement entrepreneurial initiatives in the cultural heritage sector?
3. What are the main challenges facing the cultural heritage sector in order to be attractive for young people's careers and to have sustainable development, incl. through private or public-private practices?
The results of the ecosystem mapping were submitted to the Cultural BEES consortium partners, to be included in the Forum Report, to be published in September.
You can learn more about the Cultural BEES project, conducted by JA and funded by the EU, here: https://jabulgaria.org/bg/blog/proekti/noviiat-ni-proekt-cultural-bees-postavia-fokusa-vurhu-kulturnoto-nasledstvo
#Cultural Bees #JABulgaria #CreativeEurope
.png)
.png)
.png)