Dr. Petyo Budakov presented the main goals and mission of CreatINNES project during the first transnational meeting of the Erasmus co-funded project “Competence requirements for wholesalers and foreign traders in Europe”, on November 6-8, 2019, in Kempen, district Viersen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The meeting was kindly hosted by the Rhein-Maas Berufskolleg (Germany) and was joined by few high-quality European schools from Austria – LBS Theresienfeld, Lycée Professionnel Pierre Mendès (France), Šolski Center Ptuj (Slovenia) and Adacademy (Bulgaria).
Dr. Budakov illustrated the CreatINNES project objectives and how actually the project benefits freelancers and startups working in the cultural and creative, audio-visual, and digital sector, entities developing solutions based on cultural heritage and tourism business opportunities and regional multipliers.
Furthermore, the participants became aware that CreatINNES is currently developing two multilingual training programs for enabling Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) entities and innovative startups to identify and seize opportunities for growth and access to finance:
• Training program 1: “Entrepreneurship for CCI freelancers and start-ups”
• Training program 2: “Creative thinking for Innovation”
Dr. Budakov stated that: “CCI entrepreneurs often lack the requisite business skills for marketing their projects to customers, as well as to potential investors and sponsors. They lack entrepreneurial skills, and fail to realize financial and commercial opportunities. Our training programs will be based on the fundamental needs for entrepreneurial and business skills in this sector.”
Moreover, Mr. Budakov added that: “Creativity and innovation are locked in a close and intricate relationship, which underlies the interdependence between the CCI and the digital economy. There is a real need for innovative approaches in training freelancers and startups in order to enable further growth in the CCI sector.”
As an expert in the Blended learning & E-learning, Dr. Budakov drew a concept and investigated possible adaptive learning experience which could be promoted by CreatINNES based on some preliminary made hypothesis through its future course management system (CMS), called CreatINNES Academy.
Dr. Budakov also aired that: “Blended learning is an innovative concept that embraces the advantages of both traditional teaching in the classroom and interactive learning including both offline and online learning. The process of teaching business and creativity innovations online requires a well-devised strategic plan for delivering blended and e-learning with long-term perspective, methodological and didactic concept of educational materials, a strategy for assuring an administrative and technical support of the course participants and a reliable course management system.”
In addition, Petyo presented the latest research and initiatives, executed by Prof. Dr. Michael Beuthner, Prof. Dr. Udo Bomnüter and Prof. Franka Futterlieb from DEKRA | Hochschule für Medien, University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. Dr. Budakov outlined some of the best student projects as well as illustrating what kind of competitive skills the students obtain after their graduation.