ExCurS
ExCurS helps to analyse organisational and process potentials and identifies suitable training modules to enable employees to implement relevant management tools and processes for a LEAN, Green and Digital Transformation.
ExCurS provides topic-specific expertise to ensure future-oriented high-quality further education and training for professionals. The project experts involved have been dealing with the requirements of the target groups relevant to the project for years. These include the training of students, further education and training for the purpose of lifelong learning and the promotion of start-up activities. The universities continuously develop teaching concepts and knowledge through their research and training activities and thus also contribute to the sustainability of the economy and society.
The needs of SMEs are met by:
- The provision of platform-based solutions that can be applied by the users themselves so that existing gaps can become transparent on the basis of a self-assessment.
- Self-development of a company-specific roadmap for achieving the defined target status of a sustainable organisation (including products, processes, people).
- Support of the continuous improvement and change process by providing a supporting tool in which content, priorities and speed can be formulated specifically for management and staff.
- Trainings can be organised according to needs and target groups in order to provide company-specific skills for the digital transformation with the goal of a sustainable organisation.
- The teaching of content that is based on experiences gained during the pandemic situation (working from home, socialisation in the context of online working, work-life balance).
- Low costs due to location- and site-independent implementation of training courses also following the train-the-trainer principle as well as support activities through the provision of an open-source e-platform with a work-based learning approach. Each project partner has experience and content related to environmental sustainability. This experience is used and enhanced in accordance with the requirements of the partners.
Many SMEs have to overcome enormous obstacles to meet the challenges of our times, such as the digital transformation of product creation processes, which they are expanding to include a recycling economy. Moreover, the trend accelerated by the COVID pandemic has shifted all administrative and production-support activities to working from home. Companies are often content to support the existing processes with some ICT-enabled tools rather than redesigning the processes to make them suitable for the digitisation and revitalisation of existing business models in order to maximise the benefits of using digitally-enriched environments. ExCurS will build on the outcomes of a number of previous projects carried out by the partners over the last ten years at European and at European and national level, training staff and managers from vocational education, companies and associations. All these projects have developed modules for different aspects of the digital transformation of different areas of a company, aiming at a sustainable organisation (products, processes, people) and making ExCurS complementary to the above-mentioned initiatives already undertaken by the participating organisations. It also shows that the profile, experience and activities of the participating organisations are relevant to the scope of application. The idea behind ExCurS is to take up the topic-specific training modules and the relevant outcomes from these projects and combine them with the outcomes of the Work Based Learning (WBL) project in order to develop an integrated learning environment to train SMEs, vocational education organisations and management associations in Excellence-driven Work Based Learning for the digital transformation of the different areas of a company with the aim of becoming a green, lean and sustainable organisation. ExCurS will provide an easy-to-use, Excellence-driven self-assessment tool, enabling an organisation to easily identify improvement potentials as a basis for redesigning processes; suitable for the digitisation and revitalisation of business models through targeted training courses; in particular increasing the skills of managers and staff as well as the performance level of the SME on its way towards digitisation and sustainable organisation.
The overall objective of this project is the creation of a further education and training programme for vocational education. The findings and outcomes of numerous projects of the consortium members will be incorporated.
ExCurS aims to adapt vocational education and training to the needs of the labour market by enabling a tailored solution between the organisational need for skills and knowledge for strategic growth and the person’s individual development plan based on an assessment of existing and future potential. For the individual, this will help to create qualification pathways, improve accessibility and boost utilisation of adult education (C-VET). For the companies, ExCurS helps them to overcome the challenge they are facing in the context of climate change and environmental preservation by offering training courses in a curriculum to improve Lean & Green management skills in SMEs. For this purpose, ExCurS will offer a Work Based Blended Learning concept realised on an online-platform that can be implemented and used by any stakeholder.
The project specifically aims at the following outcomes:
- Mapping of a wide range of techniques and approaches on the basis of the criteria and subcriteria of the Excellence model in order to fill possible existing gaps on the way towards the defined target conditions and to coordinate available training courses.
- A user-centered approach to define existing gaps and derive a roadmap based on environmental sustainability.
- A quick and easy-to-use self-assessment based on the 5 Leonardo da Vinci projects of the SAETO group (Self-Assessment for Education and Training Organisation), but updated to include the new EFQM 4.0 model and the Green Deal Policy tools.
- A Blended-Learning approach for managers and staff, founded on the principles of Work Based Learning (WB).
- Training courses to build the appropriate technical, cognitive and digital skills for economically and environmentally sustainable SMEs.
- Training to support working from home by providing different strategies to create new ways of social interaction in online work environments and work-life balance when working from home and using digital tools.
- A validated online platform with self-assessment tools, Best Practice roadmaps and training at regional, European, organisational and individual levels.
- Library, glossary (definitions), guidelines for trainers and documented use cases.
ESB Business School is involved in the major work packages. In close cooperation with the project partners involved, the subprojects contribute to the achievement of the outcomes.
The work focuses on identifying management and process reengineering methods that support LEAN Production, Green Economy and the digitisation of processes. ESB Business School supports SMEs in their comprehensive improvement activities in the context of digitisation and sustainability by selecting and providing suitable management and process reengineering methods.
Our project partners
IBK Management Solutions: IBK MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GMBH was founded in 2001 with the aim of transforming the outcomes of the consulting and research projects of the two older companies into commercial products.
Irish Work Study Institute Ltd: The Irish Work Study Institute, known as the Institute of Industrial Engineers & Safety Management Systems (IIESMS), is the representative body for professionals in Industrial Engineering and Safety Management Systems (IE SM) in Ireland.
University of Split: The University of Split (UoS) was founded in 1974 and is a comprehensive scientific and teaching institution consisting of 11 faculties, 1 academy of arts and 4 departments.
Mindpedia: SC Mindpedia SRL was founded in 2008 but has only been active since 2014; it is a small company that supports its clients by developing customised programmes and using attractive, interactive and non-formal methods.
GAIA: GAIA is the Association of Industry of Knowledge and Applied Technologies from the Basque country, currently made up of more than 300 companies from this sector.
