Opportunities 4 Arts & Crafts

“Opportunities 4 Arts & Crafts” is an Erasmus+ strategic partnership in the field of adult education, which was implemented between 2021 and 2023. The target group being artisans who were disadvantaged in the pandemic situation, the project focused on the gaps they needed to fill in order to be able to maintain their incomes. As a first step, a survey has been carried out within the partnership in order to identify these needs of the target groups. This served as a base on which the project’s whole plan was based to fight for the survival of all types of artisans in the target group. 

Since it was a general phenomenon that members of the target group are self-employed people, the need to develop self-study and self-discipline was obvious. Apart from this need, several other problems were identified, like lack of business education or low digital skills. The last deficiency combined with the online marketing strategies urged by the COVID situation, resulted in low demand for traditional handmade products and services. 

One of the main objectives of the project was to enhance artisans’ digital competences, entrepreneurial and leadership skills. By doing this they became more competitive in the market and obtained the suitable skills to maintain their incomes. Another objective was to promote traditional culture and also to teach members of the target group how to create online opportunities to sell art and craft products. 

As a result of the project artisans got better access to the information they need, about EU countries and the needs of the clients. They got to learn how to internationalise their services by enhancing their writing and digital skills, project planning abilities. Artisans also got the opportunity to become a skilled leader & entrepreneur. 

The project resulted in a series of video tutorials and self-study auxiliary materials. The training consists of 6 modules dedicated to traditional art and crafts makers starting from the most basic topic, like business planning ending with leadership skills. All serving the purpose of offering them the necessary knowledge to ensure their survival on the market.

Videos and training materials