Erasmus+

Entrepreneurship has proved to be an important contributor to the economic development of the nations. The rising complexity of the financial system and the great proportion of the European population, who is still financially illiterate, implies lack of understanding of necessary financial concepts. It also prevents many entrepreneurs from designing and applying effectively for funding and difficulties of management their financial situations or being proactive with their finances. Entrepreneurship and financial literacy education sits at the heart of any entrepreneurial ecosystem for Europe. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic limited the delivery of face-to-face education and had a very significant impact on practical training. Therefore, in response to the needs, an idea of Digital Simulator for Entrepreneurial Finance was born in the frame of Erasmus+ programme, Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices, KA226 – Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness.

There are six partner organisations from four countries in the project consortium: FUNIBER Fundación Universitaria Iberoamericana, Santander from Spain (an applicant and project leader), Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce, Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iași from Romania, tvw GmbH from Germany, Fundación Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Industrial de Cantabria and Universidad de Valladolid, both from Spain.

Digital Simulator for Entrepreneurial Finance (FINANCEn_LAB) project contributes to the improvement in financial literacy, especially, among HE students, as potential entrepreneurs, through an effective method of learning by doing. The project aims at covering the gap of practical financial competences considered as a critical barrier for entrepreneurship. Possible solution goes through cooperation between financing actors and educational sector. Thus, common training will be complemented with real practice, which includes individual and collaborative work, very different from traditional school assignments, since it will inter-connect funding agents such as banking professionals, investors, mentors with entrepreneurs and students. The main project activities are oriented to the production of intellectual outputs, such as practical cases in entrepreneurial finance for training purposes, a digital simulator for entrepreneurial finance – trainer’s tool, a digital simulator for entrepreneurial finance – self-learning tool and a report on recommendations for entrepreneurial finance stakeholders and policy makers. The 24-month project will reach university students, entrepreneurs, HE teachers, start-up incubators and financial agents.

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