The project “Empowering Culture through Business: Introducing Business Academies for Culture and Creative Young Professionals in rural and remote areas” is funded under Key Action 2 of the Erasmus+ Programme and aims at the development and enhancement of the skills of Culture and Creative Young Professionals (CCYPs) living and working in rural and remote areas.

To achieve the goal of the project, the consortium will establish Business Academies in rural areas aimed at educating young people through innovative training programmes with the involvement of specialists and professionals from the business and cultural sector.

On the 08^th and 9^th of September the partners of the project met physically for the first time at the island of Lesbos in Greece. The meeting was hosted by the Company of Research, Education, Innovation and Development of the North Aegean Region (ELORIS S.A.).

During the meeting the partners discussed the progress of the activities of Intellectual Output 1 (IO1) and especially the results of the surveys, the focus groups, the desk research and the subsequent delivery of national reports for each partner country. The aim of the aforementioned actions was to identify the necessary skills that young people are required to have to increase their work skills and employment opportunities and to develop business activities in the cultural and creative sector. The partners agreed to finalise the national reports and proceed with the preparation of the consolidated report.

Then the partners discussed the activities of Intellectual Output 2 (IO2) of the project which aims at the creation of Business Academies for Culture and Creative Young Professionals through the design and delivery of a VET course. The partners had a lively discussion as to the number and context of the courses which will be designed by CATRO with the assistance of the rest of the partners of the consortium.

Materahub, also presented to the consortium their plan for the delivery of Intellectual Output 3 (IO3) under which the partners will provide guidelines through a guidebook for the creation of culture and creativity Hubs in a rural or remote area. This guidebook will mainly target rural local and regional authorities and administrations.

The partners also discussed about the design of the e-learning platform of the project. The e-learning platform will be accessible to all young creative professionals and rural regional and local authorities and it will contain the national reports developed under IO1, the courses to be developed under IO2 and the guidebook produced by IO3. The e-learning platform will also serve as an online forum where the users of the platform will be able to discuss with each-other and exchange ideas, find partners and inform their colleagues about good-practices.

The project started in January 2022 and it will be implemented until July 2024 with a total budget of € 207 445. The consortium comprises of 6 partners: the Nicosia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (coordinator), the European Office of Cyprus, Matera Hub in Italy, Danmar Computers from Poland, the Company of Research, Education, Innovation and Development of the North Aegean Region (ELORIS S.A.) and the training consulting company Catro in Bulgaria.

More information can be found on the website of the project: https://empoweringculture.business/.