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Linkage with Open Educational Resources and the entrepreneurial sector is in an early stage of investigation. StartUP is an action-research project aimed at filling the blank spot for where no open and flexible entrepreneurial training opportunities are in place for reaching the lifelong learner.

The project aims at developing an innovative pedagogy and assessment approach, based on Open Educational Resources (OER), to support the diverse individual learning pathways and to better assess all types of learning outcomes and future learning needs related to entrepreneurship competences (entrepreneurial mind-set and sense of initiative), a key competence for the lifelong learner. The project challenges the matching process between available OER and individual training needs, with the aim to promote the use and re-use of OER in a pedagogically-rich context, increasing the number of OER users and foster the effectiveness of OER for entrepreneurial educational purposes.

StartUP is to pilot entrepreneurship in a novel way, as prospective part of the curriculum for learners. It also includes the training of trainers to the use and adoption of OER. With innovative ICT tools and combined institutional approaches, StartUP takes up the development of entrepreneurial competence by increasing use of OER. The project addresses a wide target audience, composed by secondary school, higher education teachers and students, VET trainers and trainees, adult learners and professionals.

The paper draws on the results of the StartUP project, a 32 months project co-funded with support by the Lifelong Learning programme of the European Commission. StartUP stands for “Intelligent training needs assessment and Open Educational Resources to foster entrepreneurship” and it was launched in January 2013. Significant public results are available at: www.startupproject.eu