Accreditation WG 080418

Quality & accreditation

Notes from the Quality & Accreditation discussion group at the COPIE I final conference at the Casa de Asturias, Brussels, on 17-18 April 2008

Please build on these original notes (taken by Toby Johnson)

What to accredit?

• Advisers
• organisations
• methods
• Tools

How to accredit?

• observed practice
• documentation
• ask the client
• the market – repeat business

The problem

• we need new types of advisers for new types of entrepreneurs
• entrepreneurs' needs vary according to:
  • capital
  • gender
  • family context
  • disability
  • age
  • ethnicity
  • migrant//refugee status
• on top of the economic dimension, adviser training needs to cover:
  • access to the target group
  • empathy
  • psychology
  • pedagogy

Goals

• a broader intake of advisers – an inclusive profession
• better training for business advisers
• an EU standard for business advice that is inclusive

Activities

In parallel:

• to be the vanguard of this new profession
• to mainstream this good practice so as to raise the standard of the public provision of business support EU-wide

Places to start

Germany, Spain & Scotland have worked together on an EU adviser standard. See ON TARGET website

Standards already exist in:

• Germany: see website of Verband deutscher Gründungsinitiativen (German Association of Start-Up Initiatives) at http://www.vdg-forum.de
  • advisers: requires 3 years’ experience, assessed by documentation and client feedback.
  • organisations

Needed: recognition at Land and federal levels

• UK:
  • advisers: SFEDI
  • organisations: the Prowess flagship award widely used – especially by NGOs - and increasingly needed to get public contracts. Coaching is needed to help advisers understand the standards! See http://www.prowess.org.uk/flagship/whatisflagship.asp
• more?...

Backgound information

Regional Policy Open Days workshop in Brussels, October 2007)