Description
Rural communities in the Czech Republic need to increase their economic opportunities. However a lack of information, low motivation and other obstacles prevent rural entrepreneurs, as well as local governments, from doing so. Hence, HLB in cooperation with CUEC are developing the “Community Entrepreneurship Training for Innovation” course. This will be an effective intervention toward improving the economy of rural areas. It delivers inspiration and detailed understandings of the innovation process to those engaged in creating innovative new businesses and solutions in Czech rural areas. The course will be delivered in the study facilities of Cesky Krumlov Castle, located in the rural environment of South Bohemia. The course will be available for university master students, members of governments, and rural entrepreneurs. This course will be delivered by both Norwegian as well as Czech lectors and will become the basis of a strong and long term relationship between both institutions.
Summary of project results
Rural people and places in both Norway and Czech are facing challenges as the agricultural sector increasingly replaces farm labour with mechanization. Although the underlying conditions differ between the two places, the impact of the process is similar in both– decreasing on-farm employment and negative impacts on rural society, particularly in terms of earning a living and in providing opportunities for young people. In Norway, HLB has developed a course on Innovative Community Entrepreneurship to help provide local people with the knowledge and skills they need to provide their own employment through entrepreneurship and innovative development. This has been provided to community project leaders and local government officials concerned with local economic development in rural areas. Four tranches of the course have been delivered now in 3 different areas and two more versions are booked for the coming year. Although similar demographic and economic challenges are being faced by people in the rural Czech Republic, no similar training for communities to take charge of their own economic future appears to exist. In this project, the Norwegian course designers will work with Czech colleagues to develop and deliver a version of this course in Czech language so that they will be able to inspire their local communities to begin to innovate on their own. The knowledge exchange will produce a course which can be delivered in the Czech Republic on a sustainable basis in the sense that when this project ends, the course will be ready to be delivered for some time to come.The project will take one year, within which the partners will develop the course and deliver it twice, once with the presence of the Norwegian partner, and once without it. At the end of the project, the experience of the two deliveries of the course will be combined with student feedback, and a final version of the course will be produced, ready to be delivered by the Czech partners on into the future.
Summary of bilateral results
The Project in the Czech Republic will deliver two versions of the course. The first one will be primarily delivered by Dr Rhys Evans, from the Norwegian Partner, with assistance from Czech project partners. The second version will be primarily delivered by the Czech partners with assistance from Dr Evans. In this way, at the end of the project, the Czech partners will have possession of a uniquely Czech version of the course which they can continue to deliver in subsequent years.