2021-03-17

On March 17th 2021, the Consortium joined for the second transnational meeting of VESTA, a Project co-funded by the Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Commission, which brings together 6 Partners from 5 countries (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Spain). The meeting, originally planned in Brussels, Belgium, was held in online mode due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The main aim of the meeting was the presentation of the Family Enterprise Country Reports (from Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovenia and EU) including a very detailed analysis from each partner. Indeed, during the first phase of VESTA implementation, partners were focused on the review of policy papers, studies, research, articles and other relevant sources and resources. The main objective of the research phase was to understand and analyse Family Enterprises roles, definitions, regulatory frameworks, quantitative and qualitative indicators and all the relevant trends useful to describe this phenomenon (which contributes in the creation of more than 14 million of enterprises and more than 60 million of jobs in the EU).
The research phase will allow partners to define what are the challenges and the training needs in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system and then develop a set of tools and trainings available for free online to be delivered to the target group. According to the preliminary results, the common challenges for family businesses currently are:

1. Generational hand-over
2. Digitalisation
3. Safeguarding family’s values and heritage
4. Diversification and Internationalisation

VESTA has the objective of supporting the growth and sustaining the competitiveness of family enterprises so that they can strive and continue to play that crucial role of social buffer and economic engine of growth, by developing innovative operational tool and training resources. Within such context, VESTA is devoted to family enterprises, especially those of micro-small size, formal and non-formal VET service providers and representatives of user groups, FE facilitators and members of support associations, media, and to all those who are interested in family business management.

For further information on VESTA:

https://www.projectvesta.eu/

https://www.facebook.com/vestaeuropeproject