Knowledge and Skills

This section describes an ideal journey for the co-design and implementation of both academic and non-academic curricula, integrating tools for the construction of experiential learning paths with the best training practices of coworking spaces and innovative communities.

Who are you?

If you already have:

a community of stakeholders and early adopters engaged;
a space growingly perceived as the-place by these people;
a set of services designed and launched;

to answer your community’s needs, you might now want to launch an educational programme embedding work and experience-based learning, involving a larger group of actors and experts.

1 | Understand

2 | Interact

3 | Organise

1 | A - Identify your target group
Who is your specific target group? Follow the indications of “Phase 2” of the Kaospilot’s Vision backcasting framework to define students and staff, as well as formal and informal requirements.

2 | A - “What”: Co-Design the training contents and goals
Define with stakeholders and thought leaders what kind of content you want to address in your training program. Read some indications in this article.

3 | A - Co-define the structure of the programme
Provide a structure to the content of your program – core disciplines, modules, lectures, objectives, etc. Follow the indications of “Phase 2” of the Kaospilot’s Vision backcasting framework to do this.

1 | B - Need Assessment
A user’s needs assessment gives you the opportunity to understand more about users’ needs and motivations. Here you can find some examples of research activities: observation, survey, interviews, focus groups.

2 | B - “Who”: Specify communities and experts you can access to by joining the initiative
Define the epistemic communities and communities of practice involved in the process who can have a stake, a role or be a reference in the learning path. Also, define who the trainers/mentors will be.

3 | B - Reinforce / Cement partnerships
All partners identified in previous steps should be contacted to agree on an operational plan . Follow this list to build and reinforce partnerships.

1 | C - Why do you want to create/innovate your training offer?
How is your training and cultural programme embedded within your services and space? What is the added value compared to traditional academic courses? Use this value proposition tool to reflect about this.

2 | C - “How”: Define training approach
Define the method and approach of your training. Some examples can be found clicking on the “Learn more” section. Find here some useful indications on the level of formality of the training, as well as on competences. Find here some subject presentation methods.

3 | C - Submission, evaluation and recognition process
Define how to recruit participants, read this article to find out assessment strategies and tools used for evaluation. Make reference to this framework to explore soft skills and to this tool to evaluate personal skills in a collaborative way.

Learn more

1 | Understand

1 | A - Identify your target group
Who is your specific target group? Follow the indications of “Phase 2” of the Kaospilot’s Vision backcasting framework to define students and staff, as well as formal and informal requirements.

1 | B - Need Assessment
A user’s needs assessment gives you the opportunity to understand more about users’ needs and motivations. Here you can find some examples of research activities: observation, survey, interviews, focus groups.

1 | C - Why do you want to create/innovate your training offer?
How is your training and cultural programme embedded within your services and space? What is the added value compared to traditional academic courses? Use this value proposition tool to reflect about this.

Learn more

2 | Interact

2 | A - “What”: Co-Design the training contents and goals
Define with stakeholders and thought leaders what kind of content you want to address in your training program. Read some indications in this article.

2 | B - “Who”: Specify communities and experts you can access to by joining the initiative
Define the epistemic communities and communities of practice involved in the process who can have a stake, a role or be a reference in the learning path. Also, define who the trainers/mentors will be.

2 | C - “How”: Define training approach
Define the method and approach of your training. Some examples can be found clicking on the “Learn more” section. Find here some useful indications on the level of formality of the training, as well as on competences. Find here some subject presentation methods.

Learn more

3 | Organise

3 | A - Co-define the structure of the programme
Provide a structure to the content of your program – core disciplines, modules, lectures, objectives, etc. Follow the indications of “Phase 2” of the Kaospilot’s Vision backcasting framework to do this.

3 | B - Reinforce / Cement partnerships
All partners identified in previous steps should be contacted to agree on an operational plan . Follow this list to build and reinforce partnerships.

3 | C - Submission, evaluation and recognition process
Define how to recruit participants, read this article to find out assessment strategies and tools used for evaluation. Make reference to this framework to explore soft skills and to this tool to evaluate personal skills in a collaborative way.

Learn more

Pilot and test

Piloting is one of the most important actions/phases of the design process. The more you pilot and the more often you test your hypothesis, the easier it will be to understand the real needs of your users and to allocate resources to truly meaningful features. Keep in mind that prototypes grow in scale as the trials go on. So the fastest and simplest you take your product to market, the more money you will be saving in resources like time and investment.

Learn more

Communication

Organise communications so that all program information is disseminated. Your first step is to build communication plan. Look at page 12 of this document to have an example. Think about the various stakeholders like trainers and facilitators, potential participants, relevant thematic organisations, content platforms to present your training offer.

When you will present it, remember that the experience you are proposing, as well as the networks involved are equally important to communicate the added value of your training.

Always remember to highlight the added value of the knowledge and skills you are willing to convey with your offer, to help your audience understand why participating could be worthy.

Business model

Once you have defined your training structure, you can analyse its fixed and variable costs.

What is the fee or tuition rate?

Which are the setup and running costs of the programme?

Can you identify the cost of your minimum viable training offer as well as of the ideal training offer? Can you identify your breakeven point for both? Can you plan the steps to move from one to the other?

Where will revenue come from? Sponsorships? Fees?
If you have different kinds of participants, do you also envisage to have different revenue streams (i.e. students fees + professionals paying for the participation as a service)?

Which forms of revenue should be considered? Are there non-monetary and indirect ones (i.e. increased value of your offer stimulates more memberships in your space)?

Will your community members be eligible for a discount? How will that affect your revenues?

Governance

Did the definition of your training and cultural offer change your governance and decision making processes?

Are content providers also partners? What is their role in the management systems? Are they co-managing the services with you?

What are the agreements among partners and content providers? Are these agreements reflected in the governance system?

Do you envisage to have a Board of experts, or a Scientific committee supervising and addressing the training programme? How will it be nominated and organised? Which decisions can it influence?

Legal form

Did the definition of your training and cultural offer change your legal form? Are there actors that should be involved in the legal aspects of what you do?

Are the providers’ agreements affecting your legal form somehow?

Is your legal form the most suited to offer this kind of training? Should you be a recognized entity to offer this kind of training?

What kind of acknowledgement is provided to training activities and programmes participants? Will it be legally recognized? Will it be comparable to widely accepted recognition tools such as the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS), the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET), just to mention some?