Euro-Angels

The objective of the project "Euro-Angels" was to disseminate quickly and at low cost to small and medium-sized enterprises the information and skills necessary to make the transition to the Euro and to offer advice on how to exploit the opportunities presented by this change. To achieve this, it was important to support SME's and help them cope with managerial issues, in the field of accounting, computing and technology and in designing appropriate strategies.

In order to achieve its objectives, the project entailed the completion of the following tasks:

1. the acquisition of data about the problems faced by SME's in the four countries represented by the partners, relating to the introduction of he Euro;
2. the provision of specially designed training on such problems to young people ("Euro-Angels") who are about to embark on a working career within SME's;
3. the provision of free consultancy services and information to a selection of SME's by the trained young people;
4. to circulate the training methodology and consultancy experience gained from the project in order to promote a company culture among SME's which enables them to make the transition to the Euro more effectively.

The achievement of such objectives, on the one hand, offered the companies involved the chance to rapidly update and learn new skills to prepare for the introduction of the single currency, while on the other it will allow the trained young-people to improve their professional competence and make an important contribution to the SME's visited.

Concrete actions for enterprises and educational institutions involved in the project were:

Free advice on management, administrative and computing problems regarding the Euro.

A Web site which was updated continuously in the course of the project activities. The site supplied information on the progress of the project and the results obtained: results of the research, problems emerged during the consultancy activity, list of the most frequent questions (FAQ) asked by the enterprises.

A multilingual handbook (in Italian, English, Spanish and German) aimed at the businesses which briefly illustrated the major problems connected with the introduction of the Euro, typical solutions and the people to contact for assistance in case of difficulty.

11 seminars in the countries involved in order to disseminate the results of the activity carried out with the main aim of motivating other secondary and higher educational institutes to introduce training modules based on that formulated in the context of the "Euro Angels" project into their normal courses of study.

Euro Angels was implemented by Scuola di Scienze Aziendali di Firenze with a grant from EU DG 23.