In MPowerBIO a report has been developed to identify and analyse the skill levels and the consequent potential areas for improvement of SME cluster trainers around Europe.
Skill gaps have been identified with respect to all of the main skill areas under investigation, namely BBI
knowledge, IR assessment and support skills, operational and digital skills, as well as soft skills. In
more detail, respondents reported that they need improvement mostly in skill pertaining to their
knowledge in BBI emerging technologies and the overall framework of regulations and standards
that is applied in the industry. On top of that, trainers’ knowledge and skill levels in identifying legal
and financial forms, as well as relevant private investment sources constitute a significant area for
improvement. In parallel, the Capacity Building Programme should also focus on helping trainers in
better assessing the investment needs of the SME members and linking these SMEs with potential
investors in the domain.
About the report
The report will feed into the development of the various aspects of the MPowerBIO Capacity Building Programme. The latter will be meticulously designed in order to be offered through dedicated ‘train-the-trainers’ events to SME clusters active in the Bioeconomy industry, at a European level.
The report is based on a thorough desk research, dedicated interviews with experts and trainers and finally as well as a well-tailored survey questionnaire. The survey was deployed on-line for one month, leading to a set of 89 valid responses that fuelled the study with interesting data. Finally, the survey data were analysed using several research methods, including descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients and multiple linear regression models. This revealed valuable insights about (i) the association between trainers’ different main skill areas and (ii) the trainers’ skill areas that need for improvement. These results will fuel the development of the MPowerBIO capacity building programme both in terms of training modules, as well as in terms of the training curriculum.
