On Tuesday May 3rd, the consortium of the GIGUP project had its 2nd online meeting.
The GIGUP project is an Erasmus + co-funded project aspiring to support the members of the so called “gig” economy, with a focus on professionals engaging in freelancing jobs as independent workers.
The European Commission defines the gig economy as “an economy in which digital technologies enable teams to be assembled around a given project – and often across borders – while platforms seamlessly connect buyers with sellers”.
The main objective of the project is to support GIG-ers and individuals who want to join and benefit from this new form of employment.
This new form of employment presents numerous opportunities but also challenges and complexities.
The project is specifically designed to address the complexities and challenges of the gig economy, where GIG-ers are required to work and adapt to fast changing environments, meet conflicting deadlines, perform varying tasks and manage multiple contracts and business relations of different type and level.
For GIG-ers to thrive in this new setting, subject matter knowledge and expertise is not enough; their leadership, self-discipline, time management, stress management and business development skills, must be well developed.
While the results of the GIG UP project will benefit all professionals interested in the gig economy, the project’s focus is on young people and NEETs, that have not accumulated the experience or developed the skills and competences required.
The project will lead to the development of two results:
– The GIG UP program
The program will address at least 10 topics covering the competences any gig worker/self-employed person requires, including but not limited to time management, entrepreneurial mind-set, cognitive skills, problem solving skills, digital skills etc.
– The guidebook for practitioners
The guidebook will be used to facilitate the delivery of the GIG UP program, increase educators’ understating of actual employability skills and equip them with the understanding to update it and make it available for participants in the future.
We look forward to working with our partners towards the implementation of this exciting project and the development of high quality results.