Oak Tree Press - Learning By Linking. Establishing Sustainable Business Learning Networks.pdf - Innovation - warszyk

LEARNING BY LINKING

ESTABLISHING SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS LEARNING NETWORKS

SUSTAINABLE LEARNING NETWORKS

IN IRELAND AND WALES (SLNIW)

Published by O AK T REE P RESS , 19 Rutland Street, Cork, Ireland

www.oaktreepress.com

Sustainable Learning Networks in Ireland and Wales has asserted its right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78119 018 0 (Paperback)

ISBN 978 1 78119 019 7 (ePub)

ISBN 978 1 78119 020 3 (Kindle)

photocopying and recording, without written permission of the publisher. Such written permission must also be obtained

before any part of this publication is stored in a retrieval system of any nature. Requests for permission should be directed to

Oak Tree Press, 19 Rutland Street, Cork, Ireland.

COLOPHON

This publication is a deliverable developed within and co-financed by the European Regional

Development Fund (ERDF) through the INTERREG IVA Ireland Wales Programme 2007-2013

Project Acronym:

SLNIW.

Project Full Title:

Sustainable Learning Networks Ireland and Wales.

Editors:

Professor Bill O’Gorman and Ms. Nerys Fuller-Love.

Authors:

Brett, V.

Carr, J.

Courtney, N.

Fuller-Love, N.

Howells, A.

Hywel, G.

Langstaff, L.

Mullally, M.

O’Gorman, B.

O’Neill, A.

Power, J.

Sinnott, E.

FOREWORD

This guide to establishing sustainable business learning networks is a very relevant and appropriate

output from the Sustainable Learning Networks in Ireland and Wales (SLNIW) project, which was

part-funded by INTERREG IVA under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). It is

unusual for INTERREG projects to publish books. Therefore, this book, Learning by Linking:

Establishing Sustainable Business Learning Networks – researched, prepared and written by the SLNIW

team and published by Oak Tree Press – is a welcome new initiative.

Learning by Linking ensures that the project’s results, outputs, and lessons learned will be more

accessible to a wider audience of enterprise support agencies, financial advisors and providers,

practitioners, entrepreneurs, owner/managers and academics, rather than it being bound, as is

traditionally the case, in a set of reports that are made available only to a limited number of relevant

people. The availability of this book to a wider audience also ensures that the benefits derived from

the SLNIW project will permeate way beyond the life of the project itself. The book provides a

template in Chapter 9: Developing Sustainable Self-facilitating Learning Networks: A Code of

Good Practice , for those who wish to support micro-enterprises and SMEs to come together to learn

from and support each other to enhance the creative and innovative capacities and capabilities of their

respective enterprises. This endeavour, no doubt, will lead to enhancing economic sustainability of the

regions and/or sub-regions within which the learning networks are set up.

Before the template is presented, the reader is informed about the SLNIW project, its organisation,

construct and how it worked. Then the reader is guided through lessons learned by the SLNIW team

and the network participants. All of which leads to the presentation of the Code of Good Practice

template for setting up and guiding sustainable learning networks for micro-enterprise and SME

owner/managers.

This book epitomises the single team approach of the SLNIW project team. Since the beginning of

SLNIW, those employed by the project have worked together in a seamless, collaborative, and

cooperative manner to design, implement, and manage the creation and development of six learning

networks (three in Ireland and three in Wales). This is their story and this is what they learned from

the process.

Simon Baily

Roger Seddon

Head of Unit,

Ireland-Wales Programme 2007-2013

Project Development Officer North Wales,

Ireland-Wales Programme 2007-2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, the SLNIW project team acknowledges the support and encouragement

INTERREG in both Ireland and Wales provided throughout the entire SLNIW project, especially the

invaluable input received from Simon Baily, Head of Unit, Roger Seddon, Project Development

Officer and Siobhan Rudden, Development Officer. The SLNIW team also acknowledges the funding

provided by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the INTERREG IVA Ireland

and Wales programme 2007-2013, without which this project would not have been possible.

From a Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) perspective, the Irish SLNIW team members

thank and acknowledge the support, commitment and encouragement of Dr. Tom O’Toole, Dean,

School of Business, Joan McDonald, Head of Department, Department of Management &

Organisation, and Susan Green, Project Accountant, Finance Office.

From an Aberystwyth University (AU) perspective, the Welsh SLNIW team members thank and

acknowledge the support, commitment and encouragement of Professor Aled Jones, Pro-vice

Chancellor and Nick Perdikis, Director of School of Management and Business.

The SLNIW team also acknowledges the support and advice that was provided throughout the

project from the members of the Irish and Welsh steering groups.

The SLNIW team is very grateful also for the support received from the staff of Arclabs, especially

its manager, Tom Corcoran, and administrator, Mary Fearon, whose inputs helped with the smooth

running of the project.

Finally, but by no means least, the SLNIW team thanks all network participants in Ireland and

Wales for their enthusiastic and candid contribution to the project and its successful outcomes. We

hope their participation and sharing of knowledge and experience in the SLNIW project will have a

long-term positive effect not only for them personally and their businesses, but for entrepreneurs

everywhere who share the concept of learning together for mutual benefit.

Professor Bill O’Gorman

Ms Nerys Fuller-Love

SLNIW Project Director

Ireland

Wales

Oak Tree Press - Learning By Linking. Establishing Sustainable Business Learning Networks.pdf

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