From 10 to 15 December 2023, the capital of the Republic of Latvia, Riga, hosted the second meeting of partners – the teams participating in the Erasmus+ grant project, Virtual Exchanges in Higher Education and Youth - ERASMUS-EDU-2021-VIRT-EXCH "INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF VIRTUAL YOUTH BUSINESS HUBS", VEHUB4YOU.

Universities and organisations involved in the project:

Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design – project initiator;
University of Foggia (Italy) – project coordinator;
RISEBA University of Applied Sciences (Latvia);
Mingachevir State University (Azerbaijan);
Institute for Social and Economic Initiatives (Ukraine) – project co-coordinator;
Kyiv Educational and Training Youth Centre (Ukraine).

The event was held in a hybrid format.

Participants representing the project teams offline:

- RISEBA University of Applied Sciences in Latvia was represented by Anna Ragain and Zane Rashevska;

- Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design was represented by the project manager, Dean of the Faculty of Management and Business Design, Doctor of Economics, Professor Oleksandra Olshanska, Doctor of Economics, Professor Svitlana Bebko, Doctor of Economics, Associate Professor Mariana Shkoda, Candidate of Economics, Associate Professor Olena Yevseitseva, Erasmus+ project coordinator of KNUTD Anna Sinilkina.

- The University of Foggia, Italy, the project coordinator, was represented by Giulio Esposito, Head of the International Department and Erasmus+ Coordinator of the University of Foggia, and Pierpaolo Magliocca, PhD, International Department Officer, Oleksandra Tveresovska;

- Institute for Social and Economic Initiatives was represented by Doctor of Economics, Professor Olena Cherniavska and Yuliia Havryliuk;

- Mingachevir State University (Azerbaijan) was represented by research manager Samira Akhmadova and head of the Education Quality Centre Lamila Ibrahimova;

- Kyiv Youth Education and Training Centre was represented by Oleksandra Cherniavska.

The main goal of the VEHUB4YOU project

The VEHUB4YOU consortium members are making joint efforts to organise a network of international virtual business hubs and business training for high school, college and university students of both economic and non-economic specialties by creating an international network of virtual youth business hubs VIRTUAL YOUTH BUSINESS HUBS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK, which will cover 60 virtual international business hubs based in schools, universities and rural libraries in Ukraine and Azerbaijan. As a result, the project will involve 2500 representatives from 60 hubs and 250 facilitators from the Eastern partner countries, as well as 220 participants from other regions (Southern Neighbourhood and Sub-Saharan Africa).

On the first and second days of the meeting, the management and project teams heard presentations from the representatives of RISEBA University of Applied Sciences on innovative pedagogical practices used in teaching, methods and platforms of modern virtual learning.

The meeting was opened by the representatives of RISEBA University project team, Anna Ragain and Zane Rashevska, who greeted the consortium partners and wished them fruitful work.

Valters Kaze, Vice-Rector for Research, made a presentation on the main vectors of research activities of RISEBA University of Applied Sciences.

Anna Kvelde, Head of the Career Development Department and Alumni Centre, RISEBA, Galina Zilgalve, Head of External Relations, and Laima Zagare, Erasmus+ and Double Diploma Project Manager.

Zane Rashevska, a team member from RISEBA University of Applied Sciences, spoke to the consortium members and shared information about the platforms and methods used in online and virtual learning, as well as the practice of organising a business incubator based at RISEBA and ideas for using this experience within the project.

After the official presentation, the project participants had an informal conversation with the administration representatives and colleagues from RISEBA University. In particular, the project coordinator from Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design, Dean of the Faculty of Management and Business Design, Professor Oleksandra Olshanska, conveyed greetings from the University administration to Vice-Rector for Research Valters Kazhe as a representative of the administration, and presented a corporate book about Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design and its achievements.

In the first days of meetings and work of the grant project teams, the colleagues from RISEBA University conducted interesting and intense tours, which presented the central campus and the building where future architects study. The guests saw a wonderful library, classrooms equipped with interactive learning tools, co-working centres of the University, and student recreation areas.

During the workshop, all project partners made presentations. During the following days of the workshop, the project participants had active discussions and discussed the working points of further implementation of the main tasks of the project on the introduction of innovative methods, practices and platforms for virtual exchange and stadies, training of facilitators and models of future business hubs, their areas of work.

In summary, the working meeting of the VEHUB4YOU project consortium members at RISEBA University of Applied Sciences, Latvia, was extremely intense, constructive, and fruitful. The results were the approval and detailed discussion of training courses from the participating universities, forms and methods of training with the mandatory implementation of innovative approaches and practices, the final approval of the Training Programme for facilitators - future initiators and managers of business hubs, the agreement on the types and forms of virtual exchange and the creation of a calendar for facilitator training and virtual exchange between project participants.

In addition, a significant result of the meetings with the leadership of the Latvian University of Applied Sciences RISEBA was the achievement of preliminary agreements on the possibility of implementing double degree programmes between RISEBA University and the Kyiv National University of Technology and Design, as well as discussing the conditions for the implementation of the ERASMUS+ KA 1 joint project on academic mobility of students and teachers.

We are grateful to our VEHUB4YOU project partners for their cooperation and fruitful work!

21.12.2023