The Green Way - A Partnership for Green Business

The project aimed to foster the green transition by directly enhancing the green capabilities of both Business Support Organisations (BSOs) and SMEs in Serbia and North Macedonia. The project aime...

The project aimed to foster the green transition by directly enhancing the green capabilities of both Business Support Organisations (BSOs) and SMEs in Serbia and North Macedonia. The project aimed to achieve this through a transnational partnership focused on exchanging knowledge, developing practical educational resources, and testing innovative training methods for greening businesses. Specifically, the project aimed to: • Equip BSO educators with new competencies and modern tools to effectively guide SMEs towards sustainability. • Develop and pilot a tailored training methodology, curriculum, and modules specifically designed for greening business operations. • Encourage the green transition by promoting the adoption of EU best practices among SMEs and socio-economic partners. Key planned achievements are: • Empowering adult entrepreneurs to align their business practices with sustainability principles • Developed tailored training programs and tools that addressed real-world needs identified through surveys and stakeholder consultations • Establishing an e-learning platform to ensure accessibility and scalability of training resources • Engage stakeholders throughout the process.

The project was implemented through a carefully sequenced set of activities, each strategically designed to deliver high-quality outputs, foster meaningful cross-border collaboration, and generate long-term impact for SMEs and support organizations. From inception to execution, the partnership between CRJP and CCS was characterized by clear role distribution, mutual accountability, and a shared commitment to sustainability and institutional capacity building. Each partner assumed leadership over specific components aligned with their core competencies, CRJP in regional development and SME training, CCS in vocational education and stakeholder engagement, while jointly contributing to overarching goals such as green transition, knowledge transfer, and inclusive growth. Implemented activities in the project are the following: A1 Project management and quality assurance A2 Monitoring sessions of Project Steering Committee A3 Training needs and skills gap analysis A4 Capacity building of business support organizations A5 Developing of learning tool for greening business A6 Green skills capacity building of 60 SMEs A7 Dissemination and visibility activities

Achieved outputs: 2 training needs and skills gap analysis (one for BSOs and one for SMEs); 1 international Training of Trainers for greening the businesses (10 Trainers from BSOs); 1 Greening the businesses – Handbook for BSO trainers; 1 International exchange of experiences - EU good green practices (10 Trainers from BSOs); 1 European Green Good practice cases brochure; 1 transnational tailored methodology and 1 training curriculum; 5 training modules in area of greening the businesses; 1 Green Self-assessment tools for SMEs and entrepreneurs; 1 Greening the business practical guide; 1 Greening the businesses knowledge base and learning tools; 1 Greening the businesses e-learning platform; trainings for 31 SMEs in Serbia and 32 in North Macedonia; 63 one day mentoring of SMEs; 63 individual SME green business plan/Green Business Strategy; 3 transnational dissemination workshops (192 participant in total); 1 Project Sustainability Plan. Achieved results: Training competences of BSOs educators in field of greening the business improved; Practical green skills of SMEs owners/managers and employees increased; The best green practices in greening the businesses promoted and disseminated among the project countries