LEAD – “e-Leadership Skills: for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises” has developed targeted actions for start-ups and fast growing SMEs to provide them with relevant e-leadership skills and qualifications for entrepreneurs, managers and advanced ICT users that are recognized trans-nationally.

LEAD has sharpened the e-leadership definitions and metrics, specified data requirements for establishing monitoring mechanisms based on data collected from enterprises, universities and business schools, identified and analysed secondary sources for suitable data to extract information on demand and supply for e-leadership to specify a monitoring mechanism which can be used as a basis for policy making and to improve monitoring of demand and supply of these skills and increase the effectiveness of policy decision making.

A technology trend analysis was conducted to analyse the main technology trends and their impact on new business models and organisation of companies and e-leadership requirements, map the main trends on the current typologies of skills and correlate them with the potential demand for new skills and e-leadership skills and competences emerging. Further activities included the development of an overview of the European e-leadership policy landscape for the different target groups in which these above activities are embedded, development of the present European landscape of e-Leadership courses and MOOCs.

In addition a search and analysis of initiatives from industry, education and training organisations was carried out. In the demonstration phase business leaders from almost 50 SMEs from 5 EU Member States participated in the demonstration of a carefully designed new e-leadership programme. Finally further dissemination activities were carried out and five mutual learning workshops organized. Further activities included seven regional cluster events held as mutual learning events and a high-profile mutual learning conference. LEAD has contributed to the “Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs” and was run in synergy with the initiative launched by the Commission in January 2013 to develop pan-European guidelines for new e-leadership curricula and at formulating proposals for quality labels. Collaboration took place with the major pan-European communication and awareness raising campaign “e-Skills for Jobs” running in 2014.

LEAD has complemented the communication and awareness raising activities of the “e-Skills for Jobs” campaign by well-targeted promotion activities focusing on e-leadership. In this service contract, empirica work in the different European countries was carried out with the support of national correspondents from the ENIR network.