Who is the ideal person for starting a co-working activity? Is he/she different from a common entrepreneur?

While the web is populated by different definitions of co-working, it is very hard to find a definition of co-working start-upper as well as of co-working founder or managers and other similar terms. In the last decades, the concept of co-working is growing more and more, and it can be defined as a really active community in which opportunities and synergies are created. In spite of what people think, creating a coworking space means not only a reduction in fixed office management costs but also an establishment of crucial opportunities and relationships in the work context.

So, a co-working start-upper has to be first of all a “guarantor” of the sense of community of a co-working space, thinking about how to produce new dealings between all co-workers and/or between co-workers and the local communities.

However, a co-working start-upper has to face with a wide range of issues and challenges, from administrative tasks to communications skills, from legal ones to competences in event management. A Co-working start-upper has to know, first of all, how to reconvert a space in a sustainable and business perspective, how to deal with all legal-fiscal aspects for the opening and management of the co-working space.

So, all that means that a Co-working start-upper is supposed to be a proactive and multitask person moved by a strong sense of initiative and a broad range of educational and training background. He/she has a deep insight into current situation and trends in local environment, able to understand the needs of local people and companies.

Under the framework of the “Youth Re-working Rural” project, in which the Institute of Entrepreneurship participates as a partner, created a common reference framework for qualifications systems, covering vocational education and training and also be able to accommodate qualifications acquired through (the validation of) non-formal and informal learning for the wide spread profession of Co-working start-upper.

Within the project partners worked firstly at national level analyzing their National Qualifications Frameworks (NQF) as well as status of training and education in their country.

This EQF serves as a reference tool to compare the qualification levels of the different qualifications systems and to promote both lifelong learning and equal opportunities in the knowledge-based society, as well as the further integration of the European labour market, while respecting the rich diversity of national education systems.

The developed European Qualification Framework of the Co-working startupper in terms of knowledge, skills and competences is based on learning outcomes as statements of what the learner knows, understands and is able to demonstrate after completion of the learning process.

Such learning outcomes have then been constructed around the following learning areas

– Ideas and Opportunities

– Resources

– Into Action

– Application of Knowledge

You can find the EQF for coworking start-upper here!