The Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS) potential for growth and job creation in Europe is well recognised. The purpose of ArtS project is to respond to a strong need for a partnership between the CCS, social partners and training providers that will identify the current and future skill requirements of the cultural and creative labour market in Greece, Italy and Spain and develop a joint training programme which will provide sectors with the mix of skills needed for creative entrepreneurship.

Studies have shown that recent technological advancements and CCS sector-specific characteristics, such as the prevalence of SMEs and micro-enterprises, freelancers and project-based work, have led to an under-investment in skills development, fewer training opportunities and a lack of structured career progression. Major skill gaps common to cultural and creative subsectors concern entrepreneurship and project funding; major challenges are digital skills and globalisation, access to finance, cultural and linguistic fragmentation, (sub)sectoral seclusion.

ArtS delivers a joint vocational training programme that provides artists the opportunity to:

• update their professional skills and knowledge and acquire management, business and networking skills, with a special focus on export possibilities,
• receive guidance into finding work or internship at a company of their choice,
• present their work in a joint project at the project closure that was prepared by learners themselves, as an exercise of effective networking and reached the widest possible pool of stakeholders and audience.

The ArtS project covers the following areas a) Craft, b) Performing arts (music, dance, theatre), c) Cultural Heritage (archives, libraries, museums), d) Literary arts (book and press), e) Visual arts, f) Audiovisual and multimedia.

ArtS is co-funded by the Erasmus+ European Union programme. It ran from the 1st of November 2014 until the 31st of March 2018.