EU SMART Composer practical tool will facilitate VET Music Educator-Music Students knowledge transfer to improve their employability.
Society has changed significantly over the past decade. Music students learn from their VET Music Educators harmony, creative techniques to compose new music etc during their studies at Music Institutions. Composers are expected to meet with orchestras, ensembles etc interested in commissioning a piece of music. Due to the new modes of exploitation and funding issues of commissioners, an update of the skills is needed in order to have a sustainability of composers projects and their employability. VET Music Educators are essential in the process of the training and subsequent introduction into employment of Music students. VET Music Educators have to be equipped with knowledge, technical competencies, hard and soft skills and practicals tools to meet the new challenges. They demand a methodology to support music students to improve their employability in this new labour market.
The objectives of EU SMART Composers are:(1) to develop a methodology to support VET Music Educators in their teaching to music students who compose new music; (2) to enable VET Music Educators to gain new skills in branding, entrepreneurship and digital marketing for composers that will enrich their professional life and continue their professional development; and (3) to create a practical tool to facilitate VET Music Educator-Music Students knowledge transfer to improve their employability.
The profile of the participants are:
VET Music Educators (teachers, trainers, mentors and leaders): Composition VET Music Educators, Music Performance VET Music Educators, Choral and Orchestra Conducting VET Music Educators, Music Theory VET Music Educators… Who develop their professional career in Musical Institutions (Orchestras, Conservatories, Universities, Schools…) and Independently (private tutors). On the activities of the training week proposed 20 VET Music Educators will be involved.
Music Institutions: Orchestras, Conservatories, Universities, Schools…
Music Students: New Music Compositions Students, Music Performance/Conducting students who compose new music.
EU SMART Composer is a methodology that supports VET Music Educators in their teaching to music students who compose new music and it is designed to face the new labor market requirements. This project will enable VET Music Educators to gain new skills in branding, entrepreneurship and digital marketing for composers that will enrich their professional life and continue their professional development. In relation to Music Institutions it is expected that they will implement innovative teaching programs including EU SMART Composer methodology and specific programs of Branding, Entrepreneurship and Digital Marketing for composers. About Music Students that will improve their employability and the implementation of their projects; acquisition of confidence, independence and self-reliance necessary for a life of changing professional expectations and demands in the participant countries in a local and national level; empowerment of female and male composers to implement their entrepreneurship ideas in the participant countries in a local and national level.
The project includes the following activities: Creation of Competence framework for VET Music Educators, development of EU SMART Composer (methodology and tools) and production of Handbook for EU SMART Composer, all of them focused in a) Branding (Find the composer’s voice; Composer’s distinctive values; Strategies to make the audience identify a composer and his/her music) b) Entrepreneurship (Feasibility and sustainability of projects, Business Models, Lean Canvas), c) Digital Marketing( Commercial strategy for contemporary music in digital media, Social Media as a distribution channel, Content development, measurement and analysis for social media). The activities also includes Learning Teaching Training: Training the trainers and EU SMART Composer EU Training for 20 VET Music Educators.
The methodology is based in the S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic with Timelines) Model to Define Career Goals and Tried-and-true goal-setting model for music education. EU SMART Composer methodology is graduated and adapted to the different backgrounds and contexts of Europe (big cities, rural areas, conservatories, schools…) of Music Students. Regarding to social innovation, the project fosters equitable practices for historically underrepresented composers as it is a graduated method to be adapted to students with different backgrounds (demographic, location, diversity, gender, LGBTQIA2s+).
