About

What is Passport to Trade 2.0?

Led by Salford Business School, the aim of the Passport to Trade 2.0 (#P2T2) project was to develop free online training materials to help European small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)  & students seeking work & placements abroad.

In order to reach this aim, this research examined the latest mobility needs of SMEs and student in relation to placements and international business development across 31 European countries.

Whilst the website presents the findings in an accesible way for more background on the methodology and research element please refere to this paper:

Aaltonen, S, Kakderi, C, Hausmann, V and Heinze, A 2013, Social media in Europe: Lessons from an online survey , in: 18th UKAIS Annual Conference: Social Information Systems, 19-20 March 2013, Worcester College, Oxford, UK.

European_Search_award_winner-2014Passport to Trade 2.0 is an award winning project that provides you with a European business culture guide for online and face-to-face communication which includes social media guides for 31 European countries and highlights the differences in cultural diversity on international business success.

The integration of social media guides into Passport to Trade 2.0 allowsBig Chips Awads Winner SMEs and students to improve their use of search and social media marketing tools and techniques. The guides provides up-to-date insight into European business culture across existing and developing European markets. Additionally, this offers a pathway for SMEs to access new markets and increase their profit margins.

What is “SME mobility”?

“SME mobility” is a term used by the Passport to Trade 2.0 project team to describe the ability of an individual business to trade and develop business networks internationally. For example, by helping a company to find a new supplier in another European country “increases their mobility”.

Why Passport to Trade 2.0?

There has always been potential for SMEs to expand their horizons and trade in different European countries. However, mobility is often inhibited by the lack of knowledge about a country and an inability to read information in the official languages of Europe.

The resources developed by Passport 2 Trade 2.0 address those needs by developing a training framework for all which highlights the most important areas of information to improve mobility. The materials and guides are inclusive and encourage people of all backgrounds and students.

The project offers a platform of European business culture resources across 31 countries. The guide contain etiquette materials (with sustainable links to further information) available in various languages (English, French, German, Czech, Greek, Italian, Finnish, Romanian and Bulgarian).

The project partners worked with groups of SMEs and students to formulate training materials and guides. They translate the material into their native languages (English, German, Czech, Greek, Italian, Finnish, Romanian and Bulgarian). This means that SMEs and students are now able to travel to other European countries prepared with additional information and abilities helping them to compete in both the labour and trading environments within Europe.

The partnership was represented by Universities, consultancies and SMEs. Extensive consultation was undertaken with target groups to evaluate and develop the material.