Unit 1. Introduction to SKIVRE

SKIVRE - ‘Skills Development for the Valorisation of European Religious Heritage’ is a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The project began in September 2018, with a total duration of 24 months and the following outcomes: an interactive digital learning platform, a multilingual training scheme, a merchandising handbook for monastic products and a publication of the historic crafts of monasteries and their potential for social enterprise for rural populations. The aim of the project is to provide a training scheme targeting the management, staff, monks and nuns of European monasteries and monastery shops in a committed and responsible way.

The training is geared towards providing tools for the development and sales of high-quality monastic products, with the goal of raising finances for the preservation of religious heritage sites. Nevertheless, production and product sales is a business for a monastery, and monasteries have to find the trade-off to make sure that this business does not overwhelm the core purposes of the monastery.