In this uncertain and turbulent economic period, it becomes necessary to provide managers, administrators and (medium and low) executive panels of European SMEs with useful and effective management tools.

In such a changeable environment shaken by the economic crisis, it is more important than ever that the people heading these organizations take the helm and focus their attention on the horizon, concentrating in the short, medium and long term not only to ensure the survival of the enterprise, but also to reinforce it with a value enhancement strategy. This implies that all leadership and management levels in the company must focus on strategic and planning questions, while the internal structures must work perfectly in an autonomous, effective and efficient way, across various functions and with a clear knowledge of tasks and responsibilities to be performed by all the members of the organization.

To do that, it is essential that everyone in the organization pull together, taking on responsibilities (each at their respective level).

U-COACH strives precisely to provide managers and executive panels of European SMEs with skills and competences through Executive Coaching, in order to allow everyone in the organization to develop and foster self-management and leadership skills, thereby making all of them main actors in the success of the enterprise.

In this way, the needs of the labour market will be covered, contributing response capability and endowing the organization with more competitiveness.

The aim of U-COACH is to equip managers, administrators and (medium and low) executive panels of European SMEs with the skills and competences necessary to integrate and apply the techniques of Executive Coaching to the management process, through the creation of a continuous learning experience that would allow an improvement in the performance and competitiveness of these organizations.

The development and application of Executive Coaching as a people management tool at all levels of organizational management and leadership will foster leadership and self-management skills, with the consequent improvement in procedural and organizational performance. A bigger implication and motivation in the performance of day to day tasks will lead the organization to a more competitive position in the market.

The learning approach will be based on an on-line self-learning method using a platform that will integrate material and information contents, knowledge and training about Executive Coaching and a knowledge base that will allow guided access towards several tools and techniques of this field, with instructions and real examples of its application.

The project combines different methodologies to collect information, materials and data.

1. Data-mining: gathering, selecting and treating information to transform it into knowledge.
2. Questionnaires or standardized forms as they are quantifiable.
3. In-depth interviewing with key actors to obtain contextualized information that allows a correct interpretation of quantifiable data.

In this way, the methodological approach on which U-COACH is based combines self-checking and self-evaluation templates at several levels in a self-learning system on a technological platform, allowing users to chose different materials depending on their evaluations and needs. For example, templates for collecting personnel information, sets of "standard" questions in an executive coaching interview, use of different (cognitive or systemic) assistance techniques or the use of efficiency and efficacy templates in people management.

Likewise, different materials (maps of contents and techniques) should be tested in the Executive Coaching field according to needs.

Once the system is developed, it will be evaluated and validated by representatives of the target public, developing a validation and evaluation methodology and fieldwork in order to obtain the results of the evaluation. These results will indicate the improvements that must be made to the self-learning system, both in its technological components and in its contents. These improvements will be implemented in the system in order to fully adapt it to the needs of the target public.

The appraisal will be carried out from the beginning, while simultaneously designing awareness and diffusion tools to present to recipients and potential users the opportunities and advantages, both professional and personal that can be offered by the products and results of U-COACH. Activities will be carried out to raise awareness about the advantages of using executive coaching to improve people management, as well as activities to highlight results in which the U-COACH system is the key component.