The project goals of SHARPEN include:

• To deepen the students' understandings of HRM issues in SMES, in their home region and across partner regions. 
• To apply human resource theoretical knowledge and competencies to a real business project through cooperation with the regional SMEs. This will facilitate the principles of learning by doing and also connecting the dots from theory to practise
• To produce practical, easy to use and simple people management tools and frameworks to support SMEs development needs and competency gaps because people are one vital resource to help SMEs differentiate themselves effectively in the long-run
• To migrate best practices across regions where SMEs are facing similar people management issues
• To leverage on the expertise, knowledge and experiences of HR specialists, practitioners, researchers and academia across five partner regions