Nurturing the next generation of third sector digital leaders Erasmus Project

Project Title

Nurturing the next generation of third sector digital leaders

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Open and distance learning

Project Summary

The third sector (TS), consisting of civil society associations and foundations, volunteers, and other citizen organisations and activities, offers unique renewable and sustainable resources for social and economic problem-solving, democracy, and civic engagement in Europe. In times of social and economic distress and enormous pressures on governmental budgets, not to mention the ongoing COVID- 19 crisis, this sector is even more important than usual – not as an alternative to government but as a fully-fledged partner in the effort to promote economic development, active citizenship and social cohesion in Europe.

The leaders of TS organizations are not perceived as very enterprising or innovative nor digital. However, encouraging innovation and digital transformation is essential, not only because of the complexity of the social challenges faced by NGOs, but also as a way of diversifying their sources of income and dealing with financial constraints. Innovation capacity and digital transformation is no longer optional, but should become a prerequisite for today’s social leaders. In addition, leadership and digital transformation skills are particularly in demand – as a rule the majority of chief executives in the sector coming from the private or public sector. Spending on training and development lags significantly behind the public and private sector. The lack of investment in staff training and development is perpetuating the skills gap in the sector resulting in reduced likelihood of career advancement, lower than average job tenure and a continuing drain to the private and public sector.

Thus, leadership and digital transformation in nonprofit organizations presents a specific set of challenges and therefore requires a unique set of skills. Digital leadership development training can be key to growing nonprofit core competencies.
LeaderSEEDS will to support the Non-for-Profit Sector of the European economy, collectively usually referenced as the Third Sector (TS). The key deliverable for this project will be the development of a suite of Continuous Vocational Educational Training, addressing the known knowledge gaps with free to use/access, independent digital learning materials.
The project engages the following target groups:
1) Leadership, chief executives, senior managers, including board members of third sector organizations
2) VET and HEI colleges whose teaching staff, students & researchers wish to apply their pedagogical, research innovation capacities to real world problems &new groups of learners and reinforce their ability to provide high quality, inclusive digital education.

The project is intended to build a leadership development programme and on-line learning environment for managers and senior executives of TSOs in order to improve their professional profiles and thus, operational and innovation capacity of third sector organizations. The final outcome of the project will be a Digital Leadership Development Training programme based on a microlearning and challenge based education. Target group of the project will learn about digital transformation and social leadership related competences and will gain their skills and competences in a collaborative learning environment based on real case-based learning (learning by doing). The objective of the programme is to enable the target group to access a new online training model designed to provide them with the knowledge and skills to develop professional leadership and digital transformation competences. In addition, the project will build a multilingual, interactive portal (Digital Leadership Centre) enabling direct access to educational resources and skills development activities online.

The Digital Leadership Development Training Programme will play a vital role in developing the third sector’s future leaders. By understanding the issues, promoting leadership development in the sector and equipping the target group with the tools they need to succeed, the programme can play a catalytic role in enhancing the quantity and competency of social leaders and therefore ensure that the sector continues to be at the forefront of tackling social and environmental problems, helping the vulnerable and promoting social justice.

Last but not the least, it has to be highlighted that Schools and VET providers are the hardest hit by social distancing measures due to COVID-19. Many VET providers were unprepared to deliver their training material solely online. Giving the opportunity to VET professionals to enhance their knowledge in new digital concepts will help them develop new ways of working and demonstrating their work. With the rise of digitization, lack of digital skills is holding VET providers back. As a result, the development of digitals and other skills for VET providers is essential for delivering their work, especially during this pandemic.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 289170 Eur

Project Coordinator

Institute of Community Safety & Country: UK

Project Partners

• C.I.P. CITIZENS IN POWER
• VILNIAUS GEDIMINO TECHNIKOS UNIVERSITETAS
• DOMHAN VISION UG (HAFTUNGSBESCHRANKT)
• DRAMBLYS
• MOMENTUM MARKETING SERVICES LIMITED