Specific skills for social economy managers Erasmus Project

Project Title

Specific skills for social economy managers

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 : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Social entrepreneurship / social innovation; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Disabilities – special needs

Project Summary

The Social Economy (SE) is a sector composed of companies that in their entrepreneurial approach carry the values of social innovation and transformation, as well as the desire for social equity and economic harmony. They are driven by the principles and values of sharing, ethics, democracy, and social responsibility. These companies are now experiencing many changes that generate a specific need for professionalisation and skills renewal of their managers. It is more than ever necessary to provide these managers with high level training focused on “agile” organisations, able to facilitate the expression and the creativity of teams, and to efficiently manage changes.
In the European dimension it is possible to observe a variety of training contexts for managers of the social economy.
The 2008 COMCADES project (COMpétences spécifiques des CAdres/entrepreneurs de l’Economie Sociale) highlighted the diversity of training programmes for managers through the prism of social intervention. This project highlighted that:
a) the managers of these companies should be trained more than ever on “agile” organisations, capable of facilitating the expression and creativity of teams, of managing the change;
b) there is no common benchmark for the social economy: the managerial training programmes targeting social intervention are different in each national context;
c) the identified areas of competence of the social economy deserve to be developed through a common training framework, to respond to the weak European dimension of the existing training programmes.
Based on these findings and recommendations, the new COMCADES project:
a) wants to analyse and compare the challenges and impacts connected to the social economy sector in the different European countries in order to identify the rights skills, with a focus on the disability sector;
b) propose a training aimed at a “new governance”, which emphasises an inclusive and co-productive approach. The field of disability is particularly interesting as its structures are at the centre of local and social development for the social and socio-professional inclusion of vulnerable people.
c) aims to carry on the work already undertaken and to develop an innovative project, both for the actors involved and for the methods used, based on the fundamental principles of responsibility, transparency, rule of law and participation (as recommended by COMCADES-1 and mentioned in Cahiers d’ARFIE n° 5/2010).
d) directly associates SE actors to the new undertaken activities by formalising a common European dimension via the intellectual outputs foreseen in the project, in line with the first project, which stressed the imperative to integrate the European dimension as added value, of local / national training courses (Cahiers d’ARFIE n ° 5/2010).

Coordinated by Tricentenaire, a new partnership has now decided to take over from the original partnership and commit to continue its work and develop an innovative project, aimed at:
– strengthening the skills of professionals by developing a professional training for managers of the SE to be tested in dedicated pilots in each country involved. The strength of the project lies particularly in the setting up of a transnational European vision of governing issues in the field of SE and disability;
– laying the foundations for a European recognition of this training programme (based on a European qualification framework)

Therefore, the objectives of the action are:
– to build an innovative professional training path for managers of SE companies in Europe and promote their mobility and lifelong learning. The originality of this project lies in the building-up method of the courses, based on a crossover analyses of professional practices in the field connected to more theoretical anchors.
The training modules will be organised into training units that will be tested in each country during the pilots.
– Strengthen cooperation between SE actors to support the development of this sector in Europe;
– Create a European network of SE decision-makers, in order to share and disseminate values and tools, and develop a common discussion on professional training and innovation.

In a long term perspective, COMCADES2 aims to:
– test and implement a European training program for managers of SE companies,
– Lay the foundations for a European recognition of the training cycle,
– Lay the foundations for a European e-learning training platform.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 376930 Eur

Project Coordinator

Tricentenaire asbl & Country: LU

Project Partners

• FENACERCI – FEDERACAO NACIONAL DE COOPERATIVAS DE SOLIDARIEDADE SOCIAL COOPERATIVA FCRL
• CERCIG
• FUNDACIO AMPANS
• Cooperativa Assistenza Disabili infermi Anziani Infanzia
• Association de Recherche et de Formation sur l’Insertion en Europe
• DEMETRA FORMAZIONE SRL
• Fondation A.P.E.M.H. (Association de Parents d’Enfants Mentalement Handicapés)