Social Keys for Social Entrepreneurship Erasmus Project

Project Title

Social Keys for Social Entrepreneurship

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 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship)

Project Summary

The project “Social Keys for social entrepreneurship” concerns the Social Economy sector, which is one of the most important economic sectors in Europe, with a significant occupational relevance. Based on available evidence, it is estimated that the social economy in Europe engages over 14.5 million paid employees, equivalent to about 6.5% of the working population of the EU-27. The significant contribution of the social economy to economic development and wellbeing has been confirmed by the recent economic crisis that has highlighted social economy and entrepreneurship generating new employment and help preserving existing jobs.
The key challenges for social economy organisations is the lack of specialized training and education in the sector. To overcome this challenge it is necessary a better capacity building for social economy organisations, starting with specialized programmes. However, it is also worth mentioning that most social entrepreneurs are not university graduates and if they have had a training, more often it was a VET or adult training. The very large and diversified range of activities and professional figures related to social economy across Europe often are not clearly defined in terms of learning outcomes. Moreover, workers in the sector are finding obstacles to pursue further training due to lack of recognised qualifications in this field.
Taking this context into consideration, the project “Social Keys” was implemented aiming at the development and testing in different European countries of COHERENT COMMON CURRICULA AND COURSES, focused on work based learning, virtual mobility, open educational resources and virtual laboratories/workplaces adapted to labour market needs, for the qualifications in the social economy sector.

Particularly, the project’s main objectives were:
– The promotion of Social Economy as one of the most important economic sectors
– The validation of qualifications of professionals in social entrepreneurship sector, though the application of the analysis of Knowledge, Skills and Competences according to the EQF
– The contribution to the reduction in the number of low-skilled adults (by re-skilling and up-skilling them)

For the achievement of these objectives, a series of complementary activities and outputs has been implemented during the project lifetime:
– Preparatory research for the analysis of the social enterpreneurship field in each participating country and presentation of experiences and good practices already implemented
– Action Plan for the ECVET process to be activated in the social entrepreneurship sector
– Definition of the design of the new European Common Professional Qualifications in social entrepreneurship sector
– MoU ECVET for the new European common VET qualifications in social entrepreneurship sector
– Design of the common European VET curricula and courses corresponding to the common competence standards established by MoU ECVET. The training course was implemented in the form of blended mobility (combination of on-line and on-site training in a foreign country) of trainees.
– Definition of common models for Learning Agreements ECVET, and for ECVET Credits Awarding, to be applied within the VET courses
– Activities for the endorsement of the new European common professional and training standards
– Project’s policy recommendations

The project consortium was composed by 5 partners from 4 countries of the EU:
– Hellenic Management Association- Lead partner (Greece) is a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to contribute to the promotion and dissemination of modern management principles and practices.
– Scuola Nazionale Servizi Foundation (Italy) aggregates 40 entities for the purpose of promotion and diffusion of applied research and innovation.
– DIESIS COOP (Belgium) is a non-profit European Research and Development Service for the Social Economy, aiming to support the development of social enterprises in Europe via the implementation of knowledge-based activities.
– Caritas Archidiecezji Gdanskiej (Poland) is a charity organization of the catholic church of Gdansk Diocese, working in the area of social help.
– Regione Umbria – Direzione Programmazione – Servizio Istruzione (Italy) is the regional department in charge of planning in the sector of education and training.

The expected impact from the implementation of the project, was very significant since the competences acquired in the social entrepreneurship sector are strongly needed by the national and international labour markets and constitute an important drive for employment. Moreover, the use of the innovative training process, based on the use of ECVET tools could give a significant contribution not only to the competitiveness of social entrepreneurship sector, but also fosters VET quality improvements, innovation excellence and internationalization, achieved through the enhanced transnational cooperation between VET providers and stakeholders.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 320318,6 Eur

Project Coordinator

ELLINIKI ETAIRIA DIOIKISEOS EPICHIRISEON & Country: EL

Project Partners

• FONDAZIONE SCUOLA NAZIONALE SERVIZI
• Caritas Archidiecezji Gdanskiej
• Regione Umbria
• DIESIS COOP