Development of a new curriculum that supports and promotes Social Enterprise as a destination of choice for European vocational and higher education graduates. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Development of a new curriculum that supports and promotes Social Enterprise as a destination of choice for European vocational and higher education graduates.

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Cooperation between educational institutions and business; Social entrepreneurship / social innovation; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

The Third Way is a project devised to improve communication and knowledge sharing between the vocational and higher education sector and social enterprises (The so-called Third Sector). At the heart of the project proposal is the development of a new curriculum pathway for students from different educational domains around vocational and business subjects wishing to become social entrepreneurs and/ or create social enterprises. The curriculum devised will be available in digital form such as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) or through Open and Distance Learning (ODL) via a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) as well as delivered as innovative Face-to-face programmes of study. The project proposal supports the development of new curricular pathways through a process of knowledge sharing and communication. It shall be embedded into existing education programmes to ensure an effective outreach. It supports the social aims and objectives of the Third Sector and flexibility and modularity is intended to ensure maximum uptake and enrolment. The partnership is composed in a transversal way combining a larger group of partners from different European regions with corresponding heterogeneous competencies. Two relevant networks outside Europe in Iran and Central Asia even extend the outreach of the project and will also trigger the development in a way that goes beyond a completely Europe-centred focus.

The project proposal was devised during a workshop at the Businet conference in Vilamoura, Portugal in November 2018. It has the broad aim of narrowing the divide in understanding between traditional business curricula in Vocational and Higher Education and the growing sector of social enterprises. While across Europe more and more young people are turning to social enterprises, the Third Sector, this partnership is keen to recognise this and support and inform their choices and lead them towards this ‘Third Way’ of doing business. The Third Way (T3W) is a project that requires HEIs with focus on (vocational) education and business development, to work with the economic sector in the form of European social enterprises to develop a curriculum for business undergraduates in partnership with the Third Sector. The project has the primary aim to create innovative and accessible learning programmes that support understanding and awareness of social enterprises.

This project does not just target vocational and undergraduate students and graduates but also those lecturers that are delivering business related training programmes in higher education institutions. The university partners will work with social enterprises and aspiring social entrepreneurs to produce a curriculum model and MOOC that offers information about social enterprise, for social enterprise and provides learning through social enterprise. As well as the MOOC, the devised curriculum will stand alone as a ‘Face to Face’ programme of study delivered via a series of interactive workshops. This project represents a serious attempt to ensure social enterprise becomes an integrated component of the higher education business curriculum. It will also support the social enterprise sector to recruit from a pool of graduates and trainees with the required sector-specific skills and knowledge.

An essential outcome of the project proposed is knowledge sharing and the potential for access to greater mobility across the EU alongside the formal recognition of the proposed lifelong learning, which again this project will bring about. New initiatives in the business curriculum will support models for social businesses and will be generated through this proposed initiative. New strategies for successful and innovative delivery will be developed and shared across the project teams. The project is committed to the Objectives and Priorities of the 2020 Call such as (1) social inclusion in education and training and (2) open education and innovative practices in a digital era. The conceptualization of the project owes much to the social inclusion dimension of Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve communiqué (2009) and the Bucharest communiqué of 2012 with its emphasis on providing higher education for all, enhancing employability and strengthened mobility.

The result of the project is an integrated pan-European approach to the educational support for social business in all of its forms. This is supported by the following five objectives:
1. To identify and analyse the detailed requirements of related stakeholders across Europe to identify their specific needs;
2. To establish a platform for communication, co-operation, training and resources;
3. To develop a prototype social enterprise curriculum for business support that is available both on-line (as a MOOC) and as a face-to-face activity.
4. To establish (and further grow) European (global) networks of social entrepreneurs;.
5. To provide internships/ work experiences across a range of European social enterprises.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 284338 Eur

Project Coordinator

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET DRESDEN & Country: DE

Project Partners

• MENDELOVA UNIVERZITA V BRNE
• UC LEUVEN
• INSTITUTO DE EMPREENDEDORISMO SOCIAL
• Shliakhietnyja izdelija
• AC Amics de la Biblioteca de la Fonteta
• Organisational Learning Centre
• STICHTING AVANS