Increasing Students’ Employability Skills & Economic Growth Through Social Enterprise Erasmus Project

Project Title

Increasing Students’ Employability Skills & Economic Growth Through Social Enterprise

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; Regional dimension and cooperation

Project Summary

The ‘Increasing Students’ Employability Skills and Economic Growth through Social Enterprise’ project, known as ‘ESSE’ began in January 2015 and officially ended in August 2017, although our partnership continues. Our project brought together expertise from seven transnational partners from the VET, HE, public and third sectors: City College Plymouth (CCP; the Lead), Plymouth Social Enterprise Network (PSEN); University of Plymouth; Materahub in Italy; Urkraft in Sweden; Gemeente ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands; and Zukunftsbau gGmbH in Germany. The project was built to realise synergies between different sectors of VET, HE and school environments across the transnational partnership, developing active citizenship through social responsibility, sharing best practice through the development of training and learning resources with multiple applications. The project aimed to harness and share best practices of social entrepreneurship taking place at organisational, sector, city and regional level throughout the partnership. From its first management meeting in February 2015, considerable activity has taken place and a strong, collaborative partnership has been established. The ESSE partnership developed three Intellectual Outputs:

O1 Train the Trainer (TtT) – Embedding Social Entrepreneurship in VET – Joint transnational development of an innovative training course in social enterprise, enabling staff and practitioners to confidently embed social entrepreneurship within their vocational training and maximise benefits to learners;
O2 Social Business Models for Transnational VET environments – exploration of the process of developing social business models in each transnational partner’s country resulted in the creation of a portfolio of case studies that multiplies the impact of the project and provides additional training and support resources for the Train the Trainer course; and
O3 Peer-to-Peer Mentoring and Coaching – Establishment of an online peer-to-peer learning and coaching network across VET organisations from the transnational partnership, supporting sharing of knowledge, best practice and providing useful resources and benefits.

These outputs were developed and enhanced through two Training Seminars, 5-day training courses held in Plymouth and Berlin – bringing together practitioners and experts for an active learning programme, showcasing exemplars and sharing best practices; and were promoted and shared through multiplier events held by each partner, also growing their social enterprise networks and sharing good practices, locally, regionally and transnationally.

ESSE partners and participants of the Train the Trainer course perceived the course to have had an influential effect; strengthening participants’ entrepreneurial skills, increasing their knowledge about social enterprise, and improving their confidence and awareness of EU frameworks. Both partners and participants also felt the course had the potential to provide the students of the trainers who took part in the course with alternative career options. Indeed, participants believed the course would subsequently impact on their students’ knowledge and awareness of the employability skills they required, as well as increasing their initiative and skills for new business creation, and broadening their options in terms of practical work experiences.

More widely, project partners felt that their own knowledge of social enterprise has been enriched by this process, and that their understanding about broader topics such as government and education systems has developed considerably since starting the project. Most notably, however, is how original expectations of the project have been exceeded; ESSE has achieved much more than originally envisaged, expanding the project’s impact from higher and vocational education to cities, councils, and cultures. This has been facilitated through effective collaboration, bringing together a variety of skills and perspectives to not only create a suite of creative outputs, but develop partnerships, both internally and externally, which will extend beyond the project’s legacy.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 252197,08 Eur

Project Coordinator

City College Plymouth & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Plymouth Social Enterprise Network CIC
• GEMEENTE ‘S-HERTOGENBOSCH
• Zukunftsbau gGmbH
• UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH
• Föreningen Urkraft
• CONSORZIO MATERAHUB INDUSTRIE CULTURALI E CREATIVE