Learn more about worker co-op Erasmus Project

Project Title

Learn more about worker co-op

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

Echoing the European Union’s “Entrepreneurship 2020” action plan and the will of new generations to undertake with meaning, the #COOPLAB project aims to make 15-20-year-olds and their teachers aware of the problem. cooperative entrepreneurship, based on employee participation, co-operative work and equitable sharing of power, decisions and results.

The #COOPLAB project brings together five partners from four countries (France, Belgium, Spain, Italy), including two partners representing companies in the cooperative economy, two partners from the world of education and training, and a publisher partner of a student cooperative magazine:

– The main mission of the General Confederation of Scop (France) is to represent and support the 3,000 Scop and Scic in France (54,000 employees – € 4.6 billion turnover). It works in a network with 12 regional unions;
– Cecop (Belgium) is the European Confederation of Workers’ Cooperatives (the equivalent of CG Scop at European level). It brings together nearly 50,000 companies (15 European countries) employing 1.5 million workers;
– the Fundacion Escuela de Economía Social (Spain), an Andalusian School of Social Economy, responds to the education and training needs of its members by developing innovative programs to improve the performance of the social economy sector in Andalusia;
– Irecoop, a cooperative training center in Emilia-Romagna (Italy), meets the education and training needs of regional cooperative enterprises and young pupils and students;
– Scop Alternatives Economiques (France) publishes the eponymous monthly Alternative Economiques, a French magazine on economic and social news. The magazine, published with 90,000 copies, has nearly 70,000 subscribers, mainly high school students, students and teachers in the economic and social sectors.

The project, implemented thanks to the complementary skills of partners and service providers and with the involvement of end-users, resulted in the production of the following tools:

– a website intended to be a platform of European educational resources for young people and their teachers interested in the business model and working in a cooperative. The #COOPLAB site is designed to propose the resources produced within the framework of the project, but also thanks to a resource center to promote and promote the resources produced by others and which are part of the objective of the project. The site also allows those who create projects, especially with educational resources to enhance and put it online on the site #COOPLAB. The site also presents the essentials on work cooperatives and social cooperatives (definitions, principles, key figures, organization, etc.) and links to the project’s partner sites.
– three videos of testimonials from young European co-workers who compare their comparative experience through 3 themes: 1) why we undertake and why we work in cooperative 2) another relationship to work and 3) cooperative, a socially responsible company
– an educational kit of 45 documents and produced in 4 languages ​​for teachers (total of 180 documents). Appointed Start to Coop, the pedagogical kit proposes to young people to test in class or in formation the creation of a cooperative project and this in 5 steps: 1) to find the idea, 2) to define the strategy 3) to define an organization and a functioning 4) follow the implementation and 5) the balance of the 4 previous steps.
– a quiz in the form of a serious game to test while having fun with his knowledge and this in connection with each of the 5 stages of Start to Coop.
– Throughout the project and especially in recent months, the tools produced were presented, tested and used first by teachers, then directly in class with young people. #COOPLAB was also presented to the actors of the European Cooperative Movement and their members. The kit was the subject of a communication through the usual channels: press relations, social networks, articles, massive awareness campaign among teachers … Note the particular contribution of the partner Alternatives Economiques which, as economic magazine very close to high schools and youth, published an article for the launch of #COOPLAB and sent an e-mailing to all teachers of economics and management in France.

Scheduled over a period of 24 months (1/09/2015 to 1/09/2017), the project finally lasted 29 months. It has achieved its goal of creating the first European reference site for teachers, students and students who want to discover cooperatives of associated workers.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 220659 Eur

Project Coordinator

Confédération générale des Scop & Country: FR

Project Partners

• CONFEDERATION EUROPEENNE DES COOPERATIVES DE TRAVAIL DES COOPERATIVESSOCIALES ET DES ENTREPRISES SOCIALES ET PARTICIPATIVES AISBL
• IRECOOP EMILIA ROMAGNA SOC. COOP.
• Fundación Escuela Andaluza de Economía Social
• Alternatives Economiques Scop SA