Social ENTrepreneurship for IMmigrants Erasmus Project

Project Title

Social ENTrepreneurship for IMmigrants

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

Social entrepreneurship is an option that generates new opportunities for decent employment, eradicates disadvantage situations and promotes social cohesion. The goal of Sentim is to promote social entrepreneurship among immigrants who still suffer the effects of the crisis. The situation of crisis and unemployment has hit hard immigrants who suffer long periods of inactivity or suffer from job insecurity. These are situations that increase their sensation of personal fail. It is necessary to find new options that generate decent employment opportunities that eradicate situations of disadvantage and promote social cohesion.

Taking into account those situations and the huge potential of social economy and its contributions to the local development, the main goal of SENTIM has been to explore and to take advantage of the potential of social economy considering the needs of the immigrants and by extension the needs of any other people who face labour market discrimination and social exclusion. After the experience developing Sentim project, we consider self-employment and social economy not only as an answer to the current situation of unemployment but as an opportunity for immigrants.

In the framework of Sentim, we have had the opportunity to develop better models, adjusted to the needs of immigrants, with high transfer capacity and which will help stimulate economic growth and job creation at local level in the framework of the social economy:
• Facilitating the implementation of new social economy initiatives through the development of new measures to accompany and support individual and social entrepreneurship.
• Through the identification, evaluation and training in specific skills for entrepreneurship.
• Identifying opportunities for the development of employment-generating projects in the framework of the social economy.

SENTIM has been developed by four organizations: GO Bufalini (Italy), Step (Slovenia), IED (Greece) and Burgos Acoge (Spain), with a wide experience in entrepreneurship and social economy, working with immigrants, developing methodologies, providing VET services adapted to different people, development of skills and competences and social innovation. Taking advantage of this experience and diverse knowledge, within the framework of SENTIM, new methods and methodologies have been developed to improve entrepreneurship and the social economy, such as the following:
– Methodology for the identification of interests for entrepreneurship.
– Methodology to assess and train entrepreneurship skills.
– Methodology to accompany and support individual and social entrepreneurship.
– Methods to find business opportunities that can be implemented in the framework of the social economy.
All these methods and methodologies have been tested and validated through different workshops, training and support activities in which dozens of people, both immigrants and professionals, have participated.

SENTIM offers the digital publications of all the results and three open courses (Sentim e-learning) to train interested professionals, especially those who work with immigrants and people at risk of social exclusion; professionals related to training; who work in entrepreneurship centers; political leaders; and, of course, immigrants or people at risk of social exclusion.

A change of mentality is already being perceived in our immediate surroundings: Professionals from the social, training and employment sectors are beginning to consider the social economy as an opportunity to create new jobs for immigrants and other disadvantaged people.

Those who have had the opportunity to participate in the development of the project have discovered not only the benefits of transnationality, but also new ways of promoting entrepreneurship, new training tools and to accompany immigrants on the path of entrepreneurship. As a result of Sentim, Burgos Acoge is providing a new support service in entrepreneurship whose results, to date, are the creation of a cooperative with 19 immigrants (in progress) and the start-up of three new companies promoted by immigrants.

In organizations that work with immigrants and other disadvantaged people, thanks to Sentim’s workshops and other actions, professionals are better prepared and motivated, and can provide migrants with tools and personal resources to entrepreneurship. There is also a better disposition toward entrepreneurship, social initiatives are considered an option to create employment for immigrants. One example is the creation of a Social Economy Working Group within the Integration Commission of the Council of Burgos.

Sentim’s methods and results are being used by other organizations in workshops and courses to promote social entrepreneurship.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 239706 Eur

Project Coordinator

Burgos Acoge & Country: ES

Project Partners

• STEP Institut, zavod za psihologijo dela in podjetnistvo
• INSTITOUTO ANAPTIXIS EPICHEIRIMATIKOTITAS ASTIKI ETAIREIA
• Opera Pia Officina Operaia G.O. Bufalini