Social Entrepreneurship for Community Empowerment

Project Summary

The imperative of Social Entrepreneurship is to drive social change, and it is that potential payoff, with its lasting, transformational benefit to society, that sets the field and its practitioners apart from other ventures. It is an approach in which individuals or groups develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues.

Social entrepreneurship can contribute significantly towards achieving the objective of the Europe 2020 strategy: building smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, by fostering employment and social cohesion and it can also contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The Social Economy in the EU is made up of 2 million enterprises, representing 10% of all European enterprises, and employ over 14 million paid employees (the equivalent of 6.5% of the working population in the EU). Each country has different approaches, and takes different pathways towards social entrepreneurship.

Social enterprises create jobs, provide socially innovative services and goods, facilitate social inclusion and promote a more sustainable economy. Social enterprises also tend to be better integrated within the communities they serve and where their social impact is felt.

Despite its growing importance, there is a paucity of Adult Educators with the competence to support its uptake, particularly amongst low-skilled and low-qualified adults; and a lack of high quality learning materials on social enterprise for them to use.

In preparing for this project, our partnership undertook a survey using Google forms across the 6 partner countries (UK, Spain, Greece, Lithuania, Austria and Turkey) with a total sample of 292 social entrepreneurs/unemployed adults, in order to better understand the needs and expectations our target groups. The survey asked about knowledge and skill requirements for social entrepreneurship. 71% of respondents identified an urgent need for training/learning processes to develop the skills and competences needed for effective social entrepreneurship, 14% of adults said they don't need any support, and 15% of adults were unsure. Based on the results of this survey and our desk research, we identified a clear need for the provision of innovative developmental support for adults aspiring to become social entrepreneurs.

Although we appreciate that the potential benefits offered by social entrepreneurship are clear to many, the actual definition of what social entrepreneurs do to drive social change is less clear. Education plays a significant role in developing positive attitudes towards social entrepreneurship and can help to foster understanding of its specific functioning and role in society. Indeed, through education, people can learn how social enterprises work and contribute both to social and economic outcomes.

The project is designed to create innovative open source training interventions and materials that integrate tools and methods for developing effective social entrepreneurship primarily through self-employment.

Its purpose is to provide a learning model and high quality learning materials for use by adult educators working with aspiring social entrepreneurs in order to contribute to the success of their social enterprises.

Our main objective is to enhance the employability of adults and their position in the labour market, developing their competencies and skills for social entrepreneurship through digital tools and game based learning.

The project aims are to:

• Raise awareness of social entrepreneurship among adults and promote its concepts in self-employment
• Offer Adult Educators new approaches to the development of social entrepreneurship competence, including through provision of practical resources: a training manual, MOOC, digital tools and a board game, that focus on the development of the soft skills essential for the formation of an entrepreneurial mindset
• Support adult educators, trainers and other experts in gaining the specific competence required for the provision of high quality education in social entrepreneurship for adults

The 6 experienced project partners will deliver a learning model and high quality learning materials for use by adult educators with aspiring and new social entrepreneurs. It will produce the following tangible outputs:

• 1 Training Manual for Adult Educators working with social entrepreneurs (teaching materials, lesson plans, practical tools)
• 1 MOOC: Social Entrepreneurship Education for Social Entrepreneurs.
• 1 Board Game for Social Entrepreneurs
• 6 Local Training Interventions (150 aspiring social entrepreneurs)
• 6 Local Piloting and Evaluation Reports
• 6 Multiplier Events

The project will add value to the social entrepreneurship model for each partner country. In the project, our objectives are raising awareness in social entrepreneurship, providing support to the social enterprises and potential social entrepreneurs through the innovative tools.

Target Group of the Project: Educators / parents

Coordinator:

• APRICOT TRAINING MANAGEMENT LTD - United Kingdom

Partners:

• ANAPTIXIAKO KENTRO THESSALIAS - Greece
• INSTALOFI LEVANTE SL - Spain
• VIENNA ASSOCIATION OF EDUCATION VOLUNTEERS - Austria
• EUROPOS SOCIALINIS VERSLUMO UGDYMO IR INOVATYVIU STUDIJU INSTITUTAS - Lithuania
• Aydin Valiligi - Turkey