Project title: „A European approach to the development of educational support for social businesses“
Programme: ERASMUS + K2
Project summary:
Social enterprises are an important driver for inclusive growth and play a key role in tackling current economic and environmental challenges. It is estimated that they employ some 14.5 million people, 6.5% of the workforce in the European Union. The European Commission has given support to the development of social enterprises and in 2011 has launched the Social Business Initiative. Yet, only eight countries (Bulgaria, Greece, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Sweden, and United Kingdom) have a policy framework in place to encourage and support the development of social enterprises. In addition, “the lack of business support and development structures, training, and workforce development” is one of the five main barriers faced by social enterprises, according to the first in-depth study on mapping social entrepreneurship in all member states commissioned by the European Commission.
The project aims to address the lack of business support and development structures, training, and workforce development by developing an online incubator for social enterprises where they are able to offer technical support, training and achieve knowledge transfer from the most advanced countries/regions (UK, Germany) to countries with least experience (Cyprus) but also by creating a common curricula for the managers and trainers of these support structures, which will include thematic units as the SEN
The outputs of the project:
1.To identify and analyse stakeholders and existing Social Business Support Providers (SBSPs). across Europe to identify specific needs
2.To establish the Online Incubator which is a platform for communication, co-operation, training and resources.
3.The exchange of training and best practice of SBSPs/ infrastructures across Europe.
4.To develop a model of social business support (SBSM).
5.To establish a European (global) network of social business support providers (SBSPs).
Project aim: The project aim is to develop an integrated pan-European approach to the educational and training support of social business in all of its forms.
Project objectives:
To identify and analyse stakeholders and existing Social Business Support Providers (SBSPs) across Europe to identify specific needs by February 2016.To establish the Online Incubator which is a platform for communication, co-operation, training and resources by August 2016.The exchange of training and best practice of SBSPs/ infrastructures across Europe by March 2017To develop a model of social business support (SBSM) by October 2016To establish a European (global) network of social business support providers (SBSPs) by March 2017
Partners:
The Enterprise Centre Ltd, UK
Technische Universitaet Dresden, Germany
Synthesis Center for Research and Education LTD, Cyprus
VsI Socialiniu inovaciju centras, Lithuania
AC Amics de la Biblioteca de la Fonteta, Spain
Aydin Valiligi AB VE dis Iliskiler Koordinasyon Merkezi, Turkey
Instituto de Empreendedorismo Social, Portugal
Duration: 01/09/2015 – 31/08/2017