
The Enterprise Centre Ltd
The Enterprise Centre Ltd
1 Projects, page 1 of 1
assignment_turned_in ProjectPartners:The Enterprise Centre Ltd, Aydin Valiligi, AC Amics de la Biblioteca de la Fonteta, VsI Socialiniu inovaciju centras, SYNTHESIS CENTER FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION LIMITED +2 partnersThe Enterprise Centre Ltd,Aydin Valiligi,AC Amics de la Biblioteca de la Fonteta,VsI Socialiniu inovaciju centras,SYNTHESIS CENTER FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION LIMITED,TUD,INSTITUTO DE EMPREENDEDORISMO SOCIALFunder: European Commission Project Code: 2015-1-UK01-KA202-013844Funder Contribution: 176,803 EURSocial 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. This barrier in training and support was also identified in a report by Richardson (2013) commissioned by the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE), which brought together public authorities and social enterprise organisations with extensive experience of developing strategies to support social enterprises. SENSCOT (2015) has made the following recommendations to policy makers, in terms of start up support and training: • Start-up support should be provided at two levels: mainstream business advisers should be capable of giving initial advice, and should signpost potential social entrepreneurs to a specialist support infrastructure, well linked to existing federal and support bodies of the social economy• Training for social entrepreneurs should focus on leadership• Training support should be provided that is appropriate to the enterprise life-cycle; start-up support of should include new business creation but also also worker takeovers and growth plans, include diversification, replication, acquisition and stronger relationships with conventional enterprises.• Networking capacity of social enterprises should be geared by supporting scaling and replication mechanisms such as social franchising• Social Impact Measurement methods which provide an evidence base should be supportedThe project aimed 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 SENCOT has identified. The recommendations made by SENSCOT were:• Social Entrepreneurship (for mainstream business advisors)• Leadership for Social Entrepreneurs• Social Impact Measurement Tool• Social FranchisingOne of the essential outcomes of this project proposal was access to greater mobility across the EU alongside the formal recognition of the lifelong learning that this will bring. New initiatives in training and business will support models for social businesses and were generated through this initiative. New strategies for successful and innovative delivery were developed and shared across the project teams. The project was in line with the General Objectives of Erasmus Plus, which is explicitly, the implementation of the EU2020 and ET2020 strategies and the EU HE Modernization Strategy of 2011, with particular emphasis on capacity building, harmonization of training and the development of strategic partnerships. The project was also committed to the Priorities of the 2015 Call especially the priorities previously identified and in addition: the development and ultimate accreditation of basic life skills as well as transversal skills such as innovation and creativity, working with under-represented groups as part of a commitment to Equality and Inclusion, and using new and innovative approaches to teaching and learning. The conceptualization of the project owes much to the social inclusion dimension of Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve communiqué (2009) and the Bucharest communiqué of 2012 with its emphasis on providing higher education for all, enhancing employability and strengthened mobility.The project aim was to develop an integrated pan-European approach to the educational and training support of social business in all of its forms.
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