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. 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.

Recent research and publications have publicised the relationship between entrepreneurship and mental illness in a range of forms. This was brought to international attention by a range of presentations to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos in 2019. Entrepreneurs provide economic benefit to any society in which they operate yet little consideration has been given to their mental well-being (MWB) in an increasingly challenging business environment. These are real concerns as the nature of employment across Europe and globally are changing towards an emphasis on micro-businesses and enterprise relying on more and more young people setting up start-up companies. According to a study presented at DAVOS, approximately one half of entrepreneurs suffer from at least one form of mental health condition during their lifetimes. The project seeks to support young entrepreneurs across Europe and to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of European start-ups by developing supportive educational materials that encourage reflection, understanding, diagnosis and ensure mental resilience and are non-judgemental and are directly supportive of their health and well being. The objectives of the project are as follows:1.Engage with entrepreneurs to identify the key areas where support is needed for the maintenance of mental health and work-life balance;2.Identify European good practice and implement best and proactive practices of mental health support supported by published case study materials for disseminate to a range of target groups.3.Assess effective approaches to ensure health and well-being that are practised in Europe and publish such findings throughout Europe;4.Deliver training and awareness programmes covering all aspects of mental health and well-being to support new entrepreneurs;5.Publish case study materials, teaching cases, training materials, fact sheets that support the mental health and well being of entrepreneurs to ensure 24/7 access.The project will result in a State of the Art Report and a detailed Needs Analysis and will initiate a thematic network of new start entrepreneurs. A curriculum and proactive and interactive training materials will be developed, using case studies and real life experience, which will be accessible 24/7 via VLEs and a MOOC.The partnership is made up of three universities, two SMEs, two associations and two social enterprises, organised into three clusters (HE, enterprise and dissemination clusters) to implement five measurable objectives; three Intellectual Outputs; two Teaching and Learning Activities for would-be entrepreneurs and two Multiplier Events. This project will make an innovative contribution to the MWB of entrepreneurs, which is innovative for an Erasmus+ project. The focus of innovation is to provide unique self-help and self supportive training materials that will (1) support young entrepreneurs in understanding the qualitative dimension of entrepreneurship; (2) prepare young start-ups for the challenges and demands of entrepreneurship in advance and (3) provide a resource that can add value to an existing vocational programme of business and/ or enterprise studies and (4) add value to the business start-up support that is currently provided.The exact nature of the final training materials is that they are relevant to the needs of entrepreneurs and the directors of new start enterprises, and will be determined by entrepreneurs. There will be focus groups and surveys including entrepreneurs that will confirm the nature of the learning and training materials. Crucial to these identified subject areas is the exploration of interactive and experiential pedagogic approaches. The final training materials will be available to start-up and would-be entrepreneurs, business and enterprise undergraduates and alumni, and will be made available to partners and associated partners that provide business support to start-up companies. The curriculum content will also remain available for 24/7 access via the Powerhub Talent VLE as hosted by Mediasphere and the MOOC developed by the university partners within this partnership. The results anticipated as a consequence of the development and successful completion of this project proposal are in direct support of the EU’s Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan, with special consideration of the third area of the Action Plan, which is nurturing the new generation of entrepreneurs.Within the target groups foreseen, there will be approximately 150 - 200 direct beneficiaries involved in the trialling of the curriculum model. They will be new-start entrepreneurs and/ or completing students and alumni from the participant universities. The number of indirect beneficiaries as a result of attending the workshops and final conference and through networking activities will be 2,000 with still greater numbers, a further 2,000 at least as a consequence of direct access to the on-line dissemination platform.

The Third Way is a project devised to improve communication and knowledge sharing between the vocational and higher education sector and social enterprises (The so-called Third Sector). At the heart of the project proposal is the development of a new curriculum pathway for students from different educational domains around vocational and business subjects wishing to become social entrepreneurs and/ or create social enterprises. The curriculum devised will be available in digital form such as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) or through Open and Distance Learning (ODL) via a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) as well as delivered as innovative Face-to-face programmes of study. The project proposal supports the development of new curricular pathways through a process of knowledge sharing and communication. It shall be embedded into existing education programmes to ensure an effective outreach. It supports the social aims and objectives of the Third Sector and flexibility and modularity is intended to ensure maximum uptake and enrolment. The partnership is composed in a transversal way combining a larger group of partners from different European regions with corresponding heterogeneous competencies. Two relevant networks outside Europe in Iran and Central Asia even extend the outreach of the project and will also trigger the development in a way that goes beyond a completely Europe-centred focus.The project proposal was devised during a workshop at the Businet conference in Vilamoura, Portugal in November 2018. It has the broad aim of narrowing the divide in understanding between traditional business curricula in Vocational and Higher Education and the growing sector of social enterprises. While across Europe more and more young people are turning to social enterprises, the Third Sector, this partnership is keen to recognise this and support and inform their choices and lead them towards this ‘Third Way’ of doing business. The Third Way (T3W) is a project that requires HEIs with focus on (vocational) education and business development, to work with the economic sector in the form of European social enterprises to develop a curriculum for business undergraduates in partnership with the Third Sector. The project has the primary aim to create innovative and accessible learning programmes that support understanding and awareness of social enterprises. This project does not just target vocational and undergraduate students and graduates but also those lecturers that are delivering business related training programmes in higher education institutions. The university partners will work with social enterprises and aspiring social entrepreneurs to produce a curriculum model and MOOC that offers information about social enterprise, for social enterprise and provides learning through social enterprise. As well as the MOOC, the devised curriculum will stand alone as a ‘Face to Face’ programme of study delivered via a series of interactive workshops. This project represents a serious attempt to ensure social enterprise becomes an integrated component of the higher education business curriculum. It will also support the social enterprise sector to recruit from a pool of graduates and trainees with the required sector-specific skills and knowledge. An essential outcome of the project proposed is knowledge sharing and the potential for access to greater mobility across the EU alongside the formal recognition of the proposed lifelong learning, which again this project will bring about. New initiatives in the business curriculum will support models for social businesses and will be generated through this proposed initiative. New strategies for successful and innovative delivery will be developed and shared across the project teams. The project is committed to the Objectives and Priorities of the 2020 Call such as (1) social inclusion in education and training and (2) open education and innovative practices in a digital era. 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 result of the project is an integrated pan-European approach to the educational support for social business in all of its forms. This is supported by the following five objectives:1.To identify and analyse the detailed requirements of related stakeholders across Europe to identify their specific needs;2.To establish a platform for communication, co-operation, training and resources;3.To develop a prototype social enterprise curriculum for business support that is available both on-line (as a MOOC) and as a face-to-face activity. 4.To establish (and further grow) European (global) networks of social entrepreneurs;.5.To provide internships/ work experiences across a range of European social enterprises.