Using Social Entrepreneurship in Erasmus+ - USEE+

What does Gandhi have to do with social entrepreneurship?

Social entrepreneurship is gaining increasing attention, driven by the desire for change and to see the world as it can be, not as it is. The global economy and national GDPs rely more each time on social economy and the proposal of ethical business based on transparency, sustainability, and tangible and intangible profits and benefits for all stakeholders.

The aim of the course is to create awareness about social economy and social enterprises, appreciate the role of social entrepreneurship that creates social change, deepen participants understanding of the world around them, and to inspire them to create a vision where their passion and desire for change meets self-employability.

As Gandhi said: “be the change you want to see in the world”.

Objectives

• Understand what social entrepreneurship is and its relation to sustainable development.
• Explore different social enterprise approaches and identify different models through showcasing and local study visits.
• Learn about the social impact of social enterprises.
• Create a social enterprise business plan.
• Explore Erasmus+ for entrepreneurial education and source of social enterprises  starting point.
• Acquire practical tools for social entrepreneurs (needs analysis using the ‘problem tree method’, business plan development through the ‘business model canvas’, pitching tools.
• Develop competencies, necessary for social entrepreneurs, such as cooperation, risk taking, sense of initiative, leadership, communication, teamwork, creative thinking and innovation for idea generation and problem solving.

The methodology used will be based on principles of non-formal and experiential learning with an emphasis on the experiential learning cycle of Kolb. Participants will be invited to a safe and comfortable space to express, experiment, interact and participate according to their personality and learning preference. In this way, we seek to maximize the learning outcomes but also the motivation and inspiration to engage with social and solidarity economy.

Target Group

Youth workers, youth leaders, project managers, young people, members of youth social enterprises that are or plan to be engaged within social and solidarity economy. The training course is tailored in a way that can benefit both educational (including youth workers) and social entrepreneurship practitioners who intend to use, multiply and transfer the learning outcomes.