Social Economy is one of the most important economic sector in Europe, with a significant occupational relevance. Based on available evidence, it is estimated that the social economy in Europe – measured as the aggregate of cooperatives, mutuals, associations and foundations – engages over 14.5 million paid employees, equivalent to about 6.5% of the working population of the EU-27. The social economy has increased more than proportionately between 2002-03 and 2009-10, increasing from 11 million to 14.5 million jobs. The significant contribution of the social economy to economic development and wellbeing has been confirmed by the recent economic crisis that has highlighted social economy and entrepreneurship generate new employment and help preserve existing jobs, as in the case of the conversion of existing corporations into social economy organisations. The facts demonstrate how social economy and social entrepreneurship respond to emerging social needs, for example, in Italy between 2007 and 2011 employment in cooperatives increased by 8% while it decreased in the economy as a whole by 1.2% and in private enterprises by 2.3%. Furthermore, social economy organisations effectively foster entrepreneurship and business creation; bringing economic activity in areas that are neglected due to low profitability and by bringing an entrepreneurial culture in sectors that were traditionally considered outside of the scope of entrepreneurial behavior. Among the key challenges for social economy organisations there is the lack of specialized training and education in the sector. To overcome this challenge is necessary a better capacity building for social economy organisations, starting with specialized programmes. Several universities, often in partnership with social economy organisations, are launching new research centres devoted to social economy issues like social enterprise management or social innovation. However, it is also worth mentioning that most social entrepreneurs generally are not university graduates and if they have had a training, more often it was a VET or adult training. The very large and diversified range of activities and professional figures related to social economy across European countries and regions often are not clearly defined in terms of learning outcomes but also frequently regulated, in terms of access to training and qualification opportunities, in a way that in fact is very limiting the mobility beyond the VET systems “edges”- confines of national and regional VET systems, barriers to the mobility within a particular VET system, obstacle to mobility outside the formal education. For the EU to strengthen its social economy sector, it requires knowledgeable workers in the field. However, workers within the social economy sector are at present finding obstacles to pursue further training due to lack of recognised qualifications in this field. Besides, workers within the social economy sector are unable to reap the full benefits from their work experiences as these are also not being recognised. Moreover, many European VET providers offer learning opportunities in the concerned professional field, but these VET courses are based on knowledge rather on competences, and the assessment of them is often not conducted on the field of related performances. This lack of competences needed by the labour market make more difficult the employment of the trainees, and the employees in keeping their job and improve their employability. Considering this situation and particularly the labour market needs and the limitations to learning and work opportunities, and to mobility across European VET systems, several VET providers (in particular those offering learning opportunities in social economy professional field, enterprises operating in social economy, their representative organisations and the sectoral trade unions, and also public institutions having regulatory competence on VET and social economy) considering this situation and particularly the limitation to learning and work opportunities and to mobility beyond the VET systems, sustain together this Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership aimed to develop and test in different European countries, starting from the shared design at European level of common competence standards (utilising the competences/skills/knowledge approach established by the EQF – European Qualification Framework) according to learning outcomes (formalised by means of a Memorandum of Understanding ECVET), coherent common VET curricula and courses (to be supported through transnational learning activities during the project, also adopting Learning Agreements ECVET and Europass Certificate Supplement to sustain transparency and recognition of learning outcomes) focused on work based learning, virtual mobility, open educational resources and virtual laboratories/workplaces adapted to labour market needs, for the qualifications in the social economy sector.
The project "Social Keys for social entrepreneurship" concerns the Social Economy sector, which is one of the most important economic sectors in Europe, with a significant occupational relevance. Based on available evidence, it is estimated that the social economy in Europe engages over 14.5 million paid employees, equivalent to about 6.5% of the working population of the EU-27. The significant contribution of the social economy to economic development and wellbeing has been confirmed by the recent economic crisis that has highlighted social economy and entrepreneurship generating new employment and help preserving existing jobs. The key challenges for social economy organisations is the lack of specialized training and education in the sector. To overcome this challenge it is necessary a better capacity building for social economy organisations, starting with specialized programmes. However, it is also worth mentioning that most social entrepreneurs are not university graduates and if they have had a training, more often it was a VET or adult training. The very large and diversified range of activities and professional figures related to social economy across Europe often are not clearly defined in terms of learning outcomes. Moreover, workers in the sector are finding obstacles to pursue further training due to lack of recognised qualifications in this field. Taking this context into consideration, the project "Social Keys" was implemented aiming at the development and testing in different European countries of COHERENT COMMON CURRICULA AND COURSES, focused on work based learning, virtual mobility, open educational resources and virtual laboratories/workplaces adapted to labour market needs, for the qualifications in the social economy sector. Particularly, the project’s main objectives were: - The promotion of Social Economy as one of the most important economic sectors - The validation of qualifications of professionals in social entrepreneurship sector, though the application of the analysis of Knowledge, Skills and Competences according to the EQF - The contribution to the reduction in the number of low-skilled adults (by re-skilling and up-skilling them) For the achievement of these objectives, a series of complementary activities and outputs has been implemented during the project lifetime: - Preparatory research for the analysis of the social enterpreneurship field in each participating country and presentation of experiences and good practices already implemented - Action Plan for the ECVET process to be activated in the social entrepreneurship sector - Definition of the design of the new European Common Professional Qualifications in social entrepreneurship sector - MoU ECVET for the new European common VET qualifications in social entrepreneurship sector - Design of the common European VET curricula and courses corresponding to the common competence standards established by MoU ECVET. The training course was implemented in the form of blended mobility (combination of on-line and on-site training in a foreign country) of trainees. - Definition of common models for Learning Agreements ECVET, and for ECVET Credits Awarding, to be applied within the VET courses - Activities for the endorsement of the new European common professional and training standards - Project's policy recommendations The project consortium was composed by 5 partners from 4 countries of the EU: - Hellenic Management Association- Lead partner (Greece) is a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to contribute to the promotion and dissemination of modern management principles and practices. - Scuola Nazionale Servizi Foundation (Italy) aggregates 40 entities for the purpose of promotion and diffusion of applied research and innovation. - DIESIS COOP (Belgium) is a non-profit European Research and Development Service for the Social Economy, aiming to support the development of social enterprises in Europe via the implementation of knowledge-based activities. - Caritas Archidiecezji Gdanskiej (Poland) is a charity organization of the catholic church of Gdansk Diocese, working in the area of social help. - Regione Umbria - Direzione Programmazione - Servizio Istruzione (Italy) is the regional department in charge of planning in the sector of education and training. The expected impact from the implementation of the project, was very significant since the competences acquired in the social entrepreneurship sector are strongly needed by the national and international labour markets and constitute an important drive for employment. Moreover, the use of the innovative training process, based on the use of ECVET tools could give a significant contribution not only to the competitiveness of social entrepreneurship sector, but also fosters VET quality improvements, innovation excellence and internationalization, achieved through the enhanced transnational cooperation between VET providers and stakeholders.