Social innovation has been defined as "New ideas that resolve existing challenges for the benefit of people and planet (Center for Social Innovation) or as "New ideas that work to meet pressing unmet needs and improve people´s lives (The Young Foundation).Never as much as today, is there a the need for social innovators so demanding. The challenges posed to our societies, the profound inequalities within the societies, the climate changes, the unemployment rates among many other factors demand for a new socio-economic model and innovative solutions.“To thrive in today’s innovation-driven economy, workers need a different mix of skills than in the past” (New Vision for Education, WEF). The 21st century skills at the core of the lifelong learning strategy of the EU will be critical to ensure a new generation of citizens equipped with competencies such as collaboration, creativity and problem-solving and personal skills such as initiative, curiosity and resilience.“Innovation only flourishes when businesses, governments and citizens are prepared to take risks, to think big and to invest in the future. We now need leaders with the courage to take the long view – but we also need better ways to involve Europe’s people in the task of shaping the future” (Plan I(nnovation) for Europe, Nesta).When one looks to the challenges posed by the emerging collaborative economy and the social innovation paradigm, two major issues arise: how to enhance society´s capacity for action and how to deploy new models of learning and doing business. The ambition to boost a new economic model – the collaborative economy – and nurture social innovation as pathways to economic growth and societal development requires a new learning approach. Tomorrow´s Land will therefore set the foundations and prepare citizens to tackle future challenges by delivering a social innovation competences framework and a MOOC to empower Europe´s social innovators through the development of key knowledge and competences required for the future social innovators to succeed..The project is developed by a consortium of 6 organizations from 6 different European countries and combines different organizational profiles - Universities, Businesses and NGO´s willing to co-develop social innovation of Europe.Tomorrow´s Land will include 4 key outputs: a Tomorrow´s Land strategic foresight highlighting the key future drivers of social innovation in Europe; the Tomorrow´s Land Learning Academy, an online learning platform and a MOOC to support the development of the future social innovators; the Tomorrow´s Land Champions of Change, a facilitators training designed to empower educators as change makers and eqquipe them with the knowledge and tools to support the growth of the social innovators; and the Tomorrow´s Land Bootcamp, an international training activity to deliver the project learning resources and prepare a first generation of future social innovators.As a result of the project’s activities mentioned above, the project should have an impact at several levels.• Educators/Teachers/trainers will have access to innovative learning resources and support materials for approaching Social Innovation and Collaborative Economy that can be used in various settings• Adults will have access to an online learning offer that enables learning high value topics as well as essential transversal competences (e.g. critical thinking, creativity, entrepreneurship, language skills, etc.)• Organisations active in Social Innovation and Adult Education will have a new tool and knowledge to improve key competences and employability of adults• In general terms, Social Innovation will find an easier pathway to enter adult learning curricula’s• In the future, as adults become more aware and equipped with key knowledge and competences to act as active European social innovators, the European economy and society will be positively impacted
The aim of Tomorrow´s Land was to prepare citizens to tackle future challenges by delivering a competences framework and a Learning Academy to nurture and empower Europe´s potential social innovators through the development of key knowledge and competences required to create new ways of working to achieve positive social change and a more inclusive society. Organisations from 6 European countries, combined different organisational profiles, each bringing relevant expertise – 2 Social Enterprises (NGO's): South Sefton Development Trust (Regenerus), UK and Socialas Inovacijas Centrs, Latvia (SIC), 2 businesses: Advancis, Portugal and Bespoke, Denmark and 2 Universities Politecnico di Milano, Italy (Polimi) and Münster University of Applied Sciences, Germany (MUAS). We delivered 4 intellectual outputs, designing a creative learning journey, available digitally through our online platform: Massive Online Learning Course (MOOC) and complemented by a Facilitators’ Guide to empower educators to utilise our learning approach, to support adults exploring the MOOC and to deliver face to face workshops. Bringing their expertise in academic research, lead partner in Intellectual Output 1 (IO1), MUAS were supported by Bespoke, world leaders in future design thinking. Bespoke led the creative foresight research which uses the potential of design thinking to create strategies for the future, combining the two disciplines: design thinking and strategic foresight. Highlighting the key drivers of social innovation in Europe, the Strategic Foresight report (IO1) presents an overview of current academic thinking in the field of social innovation drawn from in depth secondary research. Primary research activities tested our preliminary results with social innovators and social entrepreneurs in focus groups held in each of the 6 partner countries, to further refine our findings and gathered intelligence from participants' experience to establish 5 profiles of the social innovator and the key competences relevant to each profile to design the learning framework. Following review by an external panel of social innovation experts from across Europe, the report was improved, published in Autumn 2017 and launched at multiplier events in all 6 partner countries. where participants received a copy. The Digital Foresight Report presents an overview and can be viewed on the website (www.tomorrowsland.eu), where the full report is available for download by request, to date we have received 104 requests. Lead partner, Polimi developed the design template for Intellectual Output 2: the Learning Academy. Specialists in designing innovative e-learning experiences, Polimi coordinated the contributions of partners, designing templates to be populated with content for the MOOC. Each of the other 5 partners worked on one of the 5 profiles of a social innovator, Polimi designed the introductory path. Content for each learning path includes: introduction video; inspiration and training moments and resources. Intellectual Output 3 (IO3): Champions of Change, was coordinated by Regenerus, experts in designing engaging workshops. The 5 day event introduced 11 educators from across Europe to the Tomorrow's Land journey, combining practical workshops to demonstrate the resources and incorporating case study visits to meet inspirational speakers, reflecting each of the 5 profiles. Empowering educators as change makers, the workshop also allowed partners to test our tools and resources. Advancis, respected for creating dynamic and effective learning approaches organised an amazing Bootcamp (IO4), where 26 participants from across Europe tested the Tomorrow's Land journey, applying their new knowledge to "real" challenges and working in collaborative multi-national teams to develop socially innovative solutions. Feedback from educators (IO3) and pioneers (IO4) led to further improvements of our resources. 5 Transnational partnership meetings allowed partners to deliberate and debate face to face, strengthening on-going communications via email and skype meetings. Successful digital dissemination through the project website (www.tomorrowsland.eu) and social media presence: Facebook page (@Tomorrow's Land) and Twitter account (@TLinnovation) has attracted interest on a global scale. Partners promoted the project on their own and other organisation websites and through the publication of articles and presentations at external events, raising awareness of the project with wider stakeholder groups. Leaflets, a storybook and flyers have supported dissemination activities. We celebrated our success and shared our outputs at the final conference in Liverpool, UK. The project will continue to engage and inspire future pioneers beyond the project lifetime. Preparing citizens to tackle future challenges, new connections have been by by participating target groups, already leading to emerging partnerships, co-creating social innovation initiatives.