Concerns arising for the high unemployment rates that hit the younger generations in Europe have brought to rethink how to enhance the access of young people into the labour market by promoting self-employment and entrepreneurship education as a response. This is evident also looking at the Europe 2020 Strategy flagship initiative “An agenda for new skills and jobs”, which pursues the promotion of entrepreneurship, self-employment and innovation” [COM(2010) 682 final:18]. In the last years, social entrepreneurship has been the main approach to business to be explored by youth organizations to be economically sustainable and keep pursuing their social mission, but the cooperative model hasn’t been sufficiently explored. In many countries cooperatives are not included in school curricula, and so young people do not have the opportunity to learn about this form of enterprise during their studies. Even when the cooperative business is introduced to potential members, promoters often underestimate the need for capacity building, business management skills, and specific training (ILO 2012). All these gaps limit young people’s ability to choose the cooperative option to doing business. The project pursues the implementation of innovative practices in order to create a favourable environment for young people to engage them in social cooperative entrepreneurship, through the aim of bringing closer the youth organizations to the world of cooperatives, thus enabling young people to fully take advantage of the cooperative enterprise model. General objective: Promoting social cooperative entrepreneurship among young people as a sustainable business model for youth organizations and as an instrument to contribute in countering youth unemployment. Specific objectives: - to implement innovative youth work practices in social entrepreneurship and cooperative business among European organizations active in the youth field; - to create and deliver an original training programme in order to provide youth organizations and young people with skills in social cooperative entrepreneurship; - to increase sense of initiative and social cooperative entrepreneurship of young people across Europe; - to make the training models and tools usable, replicable and useful at European level for professionals, educationalists, youth organizations and associations. This material will be summarized and refined in the Business Model Canvas on Social Cooperatives on the Open Learning Portal. N. 2 Target groups: 1) N.88 youth workers in youth organizations; 2) N.20 aspiring young social entrepreneurs. Methodology/Activities The methodology applied: WP1- Project management and coordination WP2 – Creation of Learning Modules and E-Portal WP3 – Transferring knowledge - Implementation of the training programme C1.From social needs to social innovation C2.Social entrepreneurship and the cooperative business C3.The cooperative business model & Youth C4.Soft skills training for young coop-starters The first cycle of trainings (C1-C4) will transfer good practices on social and cooperative entrepreneurship to youth workers, in order to provide them alternative model for generating income and equip youth workers with skills in order to enable them to support unemployed young people in turning their social business ideas in into social cooperative start-ups. WP4 – On Line Training and Blended Mobility for young aspiring entrepreneurs C5.Blended mobility for young coop-starters and final Youth Entrepreneurship Summit During the blended mobility (C5) the second target group will be trained to become social entrepreneurs, through the Open Learning Portal and Business Model Canvas on Social Cooperatives. The first target group will become mentors of the second. WP5 – Communication, dissemination and exploitation of project WP6 – Evaluation, lessons learned and quality assurance The project will produce the following positive impacts: -professional development of youth workers and improvement of their knowledge related to social cooperative entrepreneurship; -improved self-employment opportunities and key competences in the social market for young people; -improved capacity of youth organizations in the engagement activities for youth and delivery of social services through a different social business model; -increased opportunities for community development through educational projects and activities addressing social issues The project will produce the following main results: 2) N.88 youth workers from different local communities in Europe, equipped with knowledge, tools and key competences related to social cooperative entrepreneurship; 3) N.20 young people trained online on social cooperative entrepreneurship and setting up social cooperative business ideas; 4) N. 4 Learning Modules (IO1); 5) N. 1 Open Learning Portal (IO2); 6) N. 1 Business Model Canvas on Social Cooperatives (IO3).
Across Europe, an increasing number of young freelancers or independent professionals (graphic designers, journalists, artists, interpreters, etc.) are creating cooperative enterprises in order to secure their employment situation. Through a cooperative, they can benefit from social security while enjoying the flexibility to develop their own activity at the same time. They share the risks and the benefits with other young people, applying the values of solidarity and democracy at the workplace. The project "YOUthCOOPs: Promoting social and cooperative entrepreneurship for young people" pursues the implementation of innovative practices in order to create a favourable environment for young people to engage in social cooperative entrepreneurship in their local communities, through the aim of bringing closer the youth organizations to the world of cooperatives, thus enabling young people to fully take advantage of the cooperative enterprise model. YouthCoops project focuses on developing youth social and cooperative entrepreneurship training as an investment for sustainable jobs for young people as well as on cooperatives as valuable models to be promoted among youth organisations. The project addresses 2 main target groups: youth workers in youth organisation (54 of them have been training during the 3 dedicated learning activities among the project) young aspiring social entrepreneurs (18 of them have been training during the YOUthCOOPs blended learning activity). During the project cycle, the partnership have developed 2 intellectual outputs, according to the approved budget. IO1: the" YOUth COOPs Toolkit: all you need to know to set up your own social cooperative" that constitutes a useful tool, in the form of toolkit/training material, for youth workers, trainers and aspiring entrepreneurs to conduct from the idea to a social cooperative business. It includes the learning modules developed by project partners and tested during the 4 learning activities, during the project cycle. IO2: the YOUthCOOps On line Portal: a dedicated On line Platform, for trainers and young learners to find and swap resources about social entrepreneurship and its value in the innovation, basic/transversal skills, business field and non-formal education. The Online Learning Portal provides a complete supported learning experience on social entrepreneurship, by providing teaching and learning materials created during the project cicle. All the training materials developed are freely and openly available for all the potential end-users. As preliminary step for IO1 development, each partner handled local focus groups (involving youth organisations representatives, youth workers, young people) in order to have a clear map of the learning and target contexts and to define a shared starting point for the elaboration of the teaching methods and Modules. The analysis gave a common picture about the crucial factors for ensuring successful implementation of a social business idea, and constitutes the starting point of all the further developed materials. Based on the results of the interviews/surveys and optimization of Training Tools, the partners created Learning Modules, that have been published on the E-Portal and used during the learning mobilities activities (C1, C2, C4, C5). The following topics have been treated in the modules: - From social needs to social innovation; - Social entrepreneurship and cooperative business; - Soft skills training for young coop-starters; Each module have been tested during a dedicated learning activities, with the aim to transfer good practices on social and cooperative entrepreneurship to youth workers, in order to provide them alternative model for generating income and equipe them with skills in order to enable them to support unemployed young people in turning their social business ideas in into social cooperative start-ups. Meanwhile, the YOUthCOOPs On line Learning Portal have been developed, as a tool for trainers and young learners to find and swap resources about social entrepreneurship. The Online Learning Portal provides a complete supported learning experience on social entrepreneurship, by providing teaching and learning materials. The E-Portal aims at fostering further exploitation of the learning materials and experiences gained within the project to wider learning community of young people, and more broadly, to the civil society. The Open Learning Portal is a valuable tool for the target groups and, in general from the end of the project onwards, for young people and youth organisations. It is a virtual, transnational place, source of knowledge and examples on social and cooperative enterprises and it will ensure the long- term sustainability of the project. According to the approved budget, 3 training activities have been organised, addressed to 54 youth workers (3 per each partners per each activity), and 1 blended mobility addressed to 18 (3 per each partner) young aspiring social entrepreneurs. The youth workers who took part to the learning activities, coming from the first target groups, have acted, during all the project, as mentors for the participants from the second target group (young aspiring social entrepreneurs). During the blended mobility (C5) 18 participants from the second target group have been trained to become social entrepreneurs.