The project aimed to empower social and cultural entrepreneurs with the competences needed to create sustainable impact. Beyond addressing existing needs, it sought to design innovative learning pathways that combine entrepreneurial, managerial, and digital skills in a holistic way. The goal was to show that vocational education can drive resilience, innovation, and inclusion through tools and methods that are both practical and transferable across countries. A key focus was the digital transformation of VET, integrating blended learning and immersive technologies to enable access to training and markets regardless of geographic or social barriers. The project also strengthened cooperation between VET providers, support centres, and enterprises, building a European network to ensure continuity beyond its lifetime. Finally, it raised awareness of the social economy as a driver of inclusive growth and offered young people, migrants, and cultural actors the opportunity to turn their ideas into viable businesses, enhancing the visibility and sustainability of social entrepreneurship across Europe.
We applied for this project because we identified profound gaps in the support and training available to social and cultural entrepreneurs, especially those operating in the creative industries and in migrant-led initiatives. The COVID-19 crisis showed the vulnerability of this sector: many organisations lacked managerial and entrepreneurial skills, financial resilience, and above all the digital competences needed to adapt to changing markets. Our needs analysis confirmed that social enterprises often struggle to balance their social goals with sustainable business models, while non-profit organisations moving toward market-oriented activities lack practical tools for this transition. Migrant entrepreneurs face additional barriers such as limited access to capital and integration into mainstream support structures. At the same time, VET providers and support centres do not yet offer specialised or blended learning programmes to address these challenges, and students of business and management rarely encounter integrated perspectives that combine social, cultural, and entrepreneurial dimensions. Therefore, the project responds to multiple needs: equipping entrepreneurs with managerial, financial, and digital skills.