The "Youth Social Entrepreneurship: Level up and Grow" project envisions to contribute to improving the quality, content and impact of educational interventions for social entrepreneurial field, based on competence based learning approach, where learning and development will be structured around balanced and holistically set competences specific to social entrepreneurial activity. The overarching aim of the project is to develop a competence framework for educating holistic and mindful youth social entrepreneurs and create efficient and innovative non-formal educational instruments/models to acquire and develop those competences. Objectives:- Explore and benefit from currently existing and used approaches and competence frameworks in the entrepreneurial, youth entrepreneurial and social entrepreneurial fields- Build a common understanding and reflect on the human factor and needed personal competences of a social entrepreneur in the framework and approaches of Theory U, and its role in development of social entrepreneurial mind-set and work ethics- Discuss and develop educational tools and curriculum models for social entrepreneurship education (online, offline, blended, task based, practice based, etc) and explore and set up educational synergies for quality youth social entrepreneurship education with formal and non-formal educational systems- Develop self-assessment instruments and models of development and learning plans and approaches- Develop and organise a blended learning space (residential pilot trainings and online course) for trainers and youth workers dealing with social entrepreneurship development and education - Analyse, consolidate, evaluate the developed and tested instruments and develop final educational products translated into at least 3 partner country languages - Explore the use and adaptation of the developed instruments for different target groups (refugees, migrants, people in disadvantaged communities, etc) The described objectives set will make it possible to have a holistic understanding of the specific to social entrepreneurship educational field set of competences, encompassing cognitive, emotional, moral, functional and other aspects of competences to give a chance to understand who is a social entrepreneur and how do improve their abilities to be entrepreneurs of the new generation, transforming the communities and transforming the whole entrepreneurial field itself.
The European region today is developing a vast interest in social entrepreneurship, as this is seen as an effective tool for community development, mobilization, autonomy of regions, sustainability of NGOs. It is seen as a good way to drive alternative entrepreneurial activity boosting economic participation of especially young citizens in the communities, especially ones, which find themselves in precarious situations, socially and economically disadvantaged living conditions. The situation and interest level for SE is similar also in partner countries, as recently the field has been developing widely (forums, trainings, contests, publications, foundations assisting the field). The idea for this project came when we faced a serious challenge when we decided to work on the SE education theme and started mapping and reflections of existing models, aims and objectives, theoretical frameworks, methods, and approaches of education for social entrepreneurship with young people. When discussing the development of the conceptual frameworks in our educational projects related to social entrepreneurship a serious question to be addressed was what are the specific holistic competencies to be developed and thus what are educational needs when it comes to training social entrepreneurs. Characteristics and definitions of SE have been extensively studied on the EU level, but specific elements for the competencies have not been fully analyzed. SE is a multidimensional discipline which also leads that competencies, needed to practice it, range from human psychology to macro-management, thus it is difficult to sum up with a comprehensive set of competencies. There are very few studies on SE competencies, and no generic framework of SE competence on a European level, moreover nothing on the youth field to drive specific programs developing competencies holistically, tools and practices also seem to be missing. SE education fits the area of entrepreneurial mindset education and the development of a common SE competence framework will contribute to making the educational interventions in the youth field to the point, specific, planned, and reflecting the reality people find themselves in.The development of a competence framework that can be generic enough to be useful in different contexts and countries and realities is a challenge in itself, and needs a joint effort, bringing in various levels, experiences, models, programs from a number of countries, as challenges of communities might be similar in Europe, but each is developing different solutions to them. Thus the overarching aim of the project is to develop a competence framework for educating holistic and mindful young social entrepreneurs and create efficient and innovative non-formal educational instruments/models to acquire and develop those competencies. During the recruitment of volunteers, special attention will be provided to the inclusion of young people who have long-term unemployment, from remote communities, as well as those who face physical opportunities for learning. The described set of objectives will make it possible to have a holistic understanding of the specific to social entrepreneurship educational field set of competencies, encompassing cognitive, emotional, moral, functional and other aspects of competences to give a chance to understand who is a social entrepreneur and how to improve their abilities in order to be the entrepreneurs of the new generation, transforming the communities and whole entrepreneurial field itself.