SE 4Ces responds to the needs for stronger collaboration among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), enterprises and local societies, improved employability based on transversal skills, more engaged citizens and connected societies and the need for innovative, multidisciplinary approaches for knowledge co-creation, co-teaching and co-learning under inclusive, collaborative and highly interactive educational environments. SE 4Ces builds on 4 forCes: Connected societies, knowledge Co-creation, Community development, Collaborative educational practices. It aims to mobilise those under the Social Economy (SE) framework. It introduces the SE Living-Labs as spaces for interaction, collaboration and knowledge co-creation between all stakeholders involved (HEIs, Social Economy organisations, students, teachers, community members) for the creation a Joint Professional online Master’s programme on “SE and Community Development Strategies” that aspires to become the first joint international Masters programme in the area. SE 4Ces also includes a pilot phase in four countries (Spain, Italy, Greece and UK) testing the programme and its innovative elements such as the application of service-learning and the integration of real life societal issues into curricula. Our project envisions to create, sustain and expand the first European Community of Practice in Social Economy, already consisting of the SE 4Ces partnership (9 partners), more than 20 associated universities and Social Economy enterprises and 9 world-renowned experts forming the SE 4Ces Scientific Advisory Council, that will establish growing and sustainable collaborations among HEIs involved in SE and with SE and community actors from a wide range of disciplines across Europe towards a transdisciplinary approach that would bring real and measurable results for the Social Economy.
To promote long term collaboration between HEIs and SE actors. To develop and implement innovative educational approaches based on SE values, transdisciplinarity, co-creation of knowledge and collaborative teaching /learning, and experiential methods. To enhance the skills of SE members, academics, researchers, and students. To foster community engagement and development through a holistic and multi-stakeholder SE approach and build a Community of Practice in SE education.
Providing a workforce of over 19.1 million, Social Economy (SE) has a major capacity to create stable employment with high returns in the economic and the social sphere. Yet, its potential remains untapped. Where SE education does exist, it remains largely theoretical, without links to local communities and real-world learning experiences. SE4CEs addressed this by bringing together SE educators, students and actors and co-creating educational material for the first International Master in SE.
<< Background >> Providing a workforce of over 19.1 million, Social Economy (SE) has a major capacity to create stable employment with high returns in the economic and the social sphere. Yet, its potential remains untapped. Where SE education does exist, it remains largely theoretical, without links to local communities and real-world learning experiences. SE4CEs addressed this by bringing together SE educators, students and actors and co-creating educational material for the first International Master in SE. << Objectives >> To promote long term collaboration between HEIs and SE actors. To develop and implement innovative educational approaches based on SE values, transdisciplinarity, co-creation of knowledge and collaborative teaching /learning, and experiential methods. To enhance the skills of SE members, academics, researchers, and students. To foster community engagement and development through a holistic and multi-stakeholder SE approach and build a Community of Practice in SE education. << Implementation >> Despite the delay caused by the University of Bristol, that was replaced half way through the project by the University of Essex, all the activities have been fully and successfully implemented. All deliverables were reviewed by the SAC/QARM team and revised to ensure high quality. Internal delays in delivering certain reports were jointly decided for the best of the project. The partners not only contributed what was expected of them but even more showing high commitment and enthusiasm. << Results >> The major outputs include the SE4Ces educational material available on the SE4Ces wiki, the Living Labs framework and toolkit as a guide for any interested HEIs and SE enterprises to apply our methodology and content, an extensive piloting phase of the SE4Ces material in the 4 countries, an highly participatory evaluation of the whole process and outputs, and the SE4Ces website. Overall, the KPIs were met or highly surpassed sometimes, while the extended qualitative evaluation was very positive.