SocEntrep4NGOs
Social Entrepreneurship e-learning Programme for NGOs
EU Programme
Erasmus+
Lead Partner
Advenio e Academy, Malta
Duration of the project
30 months (01/11/2021 – 01/05/2024)
Role of Forum AIC:
Partner
Total cost of the project:
€ 392.850
Budget of Forum AIC:
€ 49.663
Background:
Social entrepreneurship plays an important role in addressing social, economic, and environmental challenges while fostering inclusive growth, shared prosperity, and social inclusion; moreover, social entrepreneurship contributes to job creation, at the local and international level.
The number of social enterprises in Europe is growing and their business models and fields of activities are getting more diverse. This is a result of both bottom-up developments as well as of policy measures and programmes initiated by governments.
Training is a key “actor” in the social innovation ecosystem. Countries with broad experience in social entrepreneurship include training as a key pillar of these supporting frameworks and are active actors in the promotion of social entrepreneurship. However, training on social entrepreneurship is not present in the training offer of these actors, and it’s part of other formal training traditional activities provided (Dramblys, 2017).
Therefore, this project seeks to address the identified lack of research specifically to determine the challenges and the training needs by current and new social entrepreneurs and the lack of formal qualifications which are targeted specifically at social entrepreneurs. In addition, this project is developed by commercial and social entrepreneurs for commercial and social entrepreneurs.
The research study and proposed online accredited programme seeks to target the following target groups: 1. Senior executives and middle management staff in Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). 2. NGOs interested in upskilling their executive teams to ensure that best international practices are identified and the appropriate skills and competencies developed for their successful adoption and adaptation when appropriate 3. General public who have an interest in Social entrepreneurship but currently are not involved in the sector.
Objectives:
This project’s scope seeks to improve the capacity of existing NGOs working within the third sector, current and future social entrepreneurs by providing them with a formal qualification directly related to Social Entrepreneurship. The proposed programme will be designed and developed based on the feedback that the project partners will receive from the participants in the research study to be carried out in this project. The project seeks to achieve the following objectives:
1. Research current best practices in Social Entrepreneurship (SE) and SE programmes required to support NGOs. This will help in understanding the particular challenges met by current and future social entrepreneurs, employees working in NGOs and NGO volunteers.
2. Design and develop the proposed Social Entrepreneurship programme set for the level recommended by the research and including specialist content also confirmed through the research.
3. Accreditation by the national regulator in Malta, Malta Further & Higher Education Authority (MFHEA) of the new social entrepreneurship online programme. Accreditation ensures that students completing the programme earn a qualification that is recognized within the EU and within those countries that are signatories to the Bologna process.
4. Marketing of the new Social Entrepreneurship programme to recruit suitable social entrepreneurs for participation in the pilot programme.
5. Implement the 18-month online Social Entrepreneurship programme as a pilot programme and evaluate its effectiveness. Based on the Erasmus+ funding, circa 60 students will be offered a full scholarship in the programme. The 18-month online programme will provide a considerable amount of interaction to facilitate and assist participants in making the transition of hands-on to a more academic but real-world approach to social entrepreneurial activity.
6. Publish and disseminate the findings of the research study and feedback from the pilot intakes students enrolled for the Social Entrepreneurship programme. The results and dissemination material will also be crucial to ensure its sustainability after the Erasmus+ funded project. The experience of the participants during the programme will be particularly relevant in identifying any support that may be required by such participants.
Contacts: