Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Innovation and Sustainable Entrepreneurship in class

We applied to promote awareness of CSR+ values, sustainable businesses and social innovation in european secondary schools. Recognizing the importance of preparing future workers and entrepreneurs...

The main objective of the project was to build on the previous success of the 'CSR IN CLASS' project to improve secondary school students' skills and understanding of entrepreneurship and CSR. In fact, we realised during PR1 that there are still big gaps in the knowledge of these topics in schools. The specific objectives therefore include: - promoting CSR+ principles in schools - to promote a network between various European institutions (schools, school offices at regional/national level, policy-makers, local companies, etc.) for the exchange of good practice on CSR+, - strengthening relations between schools and businesses, focusing on the future of the planet and society - creating joint CSR+ training courses, promoting CSR+ in production systems and - orienting young people to the labour market with a social sustainability approach. Ultimately, the project aimed to capitalise on the success of the pilot initiative (a game-based learning platform) in order to improve its transferability to other schools (we received a lot of interest from non-partner schools during regional in-person events) and reach a wider audience of teachers and students for a widespread integration of CSR+ principles in secondary schools.

The main activities focused on establishing a permanent European network among schools, social partners, and enterprises. The work plan comprised five work packages: - WP0: Project Management & Implementation: this involved continuous project coordination, monitoring of project results, managing administrative and financial issues, and ensuring the quality of project outcomes. - WP1: CSR EU Report: activities included identifying practical models for integrating CSR+ education in secondary schools. Territorial partners represented their regions through questionnaires and interviews, collecting material to develop guidelines for CSR+ teaching methods. - WP2: CSR Virtual Learning Environment: activities entailed identifying topics and methodologies for creating 18 game-based learning units divided into three courses (CSR, ESG, Social Innovation). Additionally, managing the VLE platform, including updates and technical support, monitoring user experience through self-assessment, and promoting platform usage among students and teachers. - WP3: CSR Virtual Learning Contest: activities involved students and teachers acquiring CSR+ skills through platform usage; defining rules for the CSR+ virtual competition; participation in local and international school competitions, and analyzing thematic business cases to create sustainable business models canvas. - WP4: Dissemination & Exploitation: activities involved 8 multiplier events (295 participants), other regional events (other ca. 352 participants), 5 newsletters, the creation of content for the project's Instagram account, the drafting of news for the website, as well as disseminating the project in all partner channels.

The result of our Work Package 1 (WP1) is the production of a report explaining the concept of CSR and focusing on social innovation, development of shared values, sustainability and resilience. Based on the territorial profile, the study aimed to update the regional references analyzed in the previous 'CSR in Class' project and to include new territories that had not been considered in the first experience, i.e. Germany. The final outcome is the EU CSR+ Report divided into two parts: the first deals with the EU legal framework, policies and territorial aspects (interviewing 17 local stakeholders), while the second part analyses and elaborates on the partners' contributions in terms of the assessment of teachers' (interviewing 21 teachers) and students' learning gaps and the presence of CSR+ topics within the schools' educational offer. Work Package 2 (WP2): Implementation of activities to redesign and update the innovative training path from the previous project edition. This involves creating 18 learning units for both self-paced online training and (if wished) group activities. We created a total of 3 courses: CSR, ESG and Social Innovation (6 learning units each: Best Practices, Stakeholder, Regulatory Framework, Benefits, Products, Operations), incorporating gamified assessments aimed at boosting student engagement and improving effectiveness in learning outcomes. The platform engaged around 840 users, mostly secondary school students. Work Package 3 (WP3): This activity involved approx. 15 companies to enable students to gain a concrete understanding of the implementation of CSR+ principles in different sectors. In addition, it involved the organisation of a CSR+ competition between students from all partner schools, with an award for the student teams that provided the host companies with the highest quality input (4) assessed by an international jury of partner and company representatives (12 people). The winners were announced at the award ceremony on 28.11.2023. Work Package 4 (WP4) The fourth work package was dedicated to the evaluation of the social impact generated by the project. By means of questionnaires, we interviewed platform users who evaluated the project results. In general, about more than 80% of the respondents stated that they had increased their knowledge on the course topics (CSR, ESG and Social Innovation) and also increased their level of awareness on these topics. WP4 also includes the dissemination of the project results locally and internationally, with a focus on promoting the use of innovative tools and disseminating the project's key messages. Regional events in all 4 partners' countires counted ca. 647 participants.