Social Worker Entrepreneur Empowerment Training

The proposal originated from the awareness that the individuals targeted by social inclusion policies often face professional choices characterized by precariousness, low professional profiles, and a lack of innovation. This exposes them to the risk of exclusion from active life, making social inclusion an even more distant horizon. At the same time the world is progressively moving towards the implementation of sustainability, which represents a great opportunity for social inclusion. The European Green Deal also has a profound impact on the current system: on the one hand, it threatens to destroy jobs among vulnerable groups, while on the other hand, it offers the opportunity to create new sectors that require specific skills. Thanks to cooperation and the development of previous projects, the partners of SWEET have recognized the need to develop and implement a new business model, based on improving the innovative and sustainable skills of professionals (educators, social workers, etc.) involved in the daily work with vulnerable people, in order to align the social sector with sustainability objectives.

The proposal focused on redesigning roles and skills to support NGOs and the vulnerable individuals they assist, aiming for a model based on social, economic, and environmental sustainability, which requires specific skills. By combining their activities and cultures from the north/south of the EU, the partners intended to provide these skills. The partners aimed to integrate the educational staff’s skills with knowledge about the circular economy and the development of social enterprises. Training staff in the creation of sustainable social enterprises improved the employment and employability of the individuals they supported, promoting their entry into markets related to sustainability and the circular economy, which offers opportunities in reuse, recycling, the sharing economy, and the "product-as-a-service" model. SWEET made available the knowledge of the European partners, specialized in the social sector, social enterprise management, circular economy, and the evaluation of the effectiveness of social actions. The hybridization between nonprofit and the circular economy focused on social enterprise, helping vulnerable people reintegrate into the workforce and improving their professional profile.

Through the implementation of the activities, we developed a system of e-learning modules that allowed for the self-assessment and validation of skills acquired in the fields of social economy and circular economy. During the LTTA and project meetings, the research group and participants learned about good working practices, and through group work and sharing, they analyzed their lived experiences and created the self-learning modules. Furthermore, the implementation of the project enabled the development and testing, under the supervision of experts, of a social impact assessment model for NPOs, allowing them to improve their awareness of the impact of their work in the local community.

The project results were: - The development of a free, open access, dynamic and interactive digital e-learning platform on the principles of lifelong learning and opportunities for social enterprises, covering a variety of topics: from those related to the environment, resource efficiency and circular thinking, to general entrepreneurial skills, up to the improvement of transversal skills.The e-learning modules are based on the creation of factsheets, skills improvement exercises and working practices and methods for the various skills. - The study and design of the guidelines on social impact assessment for social enterprises, which are made available to beneficiaries at EU level to enable in particular third sector operators to measure and evaluate the social impact of their activities. Both outputs will now be freely available on an open source platform reachable from the project website but also via the partners' websites and EPALE.