Social entrepreneurship - prospects for the socially disadvantaged
Social entrepreneurship can do pioneering work and open up new perspectives for excluded people. The Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences is developing a digital training and mentoring program in a European cooperation project that helps socially excluded people to develop entrepreneurial skills. In the process, they gain practical experience in founding and running a sustainable business.
Independent entrepreneurial action, out of social and ecological responsibility – this innovative type of entrepreneurship can be found in social entrepreneurship. Ideas for this can be found in all people. Six European cooperation partners have set themselves the goal of promoting people with social disadvantages and disabilities in particular and equipping them with entrepreneurial skills. In the Erasmus+ project “LeArNing CEnters for Social Entre-preneurs in the digital era”, they are developing a digital training program and an online platform to provide socially excluded people with access to suitable learning materials and teachers. This gives them the opportunity to develop new entrepreneurial approaches to solving social problems where they have to deal with them on a daily basis.
Social entrepreneurship as a basis is an innovation engine that motivates people to leave familiar patterns of thinking behind. Six partner organizations from Germany, Italy, Romania, Greece, Ireland and Slovakia, including the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, are first developing an innovation manual that will serve as a guide for the learning modules. Best practices show how existing social enterprises proceed. For Germany, for example, an institution is presented that works with mentally ill people and helps them to develop their entrepreneurial potential.
The training modules and an online platform are then developed and tested. The e-learning courses give learners hands-on experience of running a sustainable business in the digital age. The high-quality and innovative learning offers support the identification and development of ideas, the preparation of entrepreneurial activities and legal frameworks as well as the training of personal skills. In the process, each project partner also develops country-specific modules that meet local legal and social conditions. The course modules are then piloted with 20 young entrepreneurs in each of the six countries. From these, six champions will be selected in each partner country. All participants receive a training certificate.
