Following many pre-project and planning meetings the SIVSEN team members from the UK, Sweden, Italy, and Romania came together in an online meeting to officially launch the Social Innovation through VET and Social Enterprise Networks (SIVSEN) project.
The project started in January 2021 and will end in December 2022. SIVSEN team seeks to learn from the social enterprise sector to ensure that the knowledge, skills, and mindsets applicable to working in a social enterprise are embedded in Vocational Education to create enhanced opportunities for growth and internationalisation of social enterprises.
The project brings together educators from VET and higher education, employers from the social enterprise sector, and young learners interested in exploring work placements in social enterprises. The project’s ultimate goal is to make VET colleges, schools, and universities work more and better with social enterprises to ensure that young people entering the workforce are aware of the opportunities to work in social enterprises on both a local, regional and international level.
During the meeting held at the end of March 2021, the partners overviewed the project, its objectives and results, and the planned activities. They reviewed the timetable and the critical tasks to be carried out in the following months, together with more detailed analysis of the financial and reporting requirements. Finally, the partners also discussed the marketing, dissemination, and communication strategy and steps to be taken.
The meeting concluded with good energy and enthusiasm for the coming activities, respectively the development of the multi-country Comparative Analysis on the social enterprise sector and their interaction with the education systems in the UK, Sweden, Italy, and Romania, and on work placement programmes run for learners by VET and higher education organizations, with a particular focus on work placement programmes in social enterprises.
SIVSEN project is developed under Erasmus + programme by five partner organisations based in the UK, Italy, Sweden, and Romania: City College Plymouth, Plymouth Social Enterprise Network (UK), Foreningen Urkraft (Sweden), Materahub (Italy), and Fundatia Danis (Romania).