Project No. 2018-1-BG01-KA203-048016 “European Partnership for Social Inclusion and Creation of Skills for Women Entrepreneurship E-learning” will be implemented in the period from September 1, 2018 to August 31, 2020 within the frame of the Erasmus+ programme for capacity building in the field of higher education. The project activities will be carried out in the period from September 1, 2018 to August 31, 2020
The project is focused on the social inclusion of women wishing to develop their own business in the area of trade and logistics through integration into entrepreneurship in the underdeveloped regions of Bulgaria (the North Central and North Western region), Italy and Great Britain through training, acquiring practical skills and competencies in order to generate financial, cultural, and social value. One of the aims of the project is to design and build an innovative platform for exchanging experience and good practices to support the development of women entrepreneurship skills, which will ease the access to an engagement with digital technologies in formal and non-formal education of disadvantaged learners. It is expected that the development of woman entrepreneurship skills will ensure employment and economic growth in the regions of the partner organisations.
The project Y4B is targeted towards young people with low qualification who starts their business without any skills for starting and running a business, under-qualified young people who go into entrepreneurship without having the necessary skills for starting and running their own business, young people with insufficient work experience and without substantial specialised technical, managerial or entrepreneurial experience, as well as people who want to expand their entrepreneurial competences by acquiring new knowledge in management accounting.
Project No. 2016-1-BG01-KA203-023754 "OPEN MIND - gamified platform and open online course in Social Entrepreneurship for female learners and students from diverse fields of study” (OPEN MIND) aimed to enhance access to entrepreneurial education and create equal opportunities in the labour market for groups which are disadvantaged and under-represented in entrepreneurship. The project have promoted social entrepreneurship, specially addressing women and young people from non-business studies, through an innovative gamified open course in social entrepreneurship. The project have produced 3 main intellectual outputs:1. Massive online open course (MOOC) “Introduction in Social Entrepreneurship” for students from diverse fields of study. 2. Innovative gamified online platform, which facilitated the e-learning process and enabled experiential learning through individual and group assignments, trainer and peer assessment, coaching and feedback from practitioners (social entrepreneurs) and opportunities for further educational and startup support from investors and interested stakeholders. 3. Impact assessment report helped to outline the major outcomes of the project and attract strategic support for the initiative after the project lifetime. The impact was presented on final multiplier events in partners’ countries. 60 academic staff and trainers were be trained to provide ongoing support to learners.The partners attracted more than 120 participants in the piloting, who act as ambassadors of the initiative. Overall, 1008 students were enrolled in the course till October 2018 and the number continue to grow till now.The platform is operating in 5 languages (EN, BG, GR, PL, RO) and will be maintained at least until 2020. The MOOC is be based on a comprehensive methodology and includes 8 modules with overall course duration of 75 hours of study (3 ECTS credits), which were jointly elaborated by the partners and introduce students to the fundamentals of social entrepreneurship. The project especially addresses the gender gaps in entrepreneurship and promotes more gender-balanced career choices through attracting female students from different studies to social entrepreneurship. The course content includes 50 inspiring female start-ups and promotes successful role models through involvement of women entrepreneurs as mentors. The gamified platform, created within the prohect, is an attractive and engaging learning environment that puts students in the “shoes” of social entrepreneurs and give them the chance to experience the essence of being a social entrepreneur; Involve students in exploring business concepts and fundamentals of social entrepreneurship through real cases and challenges, thus allowing them to embark on an exciting and motivational learning journey; • Sensitize learners about the important social issues, and help learn how to identify needs and opportunities and turn them to shared value ventures; • Encourage collaboration and competitive dynamics among students, foster creativity and experimentation, enhance leadership and critical thinking, thus helping them to develop the specific soft skills & entrepreneurial mindset, while dealing with concrete situations in gaming environment. • The features of the game design (collaboration, sharing, feedback, awards, etc.) helped to provide a highly participative and friendly learning environment, so that female students and those from non-business studies obtain generic entrepreneurship skills and more specific business competences, while solving specific social problems in collaboration and competing for achieving better results. The gamified platform and the developed methodology allows to link learners' accomplishments with ECTS points, to enable better recognition of results for students. In order to build a more supportive and inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem, the e-learning platform brings together:• Leading education and training providers, who guides students in their learning pathways; • Experienced entrepreneurs and business mentors, who share practical tips and help students develop their ideas; • Stakeholders and prospective investors, to suggest opportunities, feedback and finance for viable social start-up ideas; • Senior students and graduates from business fields, who can provide peer coaching and improve their leadership skills; • Cross-disciplinary community of learners, which will foster collaboration and inspire ideas and development.Thus, the project undertakes a truly social entrepreneurship approach, offering win-win for all parties involved. As a result, OPEN MIND did improved the access to entrepreneurship training for a large number of students and have ensured that they have an opportunity to acquire entrepreneurial skills, start up and operate in business or self-employment, regardless of their gender and background.
The project was awarded a certificate for excellent implementation by the Bulgarian National Erasmus+ Agency during the Annual Valorisation Conference 2017. In 2020, the MOOC on Introduction in Social Entrepreneurship was included by the EC in a list of the most useful free online learning resource created with the financial support of the Erasmus+ programme.
