A new Erasmus+ project to infuse social entrepreneurship and innovation into Higher Education.
Universities are a powerful tool for grooming the next generation of social scientists, professionals, and entrepreneurs, and also equipping students from all faculties to develop social entrepreneurship competences and drive positive change.
Aiming to respond to the need for infusing social entrepreneurship and innovation into Higher Education, 5 European organisations are collaborating within the Erasmus+ project WELFARE – Designing future WELFARE systems. The project is funded by the Erasmus+ programme and aims to create a melting pot for social innovation within universities, as a gateway for researchers and students to develop skills and competences as social entrepreneurs, by engaging them in communication and cooperation with educational institutions, non-profit organisations and businesses within the welfare system.
The WELFARE partners will develop high-quality Open Educational Resources, including curriculum, online/f2f training content and training course, will promote and enhance understanding of the importance of social innovation and entrepreneurship within partner countries’ welfare systems, and will create an open university, training and networking environment for discourse, research and social innovation in the welfare system.
More specifically, the aim of the project is to create an inclusive and integrated learning environment focusing on social innovation and entrepreneurship in the welfare sector. In this context, online training and support materials will be developed for social entrepreneurs tailored to their needs as well as welfare sector needs, as well as the WELFARE training platform for social entrepreneurs, introducing the concept of social innovation and entrepreneurship. Additionally, a communication platform will be created so that social innovators and entrepreneurs, both university students and practitioners, can share knowledge and experiences.
The organisations participating in the WELFARE project are KMOP – Social Action and Innovation Centre (Greece), Vaxandi – Háskóli Íslands (Iceland), Stimmuli (Greece), XWHY / Agency of Understanding (Lithuania) and VIVES (Belgium).
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