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From Monday 21st – Thursday 24th November 2016, the partners met together at the office of Kaléido’Scop, in St Etienne France, to discuss and evaluate the project. The evaluation process was about remembering, and focusing not only on the products; … Continue reading
The Training Manual is now available in English. Available to download in resources.
The 30+ activities are targeted towards young people and have been developed for those interested in or involved in SSE (Social Enterprise in the UK). The 30+ activities are arranged in 10 Topics and with 3 difficulty levels.
This Training Manual was developed in response to the 10 profile types identified within our research and developed in the Portfolio of Competence. It aims to develope the transversal competencies common to these profile types.
Although the specific focus is SSE the activities are also suitable for develping transversal competencies accross a broad range of alternative buisnesses strategies.
(Currently available in English, Spanish and French. Italian and Greek to follow soon)
It can be played individually but is ideally suited to playing in groups.
An analysis and decision making simualtion game. Its focus is the 4 core values which characterise a Social and Solidarity Economy (Social Enterprise in the UK) buisness or organisation; and the development of the core competencies needed for successfull management and day to day operation.
The project “ISSE – Community Works!” is about to conclude, after almost two years, with the final event that is taking place in St. Etienne (France) on 24-27 November 2016.
The event will gather more than 30 international participants from Italy, Greece, Spain and the UK, and dozens of representatives from French initiatives of Social and Solidarity Economy and the academic field. It is organized by the French project partner Kaleido’Scop in cooperation with the MIFE Loire Sud and the University Jean Monnet of Saint-Etienne, and is realized also thanks to the extra financial support of the French National Agency through Erasmus+ programme and funding from the Region Auvergne – Rhône Alpes, Saint-Etienne Métropole and the university Lyon-Saint-Etienne. (Event Programme).
During the final event, the international group of participants will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the different products of “ISSE-Community Works!” project (ISSE products) by testing them and providing feedback on their usability in different social and working contexts. Apart from discussing about the different forms and understanding of Social and Solidarity Economy in their countries and realities, they will also participate to the interactive debate “SSE in Europe nowadays: tools, initiatives, experimentations” with invited speakers and local guests from the academic field (e.g Bertrand Lordon, university professor in economy and Philippe Vial, professor in SSE).
An important moment of the event will be the day of Saturday 26th November, when ISSE activities will be integrated in the programme of Tatou Juste fair (www.tatoujuste.org), an annual event that has reached its 11th edition and usually gathers thousands of visitors from Saint Etienne region active in different fields of SSE: food, culture, employment, financing, clothing, housing, education etc. ISSE participants will contribute to organize a stand, several workshops on ISSE Training Modules and a radio debate, for the visitors of the fair.
All the final products of “ISSE – Community Works!” project, including the latest Training Modules on SSE for young people and ISSE online game, that will be presented in Saint Etienne, will be soon available on this website.
During the days prior to the Event, the partners of ISSE project (Partners) will have a final meeting to prepare the event, evaluate the overall project and discuss about joint follow-up initiatives to increase the impact of ISSE on local and international level.
With the end of the summer, the last important phase of “ISSE -Community Works!” started, that will lead to the closure of the project with the European Seminar on Social and Solidarity Economy on November.
The partnership continued working on the development of ISSE resources during all summer months. Since April and the public launch of the Research and the Portfolio, there have been several developments.
First of all, the work for the preparation of the next resources – the Training Modules and the Virtual Game – have intensified and now, on October, these materials are taking their final shape. The European Seminar, that will take place in St. Etienne (France) and where we will present all the results of the project, has currently undergone its final preparatory phase. More specific updates are coming soon!
Testing a training module activity in Athens September 2016
Let’s not forget though that ISSE is not only international work: the young people we work with and for, as well as the SSE initiatives we aim to support, mainly take place at local level in each of the partners’ country. Therefore, since April and the publication of the first resources, we have been implementing a serious of local activities to disseminate the results so far, test the usability of the completed tools, collect feedback and suggestions for the future work, and set the ground for the exploitation of the final results also outside our own organisations.
Among the remarkable results of these first local dissemination activities, is the fact that the Portfolio of Competences in Social and Solidarity Economy is being integrated as support material for new students in the curriculum of SSE qualification studies at the Jean Monnet university in St. Etienne.
Positive feedback about the Portfolio has also been provided by activists of the SSE field in several countries: this resource can not only help young people to discover their skills, find their place in a team and design new SSE projects, but can also support already established initiativ
es to self-assess their functioning, improve their work on personal and team level, and make their initiatives more sustainable in terms of human resources.
An important local appointment is the upcoming Solidarity Economy Fair of Catalonia in Barcelona (21-23 October), where XES and NEXES will be delivering a workshop on SSE training for young entrepreneurs based on the resources developed during ISSE project.
Thanks for you patience the Spanish version of the Portfolio is now available.
The research highlights both the similarities and differences in the history and active participation in the Social and Solidarity Economy (Social Enterprise in the UK) among the participating countries within this project.
Full versions of the research
Summary versions of the research
The communicator
The portfolio is a guide in the pathway into SSE. It is built upon the basis of 10 profiles – compiled from the research and focus groups. It contains transversal competencies common to SSE and specific competencies for each profile. It is an opportunity to map out your own route into or continuing path within SSE.
Training modules, which are currently being written and trialed, will be available in the autumn and these will link to the Portfolio.
Portfolio of Competence English version
Portfolio de compétences en ESS
Porfolio de competencias en la ESS
The Portfolio is currently available in English, French, Spanish and Greek the other language of the project will follow in the next few weeks.
The Research has been developed through the work in five countries based on a literature review and local focus groups. The study is essentially about the characteristics and main practices of SSE in the different contexts and it makes an approach to training needs in SSE.
The Portfolio is a guide in the pathway towards Social and Solidarity Economy: What is your profile? What are your competences ? How do you intend to acquire competencies that you are missing? A course? A work-experience? It is built upon the basis of 10 type-profiles, under which could be sorted out different jobs or activities of SSE.
The Research and the Portfolio will be available online (in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Greek) on the 18 of April here in the project website.
Mid term meeting Athens December 2015
This took place just before Christmas and was hosted by the the Greek partner ‘Citizens in Action’. Our thanks go to them for an excellent job.
Sadly the UK member of the coordination team lost their passport and was unable to physically attend the meeting, they did however attend via Skype.
A busy and intensive few days of reviewing current progress and planning the next steps.
One of the changes for partnerships within the Erasmus+ programme is less funding for face to face meetings between partners. The drawback for this is the meetings are more intense with less time to socialize and more importantly, less opportunity, in our case, to look at SSE experiences in the partner countries.
Despite the intensity of the meeting, overall satisfaction among partners regarding progress made so far, is good. Although we are a little behind, the timeline has been revised and all are confident of achieving the outputs specified within the schedule.
The meeting could best be summed up by the comment:
Research – this has taken a little longer than expected but the compilation of research from the partners has been completed in both English and Spanish. It was agreed to complete a summary version for translation into all 5 partnership languages. This is currently underway.
The research documents, both full and summary versions, will be available in March 2016 at the same time as the Portfolio of competencies is published.
Avatar Example
Portfolio – Work is ongoing, following both focus groups and individual interviews – Generic job/role profiles have been completed with specific competencies; knowledge, skills and attitudes, and; transversal SSE competencies identified for each profile.
Planned as an E-portfolio each profile will be identified with an Avatar (which at present are being designed). (A sneak preview of my favorite to date – I stress this is only my personal favorite and may not make it into the final document).
This is planned for completion and publishing alongside the Research document in March 2016.
Training Modules – Work has begun on these and they will link to the competencies focusing on Attitudes, skills and knowledge. Due for completion in October. Trials of some of the activities are initially planned for April, June and July, to be followed by validating and translation.
Virtual Game – This is very much at the beginning stage and current thinking is to link to the Portfolio profiles and avatars. A mixture of SSE awareness raising and challenging attitudes through completing challenges within a virtual environment. Trials of the game are due to take place in July, August, September with completion in October.
Final Event – November is the month of SSE in France and the town of St Etienne hosts an SSE fair attracting around 5000 people during the last week of November.
We have agreed to host our final event as part of this larger fair. Our intention is to have a stand and workshops showcasing the project outputs; research, portfolio, Training modules and Virtual game during the event.
We are looking to raise additional funds to support attendance of individuals from SSE business’s who have participated in the focus groups / interviews and supported the project. And, who would benefit from attending our workshops / seminars and networking within a wider SSE audience.
ISSE Community Works 