Members of CED took part on Erasmus+ KA1 Training Course “Social Entrepreneurship for change” in Leipzig. Due to the current political and social situation in the world, Europe has faced the problem of huge waves of immigrants.
In the face of such economic and social challenges, there is demand, especially for young people of migrant and refugee background, to better prepare them for today’s varied and unpredictable career paths.
Therefore our organization took part in this project which objective is to tackle youth unemployment especially in respect of young people of migrant and refugee background, across the EU through innovative solutions including social entrepreneurship, and raising awareness on youth unemployment. This project also aims to ensure equal access to employment across the society, particularly among young people with migrant and refugee background through equipping them with relevant skills.
Main part of the project was training course which gathered 33 youth workers from 10 countries, from 21 to 29 July in Leipzig, Germany. The participants were staying in Leipzig and were implementing the training in the Lucky Punch facilities in Haus Sehlis and in the city of Leipzig. During the training, the youth workers were developing their capacities for implementing social enterprises and social entrepreneurship projects with young people of migrant or refugee background.
The experiential leaning approach was used during all the activities of the training, as the most suitable approach and methodology that the youth workers can use for equipping and empowering young migrants and refugees to become self-employed with opening social enterprises.
During this course, by using of creative pedagogical methods and tools, with having inspirational environments and collaborative learning that rests on a competence-based and learner-centered approach the participants explored various issues related to the topic; learned the steps on how to start up from the core social problems and turn them into social enterprises which are successfully matching the needs and are generating profit; pitched their business plans and created new network of partners.
“Social entrepreneurship for change” was connected to several main objectives and features of the Erasmus+ programme. First of all, it supported professional development of youth workers and it provided them with tools to facilitate learning and development of young migrants and refugees in the social entrepreneurship context. Through its practical part, it stimulated their creative and innovative thinking in designing new social entrepreneurship business plans, based on young migrants and refugee’s needs and requirements for their social inclusion.