Earlier this month Advenio eAcademy set a new milestone in its development, the successful conclusion of yet another Erasmus+ project, SocEntrep4NGOs. The project was conducted by an international consortium of higher education institutions and NGOs led by Advenio eAcademy, including the following HEI and NGO partners from Greece, Italy, Malta and Turkey: University of Ioannina, Universita’ Politecnica delle Marche, Bogazici University, SoS Malta, Academy of Entrepreneurship, AIC Forum and Imece.

E+ SocEntrep4NGOs Project objectives

The scope of the project was to improve the capacity of existing NGOs working within the third sector as current and future social entrepreneurs. It focused on a foundation research on which the development of an accredited programme in Social Entrepreneurship was developed. The project sought to achieve the following objectives:

1. Research current best practices in Social Entrepreneurship (SE) and SE programmes required to support NGOs. This helped in understanding the particular challenges met by current and future social entrepreneurs, employees working in NGOs and NGO volunteers. This stage was completed in Feb 2022 and the specialist subject modules identified as well as the required EQF/MQF level.

2. Design and development of the proposed Social Entrepreneurship programme including specialist content also confirmed through the research. This included development of eight specialist subject modules, each to be accredited at 4 ECTS credits at Level 5.

3. Accreditation by the national regulator in Malta, Malta Further & Higher Education Authority (MFHEA) of the Level 5 90 ECTS cred Undergraduate Higher Diploma in Social entrepreneurship online programme ensuring that the programme would be recognised within the EU and within those countries that are signatories to the Bologna process. This was completed in Sep. 2022.

4. Marketing of the new Social Entrepreneurship programme to recruit suitable social entrepreneurs for participation in the pilot programme Intake #1 was launched in each of the four partner countries to promote the programme and recruit students.

5. Implementation of the 18-month online Social Entrepreneurship programme as a pilot programme and evaluation of its effectiveness.

6. Publication and dissemination the findings of the research study and feedback from the pilot intakes students enrolled for the Social Entrepreneurship programme. Research reports were published online and as hard copy reports. Additional project results are available on the Erasmus+ results website.

Ancona project wrap-up events

April 3, 2024: Public lecture – ‘Broader Perspectives to Social Entrepreneurship’ led by Stephen P. D’Alessandro at the Università Politecnica delle Marche. In this presentation, D’Alessandro provided an overview to the SocEntrep4NGOs project and outlined the scope of the programme and the broad range of research carried out by participants as part of their final research project activities. He discussed the concept of social entrepreneurship, highlighting the various similarities and differences between business and social entrepreneurs. He identified and addressed many of the main obstacles hindering progress of such organisations in the third sector, proposing various frameworks and solutions that could apply in the various contexts of the partner countries. The final part of the lecture dealt with opportunities for technology transfer and innovation in higher education institutions within the broad area of social enterprise. Various Master’s and PhD students from the Università Politecnica delle Marche, as well as guests from the third sector attended the event on site as well as through online participation.

The public lecture Broader Perspectives to Social Entrepreneurship in progress at the Contamination Lab at the Universita Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona.

April 4, 2024 – International Conference on Making the Transition from Non-Governmental Organisation to Social Enterprise was held at the Contamination Lab of the Universita Politecnica della Marche.

Present for the conference were delegates from Universita Politecnica delle Marche as the hosts of the conference, AIC Forum – Italy, Ioannina University – Greece, AKEP – Greece, Bogazici University - Turkey, IMECE - Turkey and Advenio eAcademy Malta. The conference also included two keynote speakers from Frolla Società Cooperativa Sociale and IAL Srl Impresa sociale who spoke about their social enterprises and experiences. The conference was also streamed online to allow for remote participation, particularly to those students who were not able to travel to Italy for the event.

Prof. Donato Iacobucci on behalf of the host organisation made the introductions to the event, thanking the consortium members, students and guests for their participation in the event. He provided an overview of the University’s long involvement in the development of entrepreneurial skills in various areas of activity. He highlighted the significance of the location, the Contamination Lab, as the area of experimentation and research that allowed for viral diffusion of information and results.

Stephen D’Alessandro on behalf of the SocEntrep4NGOs consortium and gave an overview of the project. He outlined the composition of the consortium, the qualitative and quantitative research reports foundation that served as the basis for the programme, the design, development and implementation of the accredited Level 5 90 ECTS credit Undergraduate Higher Diploma in Social Entrepreneurship and the overall project results and impacts achieved. He mentioned the eight multiplier events held in each of the four participating countries and impact of improved collaboration, and involvement of stakeholder groups in upskilling NGOs.

The keynote speaker part of the conference was chaired by Camilla Chiappini, on behalf of the Italian NGO partner, Forum AIC and included Annalisa Marchetti, IAL Srl Impresa sociale: “Professional training for life-long learning” and Jacopo Corona, president, Frolla Società Cooperativa Sociale: “Pastry products for inclusiveness”. Marchetti spoke about the ongoing efforts of her organisation to reach out to various types of NGOs to assist them in capacity building and development of the skills and competencies of staff. She described the manner in which her organisation operated at a regional and national level to ensure that there was easy access to the broad range of support services offered. The Frolla presentation provided an introduction to the lively social enterprise that provides rewarding and fulfilling careers to individuals with disabilities through the manufacture and retail of its artisan cookies. The impressive promotional video demonstrated the level of professionalism and competence of the team and the detailed discussion of the various rounds of crowd funding required to establish and grow the organisation were particularly relevant to participants.

Camilla Chiappini putting questions to the panel.

Prof Paolo Sospiro chaired the next part of the conference dedicated to student presentation of final projects. Five students were present for the event and presented an overview of their final research projects. These were Anita Gagovska, Buket Hayretci, Busra Özer, Joana Mihani, and Seval Ozbalci.

Buket Hayretci presenting her final research paper.

In conclusion, awards were presented to students present at Undergraduate Higher Diploma in social Entrepreneurship, Undergraduate Diploma in Social Enterprises, Undergraduate Certificate in social Entrepreneurship as well as awards for completion of individual course modules. In closing the event, D’Alessandro thanked all the partners, students and other stakeholders and Erasmus+ for funding the programme.

April 5, 2024 Transnational Meeting – Tower Building, Universita’ Politecnica Della Marche

The final wrap-up event was the transnational meeting attended by representatives of all eight partners, with one partner attending remotely. Present for the meeting in Ancona were delegates from Universita Politecnica delle Marche (Prof. Donato Iacobucci, Prof. Paolo Sospiro) as the hosts of the Meeting, AIC Forum (Ms. Camilla Chiappini, Ms. Anna Cingoli) – Italy, University of Ioannina (Prof. Jenny Pange, Prof. Evangelos Evangelou) – Greece, AKEP (Alessandro Carbone, Vicky Axaopoulou) – Greece, Bogazici University (Ing. Tamer Atabarut, Elif Yildiz) - Turkey, IMECE (Hazal Kartalkanat, Selin Taşdelen) - Turkey and Advenio eAcademy (Stephen D’Alessandro, James Scerri) Malta. Also joining the meeting remotely were delegates from SOS-Malta (Graziella Schiavone, Kristina Abela). There were various items on the agenda including follow-up on issues raised in previous transnational meetings, and arrangements to finalise and wrap-up all outstanding dissemination events. The meeting was primarily dedicated to a review and discussion of final project activities and preparation of the final reports for submission in conclusion of the Erasmus+ project.

Consortium participants at the Transnational Meeting in Ancona.