On 6 and 7 October the baSE project, Blueprint for advanced skills and trainings in the social economy, kicked off in Bilbao and Mondragon, in the Basque Country.
The baSE project is co-funded by the EU Erasmus+ programme, and aims to develop a European strategy to address skills mismatches and provide new skills particularly in the digital and green areas regarding occupational profiles in the Social Economy and Proximity sector.
The Blueprint’s primary goals are as follows:
-Develop a sector skills strategy
-Design concrete education & training solutions
-Establish a long-term action plan
-Address skills mismatch and unemployment.
To achieve this, the project gathers 25 partners, from 10 EU Member States. A European multi-stakeholder consortium involving: social economy enterprises and entities, education, and training providers, research institutions, social partners as well as social economy experts. The baSE project will promote knowledge exchange among higher education, vocational education, and training providers, as well as social economy actors who make a significant contribution to important ecosystem growth.
The anticipated outcome will provide the impetus for supporting the proximity and social economy ecosystems through sectorial and cross-sectorial activities:
-The research on social economy skill shortages will define a long-term and sustainable strategy to close the supply-demand gap for SE education and training.
-The new curricula will define the appropriate “SocioComp” competency areas, learning and training tools, methodologies, and levels of proficiency for the SE Ecosystem, with the goal of updating Occupational Skills Profiles.
-The MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) Platform will provide a true hybrid learning environment by utilizing mixed technologies that are particularly adaptable to the diverse workforce’s needs.
-The four specific competence-based curricula designed for upskilling social economy practitioners will be continuously tested and validated through pilot training sessions.
-Policy recommendations for improving social economy VET training provision and ensuring the BASE model’s long-term viability as a skills-gaining mechanism.
The baSE project is lead by Mondragon University in close cooperation with Social Economy Europe and DIESIS network. A project at the service of the EU social economy community and will last for four years by building bridges with other existing blueprints as the B-WISE project.
