Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills in Work Integration Social Enterprises (B-WISE)

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Overview

Title

Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills in Work Integration Social Enterprises (B-WISE)

Abstract

Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs) target workers with support needs, mainly people from various disadvantaged groups distanced from the labour market, as well as their enablers and supporters.  

The aim of the B-WISE project is to develop and implement a new strategic approach (Blueprint) to sectoral cooperation on skills needed to reinforce the empowering work of WISEs and to sustainably tackle the digital gap and challenges they face.  

The project is led by two key European networks representing WISEs and involves 28 partners from 13 EU countries. It aims to implement a coherent and comprehensive set of interconnected outputs which are flexible and adaptable to different current and future contexts and developments across Europe, ensuring then a local uptake with a clear European ambition. 

Status

On-going

Duration

January 2021 – December 2024 

Sector

Work Integration Social Enterprises sector 

Countries

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain

Scope of the project

There are 2 million social economy enterprises in Europe, representing 10% of all businesses and about 6% of the EU’s employees. The project focuses on an important subset of social economy enterprises – namely organisations focused on facilitating the integration of people excluded from the labour market, known as Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs).

WISEs are organisations whose main objective is the social and professional integration of workers with support needs. They are at the core of the economic system and include a strong pedagogical dimension. Workers with support needs can be long-term unemployed, persons with disabilities, older persons, migrants, NEETS, and other groups who are more at risk to be excluded from the labour market.

The B-WISE project targets the skill needs of workers with support needs, their supporters (such as their job coaches, trainers) and their managers. The project also promotes the attractiveness of the WISEs sector as a career choice and raises awareness on the importance of the use of digital technologies to support workers -who are more at risk to be excluded from the labour market- in work placement.

Objectives

• Identify the skill gaps – mainly digital skill gaps – currently identified in the WISEs sector;
• Identify the future skills needs of the sector;
• Develop a credible and sustainable plan to match demand (employees/employers) and supply (VET providers) of identified skill needs;
• Update the vocational training curricula according to labour market’s skill needs;
• Support the exchange of good practices at national and regional level, favouring the development of a sustainable community supporting skills growth, innovation, and competitiveness in the sector;
• Enhance the attractiveness of the WISEs sector as a career choice.

Short description

The B-WISE project aims to develop a European strategy to address the skill needs, in particular regarding digital skills, in the Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs) sector. To reach this goal and prepare WISEs to face future challenges, the project implements the following actions:

• Develop a report to provide an overview of the WISEs sector across Europe and identify the skills needs in the sector;
• Design three training curricula to meet the skills gaps of workers in integration, their supporters and their managers;
• Make those curricula a reality by testing them in 13 countries and validating them by certification authorities;
• Develop a European Strategy to continue addressing the skills needs in the WISEs sector even after the end of the project;
• Raise awareness to promote the WISEs sector as a career choice, on the importance of digital skills and of the use of digital technologies to help people with support needs.

Key findings

Report on trends and challenges for work integration social enterprises (WISEs) in Europe. Current situation of skills gaps, especially in the digital area.

The aim of the report is to contribute to the development of a strategic approach (Blueprint) on the skills needed to reinforce the empowering work of WISEs to strengthen the skills of WISEs’ workers and to sustainably tackle the digitalisation challenges they face. Drawing on 27 country fiches, face-to-face interviews and an online survey carried out in the 13 B-WISE partner countries, the report analyses the main drivers, features, and development trends of WISEs in the 27 EU Member States and examines skills needs and gaps of WISEs’ workers, in particular regarding digital skills.

The report draws a map of the WISEs sector in the EU and highlights the challenges faced by these organisations to support workers with support needs. The report discusses limitations of the labour market and the weaknesses of labour policy measures implemented to support the work integration of workers with support needs; key features of WISEs, their added value, their drivers, and their development patterns; integration models and the fields of economic activity of WISEs; legal structures of WISEs in the 27 EU countries; mix of resources WISEs have access to: public, private, monetary and non-monetary; the context of emergence and patterns of evolution of WISEs in three groups of countries; technical and soft skills and related skill gaps for WISEs’ workers (enablers, supporters and workers with supports needs); the state of play of technology, digitisation and digital skills of WISEs in the 13 B-WISE participating countries; recent trends and challenges faced by WISEs in the studied countries.

This report will be the basis of the future work of the project partners.

Report on understanding user (digital) skill needs in WISEs

The report addresses two main questions:

• What skills-building action do WISEs need, based on their characteristics, the directions of their development, their corporate culture, their strengths and weaknesses?
• What are the characteristics of the workers to whom we would like to propose competence-building pathways?

Based on these questions, the report proposes “scenarios” for WISEs that offer a general description of the model adopted, based on three basic WISEs types (social, training, and productive). It then proposes some “personas” which are a summary of the classification made at the national level, divided into the three categories of workers with support needs, supporters, and enablers. The report provides policy indications and guidance regarding competence-building pathways.