This Social Entrepreneurship Training Module for Refugee Youth (ΙΟ1) is a training Course which aims to provide an initial and solid background for refugees, aged 25-30 who want to launch their own Social Enterprises.
The Social Entrepreneurship Training Module provides the initial knowledge needed for creating a Social Enterprise, not only theoretically but also including tangible information such as legal framework, how to develop a Business Model Canvas, Financing and Marketing.
The Module has been developed by the partnership of the SIRSE project. It contains learning material and activities in the Social Entrepreneurship’s terminology and concepts presented as well as evaluation quizzes for deepening their knowledge.
At the beginning, the initial concept of Social Entrepreneurship is explained, accompanied with some examples and good practices. In addition, Social Entrepreneurship Business Models are presented in order to allow learners to have an overview of the available ways to develop their Social Enterprise.
Impact and Social Value are presented and explained afterwards. Society’s benefits from Social Enterprise’s existence are revealed in this section, in order to help learners, understand how meaningful their work is.
Since Social Entrepreneurship is aiming to alleviate societal and environmental issues it is important to choose a Business Idea that provides help to existing problems.
Consequently, this section emphasizes on the available ways to focus on generating ideas. The assessment is also crucial and should lead to decisions guided not only from the societal pains but also should fit with the Social Entrepreneurs interests and be aligned with his/her personal goals, in order to be devoted and passionate on his/ her work.
However, Legal framework is a configurative factor when designing the initial parts of a Social Enterprise. There is a special chapter for this reason in order to enlighten learners, accordingly, depending on the country they are aiming to establish their company.
Social Enterprises are aiming mostly to handle societal issues, rather than making profit for their selves and as a result they are usually asking for funding. In order to facilitate possible donors to understand thoroughly their venture and as a result to support them financially, it is important to create a Business Model. Since it is usually overdetailed and unpractical when it comes to financial discussions, it is recommended to use beforehand a Business Model Canvas. As a simple tool for designing any type of enterprise, it is presented to learners in order to become aware of how it works and benefit from its use. The nine blocks of Business Model Canvas are described in detail and accompanied by useful questions for facilitating its development.
Considering that the Business Model Canvas has been developed, the first operational costs and the claim for funding come to the fore. Especially in the beginning, financial support is necessary, so the available funding ways as well as the advantages and disadvantages for each method are presented. When asking for funding, it is necessary to have a clear view of the exact amount of money that are needed as well as the specific categories they belong. It is not always an easy part, so for this reason there is a chapter that provides a methodology for estimating them and to differentiate the costs to fixed and variable in order to have a financial balance. This procedure will not only help when claiming for the funding but also after the launching of the Social Enterprise, in order to ensure its sustainability.
Last but not least is the Marketing chapter. It is crucial for retaining the Sustainability of a Social Enterprise to exploit Marketing techniques in order to ensure it. Also, digital marketing is now a days an integral part of Marketing, so there are specific ways which are presented for contributing to the viability of the Social Enterprise.
