The Social Economy can be defined as a set of collective economic initiatives present throughout the entire economic process (production, consumption, marketing, and credit), based on shared management, solidarity (understood as the equitable redistribution of goods and opportunities), cooperation, and the principles of democratic management.

On the other hand, the European Commission provides a description of the characteristics of social enterprises and defines them as an integral part of the Social Economy, while the GECES (Expert Group on Social Economy and Social Enterprises) highlights the European roots of social enterprises based on the concept of the Social Economy.

Furthermore, there is no doubt that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), formulated by the United Nations, represent a business opportunity to address existing global challenges in terms of sustainable development, serving as an instrument of innovation and creativity to implement solutions from companies and strengthen their business model. Of course, the European Social Economy sector should not remain uninvolved in this process.

In this context, the educational sector, as one of the main platforms for promoting entrepreneurship, must leverage all this potential and align its teachings on entrepreneurship with the SDGs. This is particularly important within the Social Economy sector, ensuring a balance between economic, social, and environmental objectives. Currently, this incorporation has been carried out in an unstructured way in some European countries, while in others, little to no progress has been made.The ETSE-Goals Project is an initiative of the Andalusian Association of Social Economy Educational Centers (ACES Andalucía), the Andalusian association that brings together 147 Social Economy educational centers. In 2022, we designed this project together with FEAES (Spanish partner), PISTES Solidaires (French partner), VEDA (Bulgarian partner), and JOIN4CS (Greek partner) to develop an innovative approach for the full incorporation of the SDGs into the entrepreneurial teachings of the Social Economy offered at the VET level. The ultimate goal is to strengthen the social entrepreneurship ecosystem and its transformative power at the European level.Thus, the ETSE-Goals Project is a Cooperation Partnership framed under the specific priority "Contributing to innovation in vocational education and training".

The main activities developed within the ETSE-Goals project are:

1.    Development of a Good Practices Guide, hosted on a microsite, to identify successful initiatives, projects, or strategies from different countries, developed at a European or even international level, that have successfully incorporated the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into entrepreneurial teachings at the VET level, primarily but not exclusively in the Social Economy

2.    Creation and implementation of an innovative educational package aimed at current VET teachers to understand how to practically incorporate the SDGs into their entrepreneurial teachings in the Social Economy. This educational package will consist of several small-sized Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for broader use and dissemination.

3.    Design and launch of an online collaborative platform to foster networking among VET teachers and students involved in entrepreneurial teachings in the Social Economy across different European countries. Through this platform, they will be able to share ideas, experiences, knowledge, and new materials on this topic. Additionally, an international contest on SDG projects linked to social entrepreneurship will be organized, with awards for the best initiatives designed by teams of teachers and students.

4.    Development of policy recommendations aimed at effectively promoting the full incorporation of the SDGs into entrepreneurial teachings in the Social Economy within the VET educational sector. Led by VEDA, this is the work package we are currently working on.

This work package will involve decision-making bodies at the local, regional, national, and European levels related to VET, continuing training, sustainable development, and the Social Economy (chambers of commerce, professional organizations linked to sustainable development or the Social Economy, research institutes, Social Economy entities, etc.).

Finally, we encourage you to participate in our ETSE Goals International Award. This award recognizes innovative projects on sustainable development from VET centers across Europe. Here is all the information:

Best regards from Seville, Spain!