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On 27-28 March 2023, the OBCD partners gathered in Barcelona, Spain for their second transnational project meeting. These two days were about presenting an overview of the first months of the project implementation, discussing and sharing the main achievements and next steps within each working package and connecting with each other. During their visit, the OBCD partners also had the opportunity to learn more about the development of the social and solidarity economy in the city of Barcelona by meeting different local foundations and non-profit organisations, including Aura Foundation, Mescladís Foundation and Grup ECOS.        The Aura Foundation shared its experience as a social enterprise helping to improve the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities through social and labour inclusion. After the first day of presentations, the OBCD partners had the pleasure to have a multicultural dining experience at Mescladís Foundation, a non-profit organisation contributing to fast track integration of migrants in the labor market, in the HORECA value chain, and in its own restaurant. Here, the food was an explosion of colors and flavors and the hospitality was impeccable. On the second day, they visited Grup ECOS, a social economy hub consisting of companies that aim to be an alternative to the current socio-economic model. While having different organisational structures, strategies and goals, all these organisations shared common needs for a bottom up approach to foster community development, inclusion of disadvantaged categories in the local economy, access to more funding opportunities, recognition and support from local, regional and national authorities. With this field trip, the OBCD partners could also answer these timely questions: how can the OBCD project respond to the needs of these organisations? How can the Open Business Model foster community development? Learning more about different local realities, but also their challenges and short-term and long-term objectives was extremely useful to fine tune and tailor the OBCD (present and future) research activities and outputs to the growing needs of the social enterprise sector. The main takeaway from this two-day trip is that the social and solidarity economy should be the norm and not the exception. A special thanks goes to all the OBCD partners who constantly work together to make this possible.  Thank you to La Cámara de Comercio Italiana-Barcelona for organising and hosting the second OBCD transnational meeting.    

In EntreComp, The Entrepreneurship Competence Framework, produced by the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission’s in-house science service, it is pointed out that the development of the entrepreneurial capacity of European citizens and organizations has been one of the key policy objectives for the EU and Member States for many years. Globally, EntreComp was born in 2016 with the aim of being a tool to improve the entrepreneurial capacity of European citizens and organizations. The model is very well known, consisting of 3 competence areas, 15 competences, an 8-level progression model and a comprehensive list of 442 learning outcomes. It was elaborated by a high-level research team developing a methodology structured in 12 steps. This commitment of the European Commission is generic, trying to integrate all the contexts in which entrepreneurial competence is important, from the commercial to the non-profit sphere. This versatility, which is EntreComp’s main strength, has as a possible negative consequence the impossibility of responding to the singularities of each sector, with key competences in certain sectors that are excluded from the EntreComp framework. For this reason, the Open Business for Community Development (OBCD) project team has conducted research that looks into the competences needed specifically in social enterprises and open business processes, in line with the project main objectives. Social enterprises do work in a special environment. For example, if compared to traditional for-profit enterprises, social enterprises rely more often on several separate funding sources. Social enterprises also vary in their business model: there are non-profit associations, foundations, co-operatives as well as corporations. Sometimes consortiums of social enterprises mix these different types of business models, making it more challenging for leaders of social enterprises to understand different types of taxation, legalities and business strategies.  Most importantly, social enterprises are driven by social and/or environmental missions. Strategic thinking in social enterprises requires understanding complex societal and environmental issues and how they are handled in the public policies. It is also important to understand how a social enterprise can effectively participate in that policy work. The ethics of social enterprises require participation and openness at all levels, unlike most traditional for-profit enterprises. These complexities and many others are hard to see in the EntreComp, which is widely used across Europe in schools, universities and career coaching services. Should social enterprises have their own SEntreComp? Which competencies and skills should include? The OBCD team values your feedback! Please share your thoughts with us at info@obcdproject.eu or on LinkedIn.