Curriculum Appendix: Human Resources Management

When we discussed the curriculum of Basic Business Management Knowledge for Social Enterprises/Entrepreneurs, there was one topic that caused quite a bit of discussion about whether to include it in the curriculum or not: Human Resources Management.

On the one hand, Human Resources and their management are crucial for Social Enterprises. Knowing how to manage their staff is essential in order to deliver great service. Especially in times of crisis all investment into human ressources will pay off multiple times.

On the other hand, the topic is very extensive, as it includes recruitment as well as motivation as well as work law as well as issues of leadership. Everything is interconnected and quite challenging to teach in a short and efficient way.

The purpose of the BuCoSoMa-Project is to focus on basic business management knowledge, which should be made available in a concise and efficient way. This is why the project consortium finally decided against including Human Ressources Management as a topic of the BuCoSoMa curriculum.

However, this decision does not mean we do not see the importance of the topic. In fact, the opposite is the case. We created quite an extensive collection of the learning targets which seem relevant in this area. We would like to include this as a kind of appendix to our curriculum. How to include Human Ressources in Social Management education shall be the topic of further international cooperation project.

Appendix: Human Ressources Management

3rd Project Meeting, Vienna, June 12th - 15th, 2013

The 3rd meeting of the BuCoSoMa Project consortium took place in Vienna on June 12th - 15th, 2013. Not only was the weather great, also the team spirit and team work were exceptional.

Here is a quick summary of the results we reached:

• For everybody who wants do a quick review of what we were working on, have a look at the agendas of Thursday and Friday.
• We discussed the feedbacks we got for our preliminary curriculum and decided which topics to include and not include and why. 
• We agreed on a FINAL VERSION of the curriculum.
• On Friday, we did a Trainer Workshop in order to discuss about how to implement the curriculum in a Blended Learning setting 
• For your reference, here is the presentation, which includes the 5 models of Blended Learning I presented.
• Have a look at the photo protocol of the flip charts we created.
• I created a mindmap which summarises and categorieses the challenges we will be facing in terms of the target group.
• The next project partner meeting will be held in Maribor on October 17th - 18th, 2013.

On behalf of the Austrian hosts I would like to thank everybody for their contributions and the many laughs we shared!

Günter

Curriculum for Business Competence in Social Management

This is our preliminary version of the curriculum we developed in order to foster business competence in social management. We took the core learning targets the EBC*L Level A suggests and modified them and also added some learning targets in area that are especially relevant for social enterprises from our points of view.

We are now in the process of discussing this curriculum with social enterprises. Any feedback we receive will be added in an updated version of the curriculum. We will also discuss the curriculum and feedback at our next project meeting in Vienna, June 12th - 15th, 2013.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!

The curriculum can be downloaded here.

Finding a Suitable Framework: EBC*L, European Business Competence Licence

The EBC*L is a framework of learning targets in the area of business management and consists of three levels (A, B, C). 

The EBC*L certification can currently be obtained in 29 countries in 20 different languages. It has established itself as one of the leading standardizations in the area of business knowledge.

From my point of view, the EBC*L standard could be a suitable for our project goals. It could be a framework we build training concepts for our target group around.  

For more information please have a look at the EBC*L International homepage. There most of you will find links to the EBC*L Representative Offices in your countries.

Please share your opinion on whether you think this framework would be suitable for our target group. 

• Does it contain the topics you think are necessary in order to help managers in social businesses succeed in their area of work? 
• Do you miss any important topics?
• Have you come across more suitable frameworks?

About the Target Groups of the Project

The BuCoSoMa project aims at supporting people working in or for social enterprises.

Within this group, the main focus group re employees in middle management positions. They frequently face two challenges. Firstly, they very likely lack basic business knowledge because they have a professional background in social work, psychology, education etc. The second challenge they face is that very often they were put (maybe even "pushed") into this managerial position rather than having chosen this career path. They do not always feel like they "belong" into the "business world" and all of its implications.

Above and beyond this main target groups there are two more levels employees that could benefit from this project. 

• There is the top level management in social enterprises, which sometimes faces the exact same challenges like their middle management colleagues. They may be able to compensate their disadvantages by their broad experience. However, formal business training could improve their managerial skills even further. 
• In a long term view everybody working at a social enterprise could benefit from basic business knowledge - an the enterprise as a whole from their knowledge. Once everybody working at a social enterprise knows about the basic business rules which apply. The organisation will then work more efficiently, which is the foundation of sustainability and secure workplaces. 

However, the present state of business knowledge (and lack thereof) is not limited to social enterprises. It will very likely apply to NGOs and NPOs in a similar way. Therefore we see a lot of opportunities for the project work and results to be transferred into other professional and organisatorial fields.