Eine aktuelle Präsentation des BuCoSoMa Projekte können Sie hier herunterladen.
A presentation of the BuCoSoMa project in German language can be downloaded here.

BuCoSoMa Pilot Training Evaluated

 

All project partners carried out pilot trainings (2013/2014). The students have been mostly employees from Social Enterprises or students who are educated for caring professions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Page 1 of our questionnaire)

 

 

53 participants gave us a feedback and filled out a detailed questionnaire.

The results confirm our thesis that there is a big need for more business competence in social management.

 

-       52  assessed the need for Business Management knowledge in Social Enterprises as “very relevant” or “relevant” and

-       41 confirmed that our curriculum would be “very much” or “much” useful for their current professional situation.

-       44  confirmed that exams and certificates are ‘very valuable’ or ‘valuable’ for their career.

-       35  wished ‘very much’ or ‘much’ more e-learning elements to be included in future lessons.

-       And last but not least:

     49  participants (96%) would recommend ‘very much’ or ‘much’ the BuCoSoMa curriculum/ course in their organizations.

 

The following topics were missed or should be improved/ modified in the final curriculum:

-       Genaral Administration

-       Human Resources Management

-       Communication

-       Networking

-       Marketing

-       Accountancy

-       Risk Management

-       Fundraising

-       Quality Management and

-       no technical ‘business’ terminology.

 We will keep that in mind.

March 2014

Diethard

A Pilot Training on Business Management for Social Enterprises in Germany

On 17 January 2014 a Pilot Training that was especially designed for Social Enterprises took place at the venues of the Zentrum für Erwachsenenbildung Stephansstift gem. GmbH (Stephansstift Adult Education Centre) in Hannover.

Eleven participants, among them directors and managers of social enterprises as well as trainees and future executive in the area of social business, took part in the one-day training that focused primarily on the basics of finance and balance sheet accounting.

During the training, participants were challenged not only to gain an in-depth insight into the theoretical background, but also to solve tasks that were extra developed by the trainer, Ms. Imke Lohmeier, for their specific use.

With an experience of over 20 years working in different financial areas, Ms. Imke Lohmeier has been currently working as a free-lance coach and trainer for Business Studies at the University for Applied Sciences of Hannover. It is maybe due to her large experience that she managed to put a topic that is viewed by social managers more often than not as being rather dry and uninteresting into simple words and easy comprehensible tasks – according to the participants’ words after the session.

Curious? Make your own impression of the training materials by having a preview right here. 
You might be able to download it all here soon.

In the end of the workshop, participants were asked to fill up an evaluation form. The evaluation results can be sum up like this: All participants found Business Management knowledge in general to be very relevant or relevant to Social Enterprises.  About 82% of participants said the specific topics addressed in the curriculum to be much or very much useful as regards their every-day work, while somewhat less participants - still making for almost 64% - believed that such training was much accessible or affordable, and 55% believed that the training was innovative or very innovative. Referring to certificates, again, seven out of eleven participants thought them valuable or very valuable to their careers – while more than a third (36%) did not share this view. However, all participants said that they will strongly recommend the training within their companies. When it came to the time they were willing to invest in Business Management education, however, the spectrum varied considerably, with equal percentages for more than a week, up to a week, and up to 2 days (each group accounting for some 27%) on the one hand, and up to one day and up to 5 hours (with about 9% each) on the other hand. Little more than half of the training participants (almost 55%) wished for some e-learning elements to be included in the curriculum.

The Zentrum für Erwachsenenbildung Stephansstift gem. GmbH (Stephansstift Adult Education Centre) is a Lutheran educational, study and meeting centre founded in 1985.

The workshop was held in co-operation with the Ada-und-Theodor-Lessing-Volkshochschule Hannover (VHS Adult Education Centre). The Ada-und-Theodor-Lessing-Volkshochschule Hannover is a non-profit organisation which is run as a part of the municipality of Hannover. It is financed through course fees and public subsidies.

BuCoSoMa Pilot Trainings    …

                                                 ….    have been carried out by all partners

Dear visitors and friends of our website,

 All project partners have been very busy in the last months because pilot trainings were held in all partner countries. Each of the different lessons gave an overview about a certain isolated question or problem which employees of social enterprises have to face every day.

We have had an intensive discussion about the results on our meeting in Granada (19^th /20^th February 2014).

We are satisfied that that the lessons have been successful and we can soon give our new BuCoSoMa certificates to our first students.

The participants evaluated the curricula and the lessons from their own point of view and we also discussed the matter with many managers of social enterprises.

Picture: BuCoSoMa Certificate (draft)

We are proud that we got a lot of positive feedback and good suggestions for our future work. We will present soon on this website the detailed results and the modifications we made in the curriculum following the wishes of our students.

One of the modifications that have been necessary was to formulate guidelines how to use our curriculum because there was some misunderstanding:

-          We did not intend to develop a complete introduction into economic sciences.

-        Just opposite, we want to offer small modules to learn certain lessons – learning modules that can stand alone and persons can pick themup because they are interested in a certain subject: Knowledge they can use immediately in their daily work.-          And last but not least: we think that learning should be comfortable and students must be able to enjoy it.

If you, dear reader of this blog, have suggestions for us as well, please do not hesitate to send us an email.

You can download the final curriculum from this website.

All project partners are now planning local dissemination events.

Our intention is to prepare an educational offer for employees of Social Enterprises that will last when the project has ended - lessons that will follow our trans-national standard. 

Picture: project partners discuss the evaluation of the pilot trainings during a meeting in Spain
 (19th/ 20th February 2014) .

The final project meeting will take place 11^th to 12^th June 2014 in Germany (Hannover).

We will keep you informed. 

Please visit our website again.

February 2014,

Diethard

Meeting of EBC*L Representative Offices, Vienna, January 10th - 11th, 2014 (Dissemination Event)

During the Annual Meeting of EBC*L Representative Offices, which took place on January 10th and 11th 2014 in Vienna, our Austrian and Croatian Project Partners took the opportunity to present BuCoSoMa to EBC*L representatives from 20 countries across Europe.

The project idea and development was received with great interest. Many representatives pointed out similar challenges in their countries and were happy to hear that within the framework of EBC*L there is an approach to improve the situation.

For the project I feel that the need we identified is indeed a big issue across Europe. This gives me the great feeling that the work we put into the project is met with real benefits for social enterprises across Europe. Also, it is a huge motivation to continue the work after the end of the project within the EBC*L network across Europe and in future projects.

Have a look at some of the photos of the meeting!

Definite Version of the BuCoSoMa Curriculum

At our meeting in Granada (February 19th - 20th) we agreed on a revised and now definite version of the BuCoSoMa curriculum. After the pilot testing carried out in the partner countries we realised that the topics concerning "Human Resources Management", which we initially considered an appendix to the core business competence concept, in fact are crucial for Social Enterprises. This is why we decided to make "Human Resources Management" an integral part of the BuCoSoMa curriculum.

Definite Version of the BuCoSoMa Curriculum (pdf) 

CRAFTS COLLEGE HELD PILOT WORKSHOP WITHIN THE EU PROJECT " BUCOSOMA "

Crafts College held on 13th December 2013 the pilot workshop which the main objective was to test the "Curriculum for enhancement if entrepreneurs’ business competences in social enterprises" developed within the European project " Business Competence in Social Management" (Bucosoma). The workshop was attended by Secretaries of Craftsmen Associations from the Chamber of trades and Crafts from Zagreb County and City of Zagreb, representatives of the Chamber of Crafts Karlovac and representative of the Zagreb County.

Participants are showed basic informations and the objectives of the project "BUCOSOMA" which is being implemented in partnership with institutions from five European countries : Austria , Germany , Bulgaria , Slovenia and Spain. The content of the educational curriculum based on the economic knowledge of business management customized for non-profit organizations was introduced. Emphasis was placed on the part of the curriculum that relates to accounting in order to obtain feedback from participants on possible improvements of the same. Given that the Curriculum is currently in the testing phase, all the feedback received during the implementation of the workshop will be considered and commented during the next meeting of partners which will be held in February of 2014 in Granada, after which some will be surely included in the final version of the Curriculum.

The workshop participants were also informed about the possibilities of accessing the funds from the structural funds of the European Union.Participants were introduced with the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy and the three operational programs: Operational Programme for Competitiveness and cohesion, Effective operational programme for human resources, Operational program for technical assistance on the basis of which will be inviting tenders for the use of EU funds in the period of 2014 by the year 2020. Possibility of participation of Associations of craftsmen and Regional chambers of crafts in EU funded projects was discussed. The participants were encouraged to consider possible project ideas.