There is still too little investment in employees with support needs who work at social enterprises. Social entrepreneurship is a growing market and demand is expected to increase. Therefore, it is important to invest in people. Therefore, it is important to invest in people. This is what the European partners did research on within the BWISE project. You can read more about it at https://www.deomslag.nl/en/news/2022/09/trends-and-challenges-european/214.

Skill gaps

There are so-called “skill gaps” for which there is little or no training available. This applies in particular to employees with support needs who form a large group of people who currently do not move on to paid work within or outside the social enterprise where they work.

Important transitions

In addition, major changes are taking place, such as digitization, democratization, greening, etc., all of which are important transitions. Few companies prepare their employees for this.

Project BWISE

The BWISE project is used to strengthen the collaboration between education and social entrepreneurs. A good collaboration has been established within it between social entrepreneurs, ROC and De Omslag in the Netherlands. The goal is to increase the opportunities for practical learning and thereby invest in employees within social enterprises.

Awareness and practical learning

Efforts are being made to raise awareness and set up enterprises for practical learning. Joint lesson packages are being developed that will be tested in a pilot project to be carried out in Amsterdam over the next six months. Based on the experiences, further planning can be done, knowledge shared and disseminated throughout the Netherlands.