Specific aim of the project was to spread and promote in Europe a new professional curriculum, namely the European Expert in Social Innovation incubation (ESII). Social innovation processes rely on the inventiveness of citizens, civil society organisations, local communities, businesses and public servants and services. They are an opportunity both for the public sector and for the markets, so that the products and services better satisfy individual but also collective aspirations. But this inventiveness needs to be directed and guided towards market-relevant initiatives, to become social businesses, i.e. enterprises with a positive social impact.Who can offer this guidance and facilitation service? The European ESII, a professional in virtual incubation, that provides expert consulting and tailored workshops to help social entrepreneurs and innovators build the skills, strategies and networks they need to succeed. In different contexts in Europe, there are some consultants dealing with social innovation incubation, although a common training path is missing and the profession of ESII is not recognized. This hinders the transparency of competences and creates barriers in the mobility of individuals within the European labour market. In addition, the lack of a recognised profession in this field, means a shortage of competent and qualified experts able to unleash the potential of emerging ideas and initiatives, allowing the creation of social changes and social businesses.Organisations working as consultants, training providers, incubators for traditional business, should get prepared to also support social entrepreneurship and scale up social innovation initiatives, in light of the primary role that social business plays in the economy and in society.Hence, in order to favour mutual recognition and transparency of competences, the project will develop:1. The ECVET competence profile of the European ESII2. The curriculum of a training course for ESII3. A procedure for the recognition of competences 4. Guidelines for the accreditation of organizations carrying out training addressed to ESII5. A comprehensive training course to become ESII, accessible online as Open Educational ResourceThe direct target group includes all existing incubators, chambers of commerce, consultants and business support service providers, as well as students in business and economics, that will benefit from a free training course to help them acquire skills and competences recognised at European level for the experts in social innovation incubation. Indirect target groups are all the stakeholders that may exploit the outcomes for training activities and internal staff professional development: VET providers, universities, local authorities, traditional businesses (that may be interested in creating links and synergies with social enterprises).The direct target groups and organisations will be involved in various phases of project activities: the initial in depth-research to design and implement the ECVET profile, the training delivery and pilot test activities, the events and dissemination activities.It is intended to directly involve at least 300 people and 20 organisations per country, for a total of 1500 beneficiaries.Thanks to dissemination and exploitation activities, the consortium aims to reach about 5000 people in Europe, counting also on the European networks the partners belong to, such as the European Business Network, which has a direct interest in exploiting the results within its members (more than 150 business innovation centres). The main tangible results will be:1. the implementation of the ECVET system to the field of social innovation incubation, a growing sector in Europe lacking a common framework for transparency of competences. 2. An innovative learning environment to train ESIIs, through an interactive platform offering educational materials and simulation toolsThe expected result is to favour the acquisition of new competences in terms of social innovation incubation and facilitation by the actors offering support to business and local development. The project will provide new opportunities for economic growth as the partners’ networks of business support services acquire the new knowledge and skills delivered through the project to help social enterprises evolve and grow. On a national, European and international level the project will influence policy and help to shape the future of social entrepreneurship. The impact is translated into new businesses thereby reducing systemic unemployment, which results in new employment opportunities for the long term benefit of citizens.As for systemic impact, the project intends to give a boost to social innovation in Europe, in order to contribute to Europe 2020 objective of making the European economy intelligent, sustainable and inclusive.

The I SEE YOU project is an initiative of 8 partners from 7 countries (AT, ES, IT, SK, IRL, RO, UK) addressing the critical issue of youth unemployment (YU) in the European Union placing a special emphasis on migrants. YU has become one of the most pressing labor market issues in Europe since the economic crisis. Entering the labor market poses major challenges for young people in many European countries such as Spain, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, UK, Ireland and Austria, which manifests itself in a high YE rate. An even higher unemployment rate is faced by migrants and minority group members, who have to battle social exclusion. Many European and national initiatives or programs aim to tackle the problem, however, focusing on isolated aspects and with limited success. A key way out of unemployment for many young people is entrepreneurship. 40% of European youth have indicated an interest in self-employment, as it provides them with independence & self-determination. They are highly interested in IT-focused as well as social businesses, which are observable trends in many European countries. Studies show that many young people lack skills, networks & received inadequate entrepreneurship education. Nurturing entrepreneurial attitudes and skills is in the focus of I SEE YOU. I SEE YOU aims to offer a flexible, integrative approach to train & capacitate young people to become skillful social entrepreneurs in IT by developing the capabilities & skills of young unemployed people (18-24) with an affinity for IT & interest in creating their own social businesses. I SEE YOU provided core results: targeted activation, training modules, international collaboration and a business simulation tool. A special focus was put on migrants / minority youth. The first year of I SEE YOU was dedicated to the activation youth, while the second year did focus on implementing a social entrepreneurship training and using a social business simulation tool in a competitive setting. The youth was constantly accompanied, mentored and brought in contact with key stakeholders from the business world (start-up centers, Business Angels etc.) to establish valuable networks for their future. The main activities are:i) Development and Execution of Entrepreneurship Trainings based on 10 essential key competences At least 160 participating young people from 7 countries were capacitated (over 1000 were reached through dissemination). The OERs are translated and made available in all 7 project languagesi) Creation of a Social Business Simulation Tool Allow youth to apply learned concepts in a virtual settingiii) Involvement and Capacitation of Migrant / Minority Youth At least 20 migrant / minority youth members participated in the project (over 150 were reached through dissemination). A Migrant / Minority Inclusion Strategy was developed and distributed to decision- & policy-makersv) Community building / Connecting youth with youth and key stakeholders Building transnational teams to foster intercultural skills & create a European identity Involvement of multipliers (start-up centers, labor market agencies etc.) and financiers (Business Angels) All produced outputs are provided as OERs to the public and disseminated according to a detailed strategyThe project was implemented by a consortium with a strong background in EU-project management and a wide range of expertise from developing a needs analysis to training providers, migrant support experts, IT game developers and business creation support organizations. The impact of I SEE YOU was created through massive dissemination and multiplication of activities. The participating youth was capacitated and their skill sets on entrepreneurship increased, which enables them to open their own business. If they did not follow an entrepreneurial career after the end of the project, they have gained all relevant competences enabling them to act as intrapreneurs and will therefore be in high demand and possess a competitive advantage at the labor market in the IT sector. Key stakeholder benefit from the freely available OERs and business simulation tool that they can incorporate into their own offers and present to their clientele for further education. Long-term benefits will be achieved through:- the cost-effective replication of the integrative, holistic approach that will contribute to lifting youth out of unemployment and into dynamic and viable jobs- the availability of multi-lingual and game-based OERs - the international community established among European stakeholders