Santander, 28th April 2020.

Today, the European Project YOUCOOPE: Education in Cooperative Entrepreneurship has kicked off.  The Project is led by Santander International Entrepreneurship Centre (CISE) in collaboration with another nine institutions from Belgium, UK, Italy, Spain and Wales.

YOUCOOPE will be designing capacitation modules with innovative resources, methodologies and tools for educators to incorporate cooperative entrepreneurship concepts, skills and real-life experiences into their lessons. The project is also looking to encourage educative institutions both at secondary and university level, to include the cooperative model in their curriculum and to boost it among young students and entrepreneurs all over Europe.

Following the success of the ECOOPE European project, a group of institutions committed to entrepreneurship and co-operation have once again obtained the support from the European Commission to carry out a programme, which, in this case, will be focused on training the trainers so that they can motivate and boost entrepreneurship among European youths within the context of cooperative values as the tool to obtain the social and entrepreneurial skills that improve their employability.

Education in Entrepreneurship and Cooperativism

The project will last 18 months, thoroughout which a blended-learning methodology will be used. It will include a free online course, downloadable contents and face-to-face sessions for teachers at both education levels. All materials developed by YOUCOOPE will take into account the EntreComp European Framework for the development of entrepreneurial skills, supported by the European Commission, that includes the so-considered essential softskills for the personal and professional future of youths.

In its first stage, YOUCOOPE will bring digital capacitation to both secondary and university educators through a MOOC on entrepreneurial education and cooperativism. Its aim is to reach wide participation of teachers at both levels in at least five European countries, especially in Spain and Italy. After the online training, four face-to-face pilot experiences in both countries will be carried out in order to complement what has been learned and reinforce the methodologies to apply in the classroom.

The resources generated during the project will also encourage educational institutions to look for collaboration with existing cooperatives at local level, so that young people can gain perspective on the importance and efficiency of this model, as well as facilitating the transition from the classroom to the working context and reinforce real-life experiences.

YOUCOOPE has a budget of over 230,000 euros and is co-financed by the European Commission. As well as CISE and UC, the consortium is made up of another nine institutions from five European countries: Co-operative College CI (United Kingdom), Ciudad Industrial del Valle del Nalón (Spain), Università degli Studi di Trento (Italy), European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises (Italy), Bantani Education (Belgium), Federazione Trentina della Cooperazione (Italy), Escuela Andaluza de Economía Social (Spain), University of Trento (Italy) y Awel Aman Tawe (Wales).