Social entrepreneurship is dynamically growing in European countries, addressing unemployment, social protection and social inclusion.
As part of House of Europe, from 2019 till 2022 the British Council organised study tours for Ukrainian social Entrepreneurs to different European countries.
Through these study tours we aimed to look at different aspects of social enterprise (including enabling policies, business strategy and business models, product development, social responsibility business principles, sustainability and etc), and observed the best models and approaches existing in countries across Europe.
The objectives of all nine study tours were:
- to broaden people-to-people contacts, enhance cooperation and provide opportunities for networking, establishing partnerships, between Ukrainian and European social enterprises (and social entrepreneurs);
- to enhance sustainable interregional and international exchange, fostering mobility and mutual understanding among social enterprises (and social entrepreneurs);
- through the previous two objectives, to increase the capacity of social enterprises and the skills of social entrepreneurs in Ukraine.
The first study tour took place from 10 till 14 of February 2020 to Latvia. The study tour was organised in partnership with The Social Entrepreneurship Association of Latvia (SEAL).
The next study tours were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic and then the war. During the pandemic as a replacement for the physical study tours, our team developed an online capacity-building programme Digital Lab: Social entrepreneurs.