Products & Services Starting a Co-op or Social Enterprise Training you (Starting a co-op or social enterprise) Social Enterprise Employment Development (SEED) courseIn brief: SEED is a training programme that was developed by a transnational partnership including, in the UK, CAN. It aims to equip learners with the knowledge and skills to establish a social firm and is aimed at all learning levels. During the course, learners develop their business idea with the training team available to provide answers to specific questions that arise during this process. There is also a “mini-SEED” available which delivers an abridged introductory course over 2 weeks. This has proved particularly useful for individuals or groups who think they want to start a social firm but need to know more before they can commit to the whole process.
Who the course is for: Anyone interested in starting a social firm.
What it covers: The course is divided into eight modules or units. Each takes four attendance days plus some “homework” all of which should be integrated into the everyday activity of any participant actively involved in developing a social firm. A description of the units follows below:
The aim of this unit is to explore all the social, economic and historic factors that contribute to the exclusion of defined social groups, to seek an understanding of the effects of exclusion upon individuals and society and to explore ways to develop strategies for inclusiveness. It examines the issues we are dealing with and “what we are up against.”
The aim of this module is to develop an understanding of the needs of individuals in the process of enterprise and inclusion. It works through how to define needs and characteristics, what “development” and “growth” in individuals actually is, and defines and differentiates between different learning styles. It looks into how to develop and encourage assertiveness and the stating of personal needs and how to establish what is appropriate remuneration for work. It moves on to look at developing career plans with objectives and timescales, how to assess barriers to progress and how to help people overcome those barriers.
The aim of this unit is to establish methodologies for examining a project or proposal to establish whether the key elements are in place to achieve stated objectives. It looks at how to assess people’s skills and abilities, the value of the products or services that can be produced, the potential market, the resources required to manage the people, produce the product and deliver it to market and to measure the distance between a current situation and viability.
The aim of this unit is to give participants a good understanding of the background to the development of the social enterprise sector, how it differs from and how it fits in with other areas of the economy, government and business. It will look at the opportunities that the growing sector provides for creation of enterprises and employment, the strengths and weakness of social enterprise in the current political, social, economic and business environment and strategies for building on the strengths and dealing with the weaknesses.
The aim of this unit is to examine the use that can be made of models of self- help and development of enterprises with social objectives that have been developed within co-operatives all over the world over the last two hundred years. Using these models, it examines how to develop a set of values and principles within an organisation and how to develop a culture that is participative as well as dynamic and productive.
The aim of this unit is to turn attention outward towards the customer, to examine their needs and the benefits they should receive from the enterprise. It examines how to define the customers, understand them, communicate with them and establish a mutually beneficial relationship. It will examine how to predict what they will buy and the right mix of availability, quality and price to keep them on-side. It looks at the techniques of promotion and advertising available and how to develop a marketing plan to deliver the right image of the enterprise and the right message about its product affordably.
The aim of this unit is to give participants a good understanding of business finance from first principles through an understanding of how business accounts are kept, how to analyse business performance through management accounts and how to produce detailed financial projections. Along the way everything is examined from how to handle the depreciation of a fixed asset and what the accrual concept really is to how we measure profitability of any particular product or trading division and what rate of return on capital employed is being made.
The aim of this unit is to give participants a good understanding of the business understanding of the term “quality” and how management systems can be created to ensure that there is a quality approach to work within the enterprise. The unit looks at quality systems, meaning the way in which people, resources and processes are understood and managed so that the minimum possible wastage of effort or resources occurs and the maximum possible amount of the work goes smoothly into producing product fit for the customers use.
