One Page Summary

The fight against the school dropout has been one of the main interests of the European Union, becoming a target included in the Europe 2020 Agenda. In fact, The European Council aims at reducing the level of scholastic abandonment rate by 2020 (< 10%), achieving the objective of the inclusive growth and decreasing the unemployment and poverty risks, especially for new generations. However, looking at the school context in the Catania’s area, district chosen by the Challenge Owner, this target is far from being achieved. According to the 2015 Urbes report (Istat) referred to this area, the rate of dropout is very high: 25% of the local students (7% higher than the national average). This percentage finds a correlation with the situation of NEET (not – engaged – in education, employment or training) in the province of Catania. NEETs in Catania are around the 36% of the young population (15-29 years old), while the national average is 22,5%.
Our solution to the Challenge “Get Back to School” is deeply connected with “Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro” and its objectives, trying to provide a social entrepreneurial mindset for the young students involved, exploiting the method and the training tools included in the program “Impresa in Azione”. The program “Impresa in Azione” is provided by the Challenge Owner since 2004. The solution of Grameen Italia Foundation and ITS “Steve Jobs” Foundation is aimed at the realization of iSBE (Innovate the Social Business Education). This project consists of education and training program for social entrepreneurship 4.0, destined to students (III, IV, V year) of technical-scientific high school in Catania.
The project i-SBE will be implemented in the JA Italia’s program “Impresa in Azione”, preparing student of Catania to the transition from schools to the labour market through an educational method focused on the ideation and development of Social Enterprises with high-tech innovation. This educational method is capable of combining lectures and workshops in the classroom with practical business planning experiences, using the JA Digital Platform e-learning platform.
The main objective of the program is the training on social entrepreneurship. Due to this aim the topic is the Social Business: a sustainable enterprise operating towards a social goal, without producing losses or distributing dividends. A company which operates as a Social Business is led by altruistic reasons and any profit is used to expand the business’ reach, improve output or create other Social Business to solve certain problems. In the last few years, several training experiences have been developed and performed on this topic by Yunus Social Business Centre across Europe. GIF has a direct relationship with these strategic partners and is able to exploit their know-how, trying to maximize the i-SBE’s outcome.
The choice of educating on Social Entrepreneurship is given by our strong belief that through Social Business is possible to contribute to the economic sustainability of the company and to solve social problems of the territory. Teaching this topic to young students means the promotion of a new model of capitalism, capable of reducing inequality, redistributing wellness, respecting the environment and investing in abandoned area. Through this focus on social entrepreneurship, the student will develop a social and sustainable way of thinking, trying to examine the local problems and to stimulate the implementation of market-oriented solution.

Thanks to the technological pulse of the platform, i-SBE aims at reaching around 2000 students of 30 technical-scientific high school in Catania. The project will be integrated in the program “Impresa in Azione”, being an add-on to the platform. The training module is made by a tool kit dedicated to the building and ideation of a social business with a blended approach that includes both face-to-face and online delivery components.
The project involves social enterprises with high technological innovation and Dream coaches specialized in the management of business with a social vocation (sustainable mobility, medical care, e-welfare, etc). Entrepreneurs will be selected both locally and globally through the digital platform Ashoka Fellow. It is a network that pioneered the fields of social entrepreneurship, and that links social innovators in the business world who are creating systemic change in areas from climate change to housing. This network also selected and connected networks of social innovators in schools through the Ashoka Changemaker Schools Network (in Europe, there are 515 Social entrepreneurs and 94 changemakers schools).
The Social Business training course and tool kit has already been tested by Grameen Italia from 2014 to 2016 at secondary schools of Emilia Romagna Region.