Welsh water utility and social enterprise Glas Cymru has 1.3m customers and runs education programmes with pupils like these ones from Llysfaen primary school
Welsh social enterprises are punching above their weight according to the amount they contribute to the UK's economy, reveals new research commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government.
The research found that the social enterprise sector in Wales had an estimated turnover of £2.18bn.
That is eight per cent of the UK social enterprise sector's turnover of £27bn. Yet, for the same period, the overall contribution of Wales to the UK economy was only 3.6 per cent.
The figures were publicised today at the same time as the Wales Co-operative Centre was calling on Welsh social enterprises to enter the new Social Enterprise Awards run by the Social Enterprise Coalition.
The first stage of the awards, which are the regional heats, will close at 12pm on Monday 28 September - giving social enterprises less than a month to complete their entry forms.
Speaking in response to the statistics, CEO of the Wales Co-operative Centre Simon Harris said the social enterprise sector in Wales was 'very valuable to Wales in economic terms'.
However, he also highlighted a gap between people's perception of social enterprises and the reality of their achievements.
Despite the fact that the Welsh social enterprise sector is estimated to account for more than 28,500 full-time jobs and 20,000 part-time jobs, a separate study commissioned by the Wales Co-operative Centre and carried out by the University of Glamorgan, found only 35 per cent of the general public had heard of the term social enterprise and only 17.5 per cent knew what it meant.
...as Susan Boyle might have sung. On SocialEnterpriselive.com this week:
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