Real Ideas Organisation seeks support for new social enterprise qualification

Pioneering social enterprise the Real Ideas Organisation (RIO) has today announced the launch of its international Social Enterprise Qualification (SEQ) pilot and is looking for social enterprises to get behind the idea.

The pilot, launched this September and running in more than 50 schools internationally, is designed to shape and inform the first ever qualification in social enterprise for young people, helping a generation of young social entrepreneurs realise their ideas for a better future.

SEQ will be all about learning through doing, developing assessment criteria which demonstrate a young person’s understanding and experience of the communication, creativity, innovation and practicalities involved in social enterprise.

The idea is that SEQ will offer a recognisable benchmark backed by, rooted in and informed by successful social enterprises and their practice so that young people can directly learn the skills that potential employers are looking for. To make this possible, RIO is asking social enterprises to get involved, log on to the SEQ website and ‘Support the Idea’.

Paula Winzar, founder and project lead of SEQ says: “Through extensive research and work with schools and social enterprises over the last three years, RIO has found that although many entrepreneurs are doers who don’t always need qualifications to achieve social change or economic success, the best way to mainstream social enterprise learning for young people is to create a qualification so that schools can give it time and budget. We want SEQ to become that qualification, a way for young people to be recognised for the socially entrepreneurial activity many of them are already engaged in and we would love social enteprises to get behind us and help make it happen.”

The Qualification will be structured in bronze, silver and gold categories and gives young people the opportunity to learn socially entrepreneurial skills through doing. Linked to the National Qualifications Credit Framework,SEQ will challenge young people to demonstrate they understand what social enterprise and ethical trading are about, enabling them to develop real new products or services within their school, community or wider marketplace.

Through taking part in SEQ, pupils will gain real experience of making money, organising events and building management skills, all the time considering how what they do can make a real difference to the communities around them and beyond.

To Support the Idea of SEQ, social enterprises are invited to visit www.realideas.org/socialenterprisequalification and click Support the Idea. Every social enterprise that Supports the Idea will get a link and profile on the SEQ website, as well as a virtual badge to put on their own website to show they Support the Idea. On top of that the first 50 Supporters will get subscriptions to Social Enterprise Magazine too.

With SEQ pilots being run in UK, China and Uganda from September 2010, the demand and enthusiasm for an internationally recognised Social Enterprise Qualification is obvious, and is something RIO plans to respond to.

Once the pilot phase is complete and formal accreditation is in place, SEQ will become available for schools and youth groups internationally to buy and run themselves, linking into the wider SEQ network and social enterprise sector.