The B-WISE project partners are pleased to announce the publication of the “Report on Trends and Challenges for Inclusive Social Enterprises (WISEs) in Europe – The state of play on skills shortages, in particular in the digital field”, prepared by EURICSE with the support of the other project partners.

The report aims to contribute to the development of a strategic approach (Blueprint) for sectoral cooperation on skills to strengthen the work of WISEs and the skills of their workers, as well as to sustainably address the digitalisation challenges they face. Based on 27 country reports, face-to-face interviews and an online survey carried out in 13 B-WISE partner countries, the report analyses the main drivers, features and trends of WISEs in the EU-27 and explores the skills needs and gaps of WISE workers, in particular with regard to digital skills.

The report maps the EU’s WISE sector and highlights the challenges these organisations face in supporting their employees from socially disadvantaged groups. The first chapter of the report analysed labour market constraints and the shortcomings of labour policy measures implemented to support the integration of workers from socially disadvantaged groups into the workplace. The following chapters look at the main features of WISEs, their added value, their drivers and their development models. Chapter 2 analyses the integration models and economic activities of WISEs; Chapter 3 focuses on reflecting the diversity of WISE legal structures in the EU-27; Chapter 4 outlines the range of resources available to WISEs: Chapter 5 aims to illustrate the context of WISE emergence and development patterns in three country groups; Chapter 6 explores the technical and interdisciplinary skills (soft skills) of WISE staff (managers, support persons and staff from socially disadvantaged groups) and related skills gaps; Chapter 7 assesses the state of WISE technology, digitisation and digital skills in the 13 countries participating in the B-WISE project. Finally, Chapter Eight highlights recent trends and challenges facing WISE in the countries studied.

This report is used to inform the future work of the project. The project partners are currently focusing on analysing the skills needs of all WISE workers, in order to be able to draw up specific training programmes for each of them and, finally, to develop a sectoral skills strategy!

Read the report HERE.

The B-WISE project, Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills in Work Integration Social Enterprises, is an Erasmus + project coordinated by EASPD with the support of ENSIE.