Cooperative Entrepreneurship in Higher Education

Online conference, 17 and 24 November 2020, 1pm-4pm (Brussels time)

PROGRAM

Cooperatives contribute to entrepreneurship, job creation, providing access to finance, ensuring inclusive and gender-balanced green growth, and stimulating the economic and social progress at a community level. Today in the European Union there are around 131 000 cooperatives with more than 4.3 million employees and an annual turnover of 992 billion euros. Despite their economic and societal importance, cooperatives are underrepresented in the university curricula. There is a lack of cooperative entrepreneurship education.

In line with the priorities of the European Commission expressed in the report of February 28th 2017, "An agenda for the modernisation of higher education", the Erasmus+ project COOP4EDU aimed at developing educational materials on cooperative entrepreneurship. The consortium, consisting in Alcala University (Spain), the Center of Expertise for Cooperative Entrepreneurship of KU Leuven (Belgium), Univerity of Ioannina (Greece), Cooperatives Europe (Belgium), Co-operative College (UK), the Coopetic Group (France) and the European University Foundation – Campus Europae (Luxembourg), developed a teaching programme and education materials on the history of cooperatives, principles of cooperative entrepreneurship, cooperative business model, writing business plan for cooperatives, team cooperation, and on the opportunities and challenges of cooperative entrepreneurship in digital era.

This event will present these teaching modules, offering an opportunity to discuss the potential of dissemination of the teaching modules with the policy-makers, academia, expert community, cooperatives, and all other interested stakeholders in the development of education on cooperative entrepreneurship.

The event consists of two parts:

On 17^th November, we will focus on didactics of cooperative entrepreneurship and how the educational material can be extended and adapted to local needs.

On 24^th November, we will focus on policy making and how to better integrate cooperative entrepreneurship in(higher) education policy.

A Zoom link, as well as a link to the teaching material developed in the framework of the project will be sent to the participants a few days before the event.

17 November

1.00pm: Welcoming speech - dr. Frédéric Dufays, Assistant professor, KCO, KU Leuven, Belgium

1.10pm: Presentation of the COOP4EDU project - dr. Maria Sarabia, Alcala University, Spain, and Javier Cascón, Founder of Amaqtedu, Spain

1.20pm: Keynote - dr. Ruth Yeoman, Oxford University

1.30pm: Presentation of the teaching material developed by the COOP4EDU consortium

Module 1: What is cooperative entrepreneurship? (developed by KU Leuven and Co-operative College)
- 1a) History of cooperation - dr. Nazik Beishenaly, KU Leuven, Belgium
- 1b) Principles of cooperative entrepreneurship - dr. Amanda Benson, Co-operative College, UK
Module 2: Cooperative Business (developed by University of Alcala, University of Ioannina and European University Foundation)
- 2a) Principles of business model and design thinking - Christina Blanco, Alcala University, Spain
- 2b) Project management: methods and tools - Christina Blanco, Alcala University, Spain
Module 3: Cooperation in practice (developed by Coopetic, Co-operatives Europe and KU Leuven)
- 3a) Active cooperation in a team - dr. Isabelle Bohnke, Coopetic, France
- 3b) Cooperation is going digital - Lorenzo Novaro, Co-operatives Europe

2.30pm: Break

2.50pm: Testimonials by participants in the Intensive Study Programs within the COOP4EDU project:

ISP in Ioannina - Konstantina Christogeorgou, University of Ioannina, Greece
ISP in Manchester - Jozef Cossey, KU Leuven, Belgium

3.00pm: Discussion with participants on the implementation and adaptation of the teaching material (1 room/sub-module)

3.40pm: Key discussion points

3.50pm: Concluding remarks - dr. Frédéric Dufays, KCO, KU Leuven, Belgium

24 November

1.00pm: Welcome and Presentation of the COOP4EDU project

1.25pm: Overview of the teaching material developed by the COOP4EDU consortium

1.55pm: Keynote - Patrick Klein, EU Commission, Head of Sector, Social Economy and Social Enterprises

2.10pm: Discussion with participants on the integration of cooperative entrepreneurship in European policy

3.00pm: Keynote - dr. Julie Rijpens, OECD, Policy Analyst in Social Economy and Entrepreneurship

3.15pm: Discussion with participants on the integration of cooperative entrepreneurship in education policies

3.45pm: Conclusion

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