SCoopConSS – education of secondary school students for cooperative entrepreneurship is a two-year project financed by the General Directorate for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises of the European Commission, and implemented by the organizations European Grants International Academy Srl – project coordinator (Italy), aCapo Società Cooperativa Sociale Integrata (Italy), Anaptyxiako Kentro Thessalias (Greece), Associação Portuguesa de Startups (Portugal), Cámara de Comercio e Industria Italiana para España (Spain) and Center of Technical Culture Rijeka (Croatia).

The European Commission points out that European economic growth and jobs depend on Europe’s ability to support business growth. One of the series of activities aimed at the development of entrepreneurship is the development of the European Framework of Entrepreneurial Competences (EntreComp), which defines entrepreneurship through three interconnected competence areas: “Ideas and Opportunities”, “Resources” and “Action”. The EntreComp framework is an effective tool for improving the entrepreneurial capacity of European citizens and organizations, as well as for establishing a stronger connection between education and the labor market. The European Commission considers entrepreneurship a learnable skill, therefore education plays a key role in the development of entrepreneurial thinking and entrepreneurial skills. One of the goals of the European Commission is to improve high school education precisely through the development of entrepreneurial thinking and skills among high school students. It is important to point out that, according to the European Commission, entrepreneurship education should be promoted outside educational institutions, that is, to entrepreneurs and the wider community.

The basic idea of the SCoopConSS project is to develop a methodology for introducing secondary vocational school students to the business of cooperatives. Cooperative entrepreneurship is a form of sustainable business that can create employment opportunities and better working conditions for young people struggling with unemployment and a lack of acceptable work opportunities. The broader goal of the project is to introduce cooperative entrepreneurship into the program of secondary vocational schools at the European level.

Through the project, an innovative methodology of cooperative entrepreneurship education for teachers will be developed and applied. After researching existing methods and tools and determining the needs of teachers and students, an experimental application of the methodology will be carried out in secondary vocational schools in the Republic of Croatia in cooperation with teachers of the economic group of subjects, teachers from the profession and managers of social cooperatives and companies.

Professional training will be organized for 20 teachers from each partner country, where the partners will present developed tools for teaching about social cooperatives and enterprises, and will organize training on the use of the Canvas tool for creating a business plan for a social cooperative and enterprise. Monitoring of the work of the social cooperative will be organized for them in cooperation with the heads of social cooperatives and companies.

200 students (aged 16 to 19) from each partner country will work in teams, under the mentorship of teachers, to design social cooperatives and create a business plan with which they will participate in the national competition Scoop! which will be held in the first half of 2021. The winner of the national competition will have the opportunity to participate in the European competition EU Scoop! which will be held in June 2021 in Foligno (Umbria, Italy).