EU Project, Erasmus+, period: January/2021 - December/2024

Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs) target different disadvantaged groups of people with a distance to the labour market. Skills shortages and mismatches currently affect WISE’s in several dimensions, especially regarding digital skills. In this context, there is a clear need to develop a comprehensive European strategy to tackle the skills gaps in the WISEs sector, covering the skills needs of disadvantaged workers, their supporters (e.g. job coaches) and of those who can enable an adequate working environment (e.g. managers).  

The aim of the B-WISE project is to develop and implement a new strategic approach (Blueprint) to sectoral cooperation on skills needed to reinforce the empowering work of WISEs and to sustainably tackle the digital gap and challenges they face. We plan to achieve it by building a European sustainable alliance which pursues the following specific objectives: 

• To develop a common methodology for assessing the current situation and anticipating future needs 
• To identifying sector-specific labour market needs and to analyse the responsiveness of existing VET systems  
• To identify, document and promote good practices at national and regional level  
• To identify occupational profiles that need to be revised or created  
• To respond to identified skills needs (especially in digital area) through recommendations to create/update transnational vocational training content  
• To produce a credible & sustainable plan on how to match demand and supply of identified skills  
• To build a strong and sustainable community supporting appropriate quality and level of skills growth, innovation and competitiveness in the sector 
• To design a long-term action plan for the progressive roll-out of the strategy after the project has finished 
• To promote the attractiveness of the WISE sector as a career choice and to raise awareness on the importance of the use of digital technologies to support disadvantaged groups in work placement 

The project, led by two key European networks representing WISEs and involvement of  28 partners from 13 EU countries, will implement a coherent and comprehensive set of interconnected outputs which are flexible and adaptable to different current and future contexts and developments across Europe, ensuring then a local uptake with a clear European ambition.