When young people want to change their communities, motivation alone is rarely enough. To turn an idea into real action, they need practical tools, guidance, and a learning process that helps them move step by step from identifying a problem to shaping a viable solution.
This is exactly what Platform for Social Change set out to do through its ESIC pilot programme on social innovation and social entrepreneurship. In total, 32 participants joined the programme and worked on developing ideas that respond to real challenges in their communities.
What made the pilot especially valuable was its practical format. Rather than focusing only on theory, the programme guided participants through the key stages of building a social initiative or social enterprise. From the beginning, the emphasis was on learning through action: understanding community needs, testing assumptions, developing business models, and improving ideas with feedback.
The first stage focused on helping participants better understand social challenges. They explored the concepts of social innovation, social economy, and social entrepreneurship, while also looking at Ukrainian and international examples. More importantly, they analysed problems in their own communities, mapped causes and consequences, and used interviews and customer discovery to better understand people’s needs. This helped them move from broad concerns to clearer, more concrete project ideas.
The next step was turning these ideas into structured concepts. Participants worked on defining the mission, vision, and values of their initiatives. They used tools such as the Business Model Canvas and the Social Impact Canvas to think through how their ideas could create both social value and practical sustainability. In this way, the programme encouraged participants not only to imagine change, but to design it in a realistic and organised way.
Another important part of the pilot was financial and legal thinking. Participants learned the basics of budgeting, financial planning, and cost structures, and explored different legal forms for organising activities in Ukraine. This helped them see that social impact and financial viability are not separate questions, but closely connected parts of building a sustainable initiative.
The programme also included a strong focus on testing and communication. Participants worked on branding, marketing, and digital communications, developed minimum viable products, collected feedback, and improved their solutions. In the final stage, they learned how to present their ideas clearly and confidently, using pitching and visual presentation skills to communicate the value of their projects.
Throughout the programme, participants were supported by mentors with practical experience in entrepreneurship, business, and project management. They also had access to learning materials on the Howspace platform, including webinar recordings, presentations, templates, and guides. This gave them the flexibility to continue learning beyond the live sessions and return to useful resources whenever needed.
This pilot is a practical example of how the ESIC Competence Framework can be applied in a learning environment. It shows that social innovation education is most effective when competences are developed through practice, teamwork, experimentation, and reflection, rather than through theory alone. Competency-based education focuses on the combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for real-life performance, which is exactly what participants were building throughout the pilot ESIC Competency Framework
This is also why the Skills Monitor matters. If we want to improve social innovation education, we need a clearer understanding of which competences are most important, how needs are changing, and where education still leaves gaps. Practice-based pilots like this one help make those needs visible and show what kind of support young people need in order to turn ideas into action ESIC Skills Monitor
For Platform for Social Change, the pilot was more than a training programme. It was a space where young people could build confidence, develop practical solutions, and begin shaping social enterprise ideas rooted in the realities of their own communities.
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
