Resources

This document defines a flexible framework for developing and formalising professional profiles and training pathways in social innovation and the social economy. Based on skills intelligence, stakeholder co-creation, and alignment with European qualification frameworks, it identifies core professional profiles alongside modular clusters of transversal and specific competences, including green and digital skills. By adopting a dynamic, competence-based approach, the framework supports adaptable learning outcomes, validation, and accreditation processes that respond to evolving sector needs, ensuring social economy professionals are equipped for innovation, collaboration, and long-term societal impact.

The Sectoral Skills Strategy for Social Innovation, developed within the European Social Innovation Campus (ESIC), addresses skills gaps in the social economy by defining the competencies needed to drive social innovation and support the green and digital transitions. By focusing on transversal skills such as sustainability, digital literacy, social impact management, and ethical governance, the strategy strengthens employability, supports inclusive and sustainable employment, and empowers social economy actors to deliver meaningful societal impact.

The Double Diamond is a design-thinking framework that represents a creative process in four phases: Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver. It emphasises alternating between divergent thinking (exploring many possibilities) and convergent thinking (narrowing down to the best solutions). This model helps teams systematically understand problems and craft effective, user-centered outcomes.

A service blueprint is a visual map that outlines all the components involved in delivering a service, including customer actions, frontstage interactions, backstage processes, and supporting systems. It helps teams understand how different elements work together to create the customer experience. By revealing dependencies, inefficiencies, and pain points, a service blueprint guides improvements to service quality and operational effectiveness.

A social innovation overview explains how new ideas, services, or models are developed to address social or environmental challenges more effectively than existing solutions. It highlights the processes, stakeholders, and contexts that enable these innovations to emerge and grow. By summarising key trends and approaches, it helps organisations understand how to create meaningful and sustainable social impact.

A Theory of Change is a strategic framework that explains how and why a desired social impact is expected to happen in a specific context. It maps the logical pathway from activities to outcomes and long-term impact, including the assumptions that must hold true. By making these connections explicit, it helps organisations plan, evaluate, and communicate their mission more effectively.

The Social Business Model Canvas is a planning tool that helps social enterprises map out how they create social and environmental value alongside financial sustainability. It adapts the traditional Business Model Canvas by adding elements such as social impact, beneficiaries, and measurable outcomes. By visualizing these components, it helps organizations align their mission with practical operations and strategy.

The Methodology Definition Report outlines the approach for developing a shared social innovation education model across ten European countries. The report highlights the key role of higher education and vocational training institutions in strengthening social innovation skills to support the green and digital transitions. It is based on an extensive literature review and future qualitative research, including interviews, focus groups, and workshops, aimed at identifying essential competencies, pedagogical methods, and market dynamics in social innovation education. By combining research, education, and practice, ESIC brings together European universities and social economy actors to create a coherent, sustainable, and inclusive skills development strategy.