By enabling a structured cooperation among higher education, VET organizations and companies, the main goal of SIM is to create a hybrid and multifaceted profile (the Social Impact Manager) with different competences which are all functional to make a company growing in terms of CSR, especially on its link with community development.
SIM is developed through 4 main phases:
1. Engage (M1-12), putting in place a research activity aimed to assess needs of companies and local communities and an engagement strategy, creating local SIM networks
2. Design (M12-19), listing skills, methods and learning outcomes of the SIM Curricula and co-designing the education programmes to be launched in 5 target countries (AT, HR, GR, FR, IT)
3. Empower (M20-31) where partners will deliver the SIM Educational programme targeting young and adult professionals and aimed to build their capacities to work with companies in generating community engagement initiatives at local level
4. Evaluate and Exploit (M1-36), assessing the impact of SIM at different scales, and nurturing partnerships and alliances with local and EU stakeholders to ensure up-scaling
The SIM Education programme is piloted in 5 countries, with the aim of reaching about 150 learners and at least 50 European companies. Other major project outputs are a Report on the link between CSR and Community Development; 5 Local Hackathons; 1 International SIM School; 15 Social Impact Initiatives.
The Social Impact Manager will be an emerging profession endowed with the relevant skills to include companies in cooperation schemes with their local communities, thus encouraging resilience at community level.
The project ambition is that European companies can play a greater role in the future in solving the main societal challenges of our times, also thanks to the support of internal staff (the SIMs), trained and fully equipped to nurture alliances in local communities, and design and launch sustainable solutions addressing local challenges.
Here is the link to the project website.
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