People with disabilities still have to struggle with various challenges and prejudices. Compared to other people, they are disproportionately under-employed, but often better educated (on average in 2020, 56 percent of unemployed people with a severe disability had a vocational or university degree - for those without a severe disability, the figure was only 46 percent (source: Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), Institute of the German Economy, 2021) and thus represent a body of well-qualified skilled workers who urgently need to be retained or integrated into companies.
The programme "Social Entrepreneurship Mission: Inclusion" brings together future shapers of society and interested parties in Bayreuth in order to activate them for a commitment in the field of social entrepreneurship and inclusion. Social entrepreneurship means that participants learn entrepreneurial methods to develop sustainable solutions for social problems.
The aim of the programme is to use entrepreneurial methods to develop solutions to real challenges for the inclusion of people with disabilities in the labour market. To ensure that the challenges are similar to those of professional life, real-world experts, e.g. employees of inclusive companies, inclusive institutions, or employees from social institutions, are invited to present their perceived challenges. Among other things, this aims to lead to a change in the perception of people with disabilities - from those affected to being equal recipients and co-developers, who are given the opportunity to become part of new ideas for their integration into the labour market.
Students are sensitised to barriers and opportunities and also learn entrepreneurial skills. Based on the challenges presented, the student teams develop business models with the help of social entrepreneurship methods that are suitable for transfer to entrepreneurial activity and solving the challenges of cited by the project patrons.
The joint programme is part of the seminar "Social Entrepreneurship Practice Project" and is aimed at students of all disciplines and external interested parties. "With this seminar, we can offer students a real environment in which they can face the challenge of learning methods to develop solutions themselves in interdisciplinary teams, in interaction with those affected, and experts. A great opportunity to acquire very future-relevant skills," emphasises Prof. Dr. Eva Jakob, Assistant Professor for Social Entrepreneurship and part of the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation.
The seminar can be credited as a course depending on the respective degree programme. The project in the seminar will take place from 26.04. to 31.08.2022. Places are limited and will be allocated after application to impact-eship@uni-bayreuth.de with three sentences describing your motivation to take part. All information on the Social Entrepreneurship Mission: Inclusion can be found here: https://www.hilfswert.de/veranstaltung/social-entrepreneurship-mission-inklusion-bayreuth/.
Information on the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and other events in the field of social entrepreneurship can be found at www.iei.uni-bayreuth.de.
