JES – Young Social Entrepreneurs

What is JES?

“Young Social Entrepreneurs” (JES) is an educational project that proposes that a group of students in Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) form an NGO or association with the aim of managing a project generated from identifying needs in a local reality or in a Global South country. Over the course of an academic year, students create and manage this NGO or association, organizing and carrying out activities to finance the selected project. With the collaboration of an NGO, students choose one of two options:

1. JES Cooperation. A development cooperation project in collaboration with a partner group of students in a Global South country.

2. JES Local. A social project that addresses a need identified in the students’ immediate environment.

JES is designed to support the development of the 7 key competencies of the LOMCE curriculum and has been implemented during this school year in the following 3rd and 4th year ESO subjects: Economics, Ethical Values, and Introduction to Entrepreneurial and Business Activity (IAEE).

Objectives

General

• To develop entrepreneurial attitudes using the process of creating and managing an association as the guiding thread.

   

Specific

• Encourage engagement with other cultures and social realities.
• Become familiar with the concepts of social participation and awareness.
• Understand how the nonprofit or social sector operates and is managed, particularly associations.
• Develop skills related to social entrepreneurship: creativity, observation and exploration, communication, environmental analysis, teamwork, and decision-making.
• Introduce and encourage the use of new technologies as an integral part of the teaching and learning process.
• Facilitate connections between educational institutions and social sector organizations.
   

Methodology

The methodology used for the development of the JES project in the classroom can be defined as:

• Practical: numerous exercises are used to obtain observable results; theory is connected with what is useful and applicable.
• Adapted: content and methodology are made flexible and adjusted to the characteristics, concerns, and real needs of the group.
• Comprehensive: competencies are enhanced by encompassing “knowing” (concepts, information, theory), “wanting” (motivation, attitudes, and emotional aspects), and “being able to” (skills and personal resources).
• Participatory: techniques are used to encourage the group to actively construct their own learning.
• Experiential and motivating: it addresses the group and the individual in all their dimensions, interrelating reason, emotion, action, and context. Learning comes from personal experiences, which facilitates participant motivation.
• In addition, the Young Social Entrepreneurs project uses a methodology based on:
• Meaningful learning.
• Cooperative learning.
• Project-based learning.
  
   

Temporización

Materials

For students

The didactic material is the student manual, which covers all the aforementioned content and is titled “Young Social Entrepreneurs. Didactic Material for Citizenship and Human Rights Education.” This manual was developed through a working group composed of teachers of the “Citizenship and Human Rights Education” subject and technical staff from Valnalón. The book is accompanied by a workbook to document, in writing, the progress made by the classroom's natural group, which is formed as an NGO.

The structure of the book includes all JES content in two main blocks: one titled TO THINK, which covers more theoretical elements, and another more practical and action-oriented block called TO ACT, containing content that complements the former. It includes examples of classical and contemporary social entrepreneurs, with illustrations of projects and experiences from the NGO Engineers Without Borders Asturias and from “Massaleros Around the World,” related to a journey made by two social entrepreneurs around the world in 2009.

The workbook (with 3 versions: local, international, and partner countries) is available on the web platform, along with additional reference documents and workshops available for download.

For teachers

A didactic guide is available as a specific manual for teachers, published in both Catalan and Spanish. JES work is also supported through online visits and mentoring by Valnalón’s technical staff. In addition, there is supplementary didactic material and workshops available on a web platform with teacher-exclusive access. The educational materials have also been adapted for schools in Colombia.