baSE Policy Lab Explores the Future of Skills for the Social Economy
On 4 June 2026, the baSE project brought together policymakers, researchers, vocational education and training providers, and social economy representatives for a Policy Lab at the EVBB office in Brussels.
The meeting gave participants the opportunity to become familiar with the project’s training tools, hear about the experience gained through the pilot activities and contribute to the development of policy recommendations for Europe’s social economy.
Over the past four years, baSE has developed several resources to support skills development in the sector. These include the SocioComp competence framework, the baSE online learning platform, an interactive map of training providers and the baSE Social Economy Insider. The project’s training catalogue is aligned with the European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations classification and the European Qualifications Framework.
In the afternoon, participants took part in a World Café session entitled “From Evidence to Recommendations”. Working in small groups, they discussed four areas: the replication of training models, legal and policy frameworks, funding for skills development, and cooperation between organisations and systems.
EVTA contributed to the discussion on interoperability. In this context, the focus was on improving coordination among social economy networks, vocational education and training providers, public authorities and European institutions. Participants discussed how competence frameworks and training approaches could be more easily understood, compared and used across different countries and organisations. The recommendations called for the development of common competence profiles to support mobility, comparability and mutual recognition across Europe. They also highlighted the importance of reinforcing the education and training dimensions of the Social Economy Action Plan.
A key conclusion of the Policy Lab was that successful training initiatives should not remain temporary project outputs. They need to be connected with wider education, employment and social economy policies and supported through continued cooperation and sustainable funding.
