The ESSE project is a mixed partnership of seven organisations from five European countries who aim to encourage employment and job creation through education and training. They have come together to create a strategic partnership, with aims and outputs that will ultimately encourage and support VET learners to build their employability and entrepreneurship skills and gain worthwhile employment after their training. It will achieve this by: • Creating an environment to foster a ‘spirit’ of enterprise and entrepreneurship in VET practitioners, teachers, trainers and from them, flowing to their learners. • Producing professional development tools to give VET practitioners the experience and confidence to embed entrepreneurship in their teaching and encourage enterprising behaviours in their learners: - A two day accredited training course for VET professionals: Training the Trainers – Embedding Social Entrepreneurship in VET - Training resources to support delivery of this course, in all the languages of the partnership, available online and as a workbook - A Portfolio of Case Studies of Social Entrepreneurship activities and models for VET environments, giving practical information and inspiration to VET professionals to innovate in their own work - A peer-to-peer mentoring and coaching system to encourage the transversal sharing of experiences, knowledge and practical advice - Establishing social enterprise experiences in VET environments to give VET learners practical work experience • Building a transversal community of knowledge and good practice around social enterprise to encourage entrepreneurial behaviours in VET providers, their partners, stakeholders and learners The project will target: • VET teachers, trainers and practitioners • Professional development managers in education: schools, VET and HEI • Enterprise and entrepreneurship professionals • Local Authority Enterprise Officers, Education Administrators & Policy Makers • VET learners It will strengthen the competences and transversal skills of VET practitioners, in particular initiative and entrepreneurship: encouraging and enabling staff at vocational training and non-profit organisations to think and act in an entrepreneurial way. In the short and longer term, it will impact on vocational learners and the vocational training environment by providing real social enterprise experiences that enhance their employability skills. ESSE will impact on the VET sector by providing an innovative training and support methodology that improves the quality of its provision. It will also impact on local economies, in particular the Social Economy, by encouraging the creation and expansion of social entrepreneurship to meet employment and society's needs.