Social economy operates a very broad number of commercial activities, provides a wide range of products and services across the European market and generates millions of jobs. Social enterprises and cooperatives are also an engine for social innovation and they are promoters of sustainable development, democratic structure and equitable distribution of economic results.

Despite the great weight of this social economy, there is still a great need in increasing the number of cooperatives and promoting social businesses for a more sustainable development of the society. The general objective of the project is to contribute to strengthening a competitive social economy in Europe through the spread of new cooperatives. More specifically, this project aims at:

• Strengthening the skills of entrepreneurship trainers promoting cooperative business
• Exchanging experiences on social entrepreneurship education among trainers across Europe
• Developing innovative tools and methodologies to assist trainers in their promotion of the cooperative model among adults

To achieve this, the COPE project will develop a learning model on cooperative entrepreneurship, it will conduct a gap analysis, and create a pilot training and a gamified platform.