One of the topics we covered in the BA Social Enterprise was that of how social enterprises can play a part in addressing employment issues in our communities.

Mike Aiken from the Open University wrote an interesting paper for the Office of The Third Sector on this issue in 2007 looking at work integration social enterprises. This way the paper we used throughout the module.

He goes through different work integration models, giving examples, then discusses four policy approach – from decentralised to highly-centralised policies. There is an interesting section in the middle of the paper that talks about 10 different strategies that social enterprises could implement in order to survive in a changing climate. that is well worth a look.

Over the next couple weeks here on For More Than Profit we will be looking at different types of social enterprises that are working to solve the issues faced by disadvantaged people looking to find employment.

If you’d like to read Mike Aiken’s report you can download it from here -What is the role of social enterprise in finding, creating and maintaining employment for disadvantaged groups?