3rd November 2015
The social enterprise sector’s drive to further its cause is a noble one, and with it comes a real sense of purpose. The desire to affect social change is a no brainer to most people, yet for the vast majority of the public, what social enterprise is and what it does is a mystery or worse yet, not even on their radar.
Since I started learning about and working in the social enterprise sector back in April 2015, I’ve noticed that we have a tendency to talk only to ourselves, even when we want to spread the message further. Social enterprise may be growing at a brilliant rate, but as we stare into the abyss of another recession, whilst austerity measures strangle what remains of our public services, the onus is on us to show that social enterprise is not only the most responsible way of doing business, but that it is necessary for a compassionate, thoughtful society to flourish at a time when people need help from others the most.
We must raise the profile of social enterprise.
The Social Enterprise Academy is an organisation which does just that. Everything from entrepreneurship training, to leadership workshops, right the way through to helping social enterprises measure their impact, the Social Enterprise Academy is driven to ensure that the message of social enterprise is spread far and wide.
On this episode I have Neil McLean, Chief Executive of the Social Enterprise Academy. We took some time to have an in depth chat about what the Social Enterprise Academy do, why it’s important to the business sector and how vital their work is to raising the awareness of social enterprise.
Highlights include:
- Neil’s social enterprise journey
- The value of the Social Enterprise Academy model
- How the SEA help people be the best they can be to take their development forward
- The way their tutor model works
- Measuring impact
- No grant funding
- Neil’s personal achievements with SEA
- The future of social enterprise
- The expansion of the SEA model internationally
- Social Enterprise in Education
- And much more
I hope you enjoy this podcast.
Links
Social Enterprise Academy
SEA on Twitter
SEA on Facebook
Neil McLean on Twitter