BEST Institute for vocational training and personal training GmbH

Homoresponsabilis in the Globalized World

Background and target group

The trend to promote social responsibility and ethical behaviour in business organisations is strongly connected to the growing pressure to establish fair trade relations between companies from Global North and Global South. There are a lot of initiatives for big companies and corporations, but at the same time fewer are addressed to SMEs.

A reason for this is that most owners and managers of SMEs usually offer rather a technical and vocational education background than one of economics or management. That is why the target group of this project, which is a kind of coalition between NGOs and private enterprises but lead by the staff of Lodz University (which is also strongly rooted in the NGO sector in Poland), are students of secondary and post-secondary technical and vocational schools at the age of 16 to 19.

Objectives and outcomes

A simulation and business game called “Homoresponsabilis North South”, elaborated by the Belgian partner and quality proved in Belgium for three years, shall be transferred to other European countries. The tool utilizes an “active learning pedagogy” to educate future business leaders in social responsibility (CSR) concerning their North-South relations and in sustainable development.

For its distribution, the game shall be adapted for the new EU countries Bulgaria and Poland as well as for Austria. Furthermore, university professors, teachers and trainers who deal with global and development education shall be trained to use it in their classes.

The final outcome of the project is a stronger promotion of global and development education in new EU countries to guarantee fairer relations between developed and developing countries.

EU-Program: LLP, Leonardo da Vinci TOI
Coordination: University of Lodz (POL)
Contact: Karin Kronika
Duration: January 2012 – December 2013
Website: www.responsabilis.eu
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.