Online course on social entrepreneurship
Next week, the University of Basel is launching a new online course on the subject of “Entrepreneurship in Nonprofits.” The five-week course, accessible through the online platform FutureLearn, is free and conducted in English. Interested parties are invited to register.
26 March 2019
The course Entrepreneurship in Nonprofits offers the tools and knowledge required to turn a social business idea into an organization or project in the nonprofit sector. The five-week course guides participants through the world of social innovation. The lesson units are led by Professor Georg von Schnurbein, Director of the Center for Philanthropy Studies CEPS at the University of Basel. Inputs from a range of specialists with both academic and real-world expertise complement the units.
The course is aimed at anyone who would like to work in the nonprofit sector or to expand their knowledge in the area. This English-language course is also part of the CEPS Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) Global Social Entrepreneurship.
Success story: long-term solution for rural depopulation
The globally accessible course is part of a range of so-called Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) with which the University of Basel aims to raise awareness of its academic program worldwide and promote global exchange. “The MOOC is about how social problems can be solved entrepreneurially. We are convinced that this approach works all over the world,” says Professor Georg von Schnurbein.
An example of this is Welcome to my village, an award-winning migration project that is based in Latin America but traces its origins to Basel. Founder Cintia Jaime was searching for a long-term solution to the problem of rural depopulation in Argentina, where urban slums are home to ever-increasing numbers of people. She developed a program to help underprivileged families settle in rural areas – to great success. This systematic settlement of different professional groups resulted in the creation of new village structures.
“I not only gained a lot of knowledge through CEPS, I also got to exchange ideas with other social entrepreneurs and build up a network,” says founder and Managing Director Cintia Jaime, who is based in Basel. “We are now going to expand the program to other countries that are struggling with similar internal migration problems, such as Columbia and Bangladesh.”
Thousands of participants since 2015
“Entrepreneurship in Nonprofits” is one of the open online courses that the University of Basel has been offering since 2015 as a partner of FutureLearn, a British platform for social learning. So far, eight free online courses have been realized with more than 35,000 participants. Two further courses are in preparation.
The online courses are being developed jointly with the New Media Center (NMC), the competence center for new media at the University of Basel. The NMC supports teaching and learning with videos, animations, games and other multimedia solutions.
Further information
- Prof. Dr. Georg von Schnurbein, University of Basel, Director Center for Philanthropy Studies (CEPS), phone +41 61 207 34 63, email: georg.vonschnurbein@unibas.ch
- Cintia Jaime, Es Vicis, Founder and Excecutive Manager, phone +41 79 345 93 13, email: cintia.jaime@esvicis.org
- Dr. Thomas Lehmann, University of Basel, Head of New Media Center (NMC), phone +41 61 207 58 01, email: thomas.lehmann@unibas.ch
