Third Europe: Fostering a new European profession – the Entrepreneurial Third Sector Leader

The context of Third Sector organisations is changing rapidly. There is an urgent need for Third Sector organisations to adapt to the reality and face the challenges in the effective way. There is a holistic approach needed that looks at the management style and culture of the organisation.EU3leader project examined and looked at the transformation of the leadership training in the third sector: from manager to entrepreneurial leader. Working with third sector managers across 5 European countries: United Kingdom, Spain, Croatia, Austria and Belgium, EU3leader developed Framework of Entrepreneurial Competences for third sector leaders and subsequently conducted pilot trainings gathering a group of leaders ( total 50 managers) from 5 countries to test the training materials and a course curriculum developed during the project. EU3leader project is the first such initiative in Europe to look closely at Entrepreneurial skills of third sector leaders. The Framework of Entrepreneurial Competences composes of 13 key competences with its descriptions and levels per each competence. It is the excellent tool to assess the entrepreneurial skills of managers and most importantly to identify the missing gaps. The framework served as the baseline to develop the curriculum for the training journey ( In- Service Didactics) and further the content of pilot trainings conducted during the project.Pilot trainings took place in 5 countries, involving in total 50 managers from various organisations that were recruited by practice project partners. The aim was to test training methodology (curriculum) and training materials that were gathered during the project by all partners. As the result, there was the sound feedback and the recommendations received for the future training development for the remaining competences. The evaluation of results indicated that there is a great need for innovative learning methods ( blended and e-learning) and most of all the need to increase the training opportunities within the Entrepreneurial competences offered in the framework. Further, EU3leader also consolidated the relevant research on challenges and opportunities in 28 EU countries, which was conducted by Vienna University of Economic &Business and the research on leadership in the third sector done by Open University. Both papers gathered the research on the topics that gave way to better understanding of the competences that third sector leader need nowadays to ensure the sustainability of his/her organisation. In long term, EU3leader contributes to strengthen the leadership in the third sector by giving opportunity to the managers to build know- how, not only by following relevant courses and reading materials but also by connecting with their counterparts across Europe and learn from each other experience and replicate good practices to their environment.In the Policy Paper, EU3leader addressed recommendations to policy makers but also to leaders themselves. It emphasised the importance of promotion of the general public knowledge on entrepreneurial skills and dissemination of EU3leader framework within the sector by public officials. EU3leader also stressed the competence-based learning as the effective training method to replicate it on national and regional level by leaders in the respective countries. As additional recommendations , there was included the need of greater access trainings on entrepreneurial skills and validation of such trainings in the future on the European level.