This bank will in future hold examples of many different kinds of social enterprise training materials. It is based on the open source philosophy. If you are developing a social enterprise training seminar - perhaps using one of the examples here as a starting point - please share your work with others by sending it to the bank moderator Geof Cox, who will check and post your example here, with full acknowledgement and, if you are willing to be contacted, a link to your e-mail or website. All of the materials available here will be licenced under a Creative Commons Licence. This means anyone is free to use and improve them without cost - but you cannot then charge others for either the original or your derivative design. You can though, of course, be paid for delivering this or derivative training materials, or for additional advice etc.

By bringing together design improvements, and adaptions for specialist social enterprise circumstances, we can together build a tremendously powerful open resource for all.

VBBA - Values Based Business Advice

The VBBA is a comprehensive progamme of training seminars on social enterprise development, aimed at people who will deliver social enterprise training to others - social enterprise development workers, other specialist advisers, or social enterprise managers or board members wanting to 'cascade' knowledge in their own organisations.

The first 8 seminars are currently available:

• Introductory - for business advisors and others new to social enterprise, and covering: overview of social enterprise, case studies, key differences from other business, the value base, differences in support methodologies, key growth areas/opportunities Warning - this is a very large file
• Charities starting enterprises - for both advisors and charity staff or trustees considering starting or increasing trading activities, covering: arguments for and against trading, assessing capacity and compatibility with mission, charity law constraints, subsidiary/linked trading company structures
• Public sector externalisations – for both advisors and public authority staff considering externalising or 'floating off' a trading activity, covering: the policy and funding environment, case studies, asset and staff transfers, regulatory barriers, cultural barriers, post-externalisation contracts
• Business successions - mainly for advisors, including community workers, and covering employee buy-outs, community buy-outs, the buy-out process, case studies, tax-efficiency
• Marketing values – for advisors, staff and others involved in any kind of social enterprise, covering: communicating values, ethical trading standards, ethical portals, public sector procurement and 'best value' contracting criteria
• The care sector - for advisors, staff and others involved in any kind of care provision, covering: social firms, the policy and funding environment, case studies, specific issues in mixing care with trading, public sector care externalisations, direct payment co-ops, residential and domiciliary care providers, wages and benefits
• The cultural sector - for advisors, staff and others involved in any kind of cultural initiative, covering: overview of the creative industries, specific issues and opportunities in mixing aesthetic and other cultural aims with trading, the policy and funding environment, links with leisure and tourism, case studies
• Organisational development - for advisors only, covering: participative ownership and management structures, how to integrate organisational structure development into business planning, how social enterprise legal/financial structures differ from other organisational forms, latest news (CICs, LLPs, Charities Act)

This material is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.