Combining Service-Learning and Social Enterprise in Higher Education to Achieve Academic Learning, Business Skills development, citizenship education, and volunteerism

In the past, industry often carried the responsibility for training workers. This adult educational model is effective for developing trade-specific skills. One limitation of this approach, however, is an absence of attention to developing an ethic of care for others. Addressing the need to educate the masses on ethics has often been conducted through religious institutions. An obvious limitation of a religious approach to developing an ethical society is the historical evidence of the creation of in-groups who are treated with compassion and out-groups who are excluded. Alone, industry and ecclesiastical institutions only partly fulfill society's need to foster youth's vocational and ethical development, facilitating their contributions to political, social, and economic life. The authors suggest that this complex set of needs can be met by the higher education academy (HEA) from both faith-based and secular institutions. The HEA is distinct in its ability to meet both needs of developing employees and citizens. For example, citizenship education (CE) and volunteerism guide our work in HEA. Focusing on delivering these outcomes has often left lecturers wondering about the curriculum content and the tools for delivering that content. Clearly our course designs affect how well we deliver CE, as well as whether volunteering is part of the course work or beyond it. As educators, often we have not had the resources and tools for resolving conflicts between curriculum content and employing a pedagogical approach that includes volunteerism. Additionally, we are also challenged to attend to another educational agenda; the use of HEA to produce entrepreneurs. How do we teach CE while encouraging volunteerism and educating future entrepreneurs? We do not profess to have a solid, tried and true method, but we have some evidence from a recent project (directed by the first author) that suggests integrating service-learning (SL) with social enterprise provides a unifying framework for developing academic knowledge, work skills, citizenship education, and volunteerism. (authors)