SO-TERTUT – Improving competitiveness and productivity in private social enterprises and organisations

We promote the productivity and competitiveness of the social and health care

Duration of the project

1.3.2025 – 31.12.2026

Total funding

164 244 €

Welfare areas need public services alongside more efficient private services. Our SO-TERTUT project is a workplace-based training and development package aimed at promoting the productivity, competitiveness and growth of private social service providers, focusing on financial skills and understanding, pre-employment skills, well-being at work, age management and multiculturalism.

The need for services in the social and health care sector has grown strongly and will continue to do so, for example, as the population ages. Private providers of social and health services, i.e. companies, organisations and foundations, already account for around 22% of the total social services sector. Entrepreneurship in this sector is mostly of a small business nature. In the social services sector, the difficulty is often to operate in a competitive and productive way, as the sector is strongly human-centred: care, concern and empathy are at the core of the work. Entrepreneurs and front-line workers in the health sector have often not had any training in business and economics in their own education either.

The actions of a line manager have a big impact on employee well-being, job turnover, a positive atmosphere and work productivity. The need for frontline skills is also growing in increasingly multicultural workplaces. The biggest knowledge and labour resource in the social services sector is the skilled workers already in the sector, whose retention should receive a lot of attention. A well-functioning, equal and supportive work community, where people can make use of their own skills, is an important motivating factor. The services sector is highly labour intensive, so there is potential for significant positive impacts through employee development activities. Employees who are happy and feel that their work is meaningful are generally productive. When there is good cooperation and smooth working in the workplace, the work of the front-line worker is also made easier.

The sector needs new skills in change management to create a pro-development attitude, agility and the ability to solve problems together with staff. The project will combine the skills of employees from the participating companies in the social services sector with the skills of the University of Applied Sciences’ experts in finance and frontline work. In addition to the training components of the project, the projects will enable companies and organisations to develop their operations and productivity through co-development. At the end of the project, private companies and organisations will be operating in the region and will be able to operate more effectively as part of the needs of the welfare areas.