In October last year, the National Employment Foundation launched a public tender to help establish and run social cooperatives in their first two years. The number of applications exceeded all expectations: way over four hundred were handed in, as opposed to the previously estimated seventy.
Bruno Roelants, Secretary General of CECOP has been invited to hold a lecture at the conference, as well as representatives of National Employment Foundation, the Hungarian Government, the National Cooperative Council, and the group that prepared the new legislation on social cooperatives.
Three applicants from different regions of the country introduced their projects of establishing cooperatives.
The Hungarian Folk High School Society (HFHSS) is a non-profit national adult learning umbrella organisation. It operates through 16 regional folk high school centres and has a membership of over 120 organisations.
The activities of members are diverse ranging from local history, arts and crafts through specialised training for the unemployed, including youth, Roma and agricultural workers, community development, active citizenship training, EU studies and basic skills training for adults to IT skills.
HFHSS co-operates with adult learning organisations in neighbouring countries and EU member states. It is a member of the European Association for the Education of Adults, and operates its Link Office in Budapest.
