Education promotes equal rights for all people, allows access to knowledge, social and political participation and economic empowerment. At the same time, it positively impacts vulnerabilities related to functional, economic or social diversity, increasing the potential of human beings to respond to a changing world and contribute to social transformation for the common good.

In line with the need to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education in contexts of lifelong learning throughout life, the world’s education systems are “rethinking” education after the prolonged crisis generated by the COVID 19 pandemic and we are facing an opportunity for restructuring (ECLAC, 2022). The activation of new citizenships, strengthening the public nature of education, promoting inclusion and equity to close gaps, with special emphasis on the intensive use of digital technologies, contributing to the socioemotional well-being of educational communities and contributing to productivity, prosperity and sustainability through research, innovation and development, among other issues, have been identified as priority topics. On the other hand, it should be noted that a large number of workers and professionals seek to train and improve their skills to adapt to the new work and employment conditions that are emerging. In Latin America and the Caribbean, for example, it is estimated that close to 300 million workers require this process of retraining and improvement (TEC Monterrey Observatory, 2022) and to that extent, from different scenarios, the definition of policies is being promoted to allocate resources and implement from the bases, plans that guarantee continuing education, the development of full and intercultural citizenship for the resolution of economic, social and environmental problems in the territories.  

Therefore, educational communities seek to contribute to the debate and action based on innovative proposals to achieve health autonomy, digital inclusion and an economy that provides solutions for more sustainable consumption and production in line with the 2030 Agenda, especially from SDG 4, which seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, which is a cross-cutting condition for the achievement of all Sustainable Development Goals.

In a recent communication from the Union of Latin American Universities, UDUAL (2022) sent to the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education (WHEC2022), the importance of recognizing education as a public good, and as the main force in the construction of inclusive and diverse knowledge societies is pointed out. It also warns of the risk of falling into reductionism that associates education as an exclusive provider of skills associated with the productive space and calls for a higher education that allows sustaining richer lives, expanded capabilities for diverse life projects, which, in turn, builds culturally richer, fairer and more equitable societies based on solidarity and collaboration.

In this context, the values and principles that underpin the social and solidarity economy in its different expressions become valid, since an ethic of solidarity, cooperation and participation is necessary to enable citizens to build a “culture of solidarity” to influence the civilization model, in pursuit of a new society that is more equitable, more democratic and fairer.  The pioneering movements of SSE organizations found in EDUCATION-IN-ACTION the way to achieve coherence between the declaration of principles and daily life.  Therefore, education in solidarity organizations should be seen not only as a process of shaping, developing and perfecting the business model, but also as a fundamental element in the ability of its members to activate citizenship that will enable them to energize the link between solidarity and development to influence social transformation and the development of competencies to undertake solidarity-based entrepreneurship in the territories with a global perspective.   It is solidarity education based on solidarity practices; thus, solidarity education for solidarity is also rooted in emancipatory or transformative pedagogies and thus goes beyond its organizations, goes beyond education in a purely technical sense and is projected towards political, cultural and pedagogical practices in society (Diaz, 2020; Fajardo, 2012).

Indeed, education in and for the social and solidarity economy has the potential to contribute to the creation of more resilient education systems that are able to respond to social and environmental tensions, prevent or mitigate conflicts and promote peace in the territories, but it requires greater synergy among its actors to extend the effect to their own system and connect in turn with the education system in general, so as to increase our ability to learn to become citizens who imagine and build together conditions for the achievement of good living, i.e. life in fullness, harmony and balance with nature and in community. Educating in and for the social and solidarity economy has an enormous potential to set the world on the path towards more just and sustainable futures for all.

In this dynamic, it is necessary to recognize the value of the students’ voice in order to co-construct proposals that contribute to the improvement of education based on their needs, expectations and interests of active involvement in the transformation of their environment. Terrasi (2018) and Hernández, Pérez & Rua (2018); International Cooperative Alliance (2021), evidence the interest of young people in creating their own cooperative enterprises, facing unemployment and in general experiencing the solidarity required to build a better society. However, they are also skeptical about the impact of the social and solidarity economy and question the quality of their educational experiences when theory is not enriched by practice, as well as the support provided by experts to their nascent enterprises.

In this sense, in the working group LIFELONG EDUCATION FOR THE SSE: INSPIRATION AND COMMITMENT we will promote the participation of young people to involve them, inspire them and inspire us in generational connection, to propose a route that will lead us to new and better learning models that demand innovative solutions, recognition of paths taken and collaborative processes at a global level.