In Slovenia, no official support is available for migrants that would like to engage in (social) entrepreneurship. So social entrepreneurship courses and online content was created for TCNs in order to bridge this gap. For possible future operators of these courses, additional 'train the trainers' courses were also created.

BEST aims to:

• deliver better and customised services to match the specific needs of TCNs;
• define and implement more efficient integration strategies at local level for the sustainable inclusion of migrants and a fact-based public perception of migration;
• involve the different key actors on integration of TCNs into the labour market at both formal and informal levels to better enable their participation;
• build capacities and transfer the outcomes at a European level, by giving access to materials in several European languages on an open source-online basis.

The project involves several phases: research on the existing situation; curriculum development; workshops on the promotion of social entrepreneurship; social entrepreneurship courses; 'train the trainers' courses for possible future operators; publication of a handbook; publication of online content on 'moodle' platform.

The project has so far trained 52 TCNs during four social entrepreneurship courses, and 40 operators during four 'train the trainers' courses. It has also approached 50 stakeholders during round-tables and Business brunches.

The target group of third country nationals was slightly reluctant at the initial concept of 'social entrepreneurship', but relaxed when they saw that business rules and approaches similar to those they were used to were applied. Stakeholders were slower to come on board as they did not see the benefits of the project immediately, but after attending the round table events they grasped the concept. Trainers were interested from the beginning thanks to the regular 'train the trainers' courses.

An internal evaluation was conducted by partners, and an external evaluation was carried out by the EU Commission.

Evaluation indicators mostly comprised the numbers of participants that attended the events, and all indicator goals were reached. In addition, all available resources were found to be adequate.

In terms of challenges, attendance on the part of TCNs and regular engagement on the part of stakeholders has been unreliable, and the lesson learnt is that these should not be taken for granted.

A key recommendation as a result of the various evaluations is to design and create projects like this with TCNs, rather than simply for them.

TCNs including labour migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and undocumented migrants. Also employers, social entrepreneurs and local stakeholders such as the Employment service and Chamber of Commerce.

During the project more than 1200 people were directly reached via courses, round tables, workshops, online materials, handbooks, social media.

The project was funded to the amount of 558 211.63 EUR by AMIF funding call 'Integration of Third-Country Nationals: Promote swift integration of TCNs into the labour market through strengthened cooperation and mobilisation of employers and social and economic partners' (AMIF-2017-AG-INTE-04).