"With the Europe 2020 Strategy of the European Commission, one frequently noted critique on the “European Project” was that from a citizen perspective it appeared to be elitist and lacking popular support. Some perceived the activities and organizations around the “Brussels bubble” promoting the European idea for young people to be addressing and reaching only an already well-informed part of young people that are politically interested. We believed that bringing young people together from diverse cultures serves them to learn about each other and allows them to express openly their hitherto hidden capabilities and open European mind. Since 2008 IHKPG and their involved project partners ALFMED (FR), FOYLE INTERNATIONAL (UK) and HERMES (Malta) have been supporting EU VET mobilities in a very high performance and with great European added value. The project idea of Skills#EU started here by using the existing enthusiasm of the trainees to equip them with the skills necessary to motivate and activate their European citizenship. The Skills#EU project was initiated by IHKPG as VET provider and sending organization in DualVET mobility and partner EUROSOC#DIGITAL (E#D). E#D had high expertise in political education with a strong EU focus and an extensive experience in reaching out to those youngsters. Partner Auxilium belonged to IHKPG's network of providers of non-formal education and has gathered considerable expertise in developing approaches and training programmes related to European citizenship and participation. The six project partners were coming from 5 different countries: Germany, Malta, UK, France and Austria. While the German project leader IHK-PG was a further training institution with lots of experiences in sending young people abroad, ALFMED and FOYLE International have been mainly receiving organisations. HERMES from Malta had great experience in both preparing students for their mobilty program as well as welcoming them. EUROSOC#DIGITAL had complemented the partnership by its profound experience in training civic education to youngsters in German schools. In summary the whole partnership was permanently working with a big number of VET learners from different countries and cultures. The overall aim of Skills#EU was to develop and establish a blended-learning training scheme for young VET learners that accompanied them before, during and after their mobility abroad and equiped them with the means to activate a motivated, positive attitude as European citizen. In order to design a training concept tailored to VET trainees we collected data on the state of the art regarding the trainees´ needs and expectations related to various dimensions of social and civic competences, cultural awareness and expression with the aim of ensuring that our project promotes the acquisition of key competences (IO1 Whitepaper “Skills#EU meets VET in European mobility”). Based on this IO1 we developed IO2 “Curriculum Skills#EU, inluding guidelines for trainers and assessment of learning outcomes”. The curriculum was structured by three provided learning modules: M1: Challenges and Opportunities as European citizen; M2: Understanding, negotiation and decision-making; M3: Intercultural communication. Each module contained separate teaching and training material as attractive collection packed in a special “Skills#EU"" training suitcase and additional as online material. This suitcase included instruction cards for teachers, pack of cards, flags, caps, and additional hints on learning material to be used. All material has been tested in piloting and short term training events in order to guarantee highest quality and flexibility in use. More than 1000 VET learners throughout the project consortium with its mobility networks were using the Skills#EU suitcase to better prepare students for their mobility stay.All project material as well as guidelines referring to the respective methodologies are stored on the website www.yourskills.eu and as OER in the EU project results platform VALOR. Our website is linked to our IO6 “European Peer Learning platform Peers#EU”. VET learners in ERASMUS+ mobilities learned a great deal by explaining their ideas to other participants and by taking part in activities in which they could learn from their peers. Go abroad – talk about – and learn from experiences! We built a bridge between VET and policy thus promoting European citizenship, youth participation, cultural diversity within VET mobility. Therefore, the project outcomes were contributing to the development of a European attitude, norms and values. This required a European dialogue which was taking place within the Skills#EU project. The project was innovative because it connected “formalized” VET learners mobility with the informal learning goals of the ""Youth in Action"", a new challenge across sectors. All material is free for use and available both on Moodle and on the Website www.yourskills.eu."

We are facing very important and long-term changes that go further than the crisis we are undergoing and that have impact in all economic and social changes. These geo-political, economic and social changes are forcing our companies to change their “ways of doing”, to make things better or differently, transforming their value proposals, their international presence and their organisation and management model. They make us innovate permanently in the products and services we offer and question the validity of the business models permanently. We need more and better investment and innovation to back our competitiveness and strengthen economic recovery. Innovation and creativity have to be increased in all levels of Education and Training (ET2020).In this context, the EU has decided to establish for 2020 the objective of achieving a 75% employment rate for woman and men aged between 20 and 64 (Europe Strategy 2020). It is basic to have qualified workers with professional profiles adapted to the new labour market demands and needs in order to reach this objective. The education and training systems should offer the suitable mixture of qualifications and competences to achieve a quick and suitable transition to employment. Talent and innovation are key factors in the equation as a guarantee of employability and competitiveness. In this complex and uncertain context, we use the concept of open innovation as an ally. “In a world that is featured by the disseminated knowledge, we can create more value by integrating external talent and knowledge. When all the talents do not work for the company, it is advisable to find them, get in contact with them and take profit of their capacities” (Henry Chesbrough U:C. Berkeley).Although actual VET Systems are changing the way of doing and starting to collaborate with the business world, it is true than nowadays VET System, in general, are based on a traditional way of doing where the VET student has a passive role and are placed far from the real business world. Our challenge is to address the VET Innovation Systems to generate new opportunities and favour employment creation. Therefore, we need to anticipate the industry/company needs, identify proactively the opportunities to generate new products or productive processes, which improve the competitiveness in the companies and the young people’s employability. We are planning to use all the possibilities and opportunities of the vocational training network, its closeness to companies (particularly the SMEs), to act as a booster for innovation in them, mobilizing the VET young people’s talent. We are willing to use the OPEN INNOVATION MODEL to develop applied innovation projects with companies mobilizing the VET young people’s capacities and talent and strengthening the connection VET–Company (Work Based Learning).Open Innovation is a new innovation strategy under which companies go beyond the internal limits of their organisations and where cooperation with external professionals has a main role. Open Innovation Models combine internal knowledge with external knowledge to develop new and innovative projects and products. Using Open innovation Models, on the one hand, the innovation process is accelerated and the associated costs and risks are reduced and, on the other hand, new possibilities for commercial exploitation of knowledge are opened.The objective of SPACE 4 COCREATE - OPEN AND INNOVATIVE SPACES FOR COLLABORATIVE WORKING BETWEEN VET PROVIDERS AND BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS project is to create an open model, methodology and tools based on the innovation models, addressed to the VET centre professionals (teachers, mentors, guiders…) to develop innovation projects with companies through young VET teams, stimulating VET young innovation and supporting synergies between education and business world.The main outputs will be:1) SPACE 4 COCREATE MODEL (Open Innovation Model) to develop applied innovation projects with companies and young VET teams. It will define the better way to collaborate between VET Systems and Employment, how to improve synergies between Education, Research and Innovation fields.2) SPACE 4 COCREATE TOOL BOX: methodologies, tools and resources to favour the conceptualisation, design, implementation and validation of applied innovation projects addressed to VET Centres, involving both parts: VET and Business Sector.

The SOMRA project offers an innovative approach to tackle two major challenges of the 21st century, namely climate change and refugee crises, by engaging refugees, asylum seekers and low-qualified migrants in meaningful occupations that transform them into environment role models with a sustainable impact in their new and previous home. The main idea of the SOMRA approach is to enable these main target groups to become true factors of change that influence positive environmental habits that are first established on a local and regional level, and eventually even beyond the borders of the EU.Therefore, the SOMRA project will pursue the following objectives:I) Facilitating environmental change on local and regional level through grassroots activities organised by green NGOs and the SOMRA participantsII) Fostering common values and civic engagement of migrant communities in their new environmentIII) Offering low-threshold learning opportunities related to environmental measures that increase the employability by strengthening key competences for low-qualified migrants, refugees and asylum seekersTo achieve these aims, six partner organisations from six EU countries (UK, AT, IE, FI, PT, CY) have joined together and will develop three main intellectual outputs and a variation of additional results:1) The SOMRA Holistic Study Report (IO1) will provide a reliable reference instrument for professionals working with low-qualified migrants, refugees and asylum seekers as it combines relevant information on supporting meaningful occupations in the environmental sector, legal restrictions and obligations for migrants in accessing the labour market and participating in civic life as well as motivation and perspectives of the target group themselves.2) The SOMRA Green Entrepreneurship Model (IO2) is the heart of the SOMRA project. It will be an accessible handbook for the main target group and provide crucial facts, strategies and calls for action that supports low-qualified migrants, refugees and asylum seekers to take charge and either participate in or even found their own green NGO properly and sustainably. Additionally, an online media library with green hack videos, testimonials and a short film documentary about the SOMRA project will be available and continuously updated.3) The SOMRA Green Entrepreneurship Training (IO3) will be concepted as a modular blended-learning course featuring tiny learning bits in form of challenges on topics relevant for becoming a green entrepreneur, founding and sustaining an NGO, organising eco-friendly grassroots activities and occasions to get in contact with the social and civic environment in their region.4) The SOMRA Induction Training will be a short-term staff training event for 12 staff of the partner organisations who will implement the national piloting phases in their respective countries.5) National Piloting Phases testing the SOMRA Green Entrepreneurship Training in all six partner countries in a real context with 30 low-qualified migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, who will be the first to directly benefit from the competences acquired in the course.6) National Multiplier Events planned as “Target Group Engaging Events” in Austria, Cyprus, Ireland, Finland and Portugal and as an open SOMRA event at the Edinburgh Climate Festival 2022 in the UK.7) Dissemination Results such as the SOMRA project website, SOMRA social media channels, 5 different dissemination materials and gadgets, a dissemination guideline, an exploitation and sustainability guideline, regular impact assessments via 6-monthly reports by project partners.8) Quality Assurance Results such as a Quality Management Handbook, quality assessment instruments such as questionnaires and surveys for internal and external evaluations, quality evaluations of the intellectual outputs at suitable development phases through feedback of the main target groups, regular evaluations of progress, product and impact quality.9) Administrative Results such as a Variance Analysis Tool for continuous monitoring of progress, potential delays and risks, regular budgetary and progress reports of project partners, agendas and minutes of partner meetings, an interim and a final project report.Overall, 330 persons will be actively involved in the project activities and directly benefit from the SOMRA results during the 24-month project’s lifetime. Furthermore, approximately 250.000 persons including the main target groups and wider stakeholders will be reached through extensive dissemination and exploitation efforts on local, regional, national, European and international level. This will ensure a huge multiplying effect and sustainable long-term impact on the target groups of low-qualified migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, as the competences acquired in the SOMRA project are transversal and sustainable, preparing participants for tackling environmental challenges of an uncertain future in a resilient manner.

Since the expansion of the EU from 15 Member States in 2004 the level of migration from former Soviet bloc countries to more established Member States has been a continuing feature of EU population movements. Large numbers of economic migrants from most of the 13 new Member States have moved west in search of employment and the lure of what many considered would be a better quality of life. As a result of events in North Africa Europe has experienced a significant influx of refugees and asylum seekers hoping to build a new life away from their country of origin. In 2016, the number of people living in the EU28 who had been born outside of the EU was just over 36 million (Eurostat). Within the growing migrant numbers many young people are being targeted by extremists seeking to mobilize and radicalize marginalized sub-sets of the migrant community. The integration of these young migrant populations into host society is a priority objective in all Member States.There is a considerable shortage of specialist migrant integration training materials available to front-line staff in adult and community education organisations. There is also a real need for in-service training to build the skill sets of adult and community educators.The EXEMPLAR project consortium propose to develop the following intellectual outputs:IO1 - a bespoke Integration Leaders training curriculum addressed to migrant youth that supports the acquisition of key civic and social competences essential to their new role as leaders of integration in their communities; IO2 - a toolbox of 12 learning resources that support the acquisition of key civic and social competences to support the integration activities of the migrant youth who complete the Integration Leaders training; IO3 - an in-service training programme for front-line adult and community educators and those working in migrant support organisations to assist them in delivering the Integration Leaders curriculum; IO4 - a versatile e-learning portal that supports learning in a range of environments through readily available fixed and mobile media devicesA minimum of 10 front-line adult and community educators and migrant support staff working in specialist organisations will complete the in-service training in each partner country. A minimum of 10 young migrants will complete the Integration Leaders curriculum in each partner country. Each young migrant who completes the training will establish a micro-network of young migrants and support their integration into their new host community.

In case of natural disasters/humanitarian crisis experts/teams able to assess what worked well and mistakes in the crisis management unit and act with public authorities are needed and their role is crucial in post-emergency, when new strategies can be defined to improve the ability to be prepared, respond and react to a crisis learning from past mistakes. Evaluation is thus a key concept and evaluators a key profile, able to assess crisis management approaches and identify strategies to prevent future disasters or limit their impacts, making this process part of the civil protection planning. Another key element is facilitation, i.e. the ability to apply participatory approaches aiming at building a constructive relationship among citizens, enterprises and local/regional authorities.In this context, PERCEPTION will create a new profile, the Evaluator and Facilitator on Emergency Planning (EFEP) to catch this opportunity in terms of employability and innovative VET. The EFEP operates in local and entrepreneurial contexts acting as a link between enterprises and public bodies, fully knowing civil protection plans application and safety measures in enterprises/factories located in risk areas. He can transversally read and see complementarities and synergies among the 2 levels (internal and external emergency planning/management) and to ease their assessment and understanding using a participatory approach, which can support recovery and reduce future disaster impacts.PERCEPTION aims at providing learning opportunities to young people (18-35 years, to match the minimum age to be a volunteer in civil protection/humanitarian area and difficulties experienced by youths to access the labour market), unemployed/underemployed, university and/or high-school graduates, with at least one volunteering experience - preferably in Civil Protection/Humanitarian Aid domain - to help them to transform this experience into a career opportunity, by providing them with:-knowledge, skills and competences to improve their volunteering experience with organizational and managerial abilities-specific social/interactive skills, following their passion and attitude to work in emergency conditions-entrepreneurial skills to make them able to build their own career.60 participants will be selected at EU level to experience a blended mobility, made of local class lessons, transnational virtual exchanges, a webinar (piloting course) and a final intensive programme (Summer School) in Italy.To reach its objectives, PERCEPTION will implement:-a Curriculum for the Evaluator and Facilitator for Emergency Planning, defining the transnational professional profile (competences, skills, knowledge and job positioning)-a Training scheme focused on 6 competences areas: emergency management planning, facilitation, social/environmental impacts, strategic evaluation assessment, communication and entrepreneurship, applying work-based (role/simulation games, mentors/learner approach, cases study, etc.) learning tools -a Summer School (an intensive 10-days-programme in Italy) involving the 60 participants to the piloting course. Trainees will test in a real environment competences and skills acquired and further investigate: disruptive events, impacts identification and evaluation, from evaluation to recovery/emergency management strategies, building your own career. The project will be developed with a three steps methodology:1)Analysis, dealing with: EU/national contexts, mentors qualification, volunteer services functions, training courses, specialization, innovative training methodologies/tools/approaches to support the training scheme and the professional profile development2)Implementation, based on the analysis results and mainly dealing with: competences sharing and profile definition, training scheme definition and implementation, course piloting3)Evaluation: efficacy and coherence between training, targeted learning outcomes, competence needed by the labour market and target group needs will be constantly monitored/evaluated.According to previously identified objectives, PERCEPTION expected results refer to: -mutual recognition of the Evaluator and Facilitator for Emergency Planning qualification among all partners’ countries through the certification within the EQF (level 5)-provision of a work-based training for at least 60 young people with at least one volunteering experience through a multilevel, multidisciplinary and immersive training methodology-employability enhancement for young people through the creation of a new curriculum, fostering job opportunities within NGOs, local authorities, private companies or as self-employed-the creation of dialogue formats to reduce the gap between regional and local public authorities and entrepreneurs, specifically in the field of safety when an emergency occurs and in the planning phase-higher sensibilisation on safety, risk prevention, climate change.