The main aim of the project is to enhance the skill development of youth.Hence the main project activities will concentrate on 1) providing personal development education, equipping youth with the right set of skills both in formal and informal channels to foster an attractive mindset and culture; 2) awareness raising campaigns to foster the social legitimacy of personal development and its positive aspects of life-work balance, self awareness etc.; 3) fostering the image of entrepreneurship: Promoting entrepreneurs as role models. In more detailed way, these activities would be specifically targeted to each target group. Main target groups: youth, support of youth organisations, people involved in youth field (people who provide informal education for young people, etc). To achieve objectives of the project, following results are expected:- online academy Future Skills available in Latvian and Portuguese- trained young people in Future skills academies in the regions in Latvia- trained young people in Future skills academies in the regions in PortugalYoung people who will participate in the project will gain significant knowledge, practical tools, inspiration and know-how from the online academy and trainings ensured within the project as the project covers the gap for personal skills development what is identified in current education system and where we see the necessity to work on. All in all the project’s impact will be resulted in promoting the future skills of young people needed to succeed in ever-changing world.Project direct target group – young people who are interested in developing their skills, entrepreneurship, personal growth and personality development. Project territory coverage - Latvia and Portugal.

Five European entities - HEI, Schools, SMEs, Teachers Association - from 4 different countries - Denmark, Portugal, Estonia and Italy - will jointly develop a playful resource for the education of servant leadership characteristics that address the transformative competencies aimed for XXI century curricula. The goal of the project is to raise responsible children to participate in the world, and to empower teachers and parents with an engaging educative resource and guidelines, supporting the teaching and learning process. The main output of the Play to Lead project is a board game, also available online, dedicated to children (6 to 14 yo), teachers and parents for formal, non-formal and informal learning contexts. Following the latest guidelines from the European Commission and OECD, children must be prepared to take an important role in all dimensions of life – socially, economically and digitally. The transformative competencies (OECD, 2018) are related with the need of educating children to: - Create new value – “innovation springs not from individuals thinking and working alone, but through co-operation and collaboration with others to draw on existing knowledge to create new knowledge.” - Reconcile tensions and dilemmas – “Individuals will need to think in a more integrated way that avoids premature conclusions and recognises interconnections.” - Taking responsibility – “the concept of self-regulation, which involves self-control, self-efficacy, responsibility, problem solving and adaptability.” Thus, partners propose to explore the servant leadership model to develop the Play to Lead Board Game, engaging children, teachers and parents in a playful path to nurture six main transformative characteristics: authenticity, humility, stewardship, interpersonal acceptance, providing direction, empowerment (van Dierendonck, 2011).

Ocean literacy is seen as a prerequisite for Europe’s quest for a more marine-oriented economy and society, embodied in the long-term strategy known as Blue Growth.The development of the new maritime economy can have important socioeconomic consequences in coastal areas and in the marine space. These developments, together with the pressures from human activities and climate change on the marine environment, make it crucial to engage with citizens and stakeholders about seas and ocean challenges.We will not achieve a sustainable exploitation of marine resources and a good environmental status of our seas and oceans unless citizens understand the influence of seas and oceans on their lives and how their behaviour can have an impact on marine ecosystems.However, the Ocean Literacy level in Europe is low, as it is widely recognised by the DG Maritime Affairs and the European Marine Science Educators Association. Moreover, little has been done to change this scenario. With few exceptions, Ocean Literacy topics are not present in European schools’ curricula.One of the few serious efforts in Europe to introduce Ocean Literacy in schools has been done in Portugal (European Marine Science Educators Association, 2013), which, in the last years tried to place Ocean Literacy on the map for its science teachers and launched a version of the Ocean Literacy principles adapted to the science curriculum.In this context, project WaterWorldAdventure was designed to be a pioneer initiative, capable of contributing to close the Ocean Literacy gap and inspire other similar enterprises.The project aims to create, and make available online to educators and parents, an educational Interactive eBook – The WaterWorldAdventure eBook - to improve the Ocean Literacy of pre-school children.The WaterWorldAdventure eBook will feature an engaging story that addresses specific contents related to the Ocean and adequate for the targeted age group. It will specifically address the 7 Essential Principles and the Fundamental Concepts of the Ocean Literacy Framework, developed by the National Marine Educators Association in the US, and that is the world reference in this area.Additionally, the project will deliver a Facilitator’s Guide - The WaterWorldAdventure Facilitator’s Guide – that contains:• individual and group exercises and activities to complement the learning experience provided by The WaterWorldAdventure eBook• guidelines to help teachers and parents making a better use of these learning resourcesBy acting next to pre-school children, the project expects to achieve a wider long-term impact in the relation between European Citizens and the ocean. On the other hand, by using an interactive ebook, the project wishes to tackle the general lack of resources to implement educational programmes on Ocean Literacy by providing learning contents in a format which is engaging for learners, easy to use by teachers and parents and easy to scale to all of Europe.This initiative gathers the vast expertise of 6 partners from 4 different European countries, including an University, a Regional Education Authority, a Non-profit organization and 2 private companies active in education:P1 - University of Thessaly (Greece): University covering a wide range of scientific and knowledge areas, with 18 Departments and various Research Centres, including a Department of Early Childhood Education.P2 – Advancis Business Services (Portugal): private enterprise devoted to Education and People development, with a long experience in the development of innovative learning resources and training.P3 –Center of Education and Entrepreneurship Support (Poland): non-governmental, non-profit organization founded in 2004 working in the field of youth, cooperating with businesses, universities, schools, enterprises and educational institutions. P4 – Inspectoratul Scolar Judetean Arad (Romania): public authority in education domain. It coordinates and monitors the activities of 244 Kindergarten from Arad County. It has a long and large experience in European projects development.P5 – BOON (Portugal): private enterprise with expertise in design and communication, with prior experience in the development of educational digital contents.

OPEN CHALLENGE aims at significantly reducing school dropout levels by intervening on the reduction of social situations that prevent a continuous and productive school attendance, supporting a path that renews participation in school life, and develops a higher level of prosocial and transversal knowledge and skills in students, facilitating the ability to relate with themselves and others, to intervene and also reduce phenomena of hatred, racism and bullying that arise many times in the class group. The project allows the student to develop their potential and knowledge, in compliance with the rules of cohabitation, relationship with each other, acceptance of the other, aims at supporting successful education. The educational value of the proposed activities lies in the student’s understanding that this path is significant for his development as an individual and as a student. The school, therefore, assumes an important value as a place to learn scholastic knowledge but also to accompany active participation within the community to which it belongs, where there are no gender, state, physical and social differences among people.To positively influence the attendance and the success in the school system through the promotion and the diffusion of an innovative path (Calciosociale methodology) to prevent the phenomena of racism, sexism, homophobia and bullying, in order to establish more solid relationships among young people, intervening on students at a greater risk of social exclusion.AIMS• Develop and disseminate the training methodology of Calciosociale as a new school curriculum able to promote the creation of an inclusive environment• Consolidate the collaboration between all the actors involved in the school sector, including the families of the students and all the staff collaborating with the school (headteacher, teachers, administrative staff, school staff)• Make students aware of the context in which they live and work in the protection, and enhancement of the territory outside and inside the school, facilitating the comparison and learning of the differences of the others, stimulating reflection and sharing on social and relational issuesThe project will involve 4 Countries: Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Bulgaria

"The document “Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes (COM(2012) 669 final)” supports the idea that the investment in education and training for skills development is essential to boost growth and competitiveness. At the same time it recognises that European education and training systems continue to fall short in providing the right skills for employability, and are not working adequately with business or employers to bring the learning experience closer to the reality of the working environment. These skills mismatches are a growing concern for European industry's competitiveness.The participation of all stakeholders, but most importantly of trainees/students, in rethinking and redesigning the Education is paramount, whether looking at the whole education and learning systems, or focusing at individual learning initiatives.In this context, FEEDBACK stands out as a very capable tool to collect the valuable contributions of these stakeholders and to decisively and systematically contribute to the much-needed reflection about learning initiatives and programmes.The practice of feedback during the learning cycle allowing trainees to have time to articulate and codify their experience through a task, an exercise that has a positive impact on both self-efficacy and task understanding, is of vital importance. Anseel, Lievens and Schollaert (2009) ""show that when individuals are given feedback on their prior performance, they experience a higher self-efficacy and perform better in the future as result"" (Making experience count, 2014).How to conduct a proper Feedback exercise is not, however, a usual subject matter in our education systems and the way feedback is done and information collected does matter for the quality and value of the data collected. Thus, even when feedback is used to collect information with the purpose of improving a learning programme, it is seldom in a way that proves to be useful.This is where the Project FEEDBACK is focused. The main goal of the project is to create an innovative digital learning resource about the practice of Feedback as a crucial part of the learning cycle, supported by an ARTS-BASED LEARNING approach and deployed through different methods and techniques.The use of the arts-based approach brings particular advantages to the feedback exercise, as it refers to a way of working, knowing and perceiving that involves creative skills, capacities and capabilities that incorporate reflection, awareness, imagination, collaboration and adaptability (Darsø 2004; Gibb 2006; Turner2006). Thus, an artful approach brings also a refreshing take on feedback, capable of giving a new perspective in the way problems are looked at and solutions are found.The FEEDBACK project sets the foundations to define a clearer model of feedback to enhance learning and therefore act as leverage for the design of new learning programmes.The project offers a comprehensive view, sustained by a sound research activity based in the collection of primary and secondary data sources, which provided a clearer picture of the state of the art of feedback practices and proposes a model for the use of arts-based approaches in feedback, serving as a foundation to the development of a Digital Toolkit.This Digital Toolkit is a OER available in the project’s website – www.thefeedbackproject.eu – which comprises nearly 40 activities, to collect feedback in a useful manner using art-based approaches, to consistently improve learning programmes.Throughout the project, more than 90.000 people are estimated to have been reached at some level. The partnership held and participated in several events, published numerous articles, held a pilot testing and communicated with its target audiences through the project’s website and social media (FB and Twitter). During the pilot testing, over 1.000 users engaged with the learning contexts of the Digital Toolkit.The project was a joint effort from 5 partners from 4 countries:•Advancis Business Services Lda (Portugal): consultancy and certified training company in areas like education & Training and HR management.•Politecnico di Milano (Italy): HEI established in 1863 in Milan and is one of the leading science and technology universities in Europe•Inova Consultancy (UK): female-owned SME which specialises in providing consultancy services and project work in the field of gender and non-traditional fields and entrepreneurship.•Regenerus (UK): registered charity and social enterprise whose aim is to support the regeneration of a community north of Liverpool.•International School for Social and Business Studies (Slovenia): Independent, private higher education institution founded in 2006."