In 2018, the unemployment rate in the European Union reached 7.3% and 18 million people were looking for a job. Employment is one of the main priorities of the European Union, which has set a target of 75% of people in employment by 2020. The provision of training for jobseekers is one of the key solutions to reach these targets. Keeping jobseekers in training has several positive effects: - Learning a new trade and starting a new career - Staying competitive in the labour market - Acquiring new or improved job skills. What makes a training course successful? A training course for jobseekers is considered successful if the trainee has access to a job after the training period. But training in itself is not enough to guarantee a job, and training providers need to consider the following points: - Offering the right training to the right trainee: does the candidate have all the prerequisites to succeed in the training? All these parameters must be carefully analysed during the positioning and recruitment of each candidate in order to avoid drop-out during the training or a negative exit. -The training evaluation process: how to ensure that all the skills of the training are fully acquired by each trainee? What are the internal processes in case of readjustments? Most training courses for jobseekers include periods of work experience, but does each training organisation have a network of host companies? If so, are they interested in training and recruiting new employees, or are they just waiting for free labour? 10% of jobseekers have access to training in the EU and about 50% of them get a job as a result of this training. The labour market is increasingly open to private actors and training organisations can offer a new, innovative and free service to their learners and to companies. They need to work closely with companies to generate a sustainable partnership with them. They need to develop and expand their network of companies and offer them reliable and well-trained trainees. On the other hand, they should provide their trainees with the most appropriate company to put into practice the skills and knowledge acquired during the training. If both the trainee and the company are satisfied with the overall partnership, we increase the chances of future employment and collaboration. The objectives of the Tomorrow Comes Today (TCT) project were - To facilitate the professional integration of jobseekers after training. - To facilitate access to training for jobseekers and make it more effective according to their profile. - To involve companies and tutors more in the evaluation process. - Developing partnerships between training organisations and companies This project aimed to develop a free web platform for training organisations that offer training to jobseekers. It consists of 4 parts:1: Positioning and recruitment: The user can apply for a training session and access all the information needed to submit an application. 2: Assessments: If the applicant is accepted, following the recruitment tests specific to each training organisation, to join the training course. During the course, he/she will have access to all his/her assessments: recruitment to the training action, positioning test, assessments during the training, assessments during the work placement period, final assessment (certificate, diploma, etc.). 3: E-learning material on job search, in-company tutoring and entrepreneurship. 4: Trainee database: Each user has the choice at any time whether or not to appear in this database or to be removed from it at any time. Companies, if they register, have access to the database of trainees of training organisations and can consult their profiles and evaluations. They can thus get in touch with profiles that have undergone training related to their activity and that have been accompanied by educational teams.To create this platform, we carried out the following activities:1: Surveys of 273 potential users (trainees, training organisations, companies) in France, Poland, the Netherlands and Slovakia to determine the platform's specifications.2: IT development of the platform.3: 2 phases of testing the platform with 511 participants (trainees, training organisations, companies) in 4 countries (France, Poland, the Netherlands and Slovakia) to test and correct bugs in the platform. Project results : - A web platform for training organisations to follow up on their trainees' progress available in 5 languages: English, French, Dutch, Polish and Slovak. - The adaptation and creation of 3 digital training courses on entrepreneurship, job search techniques and in-company tutoring in 5 languages: English, French, Dutch, Polish and Slovak. - A complete project guide, available online on the project website, including the methodology and results of the various project studies (platform specification studies, testing phases). - Dissemination tools: website, videos and social networks. We used the NPS (Net Promoter Score) method to evaluate and measure the feedback from the 2 test phases of the platform. We obtained an NPS of 17 for trainees, 44 for training organisations and 6 for companies. A positive Net Promoter Score (>0) indicates good user satisfaction. A score of 50 or above is considered extremely positive.

"Given the prolongation of life expectancy and retirement age and the aging population, a group of citizens over 50 is becoming very important in several aspects of the EU national economy. However, the education, training and lifelong learning system as such is not very flexible, and this causes the exclusion of this group of citizens in terms of employment. In fact, people over the age of 50 suffer from high unemployment rates and are usually discriminated when it comes to training provision. The training institutions did not adapt their offer and methodology to this target group. The seniors were educated in the education system where digital skills, communication skills and many others either did not exist or other priorities were set in their teaching. It is therefore desirable to identify the missing skills of the 50+ people and provide them with training that meets current needs and expectations in order to ensure that this workforce is maintained or reintegrated into the labour market.The aim of the SILVER project was to promote new and innovative methods of education that will contribute to improving skills that affect the employability of people over 50 years of age. The project also aimed to open a debate between relevant stakeholders to identify the barriers that this population group has to face. It was also important to emphasize the importance of lifelong learning, the silver economy and age management in the current EU demographic situation.Partners from four countries - TREXIMA Bratislava (Slovakia), LENO Consulting (France), Endurance (the Netherlands), Human Profess (Hungary) and the Cooperation for a Better Future Veľký Meder (Slovakia) - were involved in the project.The main objectives of the project were:-Identifying the missing basic transversal skills of seniors and discrepancies between what seniors have and what is expected of them in the labour market-Improving the skills of citizens over the age of 50 through the creation of an innovative educational tool.To meet the objectives, the project partners implemented activities that can be summarized in the following 4 stages:1. Preparation - In preparation, the partnership carried out discussion forums and a questionnaire survey, identifying the main areas of skills that seniors feel that they need to improve and, on the other hand, employers express what skills they expect from older workers. The results of these surveys as well as a summary of initiatives and policies and the situation of the elderly in the labour market are available in one of the project outputs entitled ""Situation of seniors in labour market in selected countries and EU"". Outputs from the first phase of the project served as a basis for the creation of outputs in the second phase of the project.2. Creating a training program - based on the results of questionnaires and discussion forums, the project partners have built a training program structure - defined 7 main topics that form the basis of the training program. Each topic contains several areas deepening the knowledge of the topic in the form of short videos, additional documents, quizzes, respectively exercises. The training program consists of the following topics: generation gap, networking, job strategy, personal development, professional development, lifelong learning, entrepreneurial skills.3. Implementation of the training program - creation of an electronic platform through which the training program is implemented. Once registered, the platform is accessible to both the general and professional public at www.moodle.silver-skill.eu. As part of the implementation of the training program, its testing and pilot training sessions were also carried out in each of the partner countries. Feedback to the platform was positive from all participating countries, where more than 90% of users (106 users) rated the platform as useful, deepening skills and knowledge of the topic, and visually and user-friendly.4. Availability - creation of a project guide that summarizes individual outputs and gives guidance on how to use the results even after the project is completed.The target groups of the project were mainly citizens over 50 years of age, regardless of their situation on the labour market (unemployed / job), also employers, education providers such as counseling centers, non-profit organizations and the like. These target groups can also benefit from the results of the project in the long term through the use of open educational resources available on the e-learning platform, which can be used in different environments and through different media."

One of the groups most affected by crisis are the young people, to whom we should pay special attention. Increasing the willingness of career starters and young people to venture and the support of the acquisition of competences related to it can give a boost to the rise of the economic activity of the new generation, and thereby, indirectly, it may contribute to the economic role-taking of young people. Therefore, with the project “Innovative Development of Entrepreneurial Skills of Youth” (INDESK) we reviewed the policies, programmes and best practices that help to develop youth entrepreneurship, organised discussion forums and surveys with the participation of target groups and converted their results into a newly developed innovative blended learning programme which supports youth entrepreneurship, in particular by means of awareness raising of young people and development of their entrepreneurship competencies.Five partners from four countries – TREXIMA Bratislava (Slovakia), LENO Consulting (France), Endurance (Netherlands), Human Profess (Hungary) and Teamwork for a Better Future Veľký Meder (Slovakia) – implemented the following main activities: 1. identified programmes to develop youth entrepreneurship, including different methodologies in the field of education, tools of active labour market policies for increasing business support and employability of young people as well as mentoring programmes for this target group in the partner countries (development of an international comparative analysis); 2. organised local discussion forums with relevant stakeholders in the labour market on rising business literacy of young people, coupled with the questionnaire survey, and created international recommendations for the development of youth entrepreneurship on their basis; 3. created, tested and disseminated an innovative modular (face to face and online) training based on international experience to promote the integration of young people into the labour market through business; and 4. extracted instructions on how to implement an innovative training programme in various institutions which are summarised in the Project Handbook.The part of training programme can be implemented through the e-learning platform: https://moodle.business-skills.eu/. Its aim is to focus primarily on those who want to start doing business; as well as those who do not immediately want to start doing business but are interested in entrepreneurship. The developed curriculum has 10 separate modules, which make up the individual steps on the way to doing business from creating a business idea to practical steps of launching a real company.The intention is that the training programme should be preceded by other formal business education, since the programme is intended primarily to discover and learn about the concept of entrepreneurship, but also to develop the key competences of a start-up entrepreneur such as creativity, communication skills or brand building. And although it is possible to go through the e-learning platform using self-study materials, normally, input of a supervisor or a teacher is important to explain the subject, to discuss it, to practice or to provide feedback. Individual modules can also be used separately according to the focus and needs of the respective educational institution. Project results are summarized in the Project Handbook which provides instructions on how to implement such training programme in a multitude of institutions which can have a positive impact on introduction of an effective training and/or incorporation of innovative features into education programmes supportive of development of youth entrepreneurship. The project activities have reached out to a wide array of participants coming from the primary target group of young people as well as from other stakeholders including employers, educational institutions, counselling centres, non-profit institutions and more. 111 students (learners) and 24 trainers were included in the testing itself, with 87.5 % of students and 100 % of trainers expressing satisfaction with the assessment of the educational programme as a whole (pedagogical materials, e-learning platform and mentoring).In the long run, key target groups and stakeholders, such as students, schools, educational institutions, labour offices etc can benefit from project results using open educational resources available through an e-learning platform that can be translated and used in a variety of environments and across different media. Educational institutions also have access to guidelines on the implementation of an educational programme that can help organizations to modernize their offer of entrepreneurial education.

Lifelong learning can take place in a variety of environments, both inside and outside formal education and training systems. Lifelong learning implies investing in people and knowledge; promoting the acquisition of basic skills, including digital literacy and broadening opportunities for innovative, more flexible forms of learning. The aim is to provide people of all ages with equal and open access to high-quality learning opportunities, and to a variety of learning experiences. It has became a necessity to acquire new skills during one’s career, and informal learning contents (social networks, video-sharing websites, communities of practice, blogs with articles,…) give an easy access to knowledge. However competences acquired through them are not well recognised yet. There is a need for a new tool enabling to highlight one’s competences obtained thanks to formal, informal and non formal learning contents. MyLK (My Lifelong Knowledge management) project aims at creating a dashboard displaying all the trainings and learning experiences to ensure the traceability of one’s learning path. This will allow to highlight all the competences of learners and to reinforce the impact of lifelong learning on one’s professional profile. Hence the project will aim at a better employability. The dashboard will enable companies to have a better understanding of employees’/job seekers’ skills, it will provide them information that actually matters to them when they are looking for a new employee. This will be possible through the creation of a communication protocol between the dashboard and all kinds of learning interfaces enabling them to send relevant information about trainings undertaken by learners. This project was initiated by Haikara, a French SME specialised in e-learning. Nowadays, haikara is strongly involved in innovation for learning environments. Its network of associations and companies involved in this field have shown an interest for the coordinator to take up the challenge to develop a tool for life-long learning management. Six partners have joined Haikara to develop the project. Forma-Libre, a Belgian SME linked to Claroline Connect, will bring its expertise in LMS and development of IT tools. AGH, a Polish university, involved in e-portfolio research and MOOC, will be member of the consortium. The University of Cergy-Pontoise will also be part of the partnership bringing its knowledge of learning contents and already existing tools to highlight one’s competencies. An expertise in large scale VET providing will be included in the partnership through the participation of Le Forem (in Belgium) which offers information, training and personalised guidance to employers and job seekers in order to promote integration into the labour market and meet the recruitment needs. Endurance (Netherlands), thanks to its experience in VET for hospitality sector will contribute to the development of a pilot module of the solution assessing level of competencies and advising complementary learning paths in the hospitality sector. Moreover, an External Advisor (Simon Grant from Britain) will evaluate and monitor the project to ensure that all requirement are met. We have managed to produce a tool that ensures the traceability of digital learning followed by users of the MyLK platform. With this development, MyLK will test and prove the usefulness of a new tool, consolidating the needs of various European countries. Indeed, the project will provide the dashboard and a communication standard. Workers / non-workers will have a tool to manage their lifelong learning and businesses will benefit from a better understanding of people's skills, which will facilitate the recruitment process. In the long term, this tool can reinforce the practice of lifelong learning. Better recognition of non-formal and informal learning can lead to strengthening the internal learning programs of some companies to help their employees develop their basic and cross-functional skills with personalized learning pathways.

"The longer the parents, and in most countries, mothers stay at home with children, the more difficult it seems for them to return to work (European Commission, 2018). Over the years, they may lose working habits, overview of the opportunities available on the labour market and they lack new skills required. In addition, they may have trouble with the work-family life. Despite these challenges, most parental leavers find it important to return to work after maternity or parental leave.The project ""Fostering Employment of Maternity Leavers"" (FEMALE) responds to statistics and research pointing to the fact that parenting in many respects complicates the situation of the parent, mostly mothers, in the labour market. The aim of the FEMALE project is to look for ways to facilitate the return to work after parental leave. The project brings innovative counselling and educational content for parents returning to work, created on the basis of the results of an international study and a survey of the needs of target groups in cooperation with partners – educational organizations from France, the Netherlands, Hungary, Norway and Slovakia. The product is an electronic platform designed for the target group of parents, career counsellors or other stakeholders in the labour market with practical advice when considering the return of parents to the labour market.WHAT DOES FEMALE INCLUDE?­-Implementation of a research study mapping different approaches and best practices in partner countries and in other countries to support the return of parents to the labor market after parental leave­-Creation of a blended learning programme (curriculum, pedagogical materials and distance learning tools) to support the employability of parents­-Development of an electronic platform intended for target groups (parents, career counsellors, employers) to navigate the return to the labour market.PARTNERSHIPThe project consortium consists of 6 partners from 5 countries with expertise in adult education, career guidance and labour market research (France, the Netherlands, Hungary, Norway and Slovakia). The project coordinator is TREXIMA Bratislava.BENEFITSThe platform https://moodle.parentalleavers.eu/ deals with various topics that need to be taken into account when moving from the period of childcare back to working life. The intention is for the platform to contribute to discovering and getting acquainted with the possibilities of facilitating the employment of parents. In addition to the use of the platform by individual parents, the content of the platform is freely available and usable for counsellors and HR professionals, as their support and mutual cooperation of both parties is also important. The free availability of the program in the digital environment in the form of an electronic platform contributes to the openness of educational content in the age of digital media. The flexible use of counseling and training materials, either individually or in cooperation with an employer or career counselor, opens up new possibilities for accessing skills related to better employability."