Education has a more that ever important role to play in creating a more democratic and sustainable society by shaping critically engaged citizens. Through a country’s educational system, mutual respected and fundamental values can be cultivated and active citizenship can be fostered. According to the Eurydice Report (2017) , promoting citizenship education at schools is one of the main objectives of Europe in the current and future decade aiming to prepare students for their role as citizens who will actively and responsively deal with the threats faced by the European societies. However, even though we observe significant progress in some countries, the majority of EU countries (including Greece, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus) do not provide teachers with specialized training in citizenship education and more efforts are needed as regards to the practical training of teachers in citizenship education (Eurydice, 2017).Within the above framework, our project aims to introduce a holistic educational approach that will support schools and teachers foster citizenship education combining innovative pedagogies (project-based and experiential learning, design-thinking) with the extensive use of new media and technology. Particularly, leveraging on the power of radio broadcasting and podcasts, our project envisions to integrate citizenship education in school curricula in an effective and engaging way and create an interactive space where young students become agents of change. More specifically our project envisages to:•Offer an innovative school radio and podcasting curriculum that will guide students throughout an exciting and engaging journey on how to discuss, reflect upon and advocate for community issues they care about. Following a design-thinking approach, students from the 5 partner countries (Poland, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal) will be empowered to become changemakers, research on community problems, collaborate with media and community actors and work on their own projects as community roving reporters. •Develop a holistic and flexible teachers’ training programme and provide a practical resource bank that will improve teachers' competences in teaching citizenship education, increase their confidence in using innovative methodologies and digital tools such as radio and podcasts and support students on how to reflect upon their community engagement.•Develop the Social Radio 2.0 online platform and application (web and mobile) aiming to become a transnational point of reference and a huge repository in terms of learning resources and best practices of school radio and podcasting as engaging tools for active citizenship. We also aspire to foster the first-ever European-wide online community of teachers, students and schools who use school radio and podcasting to promote civic engagement among adolescents.The production of the above results will ultimately lead to the following long-term expected results:•Support students in acquiring and developing basic skills and 21st century competences such as critical thinking, problem solving, digital skills, media literacy and communication skills that will prepare them for their role as active citizens.•Enhance teachers’ professional development by supporting them to apply innovative teaching practices related to citizenship education and equipping them with tools, methodologies and ready-to use materials.•Engage students, teachers, schools, parents, community stakeholders and policy makers in order to build an ecosystem that exposes and encourages children to take initiative and become agents of change at an early age, by using the tools of radio and podcasts to solve problems, gain confidence, and develop a sense of agency.•Contribute to community development by enhancing skills, opening mindsets and building long-standing partnerships between schools and the community.

Over 4,000 institutions of higher learning in 37 countries participate in Erasmus+ mobilities, but not all of them enjoy the same level of IT infrastructure or skills. The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey from 2018 show that only 39% of educators in the EU feel well prepared for using digital tools.The ESC ACADEMY PRO project aims at building up the transition towards the adoption of the ESC initiative by improving the digital capacities of HE actors.The specific objectives are (1) to develop a needs analysis assessment of the grass-root and policy practices at the national level on HE actors (associations, HEI and students) related to the digitalisation of Erasmus+ and the ESC, (2) to create capacity building training activities to promote, disseminate and implement the ESC initiative in association to HEI and students, (3) to foster the capacity of the associations (ISIC and ESU) to encourage the digitalisation of Erasmus+, (4) to promote the project’s outputs by boosting the ESC initiative, and (5) to create and put in place the relevant policy mechanisms for the promotion of the European values and the acquisition of digital skills in the European Education Area.The activities will involve: Project Management and Coordination (WP1), State-of-the-Art analysis (WP2), Capacity Building (WP3), Dissemination and Promotion (WP4), and Policy and Sustainability (WP5).The results will showcase the experience of HE stakeholders in European value promotion, the ESC initiative, digital competencies, and student participation. By building the capacity of the national member organisations, the project will foster the acquisition of digital skills related to the digitalisation of Erasmus+.The impact will be directly measured on to what extent the target groups (290 students and 526 member associations, 228 HEIs, and 120 policymakers) are reached.

"<< Background >>The rise of the global COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic repercussions across Europe. Efforts to contain the spreading coronavirus have caused a surge in layoffs, resulting in the loss of jobs in a variety of industries. Financial and physical wellness are directly linked. Financial stress-now aggravated by COVID-19-is the leading cause of lost productivity, unplanned absences, lower job performance and greater distractions among employees.Financial literacy is a core life skill for participating in modern society. Young people are growing up in an increasingly complex world where they will eventually need to take charge of their financial future. Appropriate knowledge and skills to deal with non-economic crises, which first implicitly, but soon after, explicitly affect economic well-being, can address a metalevel of financial literacy, where a high level of understanding of how finances at the personal level function, would compensate more effectively, that is, through adequate prior knowledge helping to assess, manage, rearrange, and finally reschedule finances at the best of hers/his abilities to overcome difficulties by coming up with solutions which the same, hard-hit financial system can offer, provided that this very person knows his way around within this system in the first place.The implications of economic strain could be particularly harmful to the young at the ages between 19 and 29. High unemployment rates, indebtedness, diminished income, deteriorating savings, are some of the challenges that families have faced and are facing during the economic crisis, while the young - either as dependent or independent members of the family – are growing along the lines of this socioeconomic context. The first financial knowledge necessary to become independent and self-sufficient has essential consequences in terms of how prepared young people are to break out on their own. Low understanding on topics such as personal saving, investment, bank issues, housing loans and mortgages, income tax, insurance needs, etc., may have a negative impact on financial behaviours and attitudes regarding rational buying, consumer awareness issues, educational/professional career, etc.To better help the young to apply strategies for their economic well-being, there must be in place age-appropriate approaches and tools, designed and delivered to this particular target demographic group and their sociocultural profile, looking into the development of financial literacy as an essential for long-term financial well-being, that is, as a key life skill. The proposed project aims to design, develop and offer to the young an online training provision to support them to make informed and confident financial decisions as economic actors, producers, consumers, professionals, entrepreneurs, employees, considering that there is a direct positive relationship between financial literacy and the well-being of the individuals.<< Objectives >>From another perspective such (online and storytelling-based) training and resources could be very suitable to the needs and expectations of young people due to the fact that they are constantly online and would like to ""do things"", ""on the move"", ""online"", etc. To this end, the goal of the training provision and intervention is to help the young: 1) understand the workings of the financial context they live in; 2) understand the financial risks and the opportunities; 3) make rational and informed decisions (including entrepreneurial potential); 4) know where they can get help; 5) be able to take effective actions to increase their well-being.The proposed project will offer an online financial literacy training provision for young people (19-29) (in five EU languages), integrated testing/piloting sessions for the young in four EU countries, learning cooperation and exchange, the ""Young Financial Influencer's Guide"", as well as vast dissemination campaign to include wider audiences, youth organisations, consulting and financial support organisations in Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal and the Republic of North Macedonia.The primary target group are young people (19-29) as well as stakeholders such as financial and professional consultants, respective organisations and youth organisations as secondary target groups. The project will be implemented by six partner organisations in 5 EU countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal and North Macedonia). The mid- and longterm benefits of the project will be the creation of a well-informed financial management mindset among the young, aiming at the development of a financially literate generation of economic actors to better deal within the complex but also open to opportunity economic context at the EU level (single market, digital economy and society).<< Implementation >>The project application objectives will be achieved through several project activities described below: The current project has been divided into 8 overarching activity areas:1) Project management and implementation2) Financial literacy and skills assessment framework in partner countries (PR1)3) Training model and material to boost financial literacy among the young (PR2)4) Know your finances: an online training on financial literacy for the young (PR3)5) Networks of Financial Influencers and Financial Literacy talks (PR4)6) Sharing and promotion activities7) Quality assurance and evaluation8) Exploitation and sustainabilityActivities 2 to 4 represent the actual project results of the project. They consist of various sub-activities that will be implemented in order to achieve the final outputs.PR1,will carry out a comprehensive skills assessment and gap analysis of the primary target groups of the project (young people aged up to 29 years , i.e. secondary school students of economic classes and specialities, NEETs and youngsters registered at the local employment offices, volunteers and young people doing internships, university students, youth / informal leaders, etc.), considering the main objective of the project, i.e. the development of a financially well-informed, capable and thus responsible person and eventually, an independent citizen, through the dimension of financial literacy which is the tool this proposal is employing towards that goal. The comprehensive skills assessment and gap analysis which will be implemented among the consortium countries will be done utilising different tools (country analysis, online survey, focus groups, and qualitative interviews). Furthermore, it will see the development of an innovative Financial literacy self-assessment tool which will represent an online-based questionnaire and guidance methodology that will assess, evaluate and interpret the financial literacy of a young person.PR2 – Development of a set of digital training modules, content-wise to be then deployed in an online learning environment. A training methodology will be developed to determine the scope of the training content, the structure of the training provision as responding to desired learning outcomes.The developed methodology will define the main axes around which the material will be developed, responding to four dimensions, that is, the core content covering knowledge and skills, the efficacy, covering the improvement of financial education, skills, as well as behaviours, the dimension of utility, including the most effective self-learning and teaching aspects in pedagogical terms, and lastly the dimension of quality, accounting for accurate and well presented, integrated training provision.PR3- The training modules, as developed in PR2, will be integrated into an online training environment, freely accessible to the target group. To this aim, an online platform will be designed to host the training provision and all relevant functionalities. The learning platform will be developed based on predetermined technical specifications.PR4- Building networks of financial influencers and “training” young people through literacy talks and mini coaching sessions could potentially impact future generations to have a reasonable level of financial knowledge, what they have most recently learnt has often been the result of a kneejerk reaction to a significant life event. This activity aims to help young people manage their finances and raise awareness of the need for financial literacy under a specific methodology. The trainers will then hold separate events at a national level through Financial Literacy Talks (i.e. informal group meetings in the form of chat clubs) where we envisage for youth groups to participate per partner country.Activities 1, 6, 7 and 8 will be supported by the grant for Project Management will be carried out by all project partners, as a designated partner will coordinate each of them.<< Results >>The project is designed in a way to produce the following results:1) Facilitation of more profound understanding on behalf of the young of how the financial context works;2) Acquisition or development of specific sets of skills and attitudes at the personal and professional level on how to manage finances in short-mid- and long-term level;3) Direct experiential involvement of the young during the project in setting up and delivering the most fitting to-social-profile training and support material and intervention towards financial literacy;4) Availability of a tested and validated toolkit for financial literacy that can be used directly by the young or consultants/facilitators/ youth workers after the project;5) Creation of the basis for the further development of a FInfluencers network and community to further involve young people;6) Provision of an integrated model for financial literacy among the young based upon primary and secondary data and thus made-to-fit the profiles of the young people as well as their desired way of learning and becoming financially literate at diverse levels;7) Availability of the training provision for the participating organisations as well as further actors to be included in or adapted to current support offerings, primarily supporting the young.All PRs presented are designed to serve the production of these results:PR1: Financial literacy and skills assessment framework will produce a comprehensive skills assessment framework based on data gathered through different tools (country analysis, online survey, focus groups, and qualitative interviews). Furthermore,PR1 will see the development of an innovative Financial literacy self-assessment tool which will represent a simple online-based questionnaire and guidance methodology that will assess, evaluate and interpret the financial literacy of a young person, as well as suggest the skills, necessary to build to overcome the identified deficiencies. The Financial literacy tool will be linked with the content of the Training to point the young person to the topics that he/she can take to improve his/her financial literacy and personal finance management skills. The tool will be fully digitalised and available on the online Platform.PR2: Training model and material to boost financial literacy among the young - the training content is intended for young people to improve their skills, knowledge and best practices towards taking well-informed and sound financial decisions. Following the development of the training methodology and content, partners will undertake a training session to train the trainers in piloting the methodology and content in project countries. Following this, two rounds of piloting sessions will be held in Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal and North Macedonia. Based on the final training material, adaptations/translations of the training modules to the national context will be undertaken.PR3: Know your finances: online training on financial literacy - the content developed in the frame of PR2 will be integrated into an online environment to serve as a digital hub. The learning applications will be made available to young users/testers in participating countries Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal and North Macedonia. The Platform will create a learning ecosystem that will be linked to a digital branded credential system, using open-source software. Following the completion of the project, the Platform will remain available for a period of 5 years.PR4: Networks of Financial Influencers and Financial Literacy talks - bringing young people together to learn and share their experiences, demonstrating their leadership and commitment to the cause of financial literacy. Each network in each country will attend at least 3 face-to-face meetings, marketed as Talks on financial literacy (to share and bounce ideas, sharing experiences, reflecting, mentoring activities, etc.) or other innovative methods and interventions."

<< Background >>Europe needs well trained volunteer managers in order to properly harness the vast potential of volunteering impact but lacks quality ‘volunteer management courses’ at the HE level. There are also big gaps and needs in terms of recognition of volunteer managers as a profession and in general. That’s why the common action is needed to gather relevant experiences, expertise and skills to collaborate to produce HE learning opportunities (modules) and associated learning resources that can serve to properly train and accredit voluntary managers with qualifications that are given against European standards and reflect European values.<< Objectives >>EVI-DEMS aims to gain a greater understanding of the current situation regarding the training and qualifications currently available to existing and potential volunteer managers. With this increased understanding the partners will develop an HE learning programme and associated resources that will increase the opportunities for the partners and other stakeholders to increase the opportunities across Europe for existing and future volunteer managers to be properly trained at HE level and receive a recognised qualification based on common European standards for volunteer management training. This will serve to ensure that volunteers across Europe are managed effectively and in a more ethical way, avoiding exploitation, instrumentalisation and job substitution. It will also increase the capacity of communities in general as concerns disaster prevention, preparedness and recovery through having better trained and qualified volunteer managers and increase the diversity and inclusivity in the volunteering sector with better trained and qualified volunteer managers able to assess the inclusiveness of the organisations where they are active and develop, manage and follow up on proactive plans and strategies to mitigate risks of lack of inclusivity.<< Implementation >>The Project Handbook will be developed in order to provide a shared and clear vision for the project partners and to monitor the implementation of the project against the specified objectives.This will support the management of contractual obligations related to the project including the management of the finances of the project. Evaluation of the quality management process concerning communication and cooperation, methods applied, progress of the output delivery and the project impact on target groups will be conducted, and interim and final reports will be produced. The transnational project meetings will be held to ensure shared understanding concerning the objectives and activities of the project and give the space for any necessary adjustments to be made. Work on producing the 6 project outputs will be undertaken with each partner leading on one of the outputs and at the same time contributing to all the others. A training event about how to deliver the newly developed curriculum and learning resources will be organised, targeting University lecturers and teachers .Multiplier events will be held as a core part of the overall project dissemination and visibility strategy.<< Results >>The project will produce an Educational programme at Higher Education level for volunteer managers. It will include 4 courses/modules that can be taken together or individually by interested candidates. Each module will have a Course Description Manual, a Course Syllabus and an Assessment Plan. In order to inform the development of these modules, the partners will produce a State of the Art report about Volunteer Management in Europe. Course materials will also be created including: a “European Code of Ethics for Volunteer Managers”, a “Guide to Volunteering, Solidarity and European Values” a “Guide on the role of volunteer managers in facilitating inclusive volunteering” and “Guide to managing volunteers contributing to disaster prevention, preparedness and recovery”. Through this common curricula, available to any interested Higher Education institution in Europe, EVI-DEMS will promote Inter-connected Higher Education Systems.Through having a more prepared higher education sector with the tools and materials to better meet the training needs of current and future volunteer managers the volunteer sector in Europe will become stronger and the volunteer-involving organisations will be more enabled to better argue for the professional recognition of volunteer managers in those countries where it is not currently possible in Europe. Further outcomes to this newly available volunteer manager training and qualification will be seen in increased sustainability of volunteer organisations assisting them to enlarge the outreach and capacity building of their networks staff and expertise in supporting quality training and qualifications for volunteer managers. The project will also support organisations to exchange good practices in the field of education to increase the effectiveness of volunteers through better volunteer management expertise. Cross-sector cooperation among CSOs, educational institutions and policy makers at all levels will be increased.

<< Background >>EU is the largest producer of olive oil at global level, accounting for 69% of world’s production. In the last 3 years, the average production in Spain reached 1.3 mln tonnes per year.Almost the totality of the production is obtained in 4 Member States: Spain (63%), Italy (17%), Greece (14%) & Portugal (5%); together cover around 99% of the production in the EU.Other important olive oil producing countries are Croatia & Cyprus (EC/News/04.Feb.2020/Agriculture & rural development). OlivaEco partnership includes members from all thesecountries except Greece.Among the key findings of the ‘Study on the implementation of conformity checks in the olive oil sector throughout the EU’, published by the European Commission on 04/02/2020, isthe lack of resources either in terms of staff or in terms of funding.On the other side, on a global scale, the organic food market has been thriving with sales of organic foods in the EU above €40 billion. Realizing it has strong potential, many olivefarmers have been switching to organic olive farming. However, organic olives & olive oil (OO&OO) are both high quality products with high value compared to other types & shouldcertified by competent quality bodies in each Member State. The production of OO&OO ensures a better quality for the final consumer & a better price for the producer. It alsocontributes to the sustainability of the agriculture production & environment protection since it does not use chemicals or other artificial fertilizers.In all cases, all organic production rules must be met in order the final product (the olive oil) to be allowed to be marketed as such. The initial period or the three year transition period isquite difficult for the producers. During that time they require more support - both technically & economically. Besides, they need good training in order to be well prepared for thisperiod as well as for the actual process of OO&OO production.For EU OO&OO producer, the knowledge & competences they must master are quite multi-folded:- maintain & renew the old olive groves- develop new plantations with more productive varieties- master organic production techniques/treatments to fight most dangerous diseases (olive moth & olive fly & Xylella fastidiosa)- strengthen the processing & innovate with new organic products (dry olives; olives with herbs, olive paste, stuffed olives, olive oil with garlic/herbs/additional flavours, etc.)- better promote traditional products (vacuum or canned olives, olive oil, etc.)- valorize the important natural & cultural heritage associated with the olive groves (landscapes, dry stone walls, ancient hydraulic systems, biodiversity, etc.) through touristic activities- transform to organic production to enhance their competitiveness & respond better to the growing market demand.<< Objectives >>EcoOlive shall envisage the development of a thorough & interactive course in organic olives & olive oil production & marketing, Manual for trainers, Platform with interactive repository section, Guide on certification of organic olives & olive oil & utilization of olive groves’ potential”.The aim of the project is to enhance the competitiveness of the EU olive farmers & olive oil producers through development of their potential for production & promotion of organic olives & olive oil.The main objectives shall be to:- enhance the development opportunities & boost the growth potential of EU olive farmers & olive oil producers by entering a market of organic olives & olive oil;- develop specific knowledge & competences in the EU olive farmers & olive oil producers to produce & promote OO&OOs by providing a transversal, multidisciplinary & tailor-madetraining on organic olives & olive oil production, pest control & promotion;- remind & develop awareness that the olives & olive groves are part of the cultural, historical & landscape heritage of the country;- encourage the application of organic farming & production approaches among new & existing olive farmers & olive oil producers.- promote wider use of organic olives & olive oil among EU customers.EcoOlives consortium includes partners from the 3 of the top 4 olive oil producing countries in EU & 5 of the top 10. Thus, the final outputs will be made applicable & will be disseminated among the majority of the olive & olive oil producers in EU.<< Implementation >>The main objectives of the proposal are to: enhance the growth potential of EU olive & olive oil producers; to develop their knowledge and competences in the production andpromotion of organic olive & olive oil through a transversal, multidisciplinary and tailor-made training to their specific needs; to increase the support they receive & to encourage theapplication of organic farming and production approaches among the target groups as well as to remind & develop awareness about the potential of the olive groves as part of thenational heritage.To achieve the defined objective the partnership will develop the following outputs:* development of an integrated, holistic and comprehensive training course in production & marketing of organic olives & olive il with strong focus on the organic farming methods; howto prevent, control & fight pest and diseases in the groves (with specific focus on P. oleae, B. oleae & Xylella fastidiosa); branding and marketing of a specific items like organic olives(&olive products) & olive oils and awareness about the place of the olive groves in the heritage & culture of the region.* creation of a e-learning platform that will enable to trainees to undergo the training materials in their own pace and time combined with a rich interactive repository consisting ofvarious materials (text, videos, interactive resources) that will support the trainees in their learning process and will enhance their skills and competences in the both topics.<< Results >>The EcoOlive partners will commence with the development of a Learning model that will lay down the basis, structure & methodology of the training course. Based on it, the partners will elaborate the content for the Training course & for the Manual for trainers. Each partner will create certain sections & units of the course based on their experience, knowledge and know-how on the topic. To further facilitate the trainees, the partners will develop also an Interactive repository & section with tests and exercises to support them in the process of learning & acquiring new skills & enhancing their own competences and knowledg on the topic of organic production & marketing of olives and olive oil.