<< Background >>The context from which the idea for the project EupTrain emerged, came from common identified needs of European organizations in the field of adult education in terms of personnel development. Trainers of low-skilled adults (EQF level 1&2) are confronted with various issues working with this target group across Europe. This was identified through a series of surveys which were developed and conducted in the participating educational organizations and was based on qualitative interviews. The interviewees were qualified trainers of low skilled adults, who shared their experiences working with this target group in terms of their daily personal and professional struggles they experience during the training. From this a questionnaire was developed and completed by 85 trainers for adult education (working in the partner organizations) in order to assess the situation in the participating countries. The questionnaire results showed the need for transnational knowledge exchange of methods especially suitable for the group of low-skilled adults as for example in terms of group dynamics or conflict management.<< Objectives >>The objective of EUpTrain was to create a transnational network between Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal, Greece and Romania in order to share Europe-wide knowledge between organizations specialized in adult education through exchange of experts and the development of a sustainable handbook comprising transnational good practices and methods for trainers working with low-skilled adults. The target group of this project were trainers of low-skilled adults, with at least 2 years of working experience (certified language trainers AND a) trainers in adult education OR b) trainers in cultural integration and orientation OR c) trainers for basic skills). EUpTrain implementation was carried out in a spirit of professionalism, open communication and trust between partners, with a strong commitment to cooperation, knowledge-exchange, well-defined roles and responsibilities related to the division of tasks. All requirements for monitoring, evaluation and feedback were taken care of to ensure the quality of the final results and partnership.<< Implementation >>EUpTrain activities included:= 3 transnational project meetings (first 1 online due to COVID 19, 2 on site) attended by a total of 23 experts (up to 15 trainers (possible as it was online) and 8 project managers)= one knowledge exchange workshop with the main goal to filter out examples of good practices from all participating organizations and to show international differences, new opportunities, new ways of work and different methodologies in training of low-skilled adults (19 trainers and 8 project managers with pedagogical background)= based on the workshop results: creation of a handbook (translated to all partner languages and English) containing 16 best practices, 2 from each country, and 8 methodologies<< Results >>The results of EUpTrain are a 40-page long handbook (translated into 8 languages, 7 national languages and English) containing the results of knowledge-exchange activities, specifically a collection of concrete examples of international best practice examples and methodologies for trainers working with low-skilled adults. This varied collection of best practices and methodologies is making the project results valuable for other European countries as well. The handbook is accessible online and free of charge for all partners and other organizations. Through the dissemination of the handbook, trainers who work with low-skilled adults in all of Europe who are not participating in this project, also benefit from the project results and are be able to increase their knowledge and expertise. Additionally, the creation of a transnational network between the partner organizations ensures the sustainability of the project results. The overall aim of the project was to promote networking and synergy-creation on European level and to increase the knowledge exchange and the collaboration of trainers working with low-skilled adults and of organizations in the field of adult education in Europe. The mid-term impact was to establish synergies and to build bridges between these different organizations with the resulting long-term impact to contribute in this way to increase the education level and therefore lower the unemployment rates of low-skilled adults in Europe.

"The MOBi project is a partnership of eight organizations present in five different EU countries. The project is led by CENTRUL PENTRU PROMOVAREA INVATARII PERMANENTE-CPIP and aimed to:•Understand the European contemporary punishment and reintegration picture in terms of society's perception, participation, offenders labelling, return to work or to community, building an assessment tool to measure society ‘culture’ towards punishment and reintegration•To create new, innovative and multidisciplinary approaches to respond to (ex)offenders’ reintegration process•To develop a community engagement methodology to support Criminal Justice System (CJS) organisations, practitioners, and closest stakeholders’ efforts on reinforcing existent community (society) based approaches•To design one transnational training programme, to be executed by key-organisations, aimed at civil society, to ensure that all citizens have access to knowledge of the rehabilitation model at work in their own criminal justice system, and are therefore able to review their own, individual role in the reintegration process•To deliver a Handbook, to support different organisations from Public, Private and Third Sector developing their social responsibility and participation on CJS and offender’s reintegration.The eight organizations partners are Genepi (France), Bremen Senate of Justice and Constitution and Hoppenbank e.V. (Germany), Associazione Antigone (Italy), Direção-Geral de Reinserção e Serviços Prisionais and Aproximar, Cooperativa de Solidariedade Social (Portugal), Center for Promoting Lifelong Learning - CPIP and The Baia Mare Penitentiary (Romania). During the project partners have been developing a set of Intellectual Outputs (IO), namely: IO1: Assessment Tool to screen society’s perceptions on (ex) offenders needs and CJS functionIO2: Assessment Tool to screen offender’s perceptions on society acceptance regarding reintegration processIO3: Methodology on Community engagement in CJSIO4: Training course on community awareness on CJS, (ex)offenders’ rehabilitation & reintegration processesO5: Handbook on community awareness of (ex)offenders’ rehabilitation & reintegration processes. The MOBI process and way of work was to ensure that this package of assessment, methodology and training can and will be replicated in any European Union country with the intended purpose of up-scaling to public policy recommendation and raising awareness of (ex)offenders’ rehabilitation and reintegration processes. It’s destined to civil society organizations in general in order to put their values on action to enhance (ex)offenders’ reintegration process.One of the expected results MOBI has attained is a civil society more informed about prison services operation, different offender populations and strategies to actively participate on offenders’ social reintegration, with special focus on employment issues. Thus, our MOBI results were used by workers and trainers linked to Prison Services who intend to developed key-competences to transmit how the services work, who are the clients, what are their needs, etc. as well as by organizations from Public, Private and Third Sector developing their social responsibility and participation on Criminal Justice System and offender’s reintegration. In this sense, MOBi project was conceived to respond to an evolving need, namely the social inclusion of (ex) offenders and the creation of a collaborative context whereas both prison and community engage into a ""co-working"" mindset focus on making reintegration a lifelong learning process for both offenders and civil society. The project proposes an innovative integrated approach in order to diminish the distance existing between society, in general, and the Criminal Justice System by using the tools of adult education."

The project SENSE (of) Community represents a strategic partnership supporting cooperation for exchange of good practices involving adult education organizations from 5 European countries: Romania, Croatia, Italy, Portugal and Bulgaria. The project will be developed on 17 months period between 1.10.2020 to 28.02.2022 and it addresses social inclusion, employability and entrepreneurial initiative of disadvantaged adult learners from rural regions and/or deprived communities and it aims to exploit the capability of a community-based entrepreneurship model as tool to raise employment, foster social inclusion and lifelong learning participation on 3 levels:- training of adult educators to be able to support low skilled and low qualified adults to better contribute in their communities and thus overcoming barriers- training of disadvantaged adult learners from our communities to be able to overcome barriers and benefit from life long learning opportunities- community development and social inclusion of our communities at a wider audience through the implementation of community-based businesses which will offer examples to key actors on how they can support community development through human development and empowering opportunities for community members Specific objectives of the project are: - To develop knowledge, skills and abilities of 20 adult educators from the partner countries in order to create community based entrepreneurship opportunities aimed at empowering disadvantaged adult learners from rural region and/or deprived communities through promotion of mutual employment of strengths and peer learning activities at international level. - To increase social inclusion, employability and entrepreneurial initiative among 25 disadvantaged adult learners from rural regions and/or deprived communities by delivering of 1 international learning activity on community-based entrepreneurship and 1 experiential learning program.The partners will put great efforts in ensuring project visibility and dissemination with a view to promote various approaches in terms of social inclusion, employability and entrepreneurial initiative among disadvantaged adults, to foster involvement of local experts and collaborating stakeholders in the flow of communication according to specific phases of the project, especially the experiential learning program to guarantee the initiative also after the completion of the project. In all the partners communities, the project will contribute to the strengthening of the professional development of our staff. Through the share of experiences and practices in the areas covered by the project, the partners will build on the existing methodologies, thus fostering the quality and improvement in adult education services and activities developed for the benefit of own adult learners. The trained adult educators will use the knowledge and skills acquired within our organizations and at community at large. At local level the project will improve the social and educational support for adults and social inclusion, increased attention in life long learning opportunities for the partner communities where is a strong need for this, an insight image on how community-based entrepreneurship can foster social inclusion and employability of adult learners. Through the implementation of the community-based businesses which will address the existent needs, the project will foster our communities development and will serve as good practice example and as a mean to raise interest of other community members for E+ opportunities and life long learning opportunities. At the national level, learning and applying the good practices in adult education helps to draw attention to the problems in the national adult education and make suggestions through national adult education networks to develop lifelong learning.At the European level, cooperation in adult education will increase among the partner countries. The good practices from different European countries set an example for the countries participating in the project to develop training activities and new offers and therefore align the quality of adult education in Europe. The partners will focus on ensuring a strong dissemination strategy to cover the promotion of various approaches in terms of social inclusion, employability and entrepreneurial initiative among disadvantaged adults in rural areas and transmitting the project's contribution to a wide range of initiatives and objectives at European and national level, such as the National lifelong learning strategies, the European agenda for adult education.

<< Objectives >>M4Pris aims at developing up a peer support programme for prison staff, improving and promoting health in targeted prisons using a whole-systems approach, decreasing levels of job-related stress and burnout among prison staff, and increasing awareness of prison administrations and staff about environmental, organizational factors that impact the health and well-being of prisoners, staff, and the wider community.<< Implementation >>The activities implemented trough M4Pris are Blueprint of Prison Staff Mentoring with state of the art scientific review, prison staff needs analysis, best practice collection and definition of a mentors profile; a Peer Mentoring programme for prison staff; a Training Course for Mentoring Coordinators; Management and implementation activities; and Dissemination activities.<< Results >>As results, M4Pris will produce a Peer Mentoring Programme for Prison Staff, a Training Course for Mentoring Coordinators, informed by a Project Blueprint – consisting of a state of the art review, mapping of prison staff needs, and mentors profile. The research and Peer Mentoring Programme Evaluation will be published as a scientific article. Moreover, one international event and one transnational training event, involving more than 40 participants, will result from the project.

"The project ""Crafting 50 & beyond"" wants to promote the improvement of older craftsmen in the 21th century. Many people over 50 years old have spent their entire lives in the same profession and after the crisis, they were unable to find employment in their area of expertise: in 2013 seniors had the highest unemployment rate in the last 15 years due to the economic crisis of 2008-2014. The crisis's effects may differ in territories with less economic and social preparation to face the collapse and the situation has grown worse now due to COVID- 19 pandemic and in need of new skills and innovation to face unemployment or loss of income. The tradition of handicrafts is found across Europe, keeping centennial forms of business and art alive. Today, in addition to the cultural potential that these activities have, their development is necessary to promote knowledge, improve the quality and access to artisanal products, and boost the employment of people over 50 who are unemployed or intend to continue to have a productive activity.As characteristics of the sector, it should be considered that:Products are created in small quantities as opposed to industrial products that can be made in series.The products' characteristics can only be at the local level or for companies that already have knowledge of the product and are easy to place on the market, that is, resellers.Craft enterprises are not only located in cities but primarily decentralized in rural areas.Crafts and small enterprises typically rely on their local roots and make an essential contribution to local development, social integration, and circular economy.They often are developed by people with disabilities hence providing them a social integration. (DIN;2017)This sector is unorganized; there is a lack of entrepreneurship. Taking into account the characteristics of the craft sector, Crafting 50 & beyond will work to understand the competences that craftsmen from different partner countries have and the activities they need to develop to make these activities more creative and digital. Taking advantage of the economic restructuring that the pandemic requires, and encouraged by the 'Do-it-Yourself' trend, the entire artisanal area will be worked on, understanding the cultural and legislative contexts of each country for these activities, and working directly with craftsmen to endow them with the business and technological skills needed to boost their business.As products of the project will be developed the following intellectual outputs: IO1 - Craftsman Business Guidebook: Creation of a guidebook with two types of instructions, first information about existing support and craft organizations in each partner country, and second, practical information about how to develop business, tools available, digital tools to be applied. That means a map of the process to create a business successfully. This will have a joint version in English. Still, each partner must create a pocket format (paper and online) with only the relevant information from their country and the translated tools to apply to the process of business construction.IO2 – Training course to boost craft businesses: aimed at 6 artisans (per country), especially from rural areas over 50 years old. The course aims to equip the artisans with skills to boost their cultural business, creativity, and digital readiness, by applying the resources from IO1 into a pilot group. This course allows people to develop their business with a business advisor's auxiliary who will guide the process.IO3 – Arts and Crafts toolkit - Manual that aggregates the arts developed by the artisans accompanied by the project, to make known the various forms of crafts existing in Europe and how to carry them out, leaving the knowledge available to all those interested, especially younger generations. This will create an added value also in terms of showcasing and marketing the product to potential sponsors.The project includes 7 partners from 7 different countries, including 1 non-programme country, which allows a better understanding of the craft sector across Europe and a greater spreading of the project goals.At least 42 craftsmen will be involved in the project activities, following a co-construction methodology and 18 craftsmen will have the opportunity to participate in a blended mobility of learners.230 stakeholders will be involved in multiplier events directly."