Bricks of Skills is a project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, that brings together partners from six countries to address common approaches and standards to skills development and mobility of workers across Europe in the context of energy efficient investment in the Construction industry It is the strong will of Bricks of Skills partners to contribute to the necessary evolution of jobs in the construction industry and its strategic role in defining an innovative training design to address the fundamental issue. “A renovation wave for Europe: greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives”, published by the EU, in view of reaching the ambitious target for energy saving by 2050, it is clear “creating green jobs, upskilling workers and attracting new talents” is a urgent priority.The Bricks of Skills Objectives •develop flexible learning pathways focused on energy efficiency which can modernise, reward and resource the education and training of people for competitive and innovative solutions in Europe. •design EU recognised and standardised qualification pathways in accordance with the ECVET model, with the aim to overcome the fragmentation of construction professions and facilitate free movement of construction professionals in the EU •favour a cross-cutting understanding of the different trades in the construction sector through the flexibility of blended Learning Outcomes which are transferable and applicable to the different qualifications •enable learners to build a qualification at their own pace from learning outcomes acquired in their own country and abroadOutputs The first step towards achieving the objectives has been a joint design of Units of Learning Outcomes (ULOs), which are conceived as “learning bricks” meant to enable beneficiaries of construction training / education paths to gain knowledge, skills and competences in the field of Energy Efficiency and connected to the qualifications targeted (EQF 4-5 level).Bricks of Skills partners have developed 5 Bricks of Skills Units of Learning Outcomes translated in all the partnership languages•Awareness of Renewable Energies Technologies•Solar Energy•Technology & Materials•HVAC Ventilation mechanical•Energy efficiency of the building envelopeAnd•Bricks of Skills Guidelines to design Energy Efficiency Units of Learning Outcomes•Bricks of Skills Guidance to Implement ECVET for Energy Efficiency The innovative aspect was that Bricks of Skills partners adopted the ECVET model (European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training). This means that Bricks of Skills beneficiaries could achieve a qualification by accumulating the required learning outcomes, achieved in different countries and different contexts while respecting national legislation relating to the accumulation of units and the recognition of learning outcomes.It is Bricks of Skills partners strong belief that such an approach is an important step towards a truly integrated labour market and standardisation of skills which is highly required in the construction industry. Up to now, students in vocational education are not allowed to get their studies from abroad. In our Bricks of Skills partners we tried to demonstrate that through an ECVET approach we could fill this void and offer the chance for the participants to truly benefit from the opportunities offered by an integrated EuropeParticipants The Bricks of Skills partners piloted the delivery and assessment of the designed Energy Skills ULOs with 12 trainers drawn all partners at a Joint Staff Training Learning Activity in January 2020 just prior to the onset of Covid. Once back to their home countries these trainers transferred their knowledge to their colleagues thus replicating the impact of the LA. A further Learning Activity of a Blended Mobility of VET Learners was first postponed and then cancelled due to the pandemic but replaced by in-country piloting which had the benefit of reaching more participants across the partnership than originally planned. Partners have committed to sign a BoS “Memorandum of Understanding” and a “Learning Agreement”, which ensures that the qualifications achieved at one institution will be accepted at the other. For the time being, this is an pilot aimed at demonstrating that the approach can work. We need however a strong commitment from the qualification bodies in each country to make it happen on a wider and regular scale. If students could get their training abroad certified and recognised by their home institution, they would be more motivated to try to complete their training paths abroad and the training institution would greatly increase its attractiveness. This would be a real incentive to undertake vocational learning paths abroad. Improved mobility means that, following a placement abroad, learners come back with a certificate which is recognised in their own training system or learning context.

For some years now, Europe has been facing a massive flow of migrants with many of them coming from countries where Sustainable Development is anything but a well-known or implemented concept. Migrants often have various difficulties with their integration. They frequently do not face only social exclusion because of lack of language skills, but also cultural and economic downfalls. IN-Life wants to contribute to facilitate integration by providing language teaching/learning resources on Sustainable Development to people working with this target group and migrants themselves. The starting point to develop IN-Life teaching/learning resources on Sustainable Development and how to implement them in language teaching was twofold. On one hand, the project partnership representing adult education, integration measures and education for sustainable development, carried out a survey on the current education policy and progress of development of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the context of education measures for migrant learners in four participating countries: Germany, Italy, France and Scotland. The survey included both desktop and field research on the current state of Education for Sustainable Development in the context of language provision and integration measures for migrant learners as well as on the awareness of the subject Sustainable Development among teachers and trainers working mostly in adult education and learners with migration backgrounds. The main tool used for conducting the survey was an interview questionnaire. The aim of the interviews was to set up the list of the most relevant topics of Sustainable Development. The results of the interviews gave a fruitful impulse for the development and expansion of the ideas, tools, exercises, group activities of education for Sustainable Development in the context of language provision for learners. On the other hand, the five priority action areas to advance the ESD agenda set up in the GAP – Global Action Programme and the 17 UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals are the foundation for the development of the teaching/learning resources as well as the Guidelines, with special focus on the Global Priority Action Areas. IN-Life mainly targets the following groups: •Stakeholders, leaders, policy makers and those responsible for development and implementation of integration measures, as well as education for Sustainable Development•Adult education providers, teachers and trainers, all working with migrant learners•Migrant learners, who can benefit from the new knowledge and skills gained on Sustainable Development. IN-Life develops and offers an integrated concept of language teaching with elements of Sustainable Development for the specific target group of migrant learners in the European Union and the project prepares adult education institutions to work with this target group on SD.IN-Life also intends to enhance the key competences of migrants and asylum seekers and, therefore, facilitates and promotes integration. So far this specific target group has been left out of measures for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in adult education. IN-Life addresses competences like communication in foreign languages, digital competence, learning to learn, social and civic competences, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, as well as cultural awareness and expression. The developed resources are available online and a learning platform http://in-life.eu/home/ contains the teaching and learning resources and interactive content which in turn avoids printing costs and ensures waste prevention.IN-Life delivers a valuable contribution to inclusive education and training of all citizens in Europe with making available the learning and teaching materials in German, English, French and Italian (the most common mother tongues in Europe). With its contribution to ESD, IN-Life encourages the development of a smart, sustainable and inclusive society by giving migrant adult learners the chance to acquire basic and transferable skills for Sustainable Development (SD), gaining knowledge and experience in ESD, receiving a high-quality qualification and enhancing beneficiaries’ chances on the labour market. Through that educational, social and economic disparities are reduced in a sustainable way. As a side-effect, IN-Life also strengthens the capacity of education for Sustainable Development by raising awareness and enhancing the knowledge of Adult Education institutions for intercultural dialogue, diversity and Sustainable Development.

"The big challenge will be the creation of an mobile application (due to the possibility of using simple freeware to the development of the app) that allows everyone to communicate and transmit basic information in foreign language. The project ""Technology from everyone to each one of us"" aims to create an augmentative communication tool, from which anyone, with learning difficulties or not, can communicate in countries other than their own, with the use of pictograms instead of written words. The group, through its vast experience, knows that it is much more difficult to make children or people with learning difficulties of different natures able to learn or to read, in opposition to learn a set of pictograms representing words, these pictograms are designed so that the user can intuitively select the desired word/expressions.The institutions participating in the project add different value and complement each others points of view. It was important to find institutions that present diversity, NGOs, Regular High Schools, Higher Education Schools and a Technological School. They will function as comparison elements, control groups at the time of evaluation of the developed outputs. Each give a different cultural perspective due to geographic disposition and social function. We intend to have the participation of different know-how, different approaches and ways to test the applicability of the application. One of the criteria to be accepted in the project was to designate a team of maximum 5 people, able people in the following functions (with experience or hyer degree formation in the case of communication responsible): local project coordinator, budget manager, graphic production manager, pedagogic responsible , responsible for the application development, responsible for communication between institutions (in english), and responsible for activities. The institutions in the project are: High Schools: Agrupamento de Escolas de Aljustrel – PT IES Juan del Enzina–SP NGOs: Bulgarian Development Agency – BG Associazione N.E.T Networking Education & Training – IT Association for Developing Voluntary Work Novo Mesto - SL Professional Schools: Escola de Tecnologias, Criação e Inovação do Algarve – PT Universities; Uiversity of Thessaly – GR Collegium Balticum - PL It is intended that this technological product created mainly for children, is also usable by the elderly, adults, people and children with special needs. The application can be used in any language of any country to communicate, it will use pictograms to translate feelings, emotions, questions, statements, etc. The partners, in collaboration, will develop technologies using pictograms that can activate the audio of the word represented in the native language intended by the users. The pictograms and layout will be common to all the partner projects. All the technology produced will be of free use to everyone interested in it. Any reader or non-reader can use the application. Methodology The meetings will happen monthly using distal communication with the development of the project in all the partner institutions. The learning acquired in the distal mode will be applied in the institutions and evaluated by the different groups of work. The assessment of the applicability of the developed technologies will occur in each partner institution collaborating in the project. Each partner will develop the technology in their own language, which will be used later on by the partners in monitorization activities in loco. Objectives of the project: • Improve the teaching and learning of languages and promote the broad linguistic diversity in the EU and sensibility to different cultures; • Promote improvement in terms of quality, innovation, excellence and internationalization in the educational institutions, namely through the promotion of transnational cooperation between the education and training institutions and other parts with interest in it; • Develop projects in the institutions to optimize the use of ICT as mechanisms that allow the intercultural mobility and share. • Promote the technologic inclusion as a facilitator. • Promote projects developed by the institutions that use technological resources. • Discover the words/expressions most needed to engage in communication. • Create the European Pictogram Communication Language (EPCL). • Create the EPCL Translator (Mobile Application). The application has the ability to continue to grow, to update and to add content, it will never be truly finished, as it can be adapted and customized by anyone with average ICT knowledge. It is expected to impact how we communicate and how young children and those with learning disabilities learn by the use of the application, starting the communication of each and every one in foreign language."

The five main objectives in the VOLCANO project were: 1)To demonstrate that people with language levels of A2 to B1 can be sustainability employed in this sector.2)To address the growing skills gap across Europe in lower levels of social/healthcare, due to population decline and movements, increased professionalisation and traditional low status and low pay. 3) To take advantage of greater in-work-learning opportunities in the sector which has opened up a new route into employment for migrants. 4)To provide a new workforce for the sector now essential due to the new demand for staff through the Working Time Directive and Directive on Professional Qualifications.5)To provide a diverse labour force which more closely resembles the diverse nature of the elderly community in Europe accessing social and healthcare. The five partners were drawn from across Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe.* Folkeuniversitetet Øst (FUØ), Oslo, Norway, was lead partner. FUØ is Norway's oldest and largest independant and non profit study organisation for adult learning. FUØ's course programmes are covering a broad variety of topics and programmes of different lengths and intensity, some providing formal competency, others not. FUØ is especially strong in the fields of second and foreign language aquisition and educational programmes for work in the healthcare sector. * Bridges Programmes, Glasgow (UK), a specialist not for profit organisation working for the last 14 years with those for whom English is a second language including refugees, migrants and the settled BME communities, to develop and facilitate their economic and social integration through a variety of work based interventions. These include work placements, employer engagement to foster anti discrimination practices in the work place and awareness raising training and support. * Volkshochschule im Landkreis Cham e.V., Germany, is one of the largest adult education centres in Bavaria. With nearly 50 employees, 250 teachers, 30 sites and a special focus on adult education, it is the largest educational institution in the Cham region. The Gesundheitsakademie Ostbayern (GAO) is part of the VHS Cham and consists of a state approved vocational school for geriatric nursing and nursing aids and school of Physiotherapy.* The Associazione N.E.T., Ponte San Nicolo, Italy, is a not for profit association founded in 2001 by experts of the training and educational sector. It addresses above all disadvantaged people like migrants, women, long term unemployed, elderly, disabled people and single parents to support them from a social, training and employment point of view. The association is very active at local and regional level by collaborating with public organisations and institutions like regions, municipalities, local health units (ULSS), universities, and chambers of commerce. * Ustanova za obrazovanje odraslih Dante, Rijeka, Croatia, is a language school engaged in several different projects with different target groups, like university students and young employees.The partner runs individual classes in business language and specific vocational language. Dante organizes language courses for medical staff and is active in the local community to improve skills and learning infrastructure in general.The project was structured around 7 Intellectual Outputs, in addition to a 5 days train the trainers session. IO 1 Research and Mapping ReportIO 2 Skills and Language Benchmarking and Profiling toolIO 3 Vocational Language Curriculum and Material ResourceIO 4 Handbook for implementation of curriculumIO 5 Piloting the CurriculumIO 6 Green PaperIO 8 VLE and websiteAll planned parts of the project were carried out in accordance with the application. The pilote courses had 179 beneficiaries.The courses were carried out in combination with the effort in providing internships/jobs for participants,in spite the lacking funding for his IO. The courses resulted in a significant number of work placements and jobs within the project period. At least 72 participants had a work placement thanks to project activities and the offer of a job position in some cases. Totally around 60 persons were employed with different contracts.The project documents produced in the project can be accessed through the website, http://volcano-europe.org/ Apart from Green Paper, all documents are available in all five partner languages. Meetings and activities were scheduled on the initial meeting in Oslo.There was one transnational meeting in each partner country, and a final meeting in connection with the final multiplier event in Oslo. Local multiplier events took place in all partner countries, where the project results were presented.The project results have been videly communicated through different medias and events on local, regional and national level. The VOLCANO project can be considered as a good practice under the point of view of the impact obtained on the end users.

The main Objective European of Entrepreneurship for Speakers of Other Languages (EUESOL) is to target young adult Migrants (16-40 yrs) arriving across the EU seeking to create a new life through the establishing of new business growth and development within partner organisation countries. The EUESOL Project will provide specialised Entrepreneurship Language Training Skills, Skills Mapping/Mentoring and Specialised Business Planning/Training of new Business Start-Up Programmes. We are developing the project based on results of previous successfully delivered programmes. The project is based on feedback from previous domestic and EU project dissemination and Multiplier Events where we have had requests to combine Language Training, Skills Profiling, Vocational Training and Entrepreneurship Training. Hence the EUESOL Project. It also helps to address the very high unemployment across the EU, in many programme countries BME (both domestic and migrant numbers are high within the unemployment group). Although unemployment is low, between 3.8% and 9.8% the number of BME extremely high within this figure at around 48% of the unemployed, this number increasing dramatically due to the current pandemic, with further rises expected. Also within the UK and partner countries and the number of self-employed BMEs accounts for only around 4% of self-employment businesses, a growth here addressing the predicted 25% - 30%+ drop in EU Economic Activity.Hence, through local partnership working (across project partner countries), we have identified a need for Entrepreneurship support for this target group.Partners have been strategically picked to offer an arrangement of expertise from both the Private and Public Sectors, all who have a vast knowledge and experience in supporting this specific target group. Project will provide a range of Training Opportunities to cover all aspects of Self-Employment and through the array of partners’ expertise offer a full guidance experience leading to a new EU Entrepreneur. Delivery includes the first steps in skills mapping, experiences and aspirations of migrants with a view to them establish their own new business in a selected employment sector and utilise the support of Colleges/Private Trainers/Private NGOs along with use of Government Agencies such as Skills Development Scotland and Job/Employment/Regeneration organisations along with National Qualification/Accreditation bodies to support the project. The EUESOL project will assist in breaking down local barriers within host countries thus bridging business support and local communities through training courses in partners’ languages. We address a number of EU priorities including the “Achievement of relevant and high quality skills and competences” and “Enhancing access to training and qualifications for all” through new and innovative digital (VLE) training materials accessible to all.We will work closely with other VET colleges and adult training providers to establish specific learning materials, much of which will be available on-line and on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) which will open doors to a more flexible learning approach. VLE materials will be developed and integrated into 4 * 20 hrs Training Packs:* Developing a Business Idea (Various Sectors)* Finance and E-Business* Commercial Aspects of Law* Environmental Development Skills for Enterprise (This will include following new Government Guidelines to ensure reduced and zero carbon emissions as laid-down by local Government and Government agencies)* Training includes skills mapping of project beneficiaries/individuals to attain suitability for new-business start-upTraining will comprise of encompass BME/Migrant Green Entrepreneurship Language Training Skills, Mentoring and Specialised Business Planning of new Business Start-Up Programmes. Training materials and material assessment materials are aimed at EQF Level 4 and provide a minimum 9 EQF Credit points. Units will encompass an aspect of Skills Assessment. Training materials will be developed as Learning Outcomes to meet all partners’ requirements and allow for further development within ECVET allowing for additional flexibility and mobility opportunities across partner organisation and countries.Partners are addressing specific gaps in training faced by new Entrepreneurs and specifically Migrant Entrepreneurs, we look at the numerous barriers faced by Migrant Workers and Refugees: Language, Business Development, Integration Skills, Support Mechanism, etc. and break down these barriers through the dedicated language/skills training to allow better integration within sectors.Partnership involves Migrant Community Groups (Established and New) to direct the training needs of BME/Migrant Entrepreneurs. Partners have highly trained staff from both Public and Private Sector providing a wide range of training skills including advisors to local Government on Migrant, Refugee matters.