“Early school leaving” and student retention is a challenge amongst educational institutions across Europe. Students who have dropped out of school struggle with lower employment rates and lower participation in adult education for the rest of their lives. This means, that there is lasting and possible devastating effect on the individual pathways in life of early school leaving. Traditionally the approach to student retention has been reactive; when the student has been missing classes for some period of time, the school initiates a plan for “bringing the student back”. What this project consortium proposes is to change this approach from reactive to proactive: Developing a structured way of using data proactively could make it possible to help a given student – maybe even before he or she realizes that they need help. By creating methods described in a Guidebook and developing the Onboarding & Student Retention-app (O&SR-app) that both “onboards” the students to the given educational environment and creates a possible predicative retention approach to guidance counseling by having the students themselves easily indicate how they experience going to school, we could help a lot more students before they drop out, instead of trying to bring them back. The objective of the project is therefore to use data proactively to combat the considerable challenge of early school leaving. The O&SR-project will be carried out by six consortium partners: Fønix (Norway), a provider of HR services and career guidance counseling for adults; North East Scotland College (Scotland), a college which works with digital tools and education; TAKK (Finland), an adult educational institution; Manzavision (France), a digital product developer; Center for Ungdomsforskning (CeFU) (Denmark), a research center located at Aalborg University that specializes in youth, youth culture and youth well-being and VUC Storstrøm (Denmark), an adult educational institution. The Guidebook and the O&SR-app will be developed by testing on approximately 400 students, 24 guidance counselors, 40 teachers and 4 managers at four different European schools. It is expected that as a result of the project innovations the student drop-out rate will be reduced by 10% to 20% in the early school leaving risk group. This could potentially have a widespread regional, national and European impact at educational institution level, but it could also contribute vastly to individual student schooling experience and thereby foster social inclusion.

The main objective of the project is to provide professional training for refugees, leading to better employment opportunities and living conditions. Through developing the abilities of refugee trainers and acquiring knowledge of intermediary organizations catering to the needs of the refugee community, the integration of refugees will be fast-tracked into the labour market or the start-up of a business, while promoting the development of innovative and effective mechanisms ensuring employment.Between 2015 and 2016, the countries of Europe and those bordering Syria, experienced an influx of more than 5 million Syrian refugees. Enabling migrants to become entrepreneurs lessens the effects of the crisis and facilitates social inclusion. Governments have been supporting refugees and integrating them into national health, education, employment and social services. However, this is not enough for integration into the labour market necessary for social-economic development.Migrants face many challenges establishing and managing entrepreneurship in their host countries. These are interlinked and stem from –•limited host-country capital•lack of understanding local labour markets•lack of local business regulatory frameworks•difficulties accessing local business networks•lack of start-up capital and business facilities•lack of language and cultural awareness•lack of training programsOur project partnership consists of 7 partners, three local institutions - Kahramanmaraş Metropolitan Municipality(KMM), Kahramanmaraş Sütçü Imam University (KSU), Kahramanmaraş Provincial Directorate of National Education, and four from Europe - International Centre for the Promotion of Education and Development (CEIPES), Anaptyxiako Kentro Thessalias (AKETH), Fonix AS, Wisamar Bildungsgesellschaftgemeinnuetzige GmbH (Wisamar), Our strategic partnerships aim to support the development of adult learning and building entrepreneurial capacity for migrants, transfer of innovative practices as well as the implementation of joint initiatives promoting cooperation, peer learning and exchanges of experience at the European level.Five international project meetings will be held, with the final meeting aimed at the effective and efficient management of the project and the follow-up of project activities and budget monitoring.A needs analysis of the current refugee situation will be made by intermediary organizations working together with each partner. Analysis reports will also include how to develop the capacity of intermediary organizations to support the employment or the entrepreneurship of refugees. In addition, entrepreneurship, business planning, the legal aspects of setting up a company and the employee hiring process will receive focus. Online training sessions and F2F workshops will be arranged for trainers in Italy as well as F2F training for the target groups included in the project. The online training and F2F workshop will include video lessons on the e-learning platform for trainers; sharing the approach and lessons taught during the workshop for trainers; practical tools and examples for refugees such as business planning, the legal aspects of setting up a company and hiring employees. Entrepreneurship training activities addressing the development of employers and entrepreneurs will be given by the Public Education Centre and Kahramanmaraş Municipality Vocational Education Directorate (KAMEK). Furthermore, the web portal will be developed for trainers.All work-based learning programs for refugees through apprenticeships or those provided by refugee and intermediary organizations will be put together into one resource. An information campaign with supporting activities will be arranged to increase awareness about the benefits of hiring refugees.The general and specific objectives of the project that will be realized are - •train the trainers to increase migrant entrepreneurship • support the creation, improvement and distribution of support schemes for migrant entrepreneurs•identify potential entrepreneurs among migrants•raise awareness about entrepreneurship within migrant communities•develop sustainable multi-level partnership models integrating refugees into the job market•value awareness of social inclusion through entrepreneurship•empower disadvantaged groups among migrants by developing business skills and competencies

There is little doubt that high quality VET which provides a direct route to the labour market is an attractive option for those seeking to develop their skills and careers. Achieving high quality VET provision is however contingent on a number of factors not least being the quality of teaching available. Research shows that one of the most important factors influencing the quality of education, is ongoing professional development of teachers and educators (OECD, 2005; UNESCO, 2017).Covid-19 has brought the digital skills of educators across the full educational spectrum into sharp focus. Overnight, formal education as we know it became nigh impossible and ‘lockdowns’ in all countries heralded an almost instant demand for online learning on a scale never seen before. Beyond education provision, the full impact of Covid-19 on employment across all Member States is already significant and the progress made towards EU employment goals since the economic crash in 2008 has effectively been wiped out. Young people were once more the age group most effected and youth unemployment in the EU stood at 17% in July 2020 (Eurostat, 2020). This figure hides the high number of young workers who are currently in receipt of income or job retention supports and the figure is expected to rise significantly in the coming months as these additional supports are phased out and the full impact of the economic contraction that has taken place is felt (ECB, 2020).New plans for Europe like “The European Green Deal” proposed to make the EU's economy sustainable by turning climate and environmental challenges into opportunities, and making the transition just and inclusive for all. Innovative businesses forged by a new cohort of innovative, sustainable entrepreneurs were identified as key drivers of the proposed economic and environmental progress. Now more than ever, supporting VET tutors to nurture these new entrepreneurs is critical.Entrepreneurship remains one of the main drivers of job creation and growth and the future success. The Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan published in 2013 was the Commission's answer to challenges brought by the economic crash in 2008 which until Covid-19 was the gravest economic crisis in the last 50 years. It presented a blueprint for action to unleash Europe's entrepreneurial potential, remove existing obstacles and revolutionize the culture of entrepreneurship in the EU. Seven years on, the challenge of nurturing the entrepreneurial mindsets of learners in today’s ‘socially distant’ reality places a significant burden on the digital competences of tutors. As the impact of Covid-19 on education provision continues to undermine any return to the previous dominant provision model, targeted interventions are now urgently required to ensure that the career opportunities of people today are not severely impacted and that a new cohort of innovative entrepreneurs can be supported to fulfil their potentials through high-quality online learning solutions.AGILITe addresses three key challenges simultaneously; (1) building the digital competences of VET tutors; (2) building the entrepreneurial spirit of VET tutors; (3) building an understanding of the European Green Deal and the new business opportunities it offers. AGILITe will develop a continuous professional development training programme that simultaneously addresses DigCompEdu, EntreComp and The European Green Deal, to assist VET tutors in developing innovative and engaging learning frameworks to harness the potential of nascent entrepreneurs by building their key competences. The bespoke digital training tools will be designed for access through the most popular media channels and will use a gamified approach to build tutor competences incrementally.The key outputs proposed will include:IO1: AGILITe DigCompEdu based in-service training programme presented for online use to build key digital competences of VET tutors. IO1 will comprise 6 EduZines and offer 24 hours of face-to-face instruction supplemented by and 15 hours of self-directed learning.IO2: AGILITe EntreComp based in-service training programme addressing the 5 competence areas in the 'Ideas & Opportunities' section of EntreComp to support the development of an entrepreneurial mindset within the VET community. IO2 will comprise 5 EduZines and offer 20 hours of face-to-face instruction supplemented by and 15 hours of self-directed IO3: AGILITe European Green Deal in-service training programme for VET tutors that build an understanding of the principles of circularity. IO3 will comprise 8 EduZines and offer 32 hours of face-to-face instruction supplemented by and 18 hours of self-directed IO4: AGILITe MOOC and Community of Practice: This MOOC will house all learning materials and facilitate exchange of best practice and collaboration between partners and target groups throughout appropriate phases of the project.The target group of AGILITe is VET tutors

BlendedVET, aims at creating an online, flexible training for VET trainers who are willing to combine face to face and online instruction modalities. Blended learning has become a widespread teaching modality, especially in K-12 and higher education. Briefly, blended learning is the fusion of online and face‐to‐face contact between teachers and students. Blended learning environments include not only the physical presence of teachers and students but also the students’ ownership and control of time, place, setting, path, and pace at which their learning takes place (Banditvilai, 2016). The project will be an answer towards helping VET teachers to transform existing trainings into blended learning or create blended learning trainings. More specifically, we aim to provide VET trainers with examples of existing blended learnings to inspire them, to give them methodology and guidance for developing their own blended learning based on their trainings they deliver. For this purpose, we will create a learning package in blended learning (so trainers can directly experience the methodology while creating their own content) and a training model which will allow to implement the teacher training in all VET centres and on any topics. Our outcomes will not be topic related but blended learning methodology related.That is what we want to achieve during our BlendedVET project.The project objective is in line with ‘Europe 2020’ Strategy promoting synergies of experience and know-how among 5 EU countries and different types of institutions involved in education and training. Our proposal will support in particular better training and information for trainers with the aim to facilitate the use of innovative digital approaches in VET training. Our outcomes will have impact at local, regional, national, European or international level with competences in digital training field and innovative curriculum creation.The project action will be carried out at European level in 5 countries in different national contexts, characterised by different educational policies and needs.The project is led by AFORMAC, with 4 partner organisations: AFORMAC, Euroform, Fønix, Eu-Trade. We are all Vet training centres or representing those. Researches for examples will be conducted in all EU countries and results published in English and each partner countries language.We will proceed by 4 steps:A1: Collection and research of blended learning best practices and methods:The research and definition of learning methods and methodologies combined with the best practices research will lead to a guide about blended learning to provide teachers who are willing to use blended learning in their practice some theoretical and practical guidance.A2: Learning package for blended learning curricular creation:This output will lead to the creation of a learning package for blended learning curricular creation. To create this model the partnership will establish the learning objectives, curricular activities (in a blended learning form), gather and/or create teaching materials to conduct the activities and determine assessment methods.A3: Blended learning training program model:The partnership will elaborate and test a Blended learning Training program model. Obviously, convinced by the idea that we learn better by experience, we will design the training model in the form of a blended learning training. 90% of the course will be online and 10% face to face. The developed model course will have a duration of 3 months in total and represent 100 hours. A4: Learning Platform:It will lead to the creation of an online platform which will include the examples from output 1 and the blended learning package from output 2, the blended learning training program model and the experiences form the pilot training output 3The results will be:Based on the needs around blended learning, the project will produce an online learning package and a corresponding training model to assist VET training centres in applying blended learning practices. The learning package will be a user-friendly, practical instrument to support professional development of trainer’s leadership teams. It will consist of the following components:•Theoretical and practical guidance for blended learning creation •Blended Learning package •Model for implementation of the content and pilot training •2 Tutors in each partner country•Learning platform with moocs and infographics for training The output files will be accessible to all and free.

<< Background >>Entrepreneurship in the young people, based in the promotion of their self-initiative and capacities, especially linked to the start-up of an economic initiative, is not an easy issue in any way. If the target groups are young people in potential exclusion risk or, at least, without a sound basic education and training, become near the impossibility. And this situation is not very much better working with any other groups of young people.Starting-up is not currently an option for the majority of the young people… even because the knowledge and skills to facilitate it are not addressed in the traditional and regular curricula.In this context is clear the need to have an integral path, from an early stage of the young people (15-16 years old), creating and promoting motivation, initiative and self-confidence, facilitating community initiatives and other social actions, to an stage where the young are fully developed and trained (28-29 years old) and capable of launching a business.Target groupsThe main target group is young people, without leaving out any for reasons of integration or socio-economic profile.Several sub-groups can be differentiated:-young people from 16 to 18 years old, with social inititive will but without entrepreneurial capacity.-young people from 18 to 24 years old, with entrepreneurial potential, without the capacity or technical knowledge to implement a business.-young people from 18 to 24 years old, without entrepreneurial initiative and/or attitudes.-young people from 24 to 29 years old, with technical knowledge and entrepreneurial initiative, without entrepreneurial skills or knowledge.In addition to these core target groups there is the sub-group of the young people at risk of exclusion, in any of the above categories, able to be incorporated as workers in the start-ups set-up by the core groups of entrepreneurs.The needs from the target groups have been identified in each territory participating in the proposal, and all of them share the same difficulties to start-up.To change and revert this situation requires a combined effort, deploying common models and systems across Europe to access the young people, to involve them in activities to improve their capabilities and skills, and accompany them throughout the entire process from the idea to the implementation of the initiative.YoPeVa will provide a full support to these target groups, advising and accompanying the start-up of economic activities, facilitating and providing infrastructures and services. In the middle, along this path, all the combinations of the targets, the activities and support towards them are possible.YoPeVa entrepreneur will help the partners and the professionals working in those organizations to adequate their work towards the potential entrepreneurs.YoPeVa Entrepreneur is complementary, first of all, with YoPeVa project –of which most of the project partners participate–, because this is addressed to some of the same target groups, but incorporates the entrepreneur dimension. In consequence, YoPeVa Entrepreneur completes the ‘offer’ towards the young people and provide a complete ‘employability’ service from the organizations partners and stakeholders. Furthermore, YoPeVa Entrepreneur follows a similar methodology than YoPeVa, focusing on providing young people with professional and soft-skills training, and ensuring, through a comprehensive support and orientation system, that young people increase their motivation and self-esteem and improve their life perspectives. Both projects have at its core the aim of helping young people emerge all their energy, enthusiasm and potential and apply it at the sphere or employment. All of which with a particular sensitivity towards social inequalities and needs.<< Objectives >>ChallengeThe challenge of the project is to increase the young people entrepreneurship and starting-up, making the initiative to create economic activities a normal alternative for the integration of young people into the world of work, while this self-employment improves the employability of young people who can be incorporated as workers of these initiatives.Strategic ObjectiveThe strategic objective of the project is to set-up a system to identify, promote and accompany young people in their entrepreneurship process, improving their initiatives, potentialities, knowledge and skills, and assuring the major success in the process and the results.The system will be applied through a common YoPeVa Entrepreneur guide and resources to promote active entrepreneurship among young people, prioritizing social innovation as a means of employment in the future, transferring key competencies to them and facilitating support and accompaniment during the process of creating and starting their initiative.Specific ObjectivesThe specific objectives of the project, linked to the results to be produced, are:a.to develop a set of methodologies, based in and adapted to the needs of the target groups, to work with young people promoting and developing their entrepreneurship potential, capabilities and skills.b.to produce a set of training systems and materials to be integrated as different Courses addressed to the different target groups.c.to define and put in place a entrepreneurship support systems to be used by professionals and to benefit young people, working at two levels: at local/regional level, working with the young people, and managed by the partners; and at European level, supporting the local/regional systems.All these objectives/results will be accessible and replicable across Europe by all the actors and agents interested in.Operational ObjectivesThe operational objectives of the project, linked to the activities to be carried out, would be:a.the analysis of existing entrepreneurial training systems (offer side), and the needs of the young people (demand side).b.the analysis of consulting systems for entrepreneurship and support for business activity, and their match with the offer from partners and stakeholders.c.the definition of the methodologies to be applied in the work carried out by the partners and stakeholders towards the target groups.d.the elaboration of the curricula and training materials to reach the objectives to improve towards the young people their initiatives, potentialities, knowledge and skills.e.the definition of the systems supporting the rational use of the methodologies and the materials within the support system for the young entrepreneurs, including the definition of infrastructures, physical and logical, to integrate the methodologies, courses and systems.f.a series of pilots to test, to check and validate locally and globally, the results obtained in the project.<< Implementation >>The work plan of the project is structured in 6 big blocks of activities, three of them horizontals, and the last three being the core of the project producing the results.A0.PreparationThis activity will ensure the premises under which the project is built are as detailed as possible and contemplate the risks, context and needs to ensure useful and impactful results; It will also anticipate and get ready the needs structures for the project to be adequately developed.A0.1 – In-depth analysisA0.2 – Set-up of the Advisory BoardA1.Management and CoordinationThis Activity will ensure the effective and timely completion of all project activities so that all partners fulfil the responsibilities assigned to them and the overall project objectives are met.A1.1 Strategical managementA1.2 Operational managementA1.3 Financial managementA1.4 ReportingMilestones (M) for the implementation work areM1– Kick-off meeting (m1)M2 – Dissemination and Quality Plans (m2)M3 – 1st Awareness material (m8)M4 – Intermediate Evaluation Report (m14)M5 – Piloting R3 (m20)M6 – Sustainability plan (m23)A2.Evaluation and QualityThe Evaluation and Quality Activity is designed to ensure the maximum effectiveness of all project activities and guarantee the capacity of the project to achieve its objectives in an optimal manner. YoPeVa Entrepreneur partners are committed to develop quality work in process and to deliver quality outcomes. While our Quality and Evaluation plan (D2) is focused on ensuring the relevance, ease of use and attractiveness of the resources, our Evaluation activities monitor and assess project progress is focused towards tangible outputs and quantifiable goals.This integrated assessment will result in a compilation of findings and lessons to be learned and applied. The interactive and participatory nature of our evaluation and knowledge generation process will bring high added value to the project.The Quality aspect is designed to ensure the maximum effectiveness of all project activities and guarantee the ability of the project to achieve its objectives in an optimal manner. There will be a set of measurable indicators that will provide information about the level of quality of the project execution.A3.Dissemination, Communication and SustainabilityThe main objective is to provide the highest level of dissemination and communication to assure the incorporation and active participation of partners and stakeholders, and the strong involvement of the general public and SMEs, as well as to guarantee the future sustainability of the networks, the results and the activities beyond the EU funded project calendar and the initial consortium.Sustainability activity is addressed to assure the deployment and monitoring of the IO, as well as their transfer and replication beyond the consortium. All these outputs will generate training tools and materials, transferable in any European country and will continue to be used by the project partners and partner organizations.A4.R1 – Guide ‘Working with young Entrepreneur’Activities and Tasks corresponding to this result are fully described in the corresponding section.A5.R2 – Courses YoPeVa EntrepreneurActivities and Tasks corresponding to this result are fully described in the corresponding section.A6.R3 – YoPeVa Entrepreneur SystemActivities and Tasks corresponding to this result are fully described in the corresponding section.Deliverables of the project, beside the three main results, will be:D0. User needs Analysis (m0 – permanently updated)D1. Management manual (m1 – permanently updated)D2. Quality and Evaluation Plan (m1 – permanently updated)D3. Dissemination Plan (m1 – permanently updated)D4. Intermediate Evaluation and Quality Report (m6, 12 and 18)D5. Intermediate Progress Report (m12)D6. Sustainability Plan (m23)D7. Final Evaluation and Quality Report (m24)<< Results >>The core outcome will be the YoPeVa Entrepreneur model and system, creating an integral pathway model to work with the young people able to start-up new initiatives, promoting their initiative, self-confidence, knowledge and skills to implement business and undertake entrepreneurship initiatives.The main results, products to be disseminated, transferred and replicated are:1.Methodologies of work with young people for entrepreneurshipA methodological guide for the work with the young entrepreneur people from the Organizations working with them.a.Initial interviews, classification and initial supportb.Trainingc.Supportd.Evaluation2.Training systems and materialsTraining courses and materials to be used with the young people applying the methodological guide.a.Initiative, self-Confidence and other soft skillsb.Creativity: ideas generation and definitionc.Personal brand, communication and marketing d.Entrepreneurship and Businesse.Elaborating a business plan f.Entrepreneurial excellence 3.Entrepreneurship support systemsHow to support and advice the young people along the entire process to undertake their new initiatives.a.Information resources: start-up environmentb.Advice and counselling resourcesc.Youth organizations involvementd.InfrastructuresIn addition, and with an instrumental character, there will be another three results:4.User needs analysisResult of the A0, it will be an in-depth analysis of the user needs, from both sides: the young people as core target groups of the project and the partner organizations as providers to the first ones.5.Awareness materialMaterials produced along the project with the objective to engage the major number of stakeholders as possible, incorporate them as associated in the Advisory Board, and put the basis for the sustainability.6.Sustainability planPlan to assure the replication and sustainability of YoPeVa Entrepreneur in the future.