ContextProject EU-OBP: European Open Badges Platform wants to assess, develop and promote the common EU platform for digital badges, targeted at adult education organizations, adult educators and adult learners that also represent the main target groups. Open badge is a file of the shape of an icon or medal issued to prove skills or achievements of people. The file contains metadata: name of the issuer, the criteria it was issued under, evidence verifying the credential and expiry date. Open badges are available as open standard any organization can use to create, issue and verify digital badges. Main advantage of open badges is their availability and representational opportunities. They present innovative tools for recognition of achieved soft skills to employers or educators, and could be included into EU-based Europass CV system.Common EU open badges platform will allow a) adult education organizations to offer digital badges to local and EU-wide public, b) adult educators to gain new IT competence and innovative tool for recognition of soft skills and key competences and c) learners in adult education possibility to be awarded with badges on EU level and use them for future job seeking or further educational needs.Objectivesa) Project EU-OBP wants to upgrade results from 2 Erasmus+ projects (iYOT, www.iyot.eu and OBADE, www.open-badges.eu) with participation of previously included organizations and two new partners.b) Partners will research available projects, platforms or organizations to deliver the complete EU-OBP web platform with » Reader«, “Toolbox”, » Guidelines«, all available as open source. c) Partners want to promote open badges for recognition of “soft skills” and 8 key competences in EU area, and anticipate at least 500 open badges for adult education available on the platform until the end of project.Participants- 5 partner meetings, 16 professional staff from adult education - 7 national multiplier events with 185 participants (adult teachers, mentors, stakeholders, adult education organizations)- 1 international conference in Slovenia with up to 100 participants (partners, adult teachers, mentors, stakeholders, adult education organizations, local municipality, national representatives from policy makers)- 25 initiated networks between partners and the local community (partners, stakeholders)- 500 registered users on web platform (adult learners)Activities P1 will prepare the Project Management Handbook and distribute it to at the Kick-off. It will contain a timetable with short description of every deliverable and name of responsible partner. It will also contain financial and administrative rules, budget monitoring with templates and rules of communication. It will be dash-boarded on the internal website and constantly updated.Management and monitoring activity assures effective and smooth cooperation among partners, prevention and solution of possible problems incurred, monitoring of activities and impact, attainment of the planned goals of the project.Implementation of methodology and IOs will develop all the IOs of the project. Methodology partners are going to use is: online desk research, interviews and telephone discussions, Skype sessions, working groups, individual research, digital and standard peer-testing of digital materials, proof-reading for finalization.O1 Reader will be developed until meeting 2. O2 Toolkit will be developed until meeting 3. O3 (EU-OBP platform) will be developed in Version 1 for testing phase and final administration before meeting 4 and finalized for multiplier events for exploitation. O4 (Guidelines) will be presented final conference in Slovenia.Dissemination and exploitation will be carried out from the start of the project up to 3 years after the end, based on IOs results and delivered through national multipliers, workshops and final conferenceIn summary, EU-OBP project will develop:-1 Reader for theoretical background on advantages of open badges -1 Toolkit for practical presentation of good practices -1 Web Platform offering open source access to 500 validated and already used open badges for adult education for recognition of soft skills and 8 key competences in common digital cloud space-1 Guidelines listing the procedures and activities needed for open badges implementation on 3 levels: organizational, teacher/mentor and participant level-140 new open badges, uploaded onto EU-OBP platform -10 videos to show how to create open badges and share them on social mediaThe project satisfies the needs of adult education organizations and educators to dispose of a easy to use, digital, motivating tool for identifying and documenting results of not formal, informal and formal learning. The project satisfies also the needs of adult learners to reflect on their skills acquired in not formal and informal learning, to have their skills documented and to share easily with peers and educators their accomplishments.

YOUTH-WORKNET promoted the exchange of good practices in the field of networking for young unemployed people.By participating in several European and national projects, the consortium partners noted that traditional job placement services tend to be ineffective compared to more innovative, informal and flexible solutions such as those based on networking and training support. In particular, the partners previously involved in two projects based on the Job Club methodology have recorded a much higher success rate in terms of employment and personal activation (for example, leaving the NEET condition) compared to that deriving from the support measure. institutional. This is why YOUTH-WORKNET has promoted the exchange of a series of networking-based practices to be transferred and implemented in different contexts with similar needs.Actively involving about 20 young people from each partner country, YOUTH-WORKNET produced a catalog of 20 successful practices from different countries, together with a critical analysis of their characteristics and operational description of transfer and implementation conditions. After a targeted training program, 25 young people and youth workers are able to manage and evaluate the exchange program, as well as to promote the personal, social and career development of their colleagues - thus becoming experienced youthworkers.During the exchange phase, numerous practices were exchanged, but in particular the training week was interesting and had an impact on the local level that was so important that it also aroused interest in the local media. The project manager and the president of A.re.s were also invited to a television program on Italian national television (RAI).

<< Background >>Labour market integration of migrants and refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) need a common approach between the receiving countries highlighting areas of good practices, while also examining integration barriers. Research shows that skilled migration from LAC countries has dramatically increased over the last decade. This can be due to the rising number of people seeking political asylum in the European Union, driven up by Latin American refugees, particularly from Venezuela. The rise was partly caused by a surge of Venezuelans and other Latin American asylum seekers who are fleeing political and economic crises in their countries. One potential reason for this is that traditionally, many people from LAC fleeing political regimes or gang violence, have sought refuge in the United States of America, but the Trump administration made it much more difficult for people to seek asylum, therefore many opted for Europe instead. Venezuela is experiencing an economic collapse, triggered by a prolonged political crisis, which has unleashed the biggest migratory crisis in recent South American history with some 4 million Venezuelans estimated to have fled the country in recent years. This has caused a nearly 50% increase of applications in Spain last year when the new trend consolidated, as most Venezuelans heading to Europe seek refuge in the country with which they share language and heritage.In that sense, Member States of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA), which includes all the 28 EU countries, plus Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein, Venezuelans filed more than 18,400 asylum applications from January through May 2019, representing roughly twice as many as during the same period in 2018, making them the nationality with the second highest number of applications in Europe after Syrians.In turn, Spain has become one of the EU's top receivers of asylum applications, nearly as many as Italy, which was among the countries bearing the brunt of the 2015 crisis. Rome has seen arrivals halving last year after introducing stricter border controls. However, only a fraction of asylum applicants are accepted by European States, with those rejected forced to go back home or lodge a second application. But for those who stay, many face challenges to integrate into the labor market. Information on the education level of migrants is quite limited; however, the little information available shows a high participation of persons who have been to university or have completed secondary school. This demonstrates a strong selectivity in terms of the average education of the population in the countries of origin. In recent years, there has been a tendency in some migration flows to target migrants for jobs requiring fewer skills. Integration into the labour market is directed mainly towards the service sector. The high participation rate of women in migration responds to the demands of the labour market segments that are gender selective, such as domestic service or other types of personal services, such as caring for children or the elderly. There is little information available about the occupations of immigrants. But there are indications that show a gap between occupational insertion and the education level of most of the migrants. Analyses on immigrants and labour markets in the developed countries (Sassen, 1988; Martin, 1999) conclude that immigrants tend to be inserted at the extremes. On the one hand, they respond to the demand for highly-skilled workers and, on the other, they tend to find jobs in areas that are traditionally lower skilled.The development of the project builds on a comprehensive analysis and needs assessment of the challenges, obstacles and opportunities of the target group to integrate the labour market.<< Objectives >>The inclusion of migrants in the labour market is not only crucial for their effective integration but also contributes to Members States economies. The project aims to tackle the challenge of integrating migrants and refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) into the European labour market by bringing together experienced partners and academia, and promoting a network of cooperation from countries that are amongst the most affected. To achieve this, the project aims to develop and pilot research-based educational training, as well as guidance and counselling for refugees and migrants from LAC countries to develop their potential to become active and productive members of society. The implementation of the training builds on a comprehensive analysis of the needs of the project’s target group. For the needs analysis during the first phase of the project, the participating organizations will conduct a comparative situation analysis that will combine elements of qualitative questioning and online focus groups. Furthermore, the research and development builds on the outcomes of a comprehensive analysis of literature and will produce academic outcomes.<< Implementation >>-4 Transnational Project Meetings to be held during the 24 months of the duration of the project (one every six months). -4 virtual transnational meetings. -Each partner will deliver 6 webinars to the target group and 2 informative seminars to the general public. - We will organise 2 Learning, Teaching and Training Activities in two partner universities. The first one for the project staff and the second for staff working in organisations that work directly with the target group. The project will also produce an academic paper. -4 Multiplayer events in: Spain, Belgium, Italy and Austria.<< Results >>The project's expected outcomes involve a thorough and relevant comprehensive analysis and needs assessment of the challenges, obstacles and opportunities the target group faces in each participating country and a comparative study in order to successfully integrate to the recipient’s country labour market. Projects results: R1 Research study and situation analysis with the target group at the centre to project a current view of the challenges and opportunities. R2 Using the needs assessment, training material will be developed and guidance for LAC will be offered. R3 Publication and dissemination of the findings, as well as a continued learning and networking online platform.

"DIGITAL RURAL GAME project aims to promote in low-skilled adults the acquisition of digital competences and other soft skills needed to eliminate the digital gap in rural areas in Europe. The expected results are:- Identified the gaps and needs among low-skilled adults in rural areas in partner countries. - Develop an interactive online game to improve digital skills in low-skilled adults in rural areas. - Created a handbook for educators and low-skilled adults in rural areas for a correctly use of the game and improving digital skills in rural areas of Europe. In addition, with the achievement of the results described above (which are related to the intellectual products that will be developed during the execution of the project), we can contribute to achieving the following challenges:- Reduce the digital gap in rural areas in Europe through gamification and non-formal and informal education- Promote lifelong learning in rural areas as a tool for socio-economic development and the fixing of the population of rural Europe emptied.The achievement of the objectives of the project will allow low-skilled adults to access the new jobs that digitalization will bring, minimizing the risks of long-term unemployed and helping to fix population in the most disadvantaged rural areas.To this end, the project aims to develop materials that support professionals in the field of adult education in search of employment or that seek to improve their employment status. These materials will be based on the concept of ""gamification"", a learning technique that moves the mechanics of games to the educational-professional field in order to achieve better results, either to better absorb some knowledge, improve some skill, or reward specific actions, among many other objectives. This type of learning gains ground in training methodologies due to its playful nature, which facilitates the internalization of knowledge in a more fun way, generating a positive user experience.By the end of the project, the consortium will have developed support materials for adult educators so that they can train digital skills and other soft skills through an online game of low-skilled people in rural areas.In addition, it will contribute to promoting lifelong learning, raising awareness through the Project of the importance of continuing to be trained in spite of one's age."

5 adult education and training organisations have joined in the Open Badges for Adult Education project to develop the concept of open badges in their environment and to test it with adults who are far from employment and belong to groups at risk of exclusion. 100 badges were initially created to promote attitudes and behaviours sought by employers and key competences for lifelong learning. As a result of the project, more than 90 trainers from 50 different organizations assigned more than 600 badges to more than 300 adults. Guides have been produced to show the interest of badges: valorising skills acquired through informal learning, maintaining motivation throughout a learning path, building confidence and self-esteem, digital acculturation, empowerment regarding one's abilities, easier presentation during a job interview, etc. Tutorials are available for the practical aspects: How to create a badge? How to manage your badges?... The different experiences of creating and assigning badges with their integration into training systems and the feedback from the various stakeholders are described in a collection of practices. They are available to give ideas to education stakeholders who want to be informed and better understand the various possibilities before engaging. All results are available in the five languages of the partnership, German, Spanish, French, Slovenian, Swedish and English at www.open-badges.eu.