<< Background >>According to the national strategies in all countries of partnership special attention is given to the field of adult education. One of the main goals in this area to establish a system of quality assurance in adult education. Available analyzes of the adult learning situation not only in the project partnership countries show that this segment can not be seen as a coherent system. It is more likely free market environemt based on supply and demand, which is partly regulated (eg retraining). However the sector of informal adult education can be defined as a public interest and there is a consensus that it is one of the important tools for the realization of social development goals, including the readiness of our society for a competitive economy. Neverhteless in reality the adult learning providers are still are facing other reality. The absence of rating tools for quality measurements has an impact on the tender contracting authorities are defining various sub-criteria that do not guarantee the quality of implementation of the educational process. This project reflects also an opportunity to use the new indicators in the drafting of a new Lifelong learning Act, but also when setting educational quality criteria for the institutions of formal and non-formal education.An important precondition for the quality and effectiveness of adult learning are effective strategies for informing adults about learning opportunities for their development. It is important to create mechanisms for monitoring the effectiveness and quality of education. Potential applicants for education should have information not only about their own educational offer, but also about the quality of providers of this education. The development and use of the new model of rating and/or Quality Assurance seems to be the first step in improving the relevance and efficacy of VET provision with regard to labour market relevant qualification and companies needs.<< Objectives >>The proposed new quality rating system will comprehensively validate criteria of an educational institution and consequently allow:a)develop the quality elements of the educational institutionb)promote the educational institution itself on the basis of a quality labelc)to give an clear information to customers about price and quality ratio.<< Implementation >>All project activities will be prepared, managed and implemented on predetermined success criteria in order to achieve the main project goal. During the realization following activities will take place:Activity 1 - COMMON QUALITY RATING MODEL SETUPThis activity will aim to create a common quality rating model for adult learning institutions.It will include expert calls with local stackholders in each country with perception of adult education quality and possibility of nationwide application of quality rules. Discussions on setting individual rating levels and their criteria and evaluation procedures will be held. At the same time, the outputs that have already arisen in the Czech Republic will be used. The result, summarised in IO 1 will cover Specification of theQuality rating model for ALI, describing the overall philosophy of rating, individual quality levels, criteria for assigning educational institutions to these levels, and procedures for this rating, including country-specific adaptation. It is assumed that the main areas of evaluation will be learning background, the process of education and the measurement of its effectiveness, material and technical background, customer approach (should there be this division into circuits?). After piloting, the model will be modiActivity 2 - METHODOLOGIES and RELATED DOCUMENTSIn this activity methodologies will be developed (see also IO2 section):a)methodology of self-evaluation of educational institutions with a related self-evaluation questionnaire based on it,b)ALI evaluation methodology for external assesorsc)the methodology of preparation of educational institutions for rating.The development of the methodologies lead to the project objectives to ensure standardised and tranparent approachActivity 3 - PILOT PREPARATIONThe aim of this activity is to prepare and involve the main project actors - adult learning intitutions (ALI) and assesors.First, piloting assessors will be selected in each country, according to the requirements set out in the evaluation methodology by external evaluators. They will be provided with training on assessment rules and procedures, in full-time form, as the e-learning form is still to be developed. At the same time, a sample of 15 pilot adult learning institutions will be selected in each country. This selection will be made to include different types of adult education institutions, in particular taking into account the different size and breadth of their focus. these will be provided with training, also in full-time form, as the e-learning form is still to be created. Other pilots and other educational institutions will be approached and, if interested, included in the evaluation mechanism after piloting, modifying methodologies and creating e-learning. they will receive consultative support. Activity 4 - PILOT ROLLOUTThis activity consists of the new rating model implementation and evaluation of results achieved. Following Activity 3, selected educational institutions will carry out self-evaluation by means of an self-evaluation questionnaire to be categorised in the appropriate quality level. They will then be visited by the external assessor, trained within the previous project activity by Assesor from the project team. Each partner will provide a training to 3-5 external assessors. Who will review the self- evaluation provided by the ALI according to the methodology and make correction and updates. Workshops with the assessors will be held to obtain their findings. Also feedback from the evaluated educational institutions will be obtained.Activity 5 - On-line toolsThe on-line tools will be created and published in this activity. The aim is to provide an IO in a form of e-learning modules for assessors and for educational institutions as well as the on-line platform for adult education institutions (with the user ogin), intended also to other target groups - customers, public authorities etc.<< Results >>The main results of the project are:1.Common open standardised on-line quality rating system for Adult Learning Institutions (ALI)2.On-line Adult learning institutions quality rating platform with e-courses related to the Assessors methodology and ALI-self evaluation3.Methodologies to be applied4.Recommendations for national quality assessment policies for adult education institutionsAcitivity 1 - As an outcome of the this project activity an inelectual output IO1 consisting of 2 parts will be produced:a)On-line quality rating modelb)Recommendations for the national authorities on steps and actions towards an successfull implementation of common quality rating system in adult learning environementActivity 2 - Activity 2 - METHODOLOGIES and RELATED DOCUMENTSIn this activity methodologies will be developed (detailed specifications see also IO2 section)Activity 3 - PILOT PREPARATIONAs an outcome of the this project activity an inelectual output IO3 will be provided : Training mateials full-time and e-courses setup and implementation, furthermore 2 partial outputs will be delivered: List of Adult learning institutions adressed and finally involved - 10 per partner country, List of Assessors involvedActivity 4 - PILOT ROLLOUTBased on this as the IO 4 an Report of the a quality rating system pilot will be provided. Furthermore update on methodologies and training materials will be developed. Activity 5 - On-line toolsThe aim is to provide an IO in a form of e-learning modules for assessors and for educational institutions as well as the on-line platform for adult education institutions (with the user ogin), intended also to other target groups - customers, public authorities etc.

SEntrA project aims to promote social entrepreneurship among young people by offering a set of non-formal learning tools supporting youth workers and organizations to actively enhance youth social entrepreneurship. Specific objectives:• Develop research-based knowledge on the social entrepreneurship landscape mainly but not exclusively in the five European countries involved (CY, GR, RO, NO, IE), with a particular focus on youth entrepreneurship and with regard to current policies,key trends,legislation & development issues (based upon the UN Sustainable Development Goals).• Develop a manual in alignment with the EntrComp Framework of the EC that will describe the framework of the relevant skills & competencies, as well as the methodologies,way of thinking and environment required to support youth acceleration in social entrepreneurship• Design a training toolkit as an educational tool that can be used by youth workers & youth organizations to prepare young people to develop social enterprises (aiming at reaching concrete Sustainable Development Goals)• Develop an online learning platform providing free access to young people, youth workers/organizations and decision-makers/stakeholders to learning resources & project outputs • Offer valuable transnational training to youth workers in an existing accelerator that may be transferred in other EU countries.• Create a dedicated Vlog that will feature video stories and will promote success stories from the participating countries about social economy, social entrepreneurship and social enterprises to inspire the target audience• Propose valuable public policy for boosting social entrepreneurship among young people. The specific policy brief will be disseminated and promoted among decision-makers The project will increase awareness among young people, youth workers and youth organisations on the potential of social entrepreneurship, and will cultivate and nurture the social entrepreneurship concept among all target groups.The participants that will be directly involved in the project are 145 Youth workers, 100 young people from partner countries and 100 relevant stakeholders such as youth organizations, social entrepreneurship promoters, NGOs, public authorities,social enterprise incubators, universities etc.The project that lasts 2 years (24 months) involves the following partners from five different European countries:P1. ARIS – A Really Inspiring Space-CYP2.Fundatia Danis-ROP3.Norsensus Media Forum-NOP4.Asset Technology-GRP5. Letterkenny Institute of TechnologyOutputsIO1-Researching the landscape on youth social entrepreneurshipIO2-Framework for youth acceleration in social entrepreneurshipIO3-Training Toolkit to support young people to design social enterprisesIO4-Vlog/Social collaborative and learning platformIO5-Policy Brief/Youth Accelerator GuideAll partners participate in every output.Multiplier eventsThe first round of events target youth organisations/youth workers/trainers and stakeholders involved in social economy acceleration (enterprise incubators etc.). They will be organised within the first six months of the project in order to engage in the concept,present theresearch results (I01),achieve their active involvement, and take decisions for the next steps of the project development.The second group of events will occur towards the end of the project to disseminate the outcomes and promote the results at national level. The events target youth organisations and youth workers/trainers and stakeholders, will act as multipliers and achieve the wide use of the project outputs and results.Transnational trainingThe project includes one training activity, which will take place at the established Accelerator ARIS in Cyprus in (month 19) and will involve 25 youth workers from all five countries. The activity aims to educate and train youth workers/organisations in regards to establishing and running a youth social entrepreneurship accelerator programme. Training the youth workers is especially important, as they are the ones who will share their knowledge and expertise with young people and social enterprise stakeholders in their own country thus multiplying the impact of the project.The project is expected to have a significant and multi-faceted, positive influence on the partner organizations through the exchange of knowledge & experiences, the strengthening of their capacity and enhancement of their offering; on youth workers/organizations by improving their skills and competencies through non-formal learning; on young people & aspiring social entrepreneurs by offering a set of sustainable,useful tools and developing an enabling environment for the creation of new social enterprises; and finally social enterprise stakeholders by obtaining research-based knowledge on the social entrepreneurship landscape in Europe, providing a practical youth accelerator guide and a policy brief addressed to decision-makers.

In the context of rapid globalization and the re-balancing of the world economy, EU recognizes that innovation is essential to ensure the continuing ability of Europe’s businesses to compete in the marketplace. European Commission expects to create an Innovation Union by increasing investment in knowledge, promoting better funding for innovation and effective use of resources. Although in theory the importance of innovation for competitiveness and business growth is very clear and stated in several documents, in practice the processes of innovation development and management are successfully implemented in some large enterprises and only very few SME's are involved in the process. Those SMEs that are un-tapping their innovation capacity and focus on issues beyond creating and using technology, create breakthroughs in areas ranging from basic business planning and marketing to new product introduction, organisational development, financing and 'soft technologies'. The main objective of In2In project is to facilitate more effective provision of collective business and innovation support services for SMEs, so as to ensure the increase of innovation within the SME’s. It will attempt to become a tool that will support the growth of innovation within SME’s and it will be focused to SMEs staffs that need to know the basics of a successful innovation practice.In order to achieve the above it has been created a well-balanced consortium of 6 actors with complementary mix of skills and knowledge: work and training/education involved in skills, Innovation, e-learning, quality and dissemination and of course strong project management experiences: - Grafia has been helping enterprises in developing competences, skills and creative and innovation potential in their human resources for 21 years. - Learning Light has worked with a number of businesses to improve their performance by introducing new innovative technologies including e-learning and other technologies designed to support learning and development. - Asset Technology is a know-how transfer enterprise with extensive experience in implementing transnational projects, while offering a vast variety of services focused on and off the job training - Consorzio abn focuses on existing social business models and designs and implements researches and interventions that allow SMEs to innovate their social business. - EOLAS has easy and direct access to the target public on regional and national level for the needs analysis and piloting phases of the project and extensive expertise at quality and exploitation. - Synthesis offers training aiming to inspire and empower participants. It gives special attention to learning for personal growth and view life-long learning as a natural element of a person's life and has proved experience in dissemination activities. The main results of the project are three guides focused on SME staff along with a social and collaborative learning platform and accompanied e-courses. The three areas are a) Innovation - Creativity Generator at the work place, creativity enhancing SMEs and more in detail micro-enterprises and finally Knowledge Management for Innovation which will help SME owners/ decision makers and staff to identify key knowledge in their company. To ensure a common understanding is achieved by the consortium and in order to meet the aims and objectives, the Project Management Methodology has been built around the principles relating to the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework (EQARF) for VET constituted of fours axis: 1. Planning: Provide the most up-to-date information to the way innovation can be boosted within SMEs through creativity and knowledge management 2. Implementation through the creation of guides for 3 Innovation Modules and an online platform to support the diffusion of the Innovation models through further e-learning opportunities 3. Assessment & Evaluation via piloting testing on SMEs employees 4. Feedback based on project findings, for future work in the field which will help to improve SMEs staff way of thinking and operating at the working environment.The outputs of the project will increase the competences of EU SMEs staff and introduce them to innovation thinking and innovation boosting. It is expected skills building on SME staff, acquired capacity to analysis, problem solving, decision making, technical skills and increased offering of services in the area of building innovation potential in micro SMEs. Additionally, cultivating within local societies innovative way of thinking and exploitation of a model to inspire experienced SME owners to support young initiative (inter generational approach) and the development of new policies focused on promotion of SME innovation.

EU has defined, “Enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training” and “Improving the quality and efficiency of education and training” as strategic objectives at Council conclusions of 12 May 2009 on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (‘ET 2020’) forum report. The idea behind this proposal is gathering organisations operating in diverse fields of vocational education and encouraging them to collaborate. Furthermore, the partnership aims to support innovative pedagogies and methods for teaching that support educators and students to use digital technologies in a creative way.The main target group of this partnership are, VET teachers, VET students, academicians, IT experts, VET schools, technical universities, education managers, private small and medium sized IT companies, headteachers of the VET schools, parents and other potential stakeholders of VET education. To increase the international dimension of education and training, this partnership should be carried out transnationally. Moreover, the know-how transnational cooperation of the university, vocational educational school, educational directorate and institutions from private sector to enrich the quality of the project.This partnership supports the design and delivery of some tangible and intangible results. “Smartphone application toolkit”: This tool kit is going to include the module programme that explains how to teach developing smartphone application, the manual how to develop a smartphone application and the application with the necessary software.Each partner is going to give assistance according to their expertise. Pedagogical aspect, technical support and legislation should be carefully studied throughout the project lifetime. The website and the logo of the project, which is going to allow us to reach wider communities are another results of the project. The mobilities, LTT activities and partnership contribute to the improvement of the human resources and the organisational capacities of the partners. We also expect that this partnership is intended to be more strategic and integrate the use of ICTs and open educational resources in education. Augmented Reality applications of the circuits for smartphones are also the outputs of the project idea directly linked with the VET learners. The VET learners can practice PLC, Touch Panel and Scada circuits with their augmented reality smartphone applications. Considering the participants and beneficiaries; increased competence in foreign languages; level of digital competence; greater understanding and responsiveness to social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity; opportunities for professional development are also the expected results of the project.The organisational capacity of the partners are also expected to be improved. The cooperation of the different organisations in the field of VET has an added value for those institutions. The European Union programmes allow the organisations to decide and take action independently. There are going to be different disseminational activities during the project and on its complition. All possible media instruments are going to be used to share and disseminate the project and its results. The social media accounts, such as twitter, facebook, instagram and youtube are going to be opened and going to be kept up-to-date regularly. The domain name for the project website is going to be purchased for ten years and also the website is going to be ensured actual. The posters, booklets, fliers are going to be similar in design. Local promotional and disseminational meetings are going to be held by the participating organisations. The media is going to be regularly informed about the project. Ordu Directorate of education is going to be mainly responsible for the general management of the project. Altınordu MTAL is going to be the leading partner of the disseminational activities. Especially the VET students at this school are going to actively take part in the activities. Designing the materials, managing the social media accounts, keeping the website up-to-date can only be done under a structured cooperation and collaboration. The other partners support the project considering IT expertise and pedagogical approaches. The know-how lies behind the collaboration between partners. There are going to be 3 TPMs and 4 LTT acitivities throughout the project lifetime. The TPMs are going to be held in Turkey-Greece-Turkey. The legal representatives and contact people are going to come together, talk, plan, evaluate and work on the general management of the project. The LTT activities which are going to be held in different venues are designed to contribute the quality of the project outputs, improving the qualifications of the staff, allowing the know how. The mobilities are also going to improve the organisational capacities of the partners.

CoOp project aimed to enhance the collaboration between Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and youth organizations, thus to promote and encourage private investment in youth development, and education. The main objective of the project was to support youth workers, thus youth organizations, to diversify their funding sources and attract investments from the business sector, by professionalizing them in the field of CSR / fundraising from SMEs.The specific objectives of the project were:-Develop reliable knowledge on the SMEs’ and youth organizations’ collaboration, and on how much business investment can be attracted for youth development, and education.-Develop innovative and attractive funding models and tools on CSR and fundraising, which can be used both by youth organizations and SMEs.-Identify and promote best practices and success stories on the SMEs’ and youth organizations’ partnerships, intended to start an European trend for such partnerships.-Propose valuable public policies for boosting the partnerships between SMEs and youth organizations, intended to start an European trend for such collaborations.The project aimed to respond to the pressing need of European NGOs for diversifying the funding sources, and attracting more investments from the business sector, in order to obtain financial sustainability. The project addressed the causes of this need, as identified by the partner organizations: the lack of research-based knowledge on SMEs’ specific motivations for CSR activities, and SMEs’ real capacity for giving; lack of innovative tools for raising funds from the business sector, and the tools to guide SMEs in the CSR field; the lack of the right tools to screen youth workers for assigning fundraising responsibilities, and to train them for taking on these responsibilities; the lack of public policies that could boost the SMEs’ involvement in CSR activities.The main target group in the CoOp project were the youth workers. We reached 173 youth workers, and addressed all their needs described above, through innovative products, such as ready tools for fundraising activities, comprehensive research on SMEs' involvement in youth field, training for youth workers on CSR and fundraising, policy briefs for boosting SMEs' and NGOs' collaboration, best practices guide, and video success stories. 51 SMEs were reached by the project's activities, and outcomes, as the key approach in all the resources created was the focus on the collaboration between youth organizations and SMEs. Thus, all the outputs were developed having in mind that these should serve both sectors, boosting the alliances between them.The CoOp project contributed to bring valuable results for partner organizations, youth workers, SMEs and other relevant stakeholders from the youth field. First, CoOp helped partner organizations, and youth workers to professionalize their fundraising activities, diversify funding sources, and ensure financial sustainability. SMEs benefited from valuable information about youth organizations, spotting concrete opportunities for CSR activities, and gaining an international perspective on their sector in regards to CSR activities, and on business investment in youth.Second, CoOp provided both to youth organizations and SMEs innovative and attractive funding models and tools on CSR and fundraising. The partner organizations have started to use these tools to professionalize their organizations, their fundraising teams, diversify funds, ensure financial sustainability, and to start providing consultancy to SMEs on CSR. Third, CoOp promoted best practices and success stories on the SMEs’ and youth organizations’ partnerships, motivating both youth organizations, and SMEs to get involved in common CSR activities, while receiving an international perspective, and the right recipes for success. Finally, CoOp proposed valuable public policies for boosting the partnerships between SMEs and youth organizations, intended to start an European trend for such collaborations.These were the first policy initiatives on CSR for SMEs in the field of youth, in the partner countries.In conclusion, the project has contributed to financial resources for youth field and also developed professional organizations, which are now open to synergies with business sector. The project supported youth workers to improve their professional competences and increase their sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. The project reinforced the interaction between practice, research and policy in the field of youth and CSR; and created closer links between the youth field and the business community.