The project idea was born within a context characterized by the mass arrival of refugees in Greece, from Turkey and other countries, mainly during the period 2015 to 2017.Thus, there was a great need to intervene for the benefit of the group of young refugees, aged 16-24, based on their characteristics and problems, as well as their wishes, such as relocating to a EU country. Relevant intervention should facilitate their integration into society and labor market, handling their difficulty to communicate in the Greek language, their difficulty to find a job, due to lack of relevant skills, as well as their difficulty to be integrated into a formal educational context, due to lack of relevant documents.In view of the above, at a time when other National Authorities’ relevant action was not yet developed, with the exception of the Ministry of Education, the Manpower Employment Organization/OAED, the Greek PES, in conjuction with Strategic Partners, designed and implemented this two-year project, under Erasmus+ for Youth (2017-2019). In this strategic partnership, OAED had the leading role. Partners were the GSEE Center of Educational Policy Development/KANEP/GSEE, the Turkish Ministry of National Education/ MoNE, and the German Training Organization “DEKRA”.I.Ref.SoS scope was to develop an effective transnational system of reception, social support and rapid integration of young refugee populations, inspired from the empirical finding about limited use of the long time period required from arrival in the countries of entry to the time of final settlement in the host countries. It was, therefore, considered that, this period should be positively used to support the steps for social and occupational integration in host societies.The project objective was to develop and test innovative VET pathways, methods and tools to enhance skills of young refugees and professionals in the field, in order to achieve development and implementation of a rapid integration mechanism and relevant good practice, at national and transnational level. Within the framework of the I.Ref.SoS project, studies were initially carried out on young refugees, aiming at gathering the necessary information, on their profile and needs, as well as on the labor market needs of potential host countries. Based on a specific methodology, process and appropriate criteria, forty persons, young adult asylum seekers with legal residence in Greece, were selected to participate in the pilot implementation. An intensive/accelerated language and intercultural training package was designed, for Greek language learning and teaching, enriched with intercultural elements, including tools addressed both to Trainers and Trainees, published in print and digital form, for use on tablets. The program of linguistic and intercultural training was implemented, at pilot level, testing the training methodology and tools. Both the participating young refugees and their trainers used the tablets and the printed material during the lessons. The participants’ needs were analyzed during Guidance/Counseling parallel implementation, based on personalized approach, via interviews with each trainee. The participants’ skills acquired during these interventions were reflected in an individual E-portfolio, whose design and production were also supported by the project. A Vocational Guidance Package was subsequently designed and implemented, oriented to technical and tourist occupations and entrepreneurship, including visits of young refugees at VET schools and laboratories. The action included development of material for vocational guidance counselors. A methodology was furthermore developed to promote the integration of young refugees into the labor market of potential host countries.All the above mentioned project outputs and products cover a wide range of methods and tools for young refugees’ social support, to be further used and/ or transferred to better prepare target group(s) for integration in the host society and labor market. Project results and relevant impact, however, are wider, including important networking and debate, at local, regional, national and transnational level, through multiplier events, with all the involved stakeholders, public authorities, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, social partners’ organizations, practitioners in the field, policy makers. A post-project dissemination strategy is adopted by all the four partners to sustain produced impact.In Greece, interaction with relevant actors, at local/national/transnational level, led to finalization of the project’s results and to a proposal for national strategy. This was an essential result of high importance, which is already yielding results, as it has paved the way to a wider project in the field, at national level, making use of the project lessons, practices, tools and networking, but also including actions to promote refugees’ integration in the labor market.

Current changes on national labor markets are embedded in a worldwide process that encompasses global changes at social and cultural levels. Indeed, the recent progress in technology are affected the labor world causing global effects that are deeply changing our society.Accordingly, lifelong learning is fundamental not only to growth and jobs but also to social inclusion. This implies, for institutions, to adopt appropriate governance tools and, for all stakeholders, to build a coherent cultural proposal - including appropriate methodologies - facilitating mobility between the different paths and the viability of acquired skills, in life, in education systems and in work and in the labor market. International and national surveys - elaborated by single Member States - exhort to do more to adjust adult qualifications, to increase the proportion of adults engaged in study and training activities and the level of their skills. To enhance adult participation to the different educational opportunities, a further challenge has to be faced by assuming coherent strategical choices: the digital divide between the young and the older population that risks to keep a relevant part of the active population far from the social and economic participatory circuits. In the current fluid labor market, internal mobility from a job to another, as well as the access, is strictly dependent on the adaptability of the knowledges and the skills owned by the individual as also on its capacity to learn how to learn in the long-life. So, a strong action is needed not only to improve a more effective educational offer targeted to lower qualified persons, especially to those expelled from the labour market or at risk to lose their jobs, but also to bring out the educational demand, by providing to individuals flexible tools that allow them to control what they know / can do, stimulating continuous self-reflection processes that help them to self-evaluate and to record what they learn. ICT applied within a participatory/active learning methodology can usefully break the barriers of adult participation into training activities, recovering motivation and effectiveness of learning.The main objective was to elaborate methods, strategies and materials useful to improve the teaching and learning among adults (especially over 50 low-qualified).This macro objective entailed these other objectives:-to find an appropriate learning methodology for the project’s target group considering the opportunity offered by new technologies and to produce practical tools for supporting adult learning when the participatory strategy is adopted-to improve learners’ skills responding to the current labour market challenges. -to enhance adult learning effectiveness. To give them a strategy to learn to learn-to attract adult people to training system in order to reduce the level of low qualification 45 : type LIST : content 20075 partners with complementary skills and expertise: Rezekne University (LV): pedagogical and social issues, ICT, educational program validation and evaluation; participating learning INBIE (PL): developing MOOCs programs and e-learning activities; Entrepreneurship and planning of new products and services; research and innovation in education. Training institutes (IAL IT; IPF SP; KANEP GR): training of trainers, lifelong learning activities, developing e-learning tools, training activities of adults, social and unemployment interest researches, employment policies, management of training projects.Main activities:Scientific research about participative methodology and its application in an ICT environment; training course about ICT skills and skills to find a new job; multimedia guide for anyone working in education and training. It explains the online participative methodology, how to design training courses adopting this methodology especially with adult low qualified people and the training course contents. Trainers’ training session: to explain them the participatory learning methodologies, the training course and how they can carry it out. 5 training courses with the online participative methodology, low qualified over 50 participants developed in the Countries partners. Impact results by research activity: articles published and presented at International conferences. Impact results by training courses: nobody left the training courses. We trained around 100 people. The main results were the self esteem of the participants and more skills in learn to learn. The multimedia guide received a good evaluation by experts. At trainers level: improved skills to face problems in adult teaching-learning, especially for low qualified adult people unused to attend training courses.Long term benefits: decision makers showed the willingness to take into account the results of the project in order to launch call for proposals ad hoc to improve innovative methodology and a type of training useful for a weak target of people. The educati

The main objective of the ESTEEM project is to improve and enrich social sciences graduates’ transversal and entrepreneurial skills in order to increase their competitiveness in the labour market and enhance their future employability. The project consortium will approach this aim by developing and implementing a holistic, work-based and flexible training program which will combine e-learning and work-based teaching methods as well. The teaching scheme that will be introduced by this project involves active collaboration between HEI, SMEs and major national social partners in all steps of project’s implementation and monitoring. The innovative aspect of the project lies in the training model to be developed that combines e-learning and digital teaching with a “remote internship/mentorship” program. The proposed methodology will test new cooperation models between VET providers and enterprises to promote work-based learning. The innovative model of the “remote internship/mentorship” program will be pilot tested and assessed thus feeding into policy innovation experimentations for the labour market. The workplace is shifting from traditional structures into innovative ones where physical presence on the job location is not necessary and companies are adopting virtual employment methods. In this context, the project will form new partnerships and develop new teaching and assessment methods for virtual employment and work-based learning.The main objective of the training program to be introduced by the project is to develop an effective blended training course on transversal skills that meets the skill needs and requirements of young SME employees and entrepreneurs. The transversal skills the project aim to address are: • Personal development skills: Personal development skills are essential life and employment skills, especially current in the fast changing economic landscape and include soft skills as coping with uncertainty, ambiguity and risk, learning through experience, embracing change, eliminate resistance or fear, self-promotion etc. • Working with others: Collaborating, communicating effectively (including social media communication and digital social skills), team-working, cooperating are important transversal skills for the workplace environment.• Conceptualizing and transforming ideas into business options and entrepreneurial opportunities: The ability to develop ideas, creating concepts and transform them into options and opportunities than can be realised are the core competencies for creative and innovative thinking. In this context, skills like identifying a need or a problem, prioritize, initiative taking, envisioning, planning, mobilizing and managing resources and entrepreneurial thinking will be included in the training program. To this end, the project main objectives are to:a) Design a training methodology for transversal skills development which combines e-learning and remote work-based learning b) Organise, implement & evaluate a “remote internship/mentorship” programc) Support the model of work-based learning and project-based learning for customised learning experience d) Promote collaboration and exchange of good practices among VET providers, HEIs, social partners and enterprisesThe project’s consortium consists of 6 partners from 4 countries incorporating a wide range of experience and expertise related to the scope of ESTEEM. The Lead Partner is KANEP-GSEE representing the Greek General Confederation of Labour in the area of Education and Lifelong learning, promoting the agenda of trade unions which includes employment policies, policies for combating social exclusion, and reinforcement of trade union presence in society. The project is expected to have a significant impact on the target group of social science graduates as it will facilitate their transition from education to labour market and enhance their career prospects and business progression. Moreover, the project will feed into the educational organizations which can be further motivated to shift from traditional, teaching methods, including the incorporation of a larger proportion of blended learning or wholly work-based modules than is generally common. Finally, the ESTEEM project’s desired impact is expected to be realized in both national and European level. Overall the project aims to address the priorities of European 2020 strategy on transversal skills development in a lifelong learning perspective as well as the promotion of novel forms of work-based learning by providing insights, experiences and policy recommendations.