CONTEXT In July 2016, Eurostat published the official statistics about unemployment in the EU. While the average unemployment rate in the EU is as low as 8.6%, huge discrepancies among member states are registered and recent developments show a persisting high youth unemployment percentage (18.6%). In the absence of clear policy action, it will be harder for unemployed people to find new jobs. Addressing these challenges, an array of literature predicts that the so-called “circular economy” would add a remarkable number of jobs and stimulate unemployed people re-join the workforce. ‘Circular Economy’ comprises such diverse aspects as product design, production processes, consumption, waste management, reuse and recycling, all of which present significant potential opportunities for job development and employment. OBJECTIVES Project 'You inCOME' aimed at the exchange of first-hand experiences, theoretical projects and context-specific initiatives will serve the purpose of deepening the knowledge about ‘circular economy’, creating moments of reflection and exchange of good practices not only for the young people involved, but also for the trainers, relevant stakeholders and the partners and organisations active in the project, thus laying the foundation for more cooperation efforts in the field of youth. The project also addressed 2 main priorities: - HORIZONTAL: Sustainable investment, performance and efficiency in education and training. - YOUTH: Promoting entrepreneurship education and social entrepreneurship among young people. ORGANIZATIONSTRAKYA UNIVERSITY Entrepreneurship Application and Research Centre aimed at performing applications and research studies on entrepreneurship and publish articles related to entrepreneurship, to examine the culture of entrepreneurship in Turkey, to analyze the essential circumstances and the problems related to these circumstances, to develop solution recommendations, to build an archive, a library and case data for the development of entrepreneurship and to help to organize conferences, seminars and courses on entrepreneurship.LEGACOOP PUGLIA represent about 500 cooperative enterprises, operating in varous sectors of activities (agriculture, traditional and innovative services, construction, social field, cultural field) through the entire region to promote the development of cooperation and mutual aid and the relationships between members ANIMAM VIVENTEM promotes the welfare of people, intervening at a psychosocial and educational level. We intend to promote balanced and sustainable social development, developing projects and actions of local interest, and projecting them into an European dimension.FUNDACIÓN CV PACTO EMPLEO VALENCIA (FCVPE) was created in 2005 by the City Hall of Valencia in agreement with the main social and public institutions of the Region of Valencia: The main target of FCVPE is supporting people with fewer opportunities, providing them with jobs, training and labour insertion. ACTIVITIES The activities performed during the project were divided in Work Packages: WP1 - Project Management and Coordination. Including 3 Transnational project meetings (Turkey, Italy, Spain). WP2 - Mapping, research activities and exchange of good practices. Including a short-term joint staff event in Spain. WP3 - Monitoring, Evaluation, and Quality Assurance. WP4 - Dissemination and Exploitation of results. RESULTS The project, based on the exchange of good practices, produced this main result: - 2 reports for the National Agency; - Report on research;- Training course - Project website; - Newsletters; - Press releases; - Communication campaigns on social networks; IMPACTSThis project allowed directly or indirectly to:- increase cooperation (institutional relationship), using experience and consultation from other EU28+ countries;- increase reciprocity, as the partnership is built on a basis of equality, all partners will benefit from the project;- increase competences enhancement at the institutional level in terms of project management, learning methodologies, communication, evaluation, dissemination and exploitation of results;- increase ability for every partner to work with organisations they did not know before;- acquisition of a European sense of belonging and improved communitarian mind-set.Outside the participating organizations the project activities and outputs have been shared with relevant stakeholders (other NGOs, education bodies, public authorities, private companies). For them the expected impact was globally to raise awareness on the matters and foster decision-making aiming at addressing unemployed young people with entrepreneurial aspirations and turn them into 'resources' for the society in new and innovative ways.

<< Background >>Municipality of Silivri gives a considerable attention on enhancing women in this suburban area. However, according to the records of the Silivri Chamber of Agriculture in 2020, only 50 (there are many unregistered female farmers) of the 2000 registered farmers are women farmers. This huge gap between female and male farmers shows the urgent necessity of women empowerment in agriculture sector in Silivri. Agricultural Production and Research Center (TURAM), established by Silivri Municipality in 2011, which focuses on women empowerment in agriculture sector, has 255 acres of land for implications, research and trainings for farmers. TURAM conducts trainings to empower women farmers engaged in small-scale agricultural activities in the region, supports women cooperatives, provides machinery and equipment support for the production of value-added products, etc. However, although adult educators in our municipality are well enough in vocational sense, they are unfortunately insufficient in developing cooperatives trainings and other key skills. This is evident from the inadequate activities of women's role in cooperatives in our region and their inability to achieve sustainability.Being a member of agricultural cooperatives needs specific characteristics and basic skills that are missed the cut by female farmers because of the inadequate trainings about the cooperative system. These characteristics and skills can be counted as communication, understanding cooperatives, participation-learning-training (PLT) and digital competence. When there is lack of understanding the procedure of agricultural cooperatives, participation and sustainability decrease because members do not have the knowledge in basic rights, marketing, sales strategy management and organizing planning. If the communication in the cooperatives is not oughtness, members would not work in a harmony and cannot get the sustainability. Since there is no proper learning of these socio-behavioural concepts, learners cannot develop empathy, communication in business ethics, problem solving and critical thinking. Without these skills, they cannot be successful in the understanding cooperatives such as management, marketing and organizing. Importantly, digital transition which is a compulsory skill under the pandemic period as well as personal development is crucial for the agricultural cooperative systems.These trainings are provided at the university level and have no equivalent in adult education neither in Turkey nor in the countries of participating organizations. More active participation of adult educators is needed for women farmers to receive agricultural cooperatives training in a better quality and sustainable manner. In addition, through training and skills development, rural women and adult learners in general can play a much greater role in the development of agricultural value chains and, their cooperatives will contribute to the increases in economic and social value in their regions. The rate of European Parliament stated in previous question proves to needs of urgent intervention and innovative tools for women empowerment in agriculture sector in EU Countries.<< Objectives >>Since the project focus on women empowerment in agricultural cooperatives, the main objectives and expected achievements by implying it as follows,•To increase the agricultural cooperation and digital transformation skills of women farmers•To provide adult educators of the partnership organizations with methodology and tools which will help them to organize better their training courses on cooperatives and enhance their skills on training approach to women coming from rural areas.•To strengthen the capacity of the agricultural woman cooperatives through enhanced cooperation with adult education and providing innovative training•To encourage cooperative farming among woman and to raise of awareness of women entrepreneurship in rural areas.•Resolving the problems in the field of agricultural cooperatives by sharing the know-how and experiences of the participating institutions•Meeting the needs of the target group efficiently with a European perspective•Contribute to the empowerment of women in rural areas, which is a cross-border need•To generate innovative ideas from an international perspective•To provide women farmers with an improved training in agricultural cooperatives at EU level•Increasing the capacity and professionalism of participants at EU / international level•To reach wider audiences in disseminating project results•Contributing to the European Commission and Erasmus + priorities with women empowerment, rural development, sustainability and digital transformation.<< Implementation >>There are key activities for gaining the project objectives. If success is achieved in these activities, the planned results and project targets will be achieved. These activities are as follows,Development of Intellectual Outputs:The most important activities for meeting the needs of the target audience of the project and achieving the project goals are the development of the intellectual outputs. Three intellectual outputs will be developed in accordance with the project objectives as follows,Innovative Methodology for Agricultural Cooperatives Training,The first output in the project is an innovative methodology that contributes to other outputs. Thanks to this output, adult educators will increase the quality of agricultural cooperatives training and train women farmers with more effective methods. The know-how, experience and research of all partners will contribute while developing the output. In this way, the output will contain a comprehensive content from digital transformation to adult education.Training Module for Women Farmers,A training module will contribute to the development of women farmers in agricultural cooperatives and also increase their socioeconomic skills. With this module, women who are trained in agricultural cooperatives will also gain digital and communicative competencies. Thanks to the acquired skills, the goal of sustainability and empowerment of women in agricultural cooperatives will be achieved. As in the first output, all partners will work together and it will be ensured that the prepared module has an innovative and comprehensive content.AgroSis (e-Learning Platform),A platform will be developed for women to gain experience as well as theoretical knowledge and put what they have learned into practice. This platform will contain simulations, implication videos and online classes. All partners will work together to prepare and regularly update the contents, and will conduct developmental research at specific time periods. Thanks to this platform, women's empowerment will not remain in theory and will be put into practice. In addition, not only women farmers, but also adult educators will put their learning into practice through online education, cooperatives and simulations.Transnational Meetings:All partner institutions will take part in these meetings and the outputs will be evaluated in detail. Exchange of ideas and feedback will be made for these evaluations. In this way, the project outputs will be updated according to the feedbacks and they will be of the best quality. In addition, thanks to the transnational meetings, communication between partners will increase and the networks of participating institutions will expand.Multiplier Events:Multiplier events are an important activity for the dissemination of project results and to meet the needs of a wider target audience. Thanks to these events, the project outputs will support agricultural cooperatives training and women's empowerment in agricultural cooperatives both in Turkey and Europe. The project outputs, which offer innovative and modern agricultural cooperative education, will be able to reach policy makers and decision makers through these activities and will be used by many institutions in adult education.LTT Mobility for Adult Educators:Our partner AGACA, which has expertise and experience in the field of agricultural cooperatives, will host trainers training. In this way, adult educators will provide a more efficient education by developing on online education, adult education and new methods of agricultural cooperatives. Therefore, women farmers will be empowered in the field of agricultural cooperatives thanks to a higher quality education.<< Results >>The key goal of the project is to empower women farmers in agricultural cooperatives. To achieve this, the project seeks solutions to improve the profile and competencies of women farmers. In line with this purpose and need, tangible and intangible results will be obtained in the project. The most important tangible results of the project are the following intellectual outputs:- Innovative Methodology for Agricultural Cooperatives Training- Training Module for Women Farmers- AgroSis (e-Platform)In order to strengthen women farmers in agricultural cooperatives and to increase sustainability in these cooperatives, the project provides results for the development of women farmers. Thanks to these results, women farmers will increase their skills in agricultural cooperative with social, digital and managerial competencies. In order to acquire these competencies and achieve the project's purpose, an innovative methodology will be prepared to support adult educators who provide training to women farmers. While preparing this output, all partners will work together to bring the most innovative methods and modern perspectives. Thanks to the methodology to be designed, adult educators will provide female farmers with a content-rich training by transferring their knowledge more easily with effective techniques. Moreover, the LTT activity will also broaden the knowledge and experiences of adult educators to provide high quality agricultural cooperatives training. Training module, another output of the project, will be a comprehensive material for women farmers as a non-formal training. In this way, the competencies of women not only in the field of cooperatives but also in digital, social and administrative areas will increase throughout the training. This training module will be a learning material for female farmers and a teaching material for adult educators. In addition, it will be a learner-centered material thanks to the collaboration of local institutions that have information about the profile of women farmers and foreign institutions that are experts in the field of cooperatives. AgroSis platform will be prepared for adult educators and women farmers to gain experience and development as well as theoretical education. Thanks to the platform, women farmers and adult educators will put their digital skills into practice, gain experience through simulations, adapt to distance education and access auxiliary materials. With tangible results, obstacles to empower women farmers living in rural areas will be overcome by providing quality education and increasing competencies for success.The intangible results expected within the project are as follows:-The main target group of the project is women farmers living in rural areas. Thanks to the project, women farmers will have access to a better-quality education and will gain important skills. Thanks to these skills and effective training, female farmers will have economic power and will also be empowered in society.-Adult educators involved in the project will be more qualified than their colleagues in agricultural cooperative education and will expand the EU colleague network thanks to the transnational partnership.-The outputs of the project will be used by institutions such as public education centers, vocational training centers, associations, NGOs and will be delivered to adults who want to receive training in the field of agricultural cooperatives.-Thanks to the project, the networks of participating institutions and their recognition in Europe will increase.-With partnership, the outputs will be prepared with an advanced perspective and they will be used not only at local level but also national and international level.

Agriculture is a key sector that is directly related to social and political structures with many sectors such as food, livestock, textile, energy, environment (soil and water resources, climate change). According to the estimates of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the current agricultural production should increase by 60% in order to meet the food demand in 2050.In order to conserve the soil, water resources and the environment that are so important for the future of societies, it is necessary to apply of TECHNIQUES OF CONSERVATİON AND SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE ’ and our technical personnel and farmers in the sector don’t have sufficient professional knowledge.When conservation agricultural techniques aren’t used during agricultural production and soil is much more cracked than adequate with traditional soil tillage methods, soil tillage and soil erosion occur and the amount of organic matter and water holding capacity decrease. Therefore, the structure of the soil deteriorates every year. Furthermore, every tillage brings additional costs to enterprises in terms of time, energy and labour force. In this context, sustainable agriculture is the only way to guarantee good security, to feed healthy ecosystems and to support the sustainable management of soil, water and natural resources. Although many countries and institutions in the agricultural sector have made good and successful practices on sustainable conservation techniques, there has been no change in good practices in sustainable agriculture due to the lack of a network of cooperation among countries, so there has not been enough progress. The project partners have been determined with the aim of giving place to domestic and international sector actors in the project, which provide services in different ways to agriculture, have high institutional and impact capacities, make sustainable agricultural activities, contribute to objectives of the project and respond to the needs of the project. The Consortium of our project consists of 8 organizations specialized in the field of sustainable conservation agriculture:*Germany-Deula Nienburg; specialist in international agricultural vocational training.*Belgium-European Conservation Agriculture Federation: Specialist in federation management and international activities by bringing the associations of conservation agriculture in 16 countries together. *Spain- University of Cordoba: Specialist in soil management and techniques for conservation agriculture*Italy- Lega Regionale Delle Cooperative e Mutue: Specialist in Agricultural Cooperatives. *Turkey-Konya Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry: Specialist in Agriculture training and extension.*Turkey-the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives in the Konya Karaman Region: Specialist in agricultural farmer organizations.*Turkey-KOP Regional Development Administration: Specialist in Rural Development, Agricultural Training and Extension, Financial Support Programs.*Turkey-Selcuk University Faculty of Agriculture: Specialist in agricultural vocational training and the industry of conservation agricultural machinery.Within the framework of the project, 5 Transnational Project Meetings, 3 Learning, Teaching, Training Activities and dissemination activities will be carried out. Transnational Project Meetings will be attended by 3 people from the project applicant institution and 2 from the other project partners. The participants will be managers or personnel working in their institution or having a working relationship with the institution. The technical personnel in charge of training and extension works in the agricultural sector, agricultural consultants, academicians and farmer, who are the main implementers of agriculture in the field, will participate in the Learning, Teaching, Training Activities and the total number of participants is 46. Our project aims to create a network of cooperation among countries with successful works on sustainable agriculture, to Exchange and disseminate good practices in sustainable conservation agriculture, to improve the institutional capacities of all partners at the transnational level, to contribute to the professional development of the technical personnel and farmers in the sector. Making agricultural production with techniques for sustainable conservation agriculture, conservation of natural resources such as soil, water, air and environment, reducing the impacts of the effects and causes of climate change, development of knowledge and skills about the techniques of reducing the risks involved in agricultural activities, formation of environmental awareness, profitability in agricultural production and increasing productivity and ensuring food safety are the short- and long-term expected results of our project.

Today, we still face many social and economic problems in many parts of the world. Unless interventions are done, the economic and social problems will be escalated like unemployment, income inequality, poverty, social exclusion. In this respect, to create a sustainable development policy, promotion and strengthening of cooperatives has seen as a viable and productive tool. Cooperatives are associations of people to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise as defined by The International Co-operative Alliance. As businesses driven by values not just profit, co-operatives share internationally agreed principles and act together to build a better world through co-operation. However, it is obvious that most of the cooperatives cannot be successful in the market because of shortcomings of entrepreneurship, marketing, branding, brand promotion and lack of effective governance structures. And there is need for developing the capacities of cooperatives. To do this, the most important mean is education and training. With this aim, the partners of the Educated Trainers, Stronger Cooperatives Project; Ankara Development Agency, Co-operative College the Italian Cooperative Federation Legacoop Puglia, and the Deutscher Genossenschafts- und Raiffeisen Verband (reg. assoc.) (DGRV) as well as Directorate of Trade, Directorate of Agriculture, Food and Livestock, Governorships of Nallıhan and Beypazarı have come together worked towards developing the six intellectual outputs of the project:•A website that brings together all stakeholders and disseminate knowledge•Training needs analysis report of cooperatives •New education plan and curricula which is tailor-made to meet the needs of the disadvantageous groups•An education toolkit and manual to guide the trainers •A best practice book and good practices video to disseminate the successful cases In 24 months period the project team and steering committee have made periodical meetings among themselves and with representatives of stakeholders and cooperatives on the field to analyze the current situation and ways of improvement. First, the website of the project has been established to present the project outputs and allow partners to announce news periodically to stakeholders. Then, the training need analysis of cooperatives report was prepared. This study has constituted the ground for developing a new education programme for cooperatives. Together with all partners new curricula and methods of education have been explored through the three learning, teaching and training activities. In Bari, Bonn and Manchester the trainers and experts have transferred knowledge on basics of cooperative training and each partner had the opportunity to learn new ways of trainings and made important contributions through the discussions. After a year of learning and training, the partners developed the new education programme. The draft toolkit then was tested with a pilot programme in Ankara. The toolkit provides information and training exercises for adult learners in the topics of basic of a cooperative, starting a cooperative, business plan, strategic planning and financial management, monitoring performance and business audits, skills for success and marketing and communication. The book successfully presents innovative tools of cooperative trainings and make easier for trainers to carry out tailor made programmes selecting appropriate topics and methods from the toolkit for their target audience. In parallel to these, partners worked on developing the best practice book and good practices videos. Through the interviews general information about selected cooperatives, their main activities, information on how they have succeeded which methods they use and how they maintained sustainability in their work and their expectations from future have been explored. The book contains 18 successful cases of cooperatives which are presented to cooperatives to inspire them in their journey. Moreover, 11 videos have been shot to disseminate the exciting stories of cooperatives and to be used as visual materials in delivering trainings for cooperatives. All the outputs have been disseminated to trainers, cooperative members, administrators and policy makers at local, national and international levels through 4 multiplier events with the participation of around 300 people as well as through other dissemination channels. The innovative tools produced and all the other activities contributed to the increase of institutional capacity of cooperatives, improved knowledge and increased awareness about the importance of the cooperatives in the public, increased capacity of cooperative trainers as well as initiation of new local development programmes in collaboration with cooperatives.

The project “Entrepreneurship and Community cooperatives” (EntCoM) aimed at fostering active citizenship and entrepreneurship (considering social entrepreneurship) in small or remote areas, with the support of three clear activities:1) the development and consolidation of entrepreneurial competences (knowledge, skills and attitude) in order to structure entrepreneurial initiatives under the specific framework of “community cooperatives”;2) Foster learning mobilities at EU level to answer local needs;3) contribute to the recognition and validation of such entrepreneurial competences under the ECVET, ESCO and EUROPASS framework.The project in hand aimed at recognizing the central importance of human capital, and at setting organizational and management models that encourage the participation of all citizens as “active members” of their community. At the same time, we did not overlook the financial aspect necessary to the achievement of societal objectives, which became important in the context of the resources made available by the institutions related to the community, such as municipalities. Indeed, by working together businesses can reduce costs, share risks and create new platforms for growth. Consortium co-operatives run on a shared and equal way by, and for the benefit of, their members. Members can be businesses, partnerships or individuals.At local and regional level, this project aimed at providing a realistic, practical and effective answer to address a variety of current issues that exist also at EU level, such as the economical emergency, the unemployment rate, social cohesion, the digital agenda, rural and remote territorial development. At national and EU level, the project aimed at providing a workable good practices considering the preparation of the targeted population in terms of competences, considering the recognition, transferability and gathering of the entrepreneurial competences according to the ECVET framework in order to foster the mobility and improve the employability of the targeted group represented by citizens in remote or rural areas. Mobility indeed represented a key answer to the current low rate employment context at EU level.The target group addressed by the project in hand were citizens from rural or remote area, and most particularly the “Not in Education, Employment, or Training” (NEET) population. The term NEET refers to people between 16 and 24 who are no longer in compulsory schooling and yet have not taken on employment, further education or training schemes such as apprenticeships. Immediately after are the adult learning practitioners, cooperatives (employers), and adult learning bodies in general.The project provided the following results:1) A training course (TC) comprising:- a survey and mapping report on good practices;- a curriculum;- a training guide (e-learning and residential);- a tool kit for multipliers (EntCom4M)- guidelines for in-service training.2) ECVET guidelines tool kit and recommendations encompassing:- applicable ECVET framework;- Competences list (knowledge, skill and attitude);- definition of Learning Outcomes*.- definition of Units of Learning Outcomes*.- Credit for learning outcomes (credit)* tool.- ECVET point* tool.- Assessment methodologies.- Credit transfer* tool.- Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)*.- Learning Agreement* tool.