"The REFLECT project was born from a reflection of several years within the FFEC and FEDEC (www.fedec.eu) networks on the need to update and to reinforce teachers’ competences.There is a need for exchanges between these professionals because:- the training of professional artists relies on them, who are these pioneers and self-taught and the history of teaching and different currents or teaching methods has not been written yet;- we are witnessing a change of generations with the departure of the pioneers and the arrival of their former students - mostly artists - as teachers, but without initial teacher training;- the circus arts are rapidly expanding: innovation artistic and technical evolution make REFLECT exchanges essential because they are the only current means for the profession to evolve.REFLECT wished to remedy these shortcomings and respond to the needs identified by teachers, directors and policy-makers by:- organizing 5 partnership meetings, 9 steering committee meetings, 5 directors' discussions in order to: •manage the project by providing a space for feedbacks, cooperation, consultations, monitoring of the calendar and the budget, collective decisions;•disseminate the tools developed thanks to former INTENTS project;•allow the partners to address the issue of how to document the teaching of artistic creation.- Organizing 4 Labs based on peer-to-peer exchange to improve, question and discuss artistic education and pedagogy in the circus arts. The Labs were transversal in terms of participants and topics, and they welcomed experts from other artistic fields. 1.Lab 1: ""The role of the teacher in a creative process of the student's personal project"", March 2018 – FLIC, Turin, Italy2.Lab 2 : ""Creation processes with students: observation, analysis and testimonies based on the CIRCLE project"", October 2018 – CIRCa Festival, Auch, France3.Lab 3: ""The role of the teacher in a creative process of the collective project of students"", April 2019 – CODARTS, Rotterdam, Netherlands4.Lab 4: ""Creation process with professionals: observation, analysis and exchanges"", October 2019 - October 2018 – CIRCa Festival, Auch, France-Disseminating and testing the publication “SAVOIRS01- a core European profile for the circus arts teaching profession”. A framework of competences for circus arts teachers developed through former project INTENTS.- Developing tools and materials for continuous training and exchange of good practices in the circus sector. - Strengthening cooperation in the sector and with external partners or experts (for training content and future partnerships).- Promoting the development of an international community Circus education professionals.The project brought together 27 partners, including 25 professional circus schools, from 12 European countries. REFLECT lasted from 4 September 2017 to 3 December 2019.The main participants of the project were:-Teachers from the partner schools (70 persons)-External teachers or experts in artistic pedagogy, peer-to-peer exchanges or documentation (6 persons)-Schools or organizations directors (networks, festivals) (29 persons)-Students (150 persons)The project management methodology was the result of the collaboration between the FFEC and the FEDEC. The project coordinator, based in Brussels and employed by FEDEC, ensured the ordinary management of activities and the dissemination of results, as well as budget monitoring in collaboration with the administrative manager of the FFEC. In addition to that, a Steering Committee was created, composed of 7 members from the FFEC, the FEDEC and the other partners of the project. The committee was the decision-making body at the heart of the project.The impact and benefits were: - A higher quality of training in circus arts thanks to the development continuing education for teachers. The continuing education sessions will be based on a consultation of employees/employers of the circus education sector about the mismatch between teachers skills and the skills required by the professional sector.- Reflecting artistic excellence and aesthetic diversity, recording the pedagogical evolutions ocurrent teachers, creating a common but evolving heritage.- Contribute as a sector to the evolution of the profession and its recognition through long-term collaborations with decision-making bodies at national/EU level.- Contribution to European vocational training policies such as the Agenda for New Skills for Europe, Rethinking Education and Opening Up Education for OER and ESCO tools."

For the last 40 years, the contemporary circus arts education sector has been evolving towards a professionalization of actors. However, no common definition has ever existed of the circus arts teaching profession neither a common recognition of its educational paths (initial training, validation of experience/skills acquired during a continuous training) nor educational tools despite a growing need. INTENTS has had a great role to address these gaps and needs identified by teachers, directors and policy makers active in the recognition of the profession, training and validation of skills by:-formalizing a European competency framework for the circus arts teaching profession at secondary/vocational/HE levels-developing a thematic continuing training sessions format based on the 3 pilot sessions-developing innovative educational tools-the appearance of a recognition of the profession definition at national/EU levels-issuing recommendations for validating skills acquired during the continuous training-animating a partnership with intersectorial dynamics between VET & HE, recommendations for national qualification frameworksThese objectives were achieved by developing methodologies, consultations, training sessions, writing tools, transnational meetings and dissemination events such as:-publication of a European competency framework for the circus arts teaching profession (SAVOIRS01) in EN-FR-organization of 3 thematic training pilot sessions focused on educational/artistic/linguistic skills, each one gathering more than 20 teachers from European professional schools-evaluation methods through observation and interviews in order to identify learning outcomes and non-formal and informal skills acquired during continuous training-Reflection started about a strategy for the recognition of learning outcomes at sectoral/national/EU in accordance with the national EQF and existing EU tools (EQF-ECVET-EQAVET, Europass, CEDEFOP recommendations).-set up of a continuous training design guide incorporating the structuration of programs in learning outcomes, the identification/validation of skills, and a methodology of continuous training engineering adaptable/multipliable by other sector’s segments (leisure, social) or areas of artistic training-development and dissemination of 3 educational tools in Open Educational Resources in 4 languages EN/FR/ES/DE-organisation of 6 partnership meetings each gathering on average 20 partners out of 34 eachStrengthening cooperation between several stakeholders:-direct employers of teachers via schools/federations/networks-researchers specialized in defining professions and engineering training -decision-makers with a strong sector involvement in the definition of its jobs, its professionalization and the validation of skills-other sectors of performing arts education (dance/music/theatre) providing a definition of skills for any art teacher. INTENTS will enrich the work on future training engineering of initial/continuous training.The project consortium, consisted of 34 structures of 12 EU member countries, allowed to: -reach the entire profession practicing at different levels of education, represented and vocational training centres: secondary/vocational/HE-reflect the artistic excellence and aesthetic diversity, record resulting educational developments through educational tools -mobilize partners with complementary roles-allow the observation of the entire profession and for training engineering initiated by the sector, but accompanied by research centres and observatories of professions and jobs-policy/local recognition and a systemic impact through the involvement of a national federation of schools, a EU network or national/local policy makersThe project impacted on the:-definition of teachers’ competences and its application in initial training and HR strategies -recognition and valorisation of an entire profession at EU level-higher quality of circus arts vocational training through continuous training in particular by addressing skills mismatch between professionals and the labour market-employability of teachers and relevance to the labour market-development and quality of artistic pedagogy, creativity and quality of the entire circus arts sector-sector's contribution to the definition & evolution of the profession and long-term collaborations with decision-makers at national/EU level