Today’s learning opportunities for young people are limitless, individuals learn and acquire new competences not only in the traditional setting of a classroom or at work, but more and more outside of it. Learning mobility is one of the ways in which people can enhance their development as active citizens and strengthen their future employability. While traveling and getting in touch with new cultures for studying, volunteering or having a working experience abroad youngsters develope personal, professional and intercultural skills. Nevertheless most of these skills often remain invisible, because the existing recognition tools do not fully answer to the need of self reflection, awareness, validation and recognition of the key competences acquired by young people in these contexts.The European Badge Alliance project - EBA - brought together 8 european organizations - 6 organizations active in learning mobility (EFIL, YEU, AECA, Uniser, LINA and Semper Avanti ) and 2 technical partners (BadgeCraft and HOC-Lab) - who decided to innovate the recognition, validation and communication processes of key competences acquired by young learners and staff through experiences of learning mobility. How? By using Open Badges, an innovative digital tool originally developed by the Mozilla Foundation that perfectly meets this need of recognition and validation.Technically speaking Open Badge are digital certificates that encrypt information related to the learning process, the organization delivering it and the achievements or competences of the badge owner. Concretely speaking Open Badges are practical tools, getting more and more used to redefine the learning process and to certify competences and skills developed within diverse educational settings, key competences acquired through non-formal or informal learning, including through learning mobility.The final aim of EBA is innovating the recognition, validation and communication processes of key competences acquired by young people in NFIL contexts, with particular reference to learning mobility, in order to increase their personal and professional development, their participation in learning and their employability. From September 2015 to august 2017, the project unfolded into the realization of the 5 main intellectual outputs:1) A preparatory research about the state of the play and the potential of using Open Badges. The paper is shortly presenting the aims, origins, technical terminologies and development of Open Badges.2) 7 “new” sets of Open Badges available on the Badgecraft issuing platform each one contextualising learning taking place in specific types of motilities implemented by partners (International mobility training, International facilitators, Junior and Senior Trainers, Organizers of International activities, Long Term School Exchanges, International Placements, VET Mobility). Moreover 5 sets of badges which have already been developed by other organisations have been tested and adapted (International Youth Exchanges, EVS, EVS mentors, Youth Workers Mobility, Strategic Partnership). 3) The piloting of the 7 sets of badges created and the 5 already existing by each partner according to the learning mobility managed and the creation of guidelines on the use of the Badge System addressed to youth workers (available both as video and graphic PPT)4) A policy recommendations paper about the potential of Open Badges as a tool for the recognition of competences from non formal and informal learning addressed to decision makers.5) The upgrade of the www.Badgecraft.eu platform for badge issuing on the base of the partners organisation's needs and the feedbacks collected by the learners. The platform allows now to embed badges into the Europass CV.On June 2017, a multiplier event have been organized in Brussels to disseminate the projects results at european level, in particular among decision makers (morning session at the Parliament) and among organizations managing learning mobility (afternoon training session at Mundo J). The project had a big impact:-on the partners organizations who introduced the use of Open Badges on the management of their mobility projects to valorize the key competences acquired by young people while experiencing life abroad.-on all organisations reached thanks to dissemination who got familiar with the open badges and can now use the badge systems developed and join the Alliance -on the non formal education sector in general and on the EU institutions by mainstreaming the use of Open Badges across Europe for recognising non formal and informal learningThe project in the long run will contribute to the discussion for recognition of competences gained through non-formal and informal learning at European level. Moreover it will allow the development of the Open Badges ecosystem by transferring Open Badges to other sectors thanks to new projects developed by partner organisations.

"Projects is capacity building activity of consortium from Finland, Spain, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Lithuania, Kosovo and Serbia with the aim to enhance quality of non-formal education activities in the youth field through supporting critical reflection on dominant paradigms, principles, techniques, processes in NFE and via integration of e-Learning and ICT in youth work in Europe. One of the output of the project is an e-based publication with the title ""NFE reloaded” that articulates those reflections, and that is available in the languages of the partner countries. It is a contribution to the EU linguistic diversity and will further raise the potential for dissemination and exploitation of the project outcomes. The publications on English and all project partners' languages can be found on following link http://iqnf.education/mod/page/view.php?id=5Second aim of the project was to provide new knowledge and skills to “analog” youth workers and trainers community and find creative ways on how to combine ""analog"" tools in youth work with digital tools and e-Learning to attract growing number of young people using Internet and Social Networks. So, other outputs of this project (besedes e-poublicatiin) are 8 online courses that were created during and after the training of youth workers and NFE practitioners to familiarize themselves with elements of online learning, principles, technical conditions, methods of preparing materials to be useful and interactive, technical tools necessary for creating a course... The topics of online courses that were developed during the project are: • online safety for young people, • empowering young people with skills and knowledge about youth activism (course for youth)• empowering young people with skills and knowledge about youth activism (course for youth workers)• career guidance for the high school students • cultural perspective of gender equality • non-formal education and how competencies and skills gained through it can benefit people in all fields of life• participation of youth in the community, democratic processes and society• getting to know some basic concepts related to self-confidence, so to be more proactive in sociaty.Project was deigned from 9 interconnected activities that constitute the main flow of the project:1) 1st Activity – Kick-off meeting2) 2nd Activity – Seminar “NFE in Europe reloaded”3) 3rd Activity – Training course no. I “Development of the eLearning skills/ Introduction to Moodle LMS to youth work practitioners”4) 4th Activity – First group of online eLearning courses5) 5th Activity - Mid-term on-line meeting of Project partners6) 6th Activity – Training course no. II “Development of the eLearning skills/ Introduction to Moodle LMS to youth work practitioners”7) 7th Activity – Second on-line eLearning courses8) 8th Activity - Conference (working title was “Make, Share, Care... , but final was ""ONL youth - are we lost in online space?)9) 9th Activity – Evaluation and follow-up meeting.In project (decently and indirectly) were involved about 2500 people:• 67 seminar and training participants• 200 – 280 participants in online courses (that were created in the frame of the project)• 80 conference participants• more than 2000 people that were informed about project, NFE, online learning - through TV shows, project website, social networks...All activites, video evaluation, and project outputs can be found on the project webiste www.iqnfe.education"

The project “Trusted Badge Systems” aims at fostering the use of ‘Open Badges’ in European youth work in cooperation with the employment market. Open Badge is a visual representation of individual learning and achievements. Every badge contains meta-data which describes learning process, criteria and achievements of badge owner. They offer innovative ways to visualise learning pathways and document learning achievements. Badges are usually organised into badge systems helping to organise any learning and adapt it to the individual needs of target groups. GENERAL AIM of the project: Cross-sectoral consortium of partners from Lithuania, Netherlands, Spain and Germany are aiming to integrate technological innovation of Open Badges and increase the quality of youth work field by creating unique digital non-formal learning recognition systems using Open Badges standard in the field of youth work. These badge systems will be created and endorsed in close cooperation with the representatives from the employment sector in each country.SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:- To build/review comprehensive competence framework for the non-formal education programmes provided by partner organisations in cooperation with the representatives from the employment sector.- To design and test Open Badge systems, allowing to recognise young people’s non-formal learning results- To achieve endorsement of employers for the created badge systems and increase social recognition of non-formal learning in this way.- To create seamless experience for young people to manage their own non-formal learning evidence by creating online systems of Education Quests and mobile application, allowing to issue, earn and manage Open Badges instantly and via mobile devices.- To disseminate project results and build the base for the wider use of created and employers’ endorsed Open Badge systems across Europe and across various fields of education.This project brings true innovation the recognition of non-formal by building digital tools using the innovative Open Badges technology. Another significant innovation is cooperation with the employment-related sector to achieve better endorsement of recognition systems using Open Badges. This project is bringing something that does not exists so far in the field of youth neither in other education fields. Project will develop Open Badge systems specific to youth work programmes implemented by project partners. To achieve this the significant development of this project will be the production of two digital products:1. Online system of Educational Quests2. Mobile application will be developed for two major platforms Android and Apple iOS. It will enable young people to access their online profile of achievements; to review existing projects they are in and quests to be accomplished. The project directly involves more than 600 youth workers and young people, more than half being youth with fewer opportunities. Through the range of dissemination activities online and live, this project will indirectly reach up to 50 000 people. We expect that at least 80% thus majority of learning from the various programmes will have specific evidence of their learning achievements.The “Strasbourg process” of improving recognition in Europe actually calls for most of the actions, which are planned in this project. Therefore in a long-term perspective the project will successfully contribute to reaching a better recognition of youth work and non-formal learning on all levels. The project will provide well developed badge systems with endorsement from employment sector. These systems will be accessible and available for re-used or adaptations by other organisations in Europe.

‘Reimagining Recognition’ is a capacity building project between 7 partner organisations from Armenia, Finland, Georgia, Ireland, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine.General aim of this project:Develop capacity of youth work organisation to use, promote and mainstream digital Open Badges for recognition and validation of non-formal learning in participating countries.Specific objectives expected to be achieved:1. Increase understanding of good practices and tools for validation and recognition of non-formal learning in participating countries and at European level through research, study visit and impact evaluation activities.2. Develop capacity of youth work organisations to promote and use innovative technology of digital Open Badges for validation and recognitions of non-formal learning through local and international badge training activities.2. Create country-specific prototypes of badge-based online recognition solutions by involving young people and youth workers in design and testing activities.3. Increase awareness of benefits and value of digital Open Badges for validation and recognition of learning by implementing online and offline communication campaign activities.4. Produce recommendations for policy and practice of validation and recognition of non-formal learning through implementing future search conferences with youth leaders, youth workers and youth policy decision makers.Target groups, directly involved in activities of this project:- Youth leaders and youth workers- Decision makers- Young peopleDuration of the project:2 years, starting from the 1st of October 2018 and finishing 30th of September 2020Capacity building activities:- Partners kick-off meeting in Moldova- Partners progress meeting in Ukraine- Research of good practices of validation and recognition of non-formal learning (review report)- Developing and implementing awareness raising campaign (campaign materials and activities)- Creating and testing prototypes with young people and youth workers (focus groups and local badge inception workshops)- Recommendations for policy and practice of recognition (future search conferences with youth leaders and decision makers)Mobility activities of this project:- Study visit about recognition policies and practices in Lithuania- Training activity about digital youth work and badge system design in Finland- Impact evaluation seminar in GeorgiaExpected impact:Developed competence of youth leaders and youth workers to implement and promote badge-based recognition practices leading to young people’s increased opportunities for career and further education ; Awareness raising about benefits and potential of digital Open Badges. Increased capacity to influence policy and implement practice of validation and recognition of non-formal learning by using innovative technology of digital Open Badges; Created and tested prototypes of digital tools for validation and recognition of non-formal learning

Every year more than 40.000 thousand youth workers are trained in more than 1500 training activities organised by youth work and training organisations and institutions in Europe. In the last years European Training Strategy (ETS) was developed to ensure transparency, effective management and good quality of youth work training activities. The most recent development was the launch of ETS competence model for trainers to support professional development and recognition.The International Youth Work Trainer Guild together with partner organisations takes the momentum to develop a professional development appraisal service for trainers. With this project we plan to address the needs of international community of trainers to have online tools to support their self-assessment, external review of performance and curate their professional development.Such developments are welcomed and recommended by the recent European youth policy recommendations and institutions which support the implementation of European youth work and training programmes.We aim to increase the quality of youth work and training activities in Europe by developing a web-based 360° professional development appraisal service for trainers and other training stakeholders. During the project we achieved the following specific objectives: 1. To create a web-based environment for trainers, training participants, trainer peer colleagues and training service contractors to implement a 360° review of trainer's’ performance and assess trainer competences. Success indicator: well functioning and engaging web environment. 2. To develop web-tools and guidelines which will enable trainers to perform the self-assessment of their performance and competences using the ETS competence model and feedback of participants, peer colleagues and contractors. Success indicator: 239 people completed self-assessments.3. To develop web-tools and guidelines that will enable at trainers to collect 360° feedback from participants, peer colleagues and contractors. Success indicator: 3415 external reviews collected.4. To develop web-tools and guidelines to support trainers in their professional development using the 360° review data. Success indicator: 46 professional development plans submitted.5. To develop and secure a peer trainer support system that ensures individual professional growth in response to their participation and feedback received through the appraisal service. Success indicator: 46 peer support meetings happened online or in person.This project directly involved staff, members and affiliates of partner organisations of this project. The profile of involved participants: youth work professionals, trainers, project managers, graphic, UX/UI designers, software developers.Beyond partner organisations, this project involved participants of training activities, other trainers active in the field, training service contractors and representatives of European institutions, such as SALTO Resource centres, Erasmus+ National Agencies, coordinators of trainer pools.Besides of the regular project management activities, such as transnational and online partner meetings, dissemination, evaluation and reporting of project activities and results, this project developed the following intellectual outputs:1. Web-based environment to run 360° Appraisal service;2. Web-based tools and guidelines to support trainers self-assessment3. Web-based tools and guidelines for external review of trainer competences4. Web-based tools and guidelines for trainers professional developmentTo support development of these intellectual outcomes staff training activity was organised. To develop intellectual outputs we applied most effective methodologies which use Goal-oriented Design principles and Design Thinking process to build web tools, content and software of 360° Appraisal service.The professional development appraisal service for trainers and other stakeholders was built using 360° review model, Appreciative Inquiry methodology and self-directed learning approach.This project enables the international youth work training stakeholders to use the 360° professional development appraisal service to review and assess trainer performance and competences using ETS competence model. Trainers have web-based tools to perform their self-assessment and become more aware of their professional competences and needs for professional development. Other training stakeholders, e.g. training participants, trainer colleagues, training service contractors are able to provide with the external review of trainer performance and give feedback. Ultimately, youth workers trained to a high standard will increase the quality of the youth work services and experience that young people have.