<< Background >>A consequence of the growth of the world’s economy and its population is an increased global demand and rise in resource consumption: Our way of using things and throwing them away is an unsustainable and a waste of resources. Indeed, we need new, creative solutions for a sustainable future and it requires a circular way of thinking as to how we make our products and how we act as consumers.Recycling rates of municipal and packaging waste; and waste of electrical and electronic equipment are increasing in Europe, indicating a move towards using waste as a resource and creating a more circular economy (https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/waste-recycling-1/assessment-1 ). Recycling and upcycling have become a common undertaking at all levels of society in Europe. This creates new sustainable jobs for European citizens. The issue of environment and climate change is being addressed globally, as countries try to mitigate the effects of decades of waste and wanton disregard for the environment. The European Green Deal (EGD) aims transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society where there are no net emissions of carbon gases by 2050, and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use. The transition needs to be just and inclusive, as it will demand a joint effort to reach complete carbon neutrality. While addressing environmental issues, the EGD has people at the heart of the strategy. However, we tend to forget the human face when talking about environmental issues. The disadvantaged groups, in particular, are not being given enough focus: how can they contribute while having a good quality of life? For one, the employment gap between persons with and without disabilities remains high: A large number of persons with disabilities have a lower employment rate, are disproportionately affected by unemployment, and leave labor markets earlier. This is critical, as employment participation is important to ensure economic autonomy and social inclusion of persons with disabilities (https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=8376&furtherPubs=yes).Research shows a neglect of initiatives equipping disadvantaged groups with competencies to get a job within recycling/upcycling. NGOs working with vulnerable groups need to professionalize the teaching of such skills, enabling them to become an active part of the labor market and to earn a decent living. By enhancing the competencies of VET-trainers and volunteers who teach recycling/upcycling, this project will equip disadvantaged groups with the knowledge, skills, and competencies to thrive in an evolving labor market with emerging green business opportunities. The disadvantaged groups will not just receive training but also improve their employability and gain better access to the job market.The project has two target groups: the primary target group: teachers and volunteers (seniors, retired teachers, professional craftsmen) that teach practical craft skills used for repairing, renovating, and restoring secondhand items to citizens; secondary target group: disadvantaged groups - people with learning disabilities and mentally vulnerable, unemployed people on the periphery of the labor market.By developing a curriculum and a training program (PR1), TRAIN-SUSTAIN addresses the need for professionalizing trainers of disadvantaged VET-students in the field of recycling/upcycling furniture, appliances, clothes, etc. The training program will focus on qualifying the social and technical competencies of teachers and volunteers.in addition, the project will produce a handbook for future VET-trainers and a compendium of good practices on socio-economic business models to serve as inspiration to the partnership and eventually to organisations across Europe.<< Objectives >>General objectives:•to enable VET-institutions and NGOs improve the competences of their trainers and volunteers to become more qualified for teaching the disadvantaged target groups - unemployed, mentally vulnerable, people with learning disabilities, migrants etc. – in upcycling, recycling and/or repair of furniture, appliances, clothes, etc.•to ensure that the disadvantaged groups get the training and support that is required for them to handle a job within the aforementioned areas, thus enhancing their employability.•To promote social inclusion by providing disadvantaged groups with professional training as well as ensuring that they are ready for the job market. •To contribute to the realization of the European Green Deal by promoting sustainable use of used materials through recycling/upcycling. Specific objectives: •To professionalize the teaching of recycling/upcycling of goods •To help enhance the skills of disadvantaged groups in recycling/upcycling of goods for commercial enterprises •to develop a curriculum for trainers of disadvantaged groups•to develop a handbook for future VET-teachers and volunteer trainers•to develop a compendium of good practices on different socio-economic business models within the field of repair/recycling/upcycling•to engage 88 trainers in professionalizing the teaching of repair/recycling/upcycling of furniture, clothes, appliances. •To train at least 120 disadvantaged VET-students in recycling/upcycling goods that could give them employment•To promote the project through a website and the production of recycled material<< Implementation >>The activities of the project and the responsible organisations are: 1) TRAIN-SUSTAIN Curriculum for VET-teachers and Volunteer Trainers working with Disadvantaged Groups (See PR1)Activity leading organisation: FO-Aarhus (responsible for part 1) and Lousada (responsible for part 2) Participating partners: All partners2) TRAIN-SUSTAIN Handbook on How to Teach the Curriculum to Future VET-teachers and Volunteer trainers (See PR2)Activity leading organisation: SpainParticipating partners: All partners3) Compendium of Best Practices (See PR3)Activity leading organisation: CyprusParticipating partners: All partners4) International Teacher Training CourseActivity leading organisation: SpainParticipating partners: All partners5) Local Teacher Training EventsActivity leading organisation: All partnersParticipating partners: All partners6) Local Multiplier Events Activity leading organisation: ALL PARTNERSParticipating partners: All partners7) A Final Conference Activity leading organisation: PortugalParticipating partners: All partners<< Results >>PR1: TRAIN-SUSTAIN Curriculum for VET-teachers and Volunteer Trainers working with Disadvantaged Groups (WP leader: Denmark and Portugal)The project will develop a curriculum for VET-teachers and volunteer trainers who teach repair/recycling/upcycling of furniture, clothes, appliances etc. to disadvantaged citizens. PR2:TRAIN-SUSTAIN Handbook on How to Teach the Curriculum to Future VET-teachers and Volunteer trainers (WP leader: Spain)A Handbook will be designed to provide future VET-teachers with tools to successfully implement and facilitate trainings on the aforementioned topic. PR3: Compendium of Best practices (WP leader: Cyprus)Partners will identify and select a set of good practices i.e. successful socio-economic business models which involve and engage disadvantaged citizens in the recycling/upcycling of different material. The selected practices will be composed in a Compendium of Best practices.Additionally, the project will develop the following:1) Project Management Report - which will include all guidelines as well as the Minutes for each meeting; 1 report2) Quality Assurance Plan - which will include the evaluation of the project on a continuous basis, to ensure that the project is implemented in line with the application and ensures the highest quality standards; 2 reports - Interim and Final.3) Quality questionnaires which will be developed by the Internal Evaluation Leader for a) collecting feedback about the projects progress from the partners after each meeting; and b) feedback from the beneficiaries about the Outputs' quality before and after their finalization.4) An Impact Plan which will outline an agreed set of qualitative and quantitative indicators for each of the proposed intellectual outputs and 2 reports that will measure progress towards project objectives; 2 reports - Interim and Final.5) A Dissemination Plan consisting of how the partnership plans to disseminate the project process and results to its target audience and an ongoing document that will list and document all dissemination activities of all partners through the duration of the project's lifecycle; 1 Report6) Articles to be posted on social media with information about the project, its advances and outcomes. The content of each post will be elaborated in English by the lead organization of the dissemination activities. Social media presence to keep stakeholders and other interested parties up to date with project development actions.7) A Sustainability Plan (on how each partner plans to continue the project beyond its funding)8) A Partnership Agreement document will be defined, agreed, and signed by all partners before the start of the project -1 document9) A website that will describe the project and its activities; will serve as dissemination channel; and will be available in English, Danish, French, Portuguese, Greek and Spanish.10) Logo for the identification of the project period; 1 Report11) Project's templates for PowerPoint presentations and documents to maintain a visual identity.12) Project's e-Brochure to be used in dissemination activities.13) Multiplier events in each partner country and a Final Conference in Lousada, Portugal.14) Training of teachers (C1) that will take place in San Sebastián, Spain.

<< Background >>Partners want to promote equal opportunities for internationalization for VET students who need special support in their studies due to disability or other reason. For example, Luovi’s strategy focuses on ensuring internationalization skills for all students. As stated in Erasmus+ program we want to promote inclusion and encourage the students with fewer opportunities to participate. Our project has a strong focus on digitalization, too. Project is targeted for students with special needs and students with fewer opportunities. The students who usually go abroad study for vocational qualifications. For prevocational students in Finland there are less opportunities to go abroad, since the studying time is usually only one year. In other partner countries there is a need to promote internationalisation of special needs students as such. The project is aiming to enhance students' competences related to European citizenship, cultural awareness, transversal soft skills and digital skills. In addition, project has a strong social context, and the products will be made together with European partners. Through the core of the project the students will learn skills for internationalization, despite aiming for actual mobility or not. Students will be strongly involved in creating digital tools for internationalization as part of their studies with the support of teaching staff. Original idea has risen straight from the teachers working with students with special needs. There is a need for study module for preparing students’ skills for a mobility. We widened the idea to be able to offer internationalization for all, not only the ones who aim to have work experience abroad. Through our project results it is possible for all students to gain international experiences at their home country. The final structure of the study module can also be used as a preparatory course before actual mobility, the need of this arises from the partners. We plan to develop a new study module, because it does not exist in the prevocational students’ curricula in Finland. Other partners will benefit the module when using it as a part of preparation for mobilities or internationalization at home. The study module is built in interaction among the partner colleges; therefore students will participate actively in the planning, piloting and implementing the module. The digital aspect to be built it is not only digital, but interactive among partners. Students with special needs gain from diverse preparation in several aspects: self knowledge, language, social skills, working life skills.<< Objectives >>Train for international trail aims to improve the possibilities for all learners to feel European and to have opportunity to include internationality to their studies. During the project students involved will gain social competences, self-knowledge, digital skills and enhance their self-expression. Project will provide digital solutions to internationalisation for teachers as well, and a readymade reusable handbook and study module with study materials and guides for teachers on how to get started on digitally based learning environments. The teachers participating will have better knowledge and tools on how to take internationality in action.In this project we will create a virtual trail towards international thinking and offer tools for preparing for an actual mobility. Through our project results the study module, can also be used as a preparation course for actual mobilities in VET - not only in special needs education but also in the mainstream VET. Through the training course and other materials, we will be able to enhance the internationalisation at home (I@H) activities in each organisation. Parts of the study module can be used also just to have introduction of internationality among studies and life skills. The project’s results enable and encourage teachers to use digital tools and most importantly engage students more in internationalization.The network of partners formed by organisations with strong professionality of educational work with students with special needs enables us to create engaging, versatile, and accessible material. The students voice will be the main focus during the project. Young people are active and have a need to communicate with their peers also internationally. We want to train for international trail together in European collaboration, intertwined along vocational studies.<< Implementation >>The students’ participation will be in a big role in the project, and the contribution from the students to student's interaction with peers will be one of the focus areas. Student groups will work transnationally online between the Learning teaching training activities planned. Project launches from a kick-off meeting on Helsinki December 2021, where students and support staff gather with teacher for the first task of defining the mobility game elements. Overall, we are organizing 4 LTT workshops face to face in partner organisations. The target group of students with special needs may not always have the similar opportunities to have a mobility experience abroad and may not have travelled before. The virtual meetings are not enough to cover actual experience on travelling, the LTT: s ensure that students are provided with the experience to share their thoughts and have an input to the project results. By implementing LTTS the students will be able to share collaborate with European peers face to face. We will include 3 students to each LTT with an accompanying person and a teacher ensuring the progression of the project results. We aim to implement working groups between the LTTs, where students collaborate via teams to partner countries. We will validate and evaluate the success, usage and relevancy via feedback questionnaires firstly to gather information for definitions, and also for a feed back after LTTs and multiplier events.We will have hands on project for students, where they take part in creating and developing the game. Content will be created together with European peers and teaching staff. The approach is to have not just digital but interactive and innovative project results. According to the design thinking principles we´ll brainstorm, create, pilot and achieve our goals. There will be five transnational project meetings, TPM during the project. One of the transnational project meetings will be held online. Part of the meetings will be arranged at the same time with the learning, teaching and training activities (LTT), however TPM meetings ensure the overall schedule and tasks on the project. Monthly coordinators meetings online ensure that all the project results are proceeding according to the timeline.1.December 2021 Kick off/ LTT1/ Transnational project meeting, Finland2.April 2022 Transnational project meeting and LTT 2, Spain 3.September 2022, Transnational project meeting, online 4.December 2022, transnational project meeting, Austria 5.May 2023, transnational project meeting (final meeting)To strengthen the sustainability and use of project results we will organise three multiplier events.<< Results >>We plan to make four project results.1)“How to survive Europe” online game. 2)“Mobility-ability” study module3)Mobility handbooks and 4)Mobility-ability journal. The point is that the internationalization reaches the classroom easily with a motivating game and other tasks. The binding factor in the project results is that it reaches the whole spectrum of internationalization among students and staff, with actual mobility or not. Through project results we will promote cultural knowledge and awareness of European values and identity. By gamification, the intercultural skills will be improved, and students can gain international perspective by playing the game and other content. Content wise, the project results will offer engaging, interactive materials and tools to get the students involved, aware and interested on internationalization and European identity. All results will be gathered to Thinglink, easily usable and also flexible on producing different inputs (video, tasks, presentations etc). Thinglink is accessible and easy to disseminate in various channels. Definition and interaction will happen online, so that the project reaches as many students and teachers as possible. Goal is to have at least 100 participants building the project-based results and sharing their ideas on internationalization. In the classrooms between the Learning teaching training (LTT) activities, on the other hand LTT: s gather the content and provide the possibility for transversal brainstorming with peers. In addition, we are going to use different digital platforms to make it possible for the students to gather, to share their thoughts and ideas on the common topic. If spoken language is hard to comprehend or produce, digital solutions provide the possibility for all level students to participate for example by pictures and symbols. Train for international trail ties together a wide range of competences, skills and aspects on internationalisation for the students. Teachers will gain concrete tools and tasks to integrate internationalization to the teaching enhancing awareness also on the organisational level.We aim to reach additional competences measured and evaluated by collecting feedback.Expected impact on students•Flexible teamwork and social competences •Knowledge about European culture, cultural skills •Improved English skills •Better self-confidence, motivation•Readiness for future working life •Learning to use gamification as a teaching method. •How to create a digital handbook, a video content, technical aspects, visual aspects •Creative thinking enlarges while constructing the game. •Improved digital skills •Better ability to reflect and pinpoint the main aspects for internationalization. Expected impact on teachers and other staff •Better understanding on European network and collaboration. •Knowledge on evaluation and definitions of SEN students in partner countries •Use of 360 cameras and applications related to create teaching materials. •Offer solutions and tips on how to support different students on self-expressing. •Templates for further use as evaluation toolsExpected impact on the participating organisations •New pedagogical tools and methods in use •Enhance the quality of learning and teaching. •Flexible and inclusive training•More possibilities for international cooperation.