In many EU countries and at the European level, there is a general desire to support and further improve youth participation, as can be seen in the strategy for the youth sector 2020-2023. YOUC aims to enhance the expertise of young activists and educators to involve marginalised youth in activities for the benefit of local communities, to improve youth empowerment, social inclusion and networking with local decision makers and ordinary citizens. The partnership has developed : - A guide for promoting youth civic participation at the local level which consists of a methodology and a set of tools that youth activists and educators can use in their projects. The topics of the guide are - Involving young people at risk and keeping them involved - Diagnosing the needs of local communities - Understanding and cooperating with the local institutional context- Defining the objectives and action plan of your project- Monitoring and evaluating the results of your project- Evaluating your own learning - A face-to-face training programme for young people involved in civic participation projects: contains 26 lesson plans and related teaching materials that youth activists and educators can use to train and guide vulnerable (at-risk) young people involved in local change projects by addressing the questions of Why mobilise in a project? How to build a team and value individual skills in a collective approach? How to diagnose the needs of local communities and identify the local context for the implementation of initiatives to benefit local communities? How to define objectives and corresponding action plans and take action? How to monitor and evaluate results? The guide and the training programme can be downloaded from the project website https://youc-project.eu/the-project/, the Erasmus+ results platform, Epale, OER Commons. - An online training programme for educators, youth activists and young people at risk: The online training is based on the methodology and material contained in the previous intellectual productions, but with a fluidity, interactivity and ergonomics that make it easy to use and read. Evaluation questionnaires have been integrated to test the learners' knowledge. https://youc-project.eu/our-courses/ 500 people: young activists, young people at risk, youth educators, staff of youth associations were mobilised (mobility in France, steering locally, participation in meetings) during the project to work on local participation of these young people to solve problems in their local communities. They were able to test the intellectual productions in order to improve them. The project methodology is based on experiential learning, cooperative learning, peer education and participatory action research. The consortium is composed of youth and research organisations based in FR, PL, ES, LV. 44,140 people have been reached by YOUC actions in direct and indirect ways.

EU population is projected to continue to grow older and by 2050, the world’s population will approach 10 billion (2/3 of whom will live in cities). Considering the food demand of this aging and urbanising population “Urban Agriculture”(UA) has become of great interest in finding new answers for how cities can master recent agricultural, social, economic, and ecological challenges. UA takes place in many styles, and through the involvement of many different kinds of stakeholders. Thousands of new-incomers to UA are expected, including not only agricultural students or professional farmers but also unemployed youth, social & educational bodies, environmental actors, general public(who have concerns on aforementioned issues) each of them requiring all of whom need specific technical competences in UA. A partnership from 4 Southern European countries(FR, IT, ES, TR) has come together to benefit from this emerging and innovative sector to find futuristic solutions for four main needs and relevant opportunities in the innovative sector of UA:-Engineering and agricultural innovations within urban systems that sustainably stimulate growth are needed to feed the future’s much older and crowded population-Agro-food education needs to be re-examined to respond to the challenges of rapid technological progress-There is a need to improve public awareness on modern agriculture and food production. People often struggle to understand and appreciate the complexity of UA and its role in society with regard to the environment-To date, most of UA initiatives by newcomers, with limited agricultural background have resulted in limited economic, environmental and social sustainability, which often cause failure.The general aim is to Contribute The EU and Its Citizens’ Lives Through Practical VET Solutions For Future “Urban-Farmers”. Specific objectives include:-Bringing together existing knowledge in UA -Supporting the educational processes of agricultural students and new-incomers in UA-Developing the teaching skills of agricultural VET actors in UA while developing VET skills of related stakeholders as regards to the innovative UA sector-Creating a sustainable VET environment &network for of local, regional, national and European stakeholders’ interaction, exchange of ideas, experiences and good practices.In accordance with these strategic objectives, the project will develop 3 intellectual outputs to answer those needs: 1 A training methodology and supporting tools (a methodological framework to train agricultural students and project managers including new incomers in the field of agriculture wishing to develop vertical indoor farms);2-An E-course platform based on the developed methodology(A European and multidisciplinary E-training tools-kit to support the training activities of the stakeholders but also usable in autonomy by the target groups: students, promoters of agricultural projects, urban citizens and organisations);3-A European Hub for all relevant stakeholders in the UA sector(A previously created European network of stakeholders will be animated and its actions fostered. It will further involve municipalities, NGO’s and citizens’ organisations, agricultural training centres, business angels, incubators, innovation centres and professional organisation).Within the framework of the project 24 future urban famers and 10 VET actors(Inno-Farm VET trainers/Facilitators) will be directly involved in the blended training activities. The project will precisely focus on potential urban farmers interested in experiencing new UA models and who also need an adapted training scheme, which could be developed within agricultural schools and other VET actors. The project aims to develop some key skills and competences in the target groups including entrepreneurship spirit, sense of innovation, practical urban farming skills, researching, problem solving and learning to learn. In this regards the target groups are:-Professional actors: teachers/trainers(on agro-food VET schools), agricultural consultants & academics-Agro-Food Students in formal education and professional farmers-New-incomers: new project leaders in UA, employees in redevelopment, unemployed youth etc-Supporting organisations for incomers(incubators, cooperatives or any supporting organisation involved in UA)-Local administrations as they need to understand better the development stakes of UA and the supporting tools proposed-Citizens organisation(local NGO’s, neighbourhood associations, consumer associations) as potential prescriptors and consumers of the production developed in UA).To create a sustainable impact area, the project has developed an effective dissemination strategy including several tools and channels: Local/Regional/National networks of partners; Multiplier Events in each country; Study Visits & 3rd party Activities; Local/National Media; European Dissemination Platforms and Social Media.

<< Objectives >>LOFT aim to contribute the EU’s policy on harnessing the potential of digital technologies for teaching and learning with digital skills for small scale food producers (LFPs)Specific Objectives;Developing a database to unveil the potential of LFPsFacilitating the digital adaptation of LFPsEstablishing sustainable local food hubs Generating a mobile application where all the previous objectives combineRaising public awareness on local food and related issues (like food safety, security etc.<< Implementation >>WP1: Project Management activities WP2: A specific field study on 3 specific objectives; mapping, identifying needs; collecting good examplesWP3: A modular, practical and adaptable VET methodologyWP4: A network, which will be an organisational innovation hub in the local food sector.WP5: An online application, digital, practical and sustainableWP6 Dissemination: Ensuring the visibility of LOFT by creating expected impactsWP7 QA: Ensuring the quality of LOFT activities and results<< Results >>Identified needs, potentials, legal frameworks; good examples and backgroundEnhanced digital skills and developed competences of LFPs; Improved levels of skills and encouraged new comersCooperation among local food actors; More attraction on local food; More competitive LFPsIncreased level of digital competences, capacity and readiness of LFPs to manage an effective shift towards digital era in agro-food sectorConscious public on food related issues. Visibility to reach more end users

<< Objectives >>The project Grow and Sell for Sustainable Living - Sowing the seed of seeds of young female entrepreneurship works towards three objectives.1. A sustainable environment2. Promoting active citizenship and youth entrepreneurship3. Inclusion of girls and young women into the workforce• food growing technology for small production• technical competences• sustainability issues• local community food projects• entrepreneurial skills based on Entrecomp- soft skils and Lifecomp<< Implementation >>Project Management structure will describe the tasks per partner and the corresponding responsibilities, project milestones, communication arrangements and reporting obligationsDisseminationEvaluation processProduction of WPsa. Methodology Handbook and CPD Curriculumb. Online toolkits and learning management system Youth workersc Online toolkit Young women3 x Transversal Project MeetingsMultiplier events and Final ConferenceHarvest Markets in each country<< Results >>The project results:1. A set of resources for Youth workers on how to develop key competences in young females using the context ofgrowing and selling, sustainable living and entrepreneurship2. A set of online toolkits, non-formal resources aimed at young females and youth workers helping with gaining newskills in entrepreneurship.3. A Methodology Handbook, Implementation Plan and Training Curriculum for decision makers

"Despite annual tourism statistics highlighting an increasing number of visitors to wineries in Europe, wine tourism training is rare. Indeed, to date, only two universities offer training in the wine tourism sector namely, Universidade Lusófona in Portugal and Universidad de Salamanca in Spain.It is in this context that six European organizations from research and trade sectors worked together for 31 months (September 2016 - March 2019) in order to create the ""BACCHUS SME"" vocational training in tourism. Thus, the partnership included a cooperative that supports and promotes sustainable rural development, economic, social, professional and employment (FR); three SMEs (PT, AT, BG) active in the fields of vocational training, adult training and human resources consultancy; a university (ES) covering scientific fields and know-how related to tourism and organizational development and having interdisciplinary research experience; and a local development agency (IT) that supports and promotes sustainable rural, economic, social, vocational and employment development, and operates in particular in the areas of rural tourism, environmental education, rural development and tourism. innovation, technology transfer and vocational training.BACCHUS SME project was divided into four phases: analysis of the organizational development of SMEs (O1); analysis of the wine tourism sector (O2); development of the learning program and the diagnostic tool (O3) and creation of the BACCHUS SME platform (O4).Thus, the partners first conducted two studies (O1 and O2) on their territory in order to identify the specific needs of small and medium-sized winegrowers for their organizational development and for a diversification of their wine tourism offer. To do this, the partners have worked with both wine entrepreneurs, wine tourists but also public bodies, local development associations, experts in wine tourism, etc. to which they submitted questionnaires. Focus groups and literature searches complemented the field studies. In total, nearly 500 people contributed to the work.Based on the results of their studies, the partners created an innovative learning program (O3) including a diagnostic tool and blended-learning training modules (combination of online training sequences and face-to-face training). Thus, in view of the identified needs, the partners of BACCHUS project developed the following modules: (1) wine tourism as an opportunity for the wine industry; (2) good practices for innovation and entrepreneurship strategy in wine tourism; (3) analysis of local and global tourism attractions; (4) English language in the wine tourism sector; (5) communication and cooperation techniques; (6) marketing in the wine tourism sector; (7) ICTs applied to wine tourism and digital marketing; (8) wine and heritage and (9) food and wine pairings. All content is embedded in the online platform BACCHUS SME (O4) developed specifically for the project needs.In addition to the communication actions carried out on digital tools and in the press, the intellectual outputs of BACCHUS SME project were presented during multiplier events (E3-E10) organized as part of the project. The latter brought together nearly 300 people from the six territories of the partnership (AT, BG, ES, FR, IT and PT) who had he opportunity to share their opinion and even test the developed content and tools.For more information on the project and its results, please consult free available BACCHUS SME tools and content from the project website: www.bacchus-sme.eu."