<< Background >>The INTERLOCALITY consortium is composed of partners from 5 different countries (Denmark, Germany, Finland, Netherlands, and Italy), including four HEI’s and a job- and international mobility agency whose common focus revolves around international students and their employability. The COVID-19 pandemic has made the importance of inclusion and equality of opportunities in education even more evident. In accordance with Eurostat data EU-27 unemployment rose to 7,5% in February 2021 (est.16 million). More than 3 million are youngsters under 25 years. International students are in the one of the vulnerable migrant groups of being significantly affected by challenge of unemployment. Common for the local regions of the participating HEIs is a basic and increasing need for highly skilled and qualified workers within the fields of business administration and engineering. While companies experience a need for qualified workers, international degree students and graduates struggle to find their way into local companies despite the outspoken need. This calls for action to support both sides of this gap between the two groups ensuring continued growth and innovation within the companies and thereby local regions. While all partners have tried to solve these challenges by testing out different methods and initiatives within their own institutions and local environments, the need for joining forces around a common European, sustainable approach seems evident and has been reinforced by the realization of how similar both our challenges and environments are. Speaking to a European agenda of battling risen unemployment rates among the youth the importance and relevance of joining forces and creating transnational partnerships as the key to overcome challenges of the European labour market is definite.<< Objectives >>The objective of INTERLOCALITY is to increase local employability among international HE degree students within the fields of engineering and of business administration. International degree students often struggle to find internships and employment locally. Although these are crucial issues for HEIs’ student attraction and retention, it is not within the power of the HEIs to secure employment for their students. In this they rely completely on companies and organisations to hire students. There is a widely acknowledged gap between HE studies, and employment and INTERLOCALITY aims to bridge that gap by supporting 1) the international degree students, 2) staff at HEIs and 3) companies and 3rd sector staff taking upon a quadruple helix approach involving all four main actors that influence the local employability of international degree students, namely international degree students themselves, HEI staff, local companies and the surrounding society.<< Implementation >>In WP 2 we firstly map and analyse the needs among students and employers in local companies (T2.1) before developing a prototype for an International Alumni Monitoring Tool (IAMT) (T2.2). The IAMT will track and collect objective general data on the mobility and career steps of the international student, and subjective data on their perception of their participation on the labour market. Furthermore, the IAMT will provide guidelines on how to transfer and build a monitoring tool in another regional/national context than the participating countries (T.2.2.5).In WP3 we will develop what we call the International Talent Journey (ITJ). This journey will through Pre-Internships (T3.3) give the students at the HEIs a structured qualification process for international students, based on the identified needs, gaps, skills mismatch and lack of opportunities and connect them better with the local labour market. In this WP we will also provide a user guide for how this can be done (T3.6). WP4 consist of a Online Staff Training Modules and Assessment Tool, where we develop and test 3 online training modules addressed to staff at HEIs, companies and third sector organizations and associations, development and testing of a digital assessment tool (T4.2) and a user guide to adapt the open-source modules and digital assessment tools to the local needs of HEIs, companies and third sector actors (T4.5). All project partners are responsible for local dissemination events to ensure all actors in the target audience of dissemination taking on their part of the responsibility by working together to create sustainable ecosystems. Structures for national as well as international dissemination has been developed to ensure a large degree of transferability and impact to similar national and international HEI’s. All ending with a final international conference in Eindhoven (NL) to finish off the project.<< Results >>The expected key project results are:INTERNATIONAL ALUMNI MONITORING TOOL (IAMT)The IAMT prototype to track and collect objective general data on the mobility and career steps of the international student, and subjective data on their perception of their participation on the labour market, their intentions to stay, and the factors that hinder or enable their international career and personal and professional development. The development manual will provide HEIs information on the content elements of the IAMT, as well as guidelines on how to transfer and build a monitoring tool in another regional/national context.INTERNATIONAL TALENT JOURNEY (ITJ)A structured qualification process for international students, based on the identified needs, gaps, skills mismatch and lack of opportunities. The ITJ consists of two interconnected areas addressing the gap between the students and the local labour market from theoretical qualification point of view and opportunity to participate in low threshold contact formats with regional employers.ONLINE STAFF TRAINING MODULES AND ASSESSMENT TOOLThis entails development and testing of 3 online training modules addressed to staff at HEIs, companies and third sector organizations and associations, development and testing of a digital assessment tool and a user guide to adapt the open-source modules and digital assessment tools to the local needs of HEIs, companies and third sector actors.All key project results are crucial in the support of the overall objective of increasing local employability among international HE degree students within the fields of engineering and of business administration.