<< Background >>EU countries are facing the problem of practical skills for sustainable implementation of Waste Management as well as lack of knowledge on how to implement the requirements of the established legislation. Among the problems that municipalities face is the lack of sufficient education of its staff, in order to understand the economic, social and environmental benefits of reuse and recycling and the existing solutions. Moreover, the pandemic has significantly affected society, the economy and millions of people around the globe. International consortium composed of EU-VET organizations from Cyprus, Greece, N.Macedonia, Poland and Slovenia will develop, within the ENCOURAGE project, the Courses for Sustainable Waste Management for Municipalities as well as for VET education. According to the assessment in the project partner's countries, there is missing or insufficient WM educational programs integrated and offered to municipalities and public companies in the partners’ countries which would allow employees to acquire the needed competencies and increase their productivity while enabling sustainability for their local community. In accordance with the above mentioned the contribution to a higher level of education/training in the field of waste management is insufficient and calls for an urgent reaction, to build up capacities and match both short-term and long-term needs for WM experts.The project will help to change their attitude, embrace the concept of waste management and act as influencers for the encouragement of other members of their communities. One of the most important priorities of this project is to encourage and educate the municipal employees how to manage wastes appropriately, in order to enable proper management of wastes generated within the municipalities. This will be made possible by building relevant and high-quality skills and competences through the development and implementation of Courses for Sustainable Waste Management for Municipalities. These courses will support the setting up and will provide access to upskilling pathways on sustainable waste management, which is the most relevant priority of the Project.Building an innovative, resource-efficient and diversified economy requires using the potential of the regions for the development of new economic specializations; growth of innovation and digitization of the economy; creation of conditions for maintaining and creating stable workplaces; increasing the use of information and communication technologies in enterprises and in the public sector the use of existing industrial specialization for the creation of innovative products; development of entrepreneurship; implementation of a closed loop economy. Therefore, the developed within the project e-training materials will provide opportunities for using innovative learning methods,as well as possibility to have e-courses. The most important is to provide unique support across EU to students,entrepreneurs and innovators dedicated to developing innovative solutions to societal challenges. In response to the pandemic crises, there are needed extraordinary initiatives to provide immediate and emergency support to green economy and to support selected activities needed to regenerate and reboot our economies. Due to the ENCOURAGE development, there will be the promotion of the VET sector, including dual education system and cooperation between vocational education and training institutions and employers. In practice, both VET providers and the VET institutions will have a solid basis for organizing education, acquiring and training teachers and making investments in the infrastructure of practical VET training.<< Objectives >>The implementation of developed courses for sustainable waste management will provide recognition of knowledge and skills for appropriate handling with all waste types by the participants. Additionally, the developed courses will be transparent and the analyzes that will be carried out within the project will contribute to the development of required qualifications for sustainable waste management. Therefore, in the frame of the project is planned and will be developed Qualification profile for Waste Managemant specialist with the use of NQF/EQF levels.Therefore, the development of such VET educational programs would be essential in order to improve the capacities of employees within the environmental or waste sector within the pilot municipalities as a target group and to contribute to their better performance consequently for higher environmental protection and residents they work for. Moreover, the project output will possess the elements of innovation like the development of Curriculum and syllabus for Courses for Sustainable WM with the elements of validation and certification based on concrete competence requirements, which serve as clearly defined and agreed reference points for building curricula for trainers and for assessing the competences gained at work.The project objectives are:- To develop and implement new and innovative professional courses for the waste sector in line with EU Waste Framework Directive.- To improve the level of competencies and skills at municipality level in the field of sustainable WM. - To close the gap between the needs for new knowledge, lack of educational programs and challenges of target groups in sustainable waste management.The aim is the education of the target groups: representatives from waste or environmental department within municipalities, VET schools/teachers/trainees and decision makers, for sustainable WM in line with the national and EU policies, and in long-term contributing to the development and management of waste resources on both a local and global scale.Development and implementation of this project is sustainable investment for the future, because it will be highly effective program developed according to the needs and possibilities of the partner countries in the field of waste management. By implementation of the project in other municipalities in the project partner countries will be achieved sustainability of the project.The Covid19 forced on millions of people in the EU to acquire new skills and the need to upskill in order to lose the job, income or to find a new source of income. Entry in the labour market will be very challenging. The rapid shift towards a digital transformation can serve different educational purposes and mobility opportunities for learners, teachers and educators across the EU. Project responses for the EU needs regarding the digitalisation of such sector like education which is the heart of the EU’s climate leadership. Project IOs allows for the connecting educators/learners with each other when in separate locations accessing information and environments not usually available in every home or institution supporting continued professional development of educators in a flexible way.<< Implementation >>Substantial institutional reorganizations and strengthening of the human resources within the governmental institutions shall be required in order to implement the National waste management strategies within the partner countries. Sustainability requires new forms of organizing, involving diverse stakeholders; new and diverse leading and organizing skills, understanding and knowledge for waste managers and Representatives of local government; new way of considering sustainability within municipalities; new business models to be developed; methodological and methodical knowledge and understanding how to make a sustainable waste system. All these issues will be affected by the ENCOURAGE project activities. This project sets up a new framework of courses for integrated sustainable waste management systems in order to implement the established waste management legislation. Subject of courses will cover topics that will provide implementation of waste management legislation, realization of the obligations of the local self-government (municipalities), establishment of sustainable waste management system, reducing of waste quantities and proper waste management in general, as it is already established in the developed EU countries. This will be achieved through learning from the project partner countries that are EU member countries and which have already established and implemented sustainable WM systems. The trainings will be adapted to the national legislation and possibilities, as well as tailored towards European standards and EU WM policies. The training concept consists of face-to-face lessons and e-learning modules (blended learning) and will therefore also increase the ICT skills of participants.The Courses in Sustainable Waste Management will provide multi-disciplinary and high-quality adult and VET education in the field of waste management. The learners within municipalities and among decision makers will be trained with technical and managerial knowledge and skills to:- successfully plan, design, operate and manage integrated waste management projects and implement waste management legislation;- understand institutional, socio-economic, and policy issues related to waste management;- deal with issues related to the waste management;- manage activities related to the existing municipal waste dumps;- enhance the safe exploitation and re-use of waste;- analyze and interpret amounts of waste generated at the municipal level;- provide adequate waste composition analysis and adequate sustainable way of handling all generated wastes;- Interact with other relevant science domains and integrate them to come up with sustainable solutions, supporting the implementation of Integrated Waste Management system.Knowledge from the courses will be implemented on a real case study, and this result will be ready to be used by the pilot municipalities, proposing the path for the municipality toward overall planning for long-term sustainable waste management in order to implement the established waste management legislation. Also, project activities are focused on supporting the European waste strategies and policies, especially the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC that sets the basic concepts and definitions related to waste management, such as definitions of waste, recycling, recovery.<< Results >>The project assumes development of high quality innovative IOs in reference to the potential and resources at the disposal of the Partnership. Conscious and purposeful selection of Partners was the first condition of accomplishing that objective. Project partners operate in a range of VET and adult education context, ranging from not for profit organisations to the university embracing formal, nonfromal and informal education. A criterion of complementarily of a personnel’s competency potential and experience and material resources of partners required to performance of measures foreseen in the project. Specific profiles of 6 institutions from 5 countries and purposefully selected personnel involved in the project implementation constitutes a guarantee of accomplishing assumed objectives and outcomes. The wider aim of the project is the education of local self-government and the decision makers in the project partners in sustainable WM in line with the national and EU policies. The specific objectives are expected:*Improvement of the level of competencies and skills at municipality level in the field of sustainable WM.*Development and implementation of new and innovative professional courses for the waste sector.*To close the gap between the needs for new knowledge,lack of educational programs and challenges of local self-government and the decision makers in sustainable WM.*Creation opportunities for continuous professional development of employees in the budding WM sector through realization of relevant training courses.*Development of qualifications for waste management specialist with the use of NQF/EQF levels.*Creation of interactive e-learning platform and integrative approach with real live scenarios,guidelines and good practices.This will promote access to and learning through open and innovative practices in digital era and in addition to support for ICT-based trainings.Developed solutions for qualifications and quality assurance will contribute to improving the adaptation of employees' competences to the needs of the labour market. A key condition for flexible response to the challenges of the labour market is the creation of a universal and attractive LLL system. To achieve this,it is crucial to disseminate learning, especially in the most effective forms of e-learning which will require recognition of learning outcomes achieved through non-formal education and informal learning and will allow you to respond quickly to the needs of lifting qualifications. The project will use attractive teaching e-tools to promote and use flexible learning pathways, which will also contribute to equalizing access to LLL.