The maritime activity in Europe, and in particular the port sector, has been changing significantly over the last ten years due to the rapid technological development and the increasing geopolitical importance of world sea trade. In the context of higher volatility and trade diversification, the increasing economic growth of the port activity has lead to further challenges, mainly for the so-called ‘Ports of 4th Generation. Today, the diversity of port activities within the sector incurs in a higher diversification of job occupations, with future trends related to the inclusion of advanced technologies, effective port management procedures and sustainable requirements. As a result, the port sector has become one of the key economic sectors of high strategic value generating new occupations and jobs. The general objective of the Port VET Hub is therefore to build a sustainable transnational VET-port business cooperation to adapt VET specializations and skills with the port trends of tomorrow, attracting high-level talent and increase hiring future prospects across four key ports of Europe in the Atlantic (Lisbon), Mediterranean (Barcelona), Baltic (Ventspils) and Back Seas (Constanta). The specific objectives are the following: (1) to adapt VET port studies curricula and training offer (both of technical and non-technical specializations) according to new sector trends and skills demanded by the port companies; (2) to influence port companies about the advantadges of VET education as fundamental educational path to meet their demands and get port employeers highly capable and skilled and (3), to raise awareness and attractiveness of VET port studies and professions as a career option of strategic importance among youngsters of every partner country. Convinced by the central role of VET system in the education change processes, the innovative idea of the Port VET Hub is driven by the global attempt of gathering both social and economic groups involved in society transformation as could be port sector experts, VET staff and youngsters as a way to cooperate and exchange best practices, analyze and offer recommendations for the adaption of VET to the European port sector. The Port VET Hub is thus expected to set the basis for a long sustainable collaboration in time, based on common strategic issues and stimulating direct exchange inter-paria among strong partners with equal needs, challenges and solutions to adapt to the future of work in front of other emerging regions.

Tackle is the collection of tools necessary to complete a task as well as the verb to mean the determined effort to deal with a complex problem. The TACKLE project does both of these - it provides a digital toolbox for schools to tackle Early School Leaving and disadvantage through guidance. The digital tools will support schools in evaluating their services and work to assure that, despite the additional pressures on schools within the Covid-19 crisis, they are prepared to tackle disadvantage and early school leaving. The pathways to education, training or access to the labor market by young people who are finishing school and young people in school who are at risk of Early Leaving, must be accompanied with quality guidance services because many connections have been broken as a result of the current Covid-19 crisis.According to Eurostat, the proportion of early leavers from education and training in the EU in 2019 ranged from 3.0 % in Croatia to 17.3 % in Spain . In the TACKLE partnership countries great progress has been made in reducing Early School Leaving and meeting the 2020 benchmark goal. In 2010 the proportion of early leavers in Spain, Italy and Greece was 28.6%,18.2%, and 13.5% respectively compared with 17.3%, 13.5% and 4.1% in 2019. A 2010 Cedefop report by its ESL ambassadors altered that marginalized and vulnerable learners especially are more at risk for disengaging and dropping out and that actions are needed to support students and schools so that the progress made prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in the early leaving from education and training should be sustained and strengthened. As a result of the Covid-19 crisis in Europe, the need for guidance services, monitoring and support in schools for their students is even more urgent. According to a June 2020 study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, the challenges for guidance in times of Coronavirus have been and will be to continue to offer support and follow-up with students and their families despite the conditions and the needed digitalized of guidance and the increase of access to guidance resources overall.The objective of this project is to develop digital evaluation tools for Secondary schools to self-evaluate their academic and career guidance program, to develop an academic and career guidance plan to tackle new challenges and offer an online training module for teachers, guidance practitioners to work with the TACKLE Toolbox and to support teachers in their role to support students, with digital tools and resources, in this unprecedented time. The TACKLE project activities by the numbers:- 1 online school guidance diagnostic Checklist- 1 Guidance Action Plan and Resources creator- 1 Training Module for teachers, guidance practitioners and other educators- 3 contexts - Spain, Italy, Greece- 5 partner organisations- 75 schools participating in the Pilot Action of the Toolbox- 65 teachers and guidance practitioners trained in the Pilot of the TACKLE Training Module. - 45 participants in the multiplier event of the project- A total of at least 200 education professionals participating in the project activities to develop the intellectual outputs.The methodologies that will be used to develop these tools and achieve the planned results are participatory - involving the professionals on the groups in secondary schools as well as the broader school -business community through focus groups or an expert review and validation process. The desired impact of the TACKLE project is for the schools using the TACKLE toolbox to provide career education and guidance activities that support transitions to further education, training and work from Secondary Schools and to tackle Early School Leaving with a coherent and school community-wide guidance action plan implemented by trained professionals. The current coronavirus crisis makes more urgent the need to ensure that schools and educators continue and strengthen their academic and professional guidance plans and resources in support of the transitions, decision-making and pathways of their students, but the need for these tools does not end with the pandemic. The TACKLE toolbox will relevant for schools to employ beyond the pandemic and to strategically implement guidance actions, be guiding schools, that tackle the complexities and supporting their students on their education and training pathways.

"The CALLING project is planned as a new voice to listen to: that of students and their dreams, talents, attitudes and vocations, in order to accompany them in a process of orientation aimed at self-training and full self-accomplishment.Orientation (Guidance) is a process associated with the growth of the person as a whole, considered in their identity, in their relationships with theirselves, with work, with the others and with their own aspirations and wishes: ""To Orientate an individual means making him/her acquire self-guidance skills, aimed at improving the self-perception, making her/him capable of making decisions and choices consistent with one's wishes».The project “CALLING - An Innovative Approach in School Guidance and Vocational Orientation” fits perfectly into the picture just outlined, and intends to support and accompany teachers towards a paradigm shift: the student is a ""complex system"" beyond the school aspects and, as such, the student must be considered in the new perspective of his/her dream to be made true. Teachers, starting from the student's aspirations, attitudes and interests, should help him build his life project in terms of self-evaluation, self-guidance and self-accomplishment.The CALLING project refers to 3 main priorities of the Erasmus Plus Program: 1) SE - Strenghening the profiles of the teaching professions; 2) H - Supporting individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences; 3) H - Social Inclusion. In this perspective, the project will transfer an innovative Orientation and Skill Mapping method to the teachers, target group of the project, and will provide them with a Suite of Tool including a training module in preparation to the testing. Also, a final Charter will include all the project tools and contributions, in order to be used in the classroom. The CALLING method and tools will facilitate the teachers to build an orientation and mapping path and will support them to help the potential ESL students (final beneficiaries) to counter the risks that make them so.The project partnership has an extensive experience in: 1) European project’s design / management, 2) building educational, training and professional Guidance paths, 3) skill assessment. The CALLING project partners are: Eulab Consulting (IT), Coordination and Administration manager and IO2's leading partner; Skill Up (IT) responsible for Impact and Dissemination and leading partner of IO4; Consorcio Educacio Barcelona (ES), project quality manager and IO1 leading partner; Akademie Klausenhof (DE) in charge of internal product evaluation and IO3 leading partner; GEMS (UK) responsible for Communication and Sustainability and support partner for IO1 and IO4; Orte’s Comprehensive School (IT) responsible for internal product evaluation and IO3 support partner.The tools produced by the partnership, outlined in 4 IOs, will offer to recipients and beneficiaries: a comparative report containing the results of the analysis conducted in the partner countries on various models of orientation and skill mapping (IO1); the digital platform to monitor the orientation path (IO2) for teachers; an integrated package of innovative tools (Suite of Tools - planned using the comparative analysis’ results) and a preparatory training module (IO3); the CALLING Charter, that will systematise all the work done, enhance both the philosophy and the products, emphasise how the chosen methodology is able to guarantee an added value to the target group-teachers and significant positive effects for the final and potential beneficiaries.Finally, a relevant operational segment of the process will be the dissemination and sustainability of the results. With the explicit intent to involve the largest possible number of potential users of the Suite of Tools and the CALLING approach, many different forms of external communication will be used to increase the impact, not only among the partners’ territories, but also on a national and European level. The goal is to translate the project outputs in the 4 languages of the partnership and to make them interesting for a large number of people for being innovative, free of charge, European-minded and immediately usable."

The European Cities Against School Segregation (ECASS) project sets the objective of creating innovative solutions for local government to tackle school segregation in European cities. School segregation is a burden to achieve equal opportunities for all and social and educational inclusion. As one of the main difficulties to undertake efficient education policies in this area is the transfer gap between researchers and policymakers, the ECASS project has been designed as a collaborative workspace between recognised research experts and local education authorities in three cities: Barcelona, Milan and Oslo.The project will generate innovative solutions in five main policy areas: admission policies, school supply, systems of detection and enrolment of vulnerable students, communication policies and priority policies addressed to disadvantaged schools and students. The ECASS consortium is composed of professionals from three research centres and three local education authorities. The project has designed a methodological strategy to maximise collaboration and co-design to reduce the transfer gap, such as a system of co-leading and mixing teams from research centres and local government agencies. The consortium will collaborate intensely with the City Policy Platforms (CPP) from each city, which will be composed by education stakeholders, including school-parent associations, headteachers and teachers (especially working in vulnerable contexts), teacher unions, representatives of district school boards, other local technicians and policymakers and civil society organizations working with vulnerable children. The consortium and the associate partners will collaborate in the production of project outputs.The ECASS project foresees the production of six innovative products that will boost innovation in the area of desegregation education policies. These include a catalogue of indicators and datasets to facilitate evidence-based decision-making; a database of innovative policies to tackle school segregation; policy recommendations and guidelines to reduce school segregation in European cities; course materials for local policymakers and other education stakeholders; an interactive workspace for school cooperation and information packs for families.The project includes a comprehensive dissemination plan by which all these outputs will be open access and available to the general public in the project's website as well as in institutional repositories. In addition, some outputs will be included in the School Gateway portal as a useful resource for schools and local policymakers. The three cities participating in this project are facing important challenges in educational inclusion, especially linked to the arrival of migrant and refugee population. The transnational character of the project will provide extremely useful knowledge since the three cities must respond to similar challenges from three different systems of school choice and three different institutional frameworks regarding the role of local education authorities in education policy. Both the similarities and differences between cities provide an excellent context for evaluating different scenarios of causes and characteristics of school segregation and for producing innovative solutions that can be scaled up. ECASS will help to put desegregation policies at the forefront of priorities to achieve a real inclusive education. Its result will contribute to building more equal and cohesive societies in Europe.

When we submitted SUDEGO we had reflected that there hadn’t been enough debating about sustainable development so far, neither in the society. On a strategy of global sustainability, this topic plays a critical role and will be of great support in the future for the next generations. Towards the same direction have moved both the 2015 UN program, with its 17 goals to be targeted within 2030 -endorsed by the European Commission with an official directive on 22/11/2016- and the EU document COM(2011) 571 Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe document, dealing with the creation of a sustainable European economy within 2050.We were confident that the world of education would be the right place to engage this debate and the final results have proved us right. The teachers, as well as the great receptiveness and enthusiasm of their students have been the right targets and beneficiaries of our project. They are the ones that can better spread this crucial information and promote best practices among their families and communities. SUDEGO has provided them with a innovative tool kit to create basic and advanced knowledge and effective skills about five out of the 17 goals of 2030 Agenda: Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being; Goal 5: Gender Equality; Goal 7: Affordable Energy; Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production; Goal 15: Life on Land.The work was completed in 2 years by a partnership of 7 qualified organizations from 5 different countries (3 IT, BG, SP, FI, UK); all with great experience in either the education sector and productive or social field.In line with the priority Relevant and High-Quality Skills and Competences, SUDEGO has provided a set of consistent information and a program of didactic modules for teachers of ISCED2 and ISCED3, intended to help them and their students create a different point of view and a positive vision towards 2030 Agenda. The project was organized in 4 different intellectual goals aimed at creating innovative materials and supported by different side activities to implement the smooth and effective project coordination (management, quality control, communication, dissemination & sustainability). The final results are available for free on the project’s web site and platform:1) a report on the state of the art and best practices;2) 5 ISCED2 level school didactic modules3) 5 ISCED3 level school didactic modules4) the SUDEGO e-book that sums up the project’s action and highlights its results. It’s made up by: guidelines, evidences, best practices, test analysis and the trend updates of the 5 goals in EU-28.The methodology for the didactic modules was a tiered structure: 1) the core of the lesson, made up of slides, videos, multimedia and interactive materials; 2) the lesson book, i.e. a teacher manual with the plan of the lesson, further information on the presentation materials, teaching strategies, references; 3) an end-of-the-module multiple choice test with answer feedbacks.The project was monitored by a Quality Control System to which all of the partners contributed; the assessing activity was focused on the results and was organized on a peer review basis and supported by the partners’ general consensus.Thanks to the 5 meetings hosted in each of the countries and the positive climate that the staff was able to create, the project was supported by the absolute coordination among the partners. Not any friction, nor argue was ever reported, but a positive cooperation and fruitful internal and external communication; a massive action of dissemination was pursued by means of different channels (web pages, social networks, newsletters, contact and decision makers mailing lists, 5 multiplier events).We noticed, with great satisfaction, that the information and suggestions that we shared suddenly returned a positive feedback: the large attendance during the events, the social actions taken by the schools, the first positive results (i.e. the aluminum bottle to reduce the use of disposable plastic bottles). Actually, thanks to the project, we eventually answered to the Goal 4 request “Quality Education”; as a matter of fact, UNESCO is convinced that only education can provide the so-called necessary core “Competencies for Sustainable Development”. According to this, although not funded, all the partners decided to run test activities and assessment procedures for the didactic modules, in their own country and on a volunteer basis.It’s been estimated that about 3,500 people - mainly target groups, stakeholders and beneficiaries - have been directly targeted by the project and had the opportunity to test the SUDEGO materials. The partners have agreed to the creation of a sustainability agreement that will guarantee the project’s products to remain available on platform for at least three years, along with a supporting program. They will also keep up with the dissemination program, as well as being testimonials to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda principles.