Upon the development of the first edition of the course “Digital Literacy for Labour Market” which was based on an Erasmus+ KA2 Project (T21 http://t21.ese.ipsantarem.pt), in which was developed a set of activities regarding digital competences, inclusion and employability that were identified as good practices, replicable in other countries and continents. The coordination team of the course quickly realised that it was paramount to provide training based on the characteristics and realities of students with intellectual and developmental difficulties. Thus, it proceeded to the implementation of a training in Digital Literacy for the labour market, which resulted in two years of training make up a total of 120 ECTS. The first year was devoted to transversal contents in the field of digital literacy for the labour market, and the second year focused on the skills required for students to perform well in the job market. However, a major issue was raised, which was the importance of having a pre and post training sessions to support the educators that were involved in the course. This issue represents a major concern for either the educators (teachers, trainers and coaches) point of view as well as in the learning skills that are needed to obtain in order to properly address the special needs of these students.This partnership has started because the partners felt the same needs inside their organizations and with the population they worked with. Therefore, this project aims to address and enhance the skills of the mentors/educators (teachers, trainers and coaches) who work with Intellectual and Developmental Disability students in higher education contexts. These mentors require specific training on several skills (social, pedagogical, methodological, communicative, digital, entrepreneurial, etc) in order to properly support, train and capacitate students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDDs) and address their learning needs. This issue is still a present concern in many European countries, especially on those who have the departments or resources to implement this type of training programmes in their Higher Education Institutions but still lack the know how or the specialised human resources that can enable the implementation of these courses, specifically concerning the student’s follow up in their learning process. Thus, mentors (teachers, trainers and coaches) need to be well prepared and attain the enough skills and competences to cope with the learning process of students with IDDs, since these students require a more informal learning focused on communication, collaboration and adapted pedagogical practices. Thus, it is critical that the organisations take an active role in providing re-training programmes, in which individuals can take a proactive opportunity to gain and enhance skills and to have a better approach when teaching students with IDDs.Therefore, the focus of the proposed project is the implementation various educational contents, from methodologies and guidelines, educational kits, one Escape Room with immersive games, best practices handbooks and an LTT activity for staff. The LTT will address mainly social, pedagogical and methodological practices and how to engage with IDDs in a classroom context, as well as a focus on the specific competencies and learning contents that this target group desires and need to acquire in order to become more autonomous, social included and labour oriented. These sessions will have the support of tangible outcomes such as the training materials, case studies and best practices handbooks. As for deliverables after the training sessions, the focus will be on: a) a roadmap to labour market guidance and b) a job incubation that allow less effective trainees (which could unstable a work environment) to improve their autonomy through an adapted monitoring tailored to their labour competences and needs.We hope to have a large impact inside the partnership with the project, but more important in the community and the target group (mentors and educators) but also in the ultimate beneficiaries, the IDDs citizens, enhancing both the skills of educators and learners, promoting inclusion.

Teaching basic skills to low skilled adults is probably one of the most difficult educational assignments in the field of adult education. Addressing the needs of the long-term unemployed; migrants; refugees; asylum seekers; and indigenous ethnic minorities like Roma demands considerable skill and dedication. And yet, anecdotally at least, educators working with these most marginalised groups tend to have fewer opportunity for CPD training and least well resourced. At the heart of the OutsideIN project is the belief that in-service training to support the continuous professional development of adult educators is essential if they are to develop new and innovative approaches to attract marginalised adults back to lifelong learning and education. The OutsideIN project consortium, lead by Meath Partnership and comprising Acrosslimits, RightChallenge, Siglo22 and Eurotraining, has developed, piloted and implemented a new in-service training programme complete with a training handbook to support the continuous professional development of adult educators working with the most marginalised adult learners. An educator's toolbox complete with a full suite of 16 digital mini-format resources in English, Portuguese, Spanish and Greek, addressing key competence areas is also available to these front-line adult education staff to support their work. All resources, including the training manual and resource toolbox, are available in all partner languages on an online learning environment at https://outsidein-project.eu. These resources will continue to be available until 2024 to all interested parties without restriction in keeping with the open access requirements of the ERASMUS+ programme. In 2019, the project partners hosted a series of major community learning festivals in their local areas with the specific task of engaging marginalised adults to interact and experiment with the digital tools created and provide access opportunities to re-engage with lifelong learning. The final conference which was held in Ireland on 18th September 2019 presented the resources developed by the consortium and engaged 104 marginalised learners and adult educators. 17 front-line adult educators from across the partner countries attended the Transnational Training Activity in Malta in April 2019. This event supported the realisation of a cascading model of training with a further 58 front-line adult educators completing the first iteration of the in-service training in Ireland, Spain, Malta, Greece and Portugal during 2019 with the support of those, that participated in the transnational training event. The local regions where partners work have benefited from the increased social inclusion achieved and the new opportunities to engage with the projects' target groups. The potential savings to service providers may well be significant for every marginalised person who has engaged with the OutsideIn project and may ultimately be reintegrated into lifelong learning. OutsideIN has developed, piloted and presented a best practice example and has demonstrated that even the most hard to reach target groups can be encouraged to get involved and participate in learning if the opportunities to engaged are well conceived and appropriately communicated. Increased participation rates of marginalised adults in education and training will have considerable effects on the social inclusion objectives of Member States and the realisation of a fairer and more equitable society for all in Europe.

<< Background >>For the project partnership of the #me#us#now project it is absolutely essential to apply for this project, as the focus is set on low-qualified people in VET, VET professionals including external VET trainers and VET schools, and the aim of changing our current situation not only on local, regional, national or EU levels, but also on international level for the better and to include everyone to counteract the effects of climate change in a sustainable and participative way based on common green values.The project #me #us #now focuses on low-qualified young people between 15 and 30[1] years of age in Vocational Education and Training (VET) and VET professionals across Europe.The addressed needs can be clustered according to the two target groups in VET and stakeholders, including professionals and experts, as follows: (1) low-qualified young people in VET -identify the status quo, needs, barriers and awareness levels -raise motivation -reduce given barriers -support them with easy-to-handle and low-threshold activities and measures -use their capacities in peer-group settings -accelerate their self-efficacy -allow for and further the building of common values -create access to societal participation -encourage a sustainable lifestyle (2) VET professionals -meet the need for common guidelines -offer innovative tools and strategies -encourage cross-institutional acting and supporting-provide potential innovative contributions to be incorporated into the curriculae of VET systems -encourage exchange of results, best-practices, experiences and lessons learnt -further exchange on local, regional, national, EU and international levels (3) stakeholders, professionals and experts -meet the need of a common green networking platform -encourage exchange of results, best-practices, experiences and lessons learnt -further exchange on local, regional, national, EU and international levels[1] age range is leaned on the European Youth Guarantee: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1079&langId=en<< Objectives >>The project partnership of the #me#us#now project has set the following objectives to be achieved during the project for the following target groups: 1.low-qualified young people in VET -Identify the awareness, needs and barriers of low-qualified young people in VET concerning climate change by conducting national field studies and desktop research, both enabling conclusions and recommendations for VET professionals (R1) -furthering motivation, identification, development and implementation of effective and sustainable countermeasures that are applicable and adaptable daily and permanently (R2) (R3) based on the results of R1 -further active participation in society (R3) -further the development of shared green values (R2) (R3) - promote the transfer of the planned project results, especially R3 to more representatives of the target group -contribute to effective climate change countermeasures for all groups of young people through the implementation and delivery of the #me#us#now project. 2.VET professionals -support low-qualified young people in VET to increase their awareness and self-efficacy on climate change (R2) (R3), based on the results of R1. -support VET professionals in motivating the target group in the daily context of VET (R2) -providing useful tools, activities and measures that can be easily implemented and adapted (R3)-encourage the incorporation of innovative and sustainable contents in all curriculae, including those in VET schools and the education of VET teachers/trainers - establish a networking platform to promote exchanges between VET professionals on multiple levels 3.experts and stakeholders on different levels -establish a networking platform to promote exchanges between stakeholders and experts (R4) at local, regional, national, European and international levels -provide a Green Policy Paper for public and educational bodies and political decision-makers-encourage education, VET policy and political discussion at a broader level (R4)<< Implementation >>The project activities that will lead to the successful implementation of the #me#us#now project can be divided into the following categories: 1. Project management and implementation activities These activities form the basic framework of the #me#us#now project by defining all the tasks necessary for the proper implementation of the project inside and outside the project partnership and consist of -administration (A.PM1) -monitoring (A.PM2) and -budget control (A.PM3) 2. Quality Management These activities include the -Quality Management Guide (A.QM1.1) which defines quality benchmarks on process, product and impact level and the-Quality Assurance consisting of regular evaluations of process, product, and impact quality on internal and external level. 3. Sharing and promotion, Exploitation and Sustainability These include-Sharing and Promotion Products (A.S1), such as design of project logo, Sharing and Promotion Guide, brochures, flyers and posters, the project website, social media channels and continous sharing and promotion activities sharing regular news about status-quo and product development process through online activities and personal activities at target group and at stakeholder level. Additionally, the-Impact Assessment (A.S2) provides regular sharing and promotion reports of partners. Moreover, there is the development and implementation of the-Sustainability Strategy (A.S3) 4. Transnational Project Meetings Direct and personal exchange between the partners in the crucial phases of the project split up into -TPM1: Trim, IE, Apr 2022 -TPM2: Bilbao, ES, Dec 2022 -TPM3: Graz, AT, Aug 2023 -TPM4: Vicenza, IT, Dec 2023 5. Learning, Teaching, and Training Activity (C1), Aug 2023 and Learning, Teaching, and Training Activity (C2), Dec 2023 In this 3-day short-term staff training each, both target groups involved will be trained in using and applying the #me#us#now project results R3 and R4. 6. Multiplier Events The national multiplier events further the sharing and promoting of project results, include relevant stakeholders and are split up into -E1: AT, Jan 2024 -E2: IE, Jan 2024 -E3: ES, Jan 2024 -E4: IT, Jan 2024 The project consortium of the me#us#now project will produce four high-quality and easy-to-use project results for the beneficiaries of the project and for further use on regional, national, European and international level. These consist of - the #me#us#now Research Report (R1), including national Field Surveys, a Transnational Report concerning low-qualified young people in VET and a video summary subtitled in all project partners’ languages. - the #me#us#now Methodological Collection (R2) providing activities and measures for raising the motivation and awareness of low-qualified young people in VET concerning climate change, including national motivational workshops. - the #me#us#now Action Plan for Eco-Pro’s (R3) offering a practical guidebook to VET professionals, a peer-group setting with role models of the target group of low-qualified young people in VET, and implementation activities. - the #me#us#now Green Merge Networking Platform (R4), allowing for a long-lasting exchange between professionals and experts on local, regional, national, European and international level and providing a Green Policy Paper to political decison-makers and public and educational bodies to accelerate discussion on multiple levels.<< Results >>(R1) Research ReportGathering relevant national information about the target group - low qualified young people - and the professionals who work with them, is necessary for providing tailor-made further results. This will help the project consortium to understand the perspective, needs and awareness of low qualified young people concerning topics such as climate change, sustainability, and their self-efficacy. Additionally, professionals working with the target group in the context of e.g., VET, youth coaching, counselling, will be asked as well. The project consortium will need to meet low qualified young people in VET and VET professionals alike at their current state, to create a deeper understanding of their situation and perspective. All project partners will conduct desktop research concerning existing activities/measures on national levels in the context of climate change and sustainability. The Transnational Research Report will serve as an important basis for the following project results. Video summaries will be available in all partner languages.(R2) Methodological CollectionBased on the findings and conclusions of R1 the project consortium will implement a collection of activities and measures for raising the motivation and awareness of low qualified young people regarding climate change. This can be used and implemented by VET professionals who support the target group. Due to the implementation of feedback loops with the target groups and further developed as an opportunity to motivate the youth for taking action. The main purpose of this project step will be to nominate one role model per country for the further project process. These will help the project to create a new approach for counteracting climate change. Raising self-efficacy and social responsibility of the role models will help spreading the idea of climate-awareness through peer-groups and will be ensured that not only professionals will motivate low qualified young people, fostering awareness, participation, and acting in a sustainable and self-efficient way by implementing motivational workshops in all partner countries.(R3) Action plan for Eco-Pro’sThe findings of (R1) and (R2) will be compiled in a guidebook that will help and support professionals to integrate climate change activities and measures into their work with low qualified young people. They will learn how to motivate them to become active and to take their societal role in counteracting the negative environmental results. The Action Plan for Eco Pro’s will be the core output of the project and will include practical advice and case studies. The result will include the important findings and conclusions of (R1), but also on the other hand recommendations and guidelines for a step-by-step implementation of the defined activities and measures of the result for professionals. Role models will be consistently included to offer a deeper understanding of the target group and their motivating factors and barriers regarding the topic and together with them custom-tailored ways in peer-group settings will be developed and implemented to reach the target group.(R4) Green Merge Networking PlatformAs the European Union underlines the importance of exchanges beyond experts, the project partners will elaborate the structure of setting up an online platform. This will include the creation of the design, the functions and an easy-to-handle user interface. It will provide free access to all results and findings collected in the project, and the Green Policy Paper. In addition, professionals, experts, stakeholders and interested parties will have the opportunity to get in touch with each other and exchange views on the content and practical implementation. In this way, the results will even be more spread and accelerated across borders, bringing together interested experts and will therefore create international impact and good opportunities for a follow-up even after the projects end.

According to the European Guidelines for the Validation of Non Formal and Informal Learning (CEDEFOP), the process of validating non formal and informal learning is divided in four phases: IDENTIFICATION, DOCUMENTATION, ASSESSMENT AND CERTIFICATION.According to the Council recommendation from 2012 on the validation of non-formal and informal learning, «[...] youth organisations and civil society organisations should promote and facilitate the identification and documentation of learning gained through volunteering, using relevant Union transparency tools such as those developed under the Europass framework and Youthpass» (Council of the European Union, 2012, p. 4, 4a).In most cases, the work of voluntary organisations ends with the documentation and the work of providers of formal education starts with the assessment. Volunteers often face alone the transition between the documentation and assessment phases. In other words, they receive no help between the moment they obtain documentary evidence of the learning gained through volunteering, until they secure an assessment of such learning from a formal education provider as part of an official qualification. There is a lack of information, training, guidance and tools to help volunteers with this transition. This is currently one of the main obstacles for the validation of the learning gained through volunteering in the EU.In this context, a transnational and cross-sectoral partnership made up of five organisations joined forces to develop the first open and multilingual online platform of information, training, guidance and support for volunteers during the transition between the documentation and assessment phases of the process of validation of the learning gained through volunteering.The platform consists of the following elements:- Homepage, with tools and instructions for the identification, documentation, conversion of the learning gained through volunteering into formal education standards, and evaluation as part of an official qualification.- Online course on the four phases of the process for the validation of the learning gained through volunteering and on the current systems for it in the EU.- Guidance, through an online forum and social media, where volunteers, voluntary organisations and providers of formal education can advise and guide other people who are facing alone the challenge of validating the learning gained through volunteering.- Good practices and success stories for volunteers to get inspired. Once the first development of the online platform was completed, it was tested by 72 volunteers from four countries. Based on the testers’ feedback, the project partners implemented additional improvements before the final publication of the ‘eVA-VOL’ online platform in September 2020.The online platform is accessible from computers, tablets and smartphones in four EU languages ​​(English , Spanish, Italian and Portuguese) at www.evavol.eu.According to the study “Volunteering in the European Union” (European Commission, 2010), there are around 92 to 94 million adults involved in volunteering in the EU (22-23% of the EU population). Therefore, facilitating the validation of the learning gained through volunteering could have a huge impact in the number of adults in the EU who decide to re-engage in formal education or continue towards higher qualifications. Thus contributing to the objectives of the European policies “Education & Training 2020” and the “renewed European agenda for adult learning”. In particular, regarding the objectives: at least 15% of adults should participate in lifelong learning, and at least 40% of people aged 30-34 should have completed some form of higher education.The ‘eVA-VOL’ project is a cross-sectoral and cross-border partnership led by the Spanish Volunteering Platform in collaboration with: Lazio Volunteer Support Centre (Italy), Portuguese Confederation of Volunteering (Portugal), Meath Partnership (Ireland), and Cork Institute of Technology (Ireland).

"<< Background >>Circular Economy (CE) embeds two key challenges in today's society: saving the environment while maintaining a sustainable economy. CE can be described using a basic economic premise: if we minimise consumption of raw materials and natural resources, we'll generate less waste and lead a more sustainable life. There are already numerous European initiatives that support and encourage the CE approach, making it completely feasible to apply it in any country (https://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/). By embracing this approach, all Europe could generate a much-welcomed net economic yearly benefit of up to €1.8 trillion by 2030 (The Circular Economy: moving from theory to Practice, McKinsey Centre for Business and the Environment Report, 2016). Ultimately, the principles of Circular Economies aim to apply the ""reduce-reuse-recycle"" motto and bring it to a broader scale so it can provide economic as well as environmental benefits. This would make it then an attractive model to implement in private and public organisations. This industrial revolution linear model can be described as a process by which resources are extracted, processed using energy and labor, and sold as goods with the expectation that customers will discard them and buy more. In a circular economic model, however, the materials are re-used, making it practical to conserve assets and materials with the aim of maximising the value of resources. For the realisation of these principles there are many important players in our society which include our schools. Schools (formal and informal learning) represent an area of particular interest for circular economy (CE) implementation due to their socio-economic relevance for the service sector and their influential role in supporting sustainable development in cities and regions worldwide (Ferrer-Balas et al. 2008). Schools contribute to economic progress and social wellbeing through knowledge creation and dissemination (research and teaching) and community development (outreach activities) (OECD, 2010).CESchools aims to embed CE thinking in Schools through educational and industry partnership. The design of this project was inspired by the various studies which examined how educational institutions can support sustainable development through formal learning outcomes. The studies highlighted how student-led change from formal learning, sustainability in school-campus operations, and branding the green schools were key factors for embedding sustainability in education. One thing that these studies were lacking was the focused on a structural ""hidden curriculum"" as the core of these initiatives, as well as the the role and impact these schools have in the local economies. When we talk about hidden curriculums, they are defined as the difference between the actual learning and the curriculum-based learning for the students within educational facilities. CESchools will show how schools can be a major player in promoting circular economy approaches by engaging their students to be their speakers in raising awareness in our society. We will demonstrate how human resources and initiatives are very important in embracing CE in each country.<< Objectives >>The project aims to provide solutions to one of the biggest challenges the EU (and the world) is facing: promoting a Circular Economy mentality and helping it seep into institutions and society to generate real change. At a smaller scale, industries and educational institutions can boost this shift towards integrating CE in all areas of society. Specifically, this project will provide: (1) Tangible, durable results: Creating collaborations between educational centres and private institutions. (2) Long-term impact: promoting and encouraging CE thinking among schools; that is, ""planting the seed"" for future generations who will grow and adapt their habits to ultimately create the biggest expected impact.(3) Long-lasting outcomes: developing new and innovative hidden curriculum techniques which can be used by other countries, not just the ones participating in this consortium.<< Implementation >>These activities can divide them into during and after the completion of the project: During the project · Project Result 1: a report analysis of CE thinking in Schools. This includes previous focus groups, interviews and meetings with major stakeholders to gather quantitative and qualitative data, designed to help our main target groups. This practical information will help bring value to adopting a CE thinking and increase awareness. This outcome will engage all the target groups throughout the project, and each partner is in charge of implementing and creating network collaborations with their respective stakeholders in the way the see fit. · Project Result 2. CE Thinking in Hidden Curriculum Development. Designed to demonstrate how public and private schools can play a key role in helping promote circular economy approaches by encouraging and engaging their students. In addition, each partner will explore how the development of a CE mentality in training human resources outside of the curriculum will be important for circular economy approaches in industry.· Partner Meetings. These will be both online ( every month), and on site (every 6 months). They will help maintain a good flow of communication, and will guarantee that the deliverables are being carried out progressively, on time, and under our expected quality standards. · Learning, Teaching (Testing), Training Activity. This will provide solid feedback with trainers before going to schools and letting the student-led activities run their course. With the expertise of teachers who know the behaviours and context of schools, we can perfect our outputs and make them more flexible to increase its duplicability. · An intense dissemination strategy will be deployed at regional/national level to reach relevant stakeholders working with local and regional participants and beneficiaries in industry.· At a local level, the trainers who will pilot the resources developed in output 2 and training OER platform will continue their work within SMEs, beneficiaries, participant organisations and other relevant stakeholders.· CESchool will create and promote a the methodological framework (output 2), based on a smart use of project materials. The framework and resources can inspire and be transferred – with the necessary adjustments - also to other sectors of education. · CESchools will also contribute to the debate of education in schools and to the effect of a hidden curricula in them. It will also allow a comparison of the development of a circular economic mentality within other national contexts. A wider awareness about the issues should lead to the development of policies aimed at facilitating an international dialogue and the use and exploitation of the material produced.<< Results >>The main project's results are: 1. Create an Overarching Analysis of CE Thinking in partner countries & suggestions for the Hidden Curriculum which includes all main stakeholders's perspectives (schools and industry) at delivery phase.2. Develop an enhanced experience of a Hidden Curriculum which includes all main stakeholders (schools and industry) and design stage.3. The development of two ( 1 for teaching and 1 for learning) very well 'polished' units/manuals in the field of CE Thinking.Overall, CESchools aims to create an enhanced experience of joint CE Thinking education delivery with the inclusion of various fields and academic experts from different EU partner countries. 5. An OER platform which is flexible and user-friendly for all target groups both in schools and in the industry.6. A (or more than one) published paper/s informed by the research project in question.Furthermore, this project will directly or indirectly contribute to the following expected outcomes:- The creation of an optimal match between schools and industry to meet the needs of CE thinking.- The comparison process between existing CE Thinking by using hidden curriculum from different countries.- The mapping and complementarity of CE Thinking to other existing formal education and development routes in schools.- Greater cooperation between schools and industry providers among national and international providers.- A greater exchange and cooperation between academia and industry for the benefit of future generations and participants.- In countries where there is no clear regulatory framework for CE thinking, the deliverables, may positively influence policy development for CE approach. - The raising of the profile and recognition of CE mindedness.- The development of student and faculty professional profiles on the way of CE thinking.- The overall process of professionalisation of CE mindedness."