As pointed out in the ERASMUS+ Programme Guide, the adaptation of the Vocational Education and Training to employers’ and labour market needs is a major issue in order to ensure the relevance and the impact of VET in any territory. As a consequence, one of the priorities addressed by the Programme in the field of VET is “increasing the labour market relevance of VET provision and reducing skills mismatches and shortages in economic sectors through timely adaptation of curricula and qualifications profiles and establishment of stable partnerships between VET providers and economic actors, including social partners, development agencies, bodies in innovation systems, chamber of commerce.”Local agents involved in VET can play a major role when it comes to ensure labor market relevance of VET in their territories. Those local agents work for different organizations (local and regional authorities, VET providers, employers’ associations, chambers of commerce, workers’ unions, development and employment agencies, research institutions…) which are directly involved in designing and delivering VET at a local level (City, town, urban area, district, county, province…). Nevertheless, the lack of appropriate models and tools has prevented local agents to play the role they should play. Local agents neither share a common approach nor promote a common VET strategy in their territories. As a consequence, they are often just “implementing agents” of the policies and strategies designed at National or Regional level, without the capacity of adapting them to the specificities of their territory.To tackle this issue, project gathers the experience of one Local Partnership (the applicant, Consorcio del Pacto por el Empleo del Vinalop in Spain), one local authority (Provincia Avellino, in Italy), 2 research organizations (NOTUS in Spain and FGB in Italy), one VET provider (WISEMAR, in Germany) and a local branch of a National Education Ministry (Golbasi, Turkey).The project will produce an Intervention Model which is aimed at being a tool to be used by local agents and local partnerships involved in VET in order to ensure a rapid and proactive response to change in labour market needs by effectively prevent or solve mismatches between those needs and VET provided by agents in the territory. The Model is intended to guide local actors in its way of design, implement and assess local action plan for the continuous monitoring of labour market needs and the adaptation of VET provided. Accordingly with this porpoise, the Model will be structured in 4 parts:- Four (4) “How to” Guides. Those guides will describe the methodologies considered as more successful, covering the topics of:a) How to build a Local Partnership for the continuous adaptation of VET. b) How to monitor labour market needs and its tendency to proactively adapt VET offer. c) How to programme proactive VET locallyd) How to assess the local impact of VET. - An Implementation Toolkit. The implementation of the “How to” Guides will require the use of a set of methodologies and tools (regarding, for instance: surveys, evaluation, participative decision making, ICTs applications…). - Four (4) Case Studies. In this section, local agents will have access to the detailed description of the pilot project experiences carried out in each one of the participating territories. - Best practices dossier. In order to easy the adaptation of model to specific territorial situations, the best practices gathered in the first part of the project will be compiled in a dossier organized by topics. All the four parts of the Intervention Model (“How to” Guides, Implementation Toolkit, Case Studies and Best Practices Dossier) will be edited as a publication in will be available from the project web site in pdf format.

Responsible Research & Innovation is a genius concept developed by the European Commission for the governance of research and innovation processes with a view on the (ethical) acceptability, sustainability and societal desirability of the innovation process and its marketable products . It aims to shape, maintain, develop, coordinate an align existing and novel research and innovation-related processes, actors and responsibilities with a view to ensuring desirable and acceptable research outcomes. In the Horizon 2020 programmes, there were and are some of projects focusing on related training needs. But there is no substantial attempt observable to develop continuous higher education programmes supporting the implementation of this concept and the respective reorganisation processes in universities, research centres, research and innovation oriented enterprises and public authorities like cities or regional governments. Our project pretends to fulfil this gap through the co-creation of higher education modules between different research and innovation actors RRIL will especially focus on public engagement, gender equality and ethics (in the knowledge fields Energy and Economy) co-creating learning modules and testing them in innovative environments based on interactive real-problem approaches. In a later stage, the developed modules will be offered to research and innovation actors supporting the implementation of RRI principles in the organisations capacitating the learners to develop jointly innovative solution for societal problems. RRIL is based on co-creation and open innovation processes giving a prominent role to the learners. The co-creation is conceived as multidisciplinary and transversal among different kinds of actors as HEI, research centres, NGO’s and cities pathing the way for knowledge exchange between them. It consist in informed learning among practitioners considering learners (RRI practitioner) as a knowledgeable and critical partner in designing and implementation of the learning means. Under this perspective the potential learners – programme coordinators and tutors - are considered peers working collaboratively on the project outputs.

Youth unemployment has gained unprecedented economic and social relevance over the past 60 years so as to be placed at the heart of the European policy agenda. More specifically, the NEET group, encompassing those young people aged from 15 to 29, not being involved in either employment, education or training, have been targeted as a main priority. Despite their wide heterogeneity, over 50% of the young people labelled under the term “NEET” are inactive. That means that these young people are not seeking a job, mainly because they are discouraged and unmotivated. In the literature, the transition from inactivity to social exclusion, economic deprivation and long-term if not permanent marginalisation is demonstrated as questionlessly simple, when not guaranteed. As these young people are not registered at job centres, they are excluded from training actions such as the Youth Guarantee. To address this issue it is essential to firstly identify, test and validate suitable strategies and tools to BOOST these young people's SELF-CONFIDENCE AND RESTORE THEIR TRUST in institutions and in the labour market. For these targets to access TRAINING, to be regarded as the ESSENTIAL tool to overcome their condition, they are to first enter a REACTIVATION spiral. For reactivation to take place, these deprived targets shall access a set of appropriate tools and schemes that may take their social and psychological condition into consideration. The reactivation process should build on appropriate, non-conventional and non-scholastic based LEARNING AND TRAINING SCHEMES also aimed at REBUILDING these young people’s BASIC LIFE SKILLS. Only then will they be ready to be successfully integrated into ordinary schemes, such as the Youth Guarantee. In this framework, the project objectives build on the need to identify shared strategies and tools to initiate REACTIVATION and to PREPARE the NEETs to CONCRETELY ACCESS ordinary training schemes aimed at reinforcing not only professional but also life and active citizenship skills. To meet these objectives which are demonstrated to reflect a European scale main concern, it proves fundamental to act within a STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP. To this regard, it is relevant to be noted that some European Member States have already tested and developed a set of REACTIVATION, REMOTIVATION, COACHING and TRAINING TOOLS SPECIFICALLY ADDRESSED to VULNERABLE young people. Despite the bright sides, or the room for improvement, these tools and schemes currently prove to be INFLUENCED by the social, cultural and political environment they have been developed in. To raise them to a best practice level, they will need to be “decontaminated” so as to make them benchmarkable and assessable. NO NEETs is ultimately aimed at RAISING AWARENESS and BUILDING CAPACITY among the STAKEHOLDERS of the TRAINING AND LABOUR SYSTEMS, and at developing a shared framework of GUIDELINES on the use of SCHEMES AND APPROACHES to reduce the QUANTITY AND THE LENGTH of the NEET status. INSTITUTIONAL LEARNING AND EXCHANGE OF TOOLS will be tackled using the peer-reviewing method, the “peers” to be partner Organisations representing different European welfare schemes and having CONCRETEY DEVELOPED outstanding practices. More specifically, the autonomous Province of Trento, Piedmont, the Netherlands, Germany and Catalunia boost a set of best practices in the field of REACTIVATION AND SUPPORT TO WORKPLACEMENT, while the autonomous Province of Trento, Germany, Castilla la Mancha and Denmark boost relevant performance in the field of INCLUSIVE METHODOLOGIES FOR THE NEETs. The project outcomes are expected to have an impact on system level, that is, in terms of reduction of the inactive NEETs rate, activation of SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE SCHOOL-TO-WORK AND YOUTH TO ADULTHOOD TRANSITION SCHEMES. In line with the EU 2020, ET 2020 and all the strategies for an economic and fully INCLUSIVE growth, the guidelines deriving from this project will be disseminated at European level so as to be beneficial to all the other Member States.

The data show that rural areas in Europe are undergoing demographic change, the greatest impact of which is depopulation and a population ageing. This demographic change represents a challenge and the urgency of implementing policies based on an approach of practical measures that incorporate the fight against unwanted depopulation as a principle to be considered in the different plans and lines of action of governments. It is important to point out how the fact of having a low population in rural areas is currently an element that prevents the vital development of its citizens producing an inequality of opportunities and access to public services, especially on education and health, with respect to urban areas. In this way, the pooling between different European rural areas affected by depopulation can serve to contrast diagnoses, responses and promote a learning network that inspires shared, innovative and contextualized actions on the territory. In this sense, the REDERA+ project seeks to generate a learning network focused on improving access to an effectiveness of vocational education and training (VET) in sparsely populated rural areas in order to strengthen social inclusion and ensuring economic sufficiency (economic sustainability), social sustainability, and environmental sustainability and contributing to the fixation of the population in these areas by means of solid VET rural systems. To this end, a STRATEGIC ASSOCIATION has been established with 7 partners from different European regions in 5 countries (Italy, Spain, Holland, Germany and Slovenia). These partners have been analysing the problems of rural territories for some time and developing measures. Sharing the problems, contrasting diagnoses and EXCHANGE OF GOOD PRACTICES that are developed in different contexts will allow the main objective of the project to be achieved: TO GENERATE A KNOWLEDGE THAT WILL SERVE SO THAT THINLY POPULATED RURAL AREAS CAN DESIGN A MODEL AND QUALITY OFFER OF SPECIFIC VET TO THEIR NEEDS. This knowledge will be generated from short joint training events (STE) that will be organized by each partner in their region. The STE will allow direct contact with good practices in the contexts in which they are carried out and interaction with experts and testimonies may provide participants with learning and skills to contribute decisively to the phase of knowledge to generate a possible model and supply of VET appropriate to depopulated rural areas. The main topics of the STE will revolve around the two secondary objectives of the project: 1) to provide tools to stakeholders in rural territories to INCREASE THE CAPACITY TO OFFER TRAINING SERVICES to inhabitants based on mobilizing adequate professional skills to carry out their vital project in these areas and not be forced to leave. 2) to provide tools to rural territories so that they can MAKE MAPS OF THE COMPETENCIES NECESSARY FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENT AND PROCEED MODELS TO ACQUISIT these skills to the residents and they should not go outside to acquire them. At the end of the STE, a final PEER REVIEW report will be drawn up containing a description of the good practices identified, the analyses and evaluations carried out by each participating partner and their successful guidelines in relation to their sustainability and transferability in relation to the objectives pursued.It should be noted that the generation of knowledge proposed by the project will be carried out from a multidisciplinary and multiactor approach provided by a selection of partners that has taken into account their different typologies and expertise: a) Public administrations with experience in the planning, design and implementation of specific training public policies for rural areas: Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (lead partner), Agenzia Pieminte Lavoro (Italy) and the Provincia Autónoma di Trento (Italy). b) Training centres with experience in the identification of professional competences, generation of training offer and in models for the implementation of this offer in rural areas: ABU (Germany) and Osnova Šola Lovrenc na Pohorju (Slovenia). c) Organisations with experience in the design and management of a tailored VET’s offer to territory and in the detection of professional skills needs: Tirantes (the Netherlands) and Notus (Spain).At the end of the project, its results are expected to be included in two non-intellectual products: 1) Report of Best Practices analysed and 2) Policy Recommendations Report. These products will be disseminated through various communication actions at local (local associations) and European level (final conference) and their availability and free access will be guaranteed on the project website.

The European Commission has diagnosed a strong discordance between the competences acquired in education and those really necessary in the workplace. One of the proposed solutions is promoting work-based learning and, to that end, encouraging relationships between the various actors that can stimulate these initiatives: companies, business organizations and regional governments and institutions. Another important goal in dual education is raising the so-called transversal competences, applicable to different work situations and to different environments on a global market by offering additional internships, but also by adapting the training itself. An increased mobility of apprentices between companies from different countries exposes the apprentices to different situations, new environments, different cultural and organizational contexts and stimulates their capacities for autonomy, resilience, problem solving, adaptation to new situations and innovation. The aim of this project is to establish a Strategic Partnership for the development of innovative products within the project framework and their dissemination among partners and training agents. Objectives: Different studies about youth mobility projects within the E+ Program have shown that mobility contributes considerably to the development of certain competences directly linked to stable and quality employment. Regions or local institutions seem to be the best equipped entities to facilitate preparation and support for this kind of mobility and at the same time ensure the quality of the offer. The aim of the project is to improve cooperation between training centers, companies, regional and municipal governments to develop curricular tools and the necessary logistical and organizational agreements. In this sense the project aims at developing a curriculum proposal and at developing evaluation tools. Number of participants: The work shall be disseminated among stakeholders in open seminars held in Barcelona, Toulouse, Stuttgart and Chomutov, with a special attention to those units involved in curriculum creation, training centers, teachers' organizations, training centers, professional organizations, academic and professional experts. Approximately 50 people are expected to participate in each event. We plan to present all our conclusions in a final event in Brussels, with approximately 90 participants. Description of activities: We will present our results together with our partners during the events. The expected outputs are: Output 01: Curriculum of transversal competences in the context of transnational mobility Output 02: Protocol for transnational mobility of apprentices Output 03: Transversal skills of apprentices The main actions will be: - Sharing and mapping of the main methodologies, actions and initiatives - Drafting of a curriculum proposal - Drafting of a protocol proposal: defining the role of the regions - Drafting the document: The role of companies in apprenticeships - Identifying the main transversal competences acquired by apprentices in mobility programs (fieldwork). - Organizing three national seminars and the final event in Brussels. Methodology: The methodology is collaborative. Every partner will work on basis of documents and questionnaires in order to share them in every meeting. Based on the analysis of this information, a proposal for an intellectual product will be developed and forwarded to all members for discussion and summed up in a final report. The Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona will be responsible for reviewing the correct English language of the final report, the appropriate design and the design of dissemination materials, as well as for the publication and dissemination in paper version. Results The expected outcomes: - Analysis and inventory of the main actions carried out for the identification and acquisition of transversal core competences in the different countries and institutions involved - Design of a curriculum for company training. Design of an evaluation model (detection) - Identification of the role that regions play. Definition of a protocol, guide, etc. - Identification of the role of companies We also expect an important dissemination of these outputs. The overall goal of this project is to improve VET quality and trainee mobility. Impact and long term benefits: The exchange of experiences between the participants and the intensive joint work will certainly contribute to a better understanding of the problems affecting transnational mobility of apprentices and to the search for concrete and practical solutions. We hope that this will allow stakeholders to better understand the existing difficulties and to become involved in their resolution with the help of the instruments that the project puts at their disposal.