FA-ST provides opportunities of empowerment and development to young women (18 to 30 years of age) affected by socioeconomic barriers (migrants background, weak family support, early school leavers), and inspire them to start a business in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education) sector. The high-quality practical resources produced by the 4 partners in the FA-ST consortium are used to increase a wide set of competences, necessary to compete in the actual labour market (STEM literacy, soft and entrepreneur skills) while offering a substantial and comprehensive support to those willing to start a business in the STEM sector (fast prototyping, business planning). The main innovation that will result from the present collaboration, is a new way to fostering girls’ interest in STEM and inspiring them in choosing a career within STEM fields. The Consortium was assembled based on the need of ensuring a new representation of the different national contexts facing the challenge of young disadvantaged female integration as well as the interconnections it enjoys with the entrepreneurial empowerment in Europe. Considering the increasing importance of STEM in the global market, and the employment opportunities connected to it, increasing STEM literacy and entrepreneurial mind-sets widespread opportunities in the EU28, thus the root-based initiative like this one will offer a good starting point for a positive change in STEM situation. The project can be used as a baseline practice for STEM literacy and STEM skills development for other similar initiatives, expanding as an example to youth work and civil society initiative as a mean to validate non-formal or informal skills. The practice can be easily transferred to other institutions or countries as the skills for sustainability and responsible behaviours are relevant and applicable in all the EU (and beyond) Nations. For this reason, a version of the contents will be created in English to facilitate a wider diffusion.The project has 3 strategic objectives: *To promote a more engaging and more equal environment where all students, girls and young women in particular, can increase their STEM literacy levels *To foster equal access to better careers and job opportunities in the STEM sector for young women *To enhance the employability, and entrepreneurial skills of young women with a business idea in the STEM sector The production of the project’s results will start with gathering evidence and best practices on successful ways partners and other organizations prepared and delivered, to increase girls’ and young women’s STEM competences. During the production of the different IOs, partners will also work to form a Pan-European network involving all sort of stakeholders (youth/women/business associations, cultural associations, non-formal education providers, VET/HEI institutions, business associations…) with the aim of promoting entrepreneurial education, collaborative support to weaker groups and multi-mentoring programs. Experts from these organizations are the ones engaged as mentors. The learning environment is shaped around the 3 steps the program and can be easily adapted or modulated based on participants’ needs or local condition. Separately they can be used to (1) increase STEM literacy, (2) increase entrepreneurial skills and motivation for personal improvement and (3) create a business and connect experts and mentors. If participants will go through the whole process, it offers a complete learning experience to create a start-up in the STEM sector for young women with an entrepreneurial idea.The provision of a customized support enhancing their transition to concrete forms of self-employment (either entrepreneurial projects or joint/groups’ efforts) would provide a strong contribution to their social inclusion and employability, while maximizing the output in terms of contribution to the sustainable development of their local context.

<< Objectives >>CLIP aims to strengthen critical visual media literacy and fluency in Higher Education (HE) students. Its objectives are: raise awareness of the role played by HE in tracking disinformation and bias in visual communication; increase the digital fluency and critical consciousness about visual media of EU HE students; Enable HE academic staff, senior management and communication staff to develop sustainable strategies for integrating visual media literacy at all levels of institutional activities.<< Implementation >>The project will first analyse good practices and strategic tools in the field and organise a consultation with experts to identify suitable tools and strategies to promote visual media literacy. Then it will develop and test an online course with at least 150 students of various faculties. Finally, it will provide guidelines and recommendations to be discussed with relevant stakeholders in a Validation Workshop.<< Results >>The project addressed HE students as the primary target group of the online course aimed at developing their visual media literacy. It addresses senior management and staff raising their awareness with the Report on visual media literacy and their capacity with the CLIP toolkit providing tools and strategies for the implementation of the related learning offer. The course is expected to have an impact on E&T institutions beyond HE in the improvement of the digital skills of youth.

"The circus art has always had a remarkable social impact particularly on children and young people but it is now in difficulty and does not succeed to have such impact anymore. Nevertheless, among the so-called ""New Circus"" is emerging a competence already sufficiently delineated of a new artistic practitioner that could be named ""Social Circus Performer"" (SCP). She/he is more than an artist and more than a trainer: she/he has high-level artistic skills, is conscious about all the aspects of an artistic creation, knows how to present a project to her/his customers, understands the rules involved in marketing, management, communication and artistic products distribution. She/he also has the skills to train young people and to operate in social disadvantaged situations using circus to let boys and girls express themselves and to emancipate people from their conditions. Starting from previous competences in acrobatic circus and juggling, the SCP is therefore able to operate with high effectiveness in capillary situations of strong social uneasiness, thus multiplying the social impact of the circus art. The Youth Acrobat World project (YAW) aims at designing the competences of such a professional profile within the actual Labour Market to promote a new typology of youth worker completely in line with the ET2020 Framework and the most actual and effective EU youth policies.More specifically the YAW aims are: 1- To foster cooperation and exchange in the field of youth workers between European and Partner Countries (Italy, Netherlands, Colombia and Kenya); 2- To promote transnational learning mobility aimed to improve the participants' level of competenc-es by means of non-formal and informal work-based learning and foster their active participation in the labour market and in the society defining a new professional curriculum 3- To demonstrate the high social impact potential of the new forms of circus art spreading the new training paths within an International Circus networkThe YAW specific objectives are:1- To enhance the competences of social disadvantaged skilled young artists, in order to promote their social inclusion and well-being 2- To develop a new youth work-based learning method, its relevant tools and materials, as well as youth workers training modules in the field of the new circus art 3- To promote awareness through information campaigns on the relevance of the SCP professional profile, in order to promote capacity building among youth aiming their access to the labour market and social inclusion; Aims and objectives will be targeted through the following Intellectual Outputs:IO1: Competence framework of the new youth professional profile of the SCP IO2: Transnational vademecum for the SCP’s non-formal and informal trainingIO3: Audiovisual documentary on the social impact of the SCP"

<< Background >>A transnational project is needed because a joint approach might be more effective to tackle common social issues related to youth unemployment, under- unemployment or NEETs, united with the growing interest provided by the GIG ECONOMY. The number of people taking part in gig economy work has doubled in the last three years, with young people the most likely to be working this way, according to new research. Data show in fact that one in three of those on zero-hour contracts and in the gig economy are young people. Today, nearly 40% of employed people in the European Union are in atypical employment (not working under a full-time, open-ended contract) or self-employed. The ‘gig economy’ is a new and still little known phenomenon that is reflected in the exponential growth of online platforms. Online platforms are used as one of the tools for managing work in various sectors across Europe and beyond. During the COVID19 pandemic, but even before it, the worldwide turnover generated by the Gig Economy was estimated to exceed $ 82.4 billion (data 2017), with an annual growth of 67% on an annual basis testifying that the trend is strongly expanding. The report ‘Work in the European Gig Economy, Research results from the UK, Sweden, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy’ reviewed the existing evidence on the characteristics and the extent of ‘crowd work’, by using a broad definition, a high proportion of the population (ranging from 9% in Germany to a high of 22% in Italy) and based on the ongoing EU level debate, “it seems likely that platform workers will continue to be regarded as self-employed or independent contractors for the foreseeable future (Eurofound, Dieuaide and Azaïs, 2020). This changing working environment driven by technological advancement and global connectivity, brought about by the so-called 4th industrial revolution and pushed by the gig economy require future work force to ‘invent new ways for earn money’ and satisfy both society and companies needs in ways that cannot fully predict at the moment. Many large corporations in EU are more and recurring to external independent contractors and outsourcing non-core services to lower costs and risks. In addition, new economy models (as the gig economy, the share economy) are fully embracing this self-employment work-style, that offers temporary position to independent contractors and contributing in creating micro-entrepreneurs.<< Objectives >>Freelancing jobs include everything from computer programming to web design, tax preparation and different sort of consulting, but also less specialized and qualified work. The project will offer a concrete support to those who aspire to exploit these new form of employment. On the other hand, working in those unstable conditions requires job seekers to adapt to the fast changes brought about the new work procedures, being able to joggle different contract and tasks at the same time. In particular, working with different contractors requires the need to adapt to others leadership/work style, self-discipline and time management to deal with stress and work on a deadline. The GIG UP will contribute at empowerment of young people who only experienced precarious work forms or that never worked before, by offering a program that will reinforce and favour the development of transversal competences needed in the fast-changing world, encompassing: critical thinking and creativity, adaptability and an entrepreneurial mind-set. The present multi-disciplinary consortium aims at *Prepare (and test) the GIG UP program (micro-courses package, skills assessment tools) will use the gig economy (or also called platform economy) as an activator for employability skills, entrepreneurial and organizational skills in young adults about to enter the labour market. *equip EDUCATORS from NGOs and youth associations and other professionals working with unemployed youth and/or GIG-ERs to be ready to integrate the new approach and tools into their daily activities (practitioners’ handbook). During the present proposal, the 6 diverse partners will create the GIG UP program such as a package of micro-courses and a skills framework and assessment tools, using the gig economy as an activator for employability skills, entrepreneurial and organizational skills in young people about to enter the labour market. By using the GIGup program (composed by interactive learning materials and short courses) the participants will*increase employability skills, encompassing digital skills, entrepreneurial skills, communication skills and critical thinking and problem solving *gain basic knowledge on finance literacy to manage unstable incomes from different sources *understanding about their workers’ rights as employees and citizens, and how to behave and perform better in a work situation.<< Implementation >>The project can be divided into 3 transversal activities (management, quality control and dissemination) running from month 1 to month 24. They are aimed at offering a smooth cooperation among the partners, visibility and quality of results, respectively, led by Technische Universität Berlin, Mine Vaganti NGO and LIBERA UNIVERSITÀ DI LINGUE E COMUNICAZIONE. Then, in relation with the project’s specific results, we can mention 4 main activities, preparation, development, testing and roll out. Each of those as a start to finish approach, as each deal with a specific and important element of production. More in details: The key element of the preparation activity is making sure the partners have a clear picture over the skills and competences actually needed by the labour market in general, and by self-employed people, specifically. ACCION LABORAL will ensure partners’ understanding of the actual dynamics of the labour market and guide partners in preparing the skills referenced on the GIG UP program. Based on the skills, partners will develop a set of interactive materials (micro-lessons, text, games, reading materials, exercises, presentations, infographics…) used during the GIG UP program to gain knowledge, on the labour market, skills needed in self-employment, entrepreneurial skills, and communication skills. INNOVATION HIVE is the partners responsible for digitalizing the materials and make sure partners’ educators are able to use them in the pilot program. At the same time, under VERDIAN and Mine Vaganti NGO guidance, the partners associate non-formal education techniques to each element of the library and produce the handbook of the GIG UP program. The handbook offers guidance to any other educator (youth workers, educators, HR managers, mentors, coaches, and career advisers in VET and HEI organizations or employment services …) in charge of fostering NEETs / youth employability skills. Under partners’ trainers’ supervision, the educators that have been trained to deliver the program, will run the pilot activities. The materials in the library can be used together, to create a unique program, or can be used in associations with other activities organized by NGOs, VET schools, HEIs, employment services. Each partner with their educators will look for and select the participants and will run the activities deciding the best blends among online, offline, on-demand, experiential, face-to-face activities to increase participants learning possibilities, and, most of all, allowing learners to control their own timing and schedule. The pilot is aimed at supporting NEETs and unemployed youth in • gaining better employability and life skills – using self-employment and the gig economy as an activator of interest • increase their possibility to be prepared for a meaningful work experience • receive guidance on what skills can help them make a positive change in their life •understand better their rights as employees and citizens, and how to behave and perform better in a work situation. The platform will offer a certification with a clear and detailed report on the competence gained and tested during the program. The certificate can be attached at the CV and can be used to show case participant’s skills to potential contractors and employers. During the last months of the project, the coordinator is responsible for closing each of the activities identified within the project management, on time and according to the rules established by the NA funding the project. All produced products will be available on partners’ websites, project’s websites, made visible via social media and EU level platforms offered for dissemination purposed by EU and other institutions. To foster products’ transferability and visibility, partners will organize local seminars to present the project’s results a wider group of stakeholders, interested to use the GIG UP PROGRAM and tools in the future.<< Results >>The GIG UP program is composed by GIG UP LIBRARY AND SKILLS GRID A digital library of ready to use materials (micro-lessons, text, games, reading materials, exercises, presentations, infographics…) that educators can use with their target group. The partner will cover at least 10 topics covering competences that any gig worker/self-employed person will need to manage their work efficiently (time management, entrepreneurial mind-set, cognitive skills, problem solving skills, digital skills...) while working independently maybe joggling different contracts and navigating uncertainty (build relationships with clients, finance literacy, accountancy, social media marketing, labour market regulations EU level included). The materials in the library can be used together, to create a unique program, or can be used in associations with other activities organized by NGOs, VET schools, HEIs, employment services. The platform will offer a certification with a clear and detailed report on the competence gained and tested during the program. The certificate can be attached at the CV and can be used to show case participant’s skills to potential contractors and employers. GUIDEBOOK FOR PRACTITIONERS The handbook is used facilitate the program delivery and most importantly, to increase educators understating of actual employability skills and equip them to replicate program, update it and make it available for other participants in the future. It offers guidance to any educator (youth workers, educators, HR managers, mentors, coaches, and career advisers in VET and HEI organizations or employment services …) in charge of fostering NEETs / youth employability skills. The handbook will offer tips and suggestions on how to define the blend among online, offline/face-to-face activities to increase participants learning possibilities, and, most of all, allowing learners to control their own timing and schedule. The manual is a practical tool to foster professionals’ ability to offer more engaging support, learning how to integrating activities with online/virtual learning to help them in delivering more adaptive learning solutions. The GIG UP program that can be used in different environment to foster youth social and employability skills and empower them to be more active citizens and be ready to be integrated into the labour market. By using the newly prepared interactive materials – better suited for younger generations- participants are fostered to acquiring skills requested by the 21st century workplace while • gaining better employability and life skills – using self-employment and the gig economy as an activator of interest • increase their possibility to be prepared for a meaningful work experience • receive guidance on what skills can help them make a positive change in their life •understand better their rights as employees and citizens, and how to behave and perform better in a work situation. The project is expected to have this impact at partners’ local level *Stronger participation of young people in democratic and civic life of their communities *Decreasing the time, they spend in unemployment *Tackle barriers preventing them to gain economic independence *Decrease the possibility to be exploited (economically or legally) *Increase their ability to manage their finances and their work efficiently *Increased social inclusion of all young people and prevention and reduction of negative and anti-social patterns in disengaged youth*Strengthen cross-sectorial cooperation, allowing for greater synergies across all fields of actions concerning young people*Promoted common values of freedom, tolerance and respect of work and workers, and social rights; *Better possibilities for young people to connect with, express their opinions to and get in contact with local key stakeholders *Increased possibility for partnerships among learning institutions, businesses and intermediary bodies;

PAgES aims at contributing to the modernization of the HE in Libya through a bottom-up approach for the design and pilot of a Master Course in Cross-Media Journalism. The Master targets young people studying communication and young professionals, in the field of digital journalism. The Master Course will be designed by means of a participatory approach, involving teachers from the EU and Libya, students and journalists. Teachers will be provided with the required skills for the delivery of the Master through a set of CB initiatives: online Repository for Training Faculty, online Space for discussion and study visits at two EU universities. The length of the Master Course is of 2 year (120 ECTS), and it will be taught in English. The aim of the project is to promote a local expertise, and we expect the Master to be held in all Libyan Universities. The first year will be piloted during the lifetime of the project. Wider Objective
Contribute to the modernization of HE in Libya and support the implementation of the Bologna Process. Improve Journalistic skills of Libyan youth in order to contribute to the democratization process of the country. Libyan condition is aptly described by Freedom House, according to which“The fall of the Qadhafi regime lifted restrictions on the long-repressed media sector. Citizen journalism became more common, and media outlets publications multiplied in number. However, media freedom is increasingly limited and many journalists have censored themselves”. According to Reporters Without Borders, “political impasse” is making journalism risky and difficult: Libya ranks 163 out of 180 countries in the World Press Index, while it ranked 155 in 2011, the year of Qaddafi’s death. It is necessary to define new skills and engender a new awareness of the part played by information in the building of a democratic country. Euro-Mediterranean cooperation is of paramount importance, with respect to this goal.