Since the advent of the Erasmus+ Programme, Gecko (UK) has devised and piloted an Enterprise and Employability programme which is complementary to KA1 VET work placements in foreign organisations. Throughout the lifetime of the project, this programme was shared and improved with the help of a network of European VET partners, working together towards achieving transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications to facilitate learning, employability and labour mobility.The organisations involved were: Gecko (UK), Reattiva, CEDIT & CPA Bomba (Italy), INCOMA & INTEGRA (Spain), Globtrain (Germany) and European Academy (Romania).Our now improved DEEM programme complements the KA1 VET mobility schemes, and adds value to them by offering a training scheme that equips and empowers beneficiaries of such schemes with entrepreneurship and employability knowledge and skills, leading to sustainable employment at the end of the mobility. The improved materials take the shape of: - 1 Workbook on Digital Competencies - 1 Workbook on Digital Competencies - Tutor's Copy- 1 Workbook on Intrapreneurship- 1 Workbook on Intrapreneurship - Tutor's Copy- 1 Workbook on Teambuilding- 1 Workbook on Teambuilding - Tutor's CopyTogether with:- Methodological notes- 1 Improved Individual Development Plan- 1 Improved Log BookThe training programme has been designed to work in symbiosis with the work placement, allowing the students to record both their professional and personal goals through the use of the Individual Development Plan and Log Books that are complementary to the training.The project built on the UK approach to student-centred learning, offering an innovative pedagogical approach to partner nations. The curriculum materials offer a formal training route, and opportunities for national and ECVET certification. The DEEM programme that we devised is based on an empirical approach, offering immediate solutions to engage employers in work-based learning and to help beneficiaries of mobility schemes into sustainable employment. Through implementing the project, the partnership also led to the development of better quality assurance mechanisms in VET, by identifying clear statements of learning outcomes.We worked together in sharing good/better practices, improving the materials of the Enterprise and Employability programme and then standardised them, with inputs from all the partners representing 5 EU countries. By using the knowledge of all the partners, we acknowledged the different pedagogical approaches of partners/nations, but also sought to be uniform in our approach, so that the DEEM programme can be used or adopted in any EU nation. The main result of the project: the DEEM network developed a common curriculum which we all own now – both as intellectual property and “own” in terms of our commitment to its quality delivery. The project built and strengthened a network of European VET providers, enabling them to deliver a standardised enterprise and employability curriculum, building organisational capacity, whilst working collaboratively towards achieving results that tackle EU's 2020 Strategy.

<< Objectives >>Since the onset of COVID-19, there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of transnational mobility opportunities for learners across all sectors & low-skilled VET trainees in particular. PTMA aims to use digital technologies to prepare & accompany potential mobility participants so they have the confidence to take part safely in transnational mobility &/or in-person/hybrid work-based learning experiences.<< Implementation >>Our research showed that an overwhelming majority of young people aged 16-24 own a smartphone. This is where the idea for the PTMA project was born. We will create a multi-format ‘Personal Transnational Mobility Assistant’ smartphone app with customisable scenarios & solutions, access to key documents & one-touch messaging with identified contacts. We will also design multi-access interactive mobility preparation modules for trainees & a pedagogical guide for educators.<< Results >>All the PTMA results will be digitally based, open-source, available in 8 languages & tested by 48 learners & 16 tutors in the pilot studies across the 8 countries of the partnership. The PTMA results will be adaptable to other sectors, dramatically increasing the potential impact & underlining the cross-sectoral dimension of the project. In this way, the PTMA project provides innovative digital solutions aligned with the technology & needs of today without neglecting the experience of yesterday

Youth Talent to Market is a Erasmus+ KA2 project in the field of youth, composed of three organisations that work with the creative sector; in the UK (Gecko Programmes), in Italy (CEDIT) and Cyprus (LC Youth).The project developed, tested and and adopted innovative practices, by providing enterprise workshops and work placements in a blended mobility for youths, that supported them to develop and sustain a creative business in this sector.The project identified a non-formal entrepreneurial training pathway for artisans, who have learnt their craft, and wishing to develop their business skills so that they can take their talent to market; either a national or international market. The non-formal entrepreneurial training pathway took the shape of a 10-day enterprise workshop, that was designed after a close consultation with representatives from the creative sector in the three countries. This was then piloted in two cycles, with 60 creative makers from the United Kingdom, Italy, and Cyprus benefiting from the training designed by the partnership. The 10-day enterprise workshop was followed by a 45-day work placement with a creative business, for 30 chosen participants, providing them with the opportunity to observe and learn the mechanisms of managing and marketing such a business, with the aim to equip them to transfer this knowledge to their own business.The project worked closely with artisans and artists groups throughout the life of the project, and engaged them to contribute to the design of the workshops and the style in which it is presented. Sixty young artisans were developed in this pilot, along with nine youth workers being developed as enterprise mentors specifically for this sector.The project also featured three big dissemination events (multipliers), which were held in each of the partner nations, with the aim to continue to engage with artisans, artisan groups and other young people, and report to stakeholders and shapers, and exploit the results of the project.

Entrepreneurship has been highlighted as a key action by the European Commission as a powerful driver of economic growth, job creation and innovation. Recent communications from European Union are clear: Europe needs more entrepreneurs. However, entrepreneurs still lack the basic cultural and educational conditions to compete on a worldwide market, and more investment in entrepreneurship education is needed. To reach these goals, formal education is not enough. Ideas are put into action when learning is supported by direct experience of the economic environment.The ENDuRE Knowledge Alliance designed innovative approach for the education of new entrepreneurs and support aimed at increasing resilience and competitiveness of European startups.Academies and companies worked together to face the challenge of reducing probability of failure in startups, helping existing enterprises grow quickly and overcome the “Valley of Death”. The project designed and developed a holistic framework to transform ideas into technically and economically sustainable businesses. ENDuRE mixes learning by doing, cross-border collaboration and the strategic support of new startups by successful companies in a win-win environment. Its key features include innovative solutions in technical opportunity scouting and market/technology assessment; pretotyping, conceptual design, and reinforcement of products/services and business models; IP mapping, and competitive intelligence analysis; advanced prototyping of products/services; field support through knowledge exchange and startups’ full immersion within hosting companies. After three tests within a European network of academies and business players, a set of educational and practical tools are now available. They are aimed at guaranteeing the reproducibility of the approach. The educational and training materials are available on the project website for target stakeholders to be transferred in different programs, as well as to be used at different stages of the start-up growth.

"“Erasmus plus : le Renouveau de la Mobilité Transnationale, une nouvelle opportunité pour les personnes en insertion et les entreprises » (Erasmus Plus - RMT) – “Erasmus plus : The new way of transnational mobility, a new opportunity for people in the process of integration and for companies "" is a proposition coming from mobility experiences that the applying organisation runs since 1995 in the framework of European, regional and local funds to support and reinforce employability of people integrating the labor market. This program, run within two years, aims to finalise a methodological toolkit of orientation to transnational mobility which will be innovative and complementary to the existing ones. It will be an answer to priorities defined by the E.U because it offers to : - contribute to the acknowledgement of mobility periods as an impulse for qualification and the development of personal and professional capacities- reinforce the employability of people in the process of integration – students, recently graduated students, jobseekers – offering them alternatives and qualifiying ways of thinking- give actors of the integration sector a toolkit which will be used within their professional activities- reinforce the companies’ implication in the certification of added value of mobility experiences through a better understanding of the labor market needs. The innovative methodological aspect can be found in « capitalisation of experiences” activities, undertaken at the beginning of the project and within all the orientation process, modifying current practises where this activity appears only at the end. This should help beneficiaries to develop their capacities of analysis and explanation mobility benefits according to the professional sector they plan to integrate while coming back to France.Another innovative aspect : comparative researches undertaken within the 5 countries of the partnership will contribute to define the content of the activities. These studies (the first one to identify European mobility projects, the 2nd one, on methodologies of capitalisation, applied on 170 European companies) are the products of the project and will be published as a compendium.To undertake the activities of the project, the applying organisation has federated 6 partners qualified in diversifed and complementary fields – education, orientation and integration, development of public politics – with common aims : implement local and transnational initiatives to ameliorate qualification and employability of the public in the process of integration, integrating professional actors, such as companies. The project will benefit from 2 regional organisations : the Department of Regional, European and International Partnerships within the Ile de France Region and the Employment and training centre of Nanterre. Four international partners: CEDIT -, Florence, BERLINK – Berlin, ESMOVIA – Valence, EPN –Bristol. All have been chosen for their experiences within the frame of the LDV programs and the ESF, as intermediary placement organisation for many types of public.The complementarity of our fields and our network can be seen as a garantee to acheive the project activities, for the quality and the relevance of the intellectual productions, the ways of dissemination and the impacts in terms of durability."