The EU and many other countries in the world have been heavily affected by the Pandemic. One reason why the Covid-19 virus did cause so much harm to the European societies is the constant labour shortage in the care service sector. Indeed, it took a global lockdown to realize that care is embedded in every aspect of our life. Unlike the mainstream capitalism ideas, the functioning of social cohesion and of our economies is depending heavily on care. However, those who are working currently in the care sector have been among the lowest paid workers, and the majority of care workers caring for the elderly are migrant caregivers, who “are not licensed and sometimes work outside the oversight of regulatory bodies, and concerns about the quality of care have thus been raised.” (WHO, 2008: “Home Care in Europe). Therefore, WHO advises policy makers and care service providers to (better) qualify these migrants, in order to minimize the share of irregular workers and compensate for the educational and social disadvantages of migrants employed in the care sector.MAIN OBJECTIVES: Enhancing the employability skills, employment conditions and quality of care of migrants in the Home/Residential Care Service SectorSECONDARY OBJECTIVES: raise awareness - of the social and labor conditions of migrant care workers; - of the shortage of qualified caregivers; - enhance the skills of VET providers for training low-qualified migrants PARTICIPANTS: 243 VET providers and trainers, 118 migrant organizations, 33 migrants, 88 Home/Residential Care Service providers, 574 stakeholders of healthcare, migrant and labor policy PARTNERS: The project Consortium comprised 6 partners from 5 European countries: VET providers for adult training from the Basque Country, Germany, Italy, Greece and UK. All together, they brought experience in training migrants and refugees, in providing care training, in detecting structural barriers at the labor market. ACTIVITIES in the project were: to collaborate with care service and training providers in order to deliver the outputs; to engage with stakeholders in order to raise awareness of the need for training migrants; to exchange with other partners on best practice experience in training migrants, The tangible results of the project were: - TRAINING TOOLKIT for migrants in the Home and Residential Care Service Sector: Skills Assessment tools (e.g. Personal and Professional Development; Applying for Jobs and Interviews; Employment Rights and Responsibilities), training tools in different care aspects such as: the Role of the Care Worker, Communication in Adult Care Settings, Body Systems and Common Conditions with Aging and cultural bias (e.g. in working relationships; cultural differences in communication, well-being and respecting individual choices, respect of private space) are part of the Toolkit in different units. The Toolkit also contains a qualification description based on the ECVET methodology that describes the Learning Outcomes of the training material on EQF Level1 in 11 Units. - Online WORK-BASED LANGUAGE COURSE for training useful vocabulary and sentences based on real-life work situations placed on a Moodle platform.- ONLINE HANDBOOK for Care Service Providers with information and a set of question to guide through the recruiting process of migrants (legal procedure, work permit/residency permit, procedure to certify foreign work experience etc.) for each partner country, placed on the project webpage - COUNTRY SPECIFIC ANALYSIS on the structure of healthcare systems of partner countries- SUCCESS STORIES and GOOD PRACTICE EXAMPLES that focus on the training background of migrants, on handling discrimination at workplace and on resolving language/communication problems- research of partners on the impact of Pandemic on migrant care workers and labour shortage in the care sectorMETHODOLOGY: peer approach for exchanging work experience and work collaboratively on the delivery of the Outputs, review of the Toolkit content and identification of mistakes, in-depth exchange on structure of care services and migrant issues, IMPACT: The project raised awareness about the need for tailored training and the access to qualifications for migrant care workers, in order to promote the legal employment of migrant care workers and enhance their quality of caregiving. On a long term view, the project results are of importance for fighting the labour crisis in the healthcare service and the migrant crisis in the European societies.All results are available on the project webpage: www.migrantstakecare.eu

"The need for this project is driven by the vast number of migrants who are travelling to Europe, fleeing war, oppression or poverty. Over 6.5 million migrants and refugees have crossed into six EU nations by land and sea at the end of 2018, according to the UN Flüchtlingshilfe e.V.. Besides the problematic refugee situation, unprivileged and disadvantaged social classes like NEETS (Not in education, employment or training), handicapped people or social marginal groups like homosexuals still tend to have hindered access to the employment market and to social acceptance/ promotion with large variations across the EU (EU ""Effective Outreach to NEETS"", 2018).The goal of this project is therefore to facilitate the entry into the labour market for foremost migrants and refugees, but also NEETS and other unprivileged groups who oftenly lack social recognition and economic participation.The main aim is to create an international online compendium and dictionary for migrants, refugees, NEETS and other unprivileged groups in (preparation to) education, employment or vocational training, which can be used via phone or computer. The compendium will contain primarily translations of fundamental (technical) terms and key words for different professions such as gardening, mechatronics, construction, carpentry, painting, administration or domestic economy into various languages, that are most commonly used by refugees and migrants in their own and in our countries. The online compendium/ vocation orientation tool will in addition to the translation service also cointain job descriptions and vocation insights (relevant to the specific country), the application conditions, the qualifications required as well as (if recommendable) information on the system of taxation, the specifications of the contract agreement, the rights and duties during an employment and advanced training possibilities after the apprenticeship. The idea is providing an online job orientation tool that is a mixture of both, translation and learning/ orientation. This way we enable disadvantaged groups (migrants, NEETS, handicapped) and receiving apprenticeship offering companies, job centres, authorities and volunteers to communicate with each other on a far more effective, job based level.Apprenticeship offering organizations, job centres, labour companies and education services (VET centers) will be better able to communicate with and give orientation to our target group (unprivileged groups) by: 1. Clarifying the most basic and fundamental job requirements and qualification and by that offering understanding and orientation. 2. Being able to describe the needed job information in different languages including the mother tongues of migrants 3. Establishing a common communication ground between trainees and trainers, pupils and tutors, learners and instructors and therefore offering solid and stable integration.The key results will be:1A web app and website usable on both Android and Apple phones to access the language and job tool. This will encorporate learning quizes, videos and as well as a unique collaboration which enables instantaneous and fully flexible translation between all 8 languages covered in the project and the 5+ choosen employment sectors. Users will be able to personalise their own vocabulary library and vocational area through making a favourites area for quick reference and practise, adding and subtracting words and phrases as needed as well as learning through a quiz/ test function. 2Case studies and videos to help with employment barriers and interviews with both benficiaries and employers. These will cover key interview questions and expectations from the employers and exoperiences and hints from workers. These will cover all the employment sectors choosen.3Employment information covering basic employment under contract, self employement rules and start up information. This will allow beneficiaries to see the employment options available. 4We expect 2000 users of the project by the end of the project funding, after this the partners will have agreed a dissemination plan to ensure sustainability. We will survey individual users to enable us to test an increase in confidence in employability. 5The project will build on the partnership between the language experts, the support and volunteer agencies (to ensure the material is suitable and useful), sector employers (to check the material is what they require for employees) and the ICT provider to enable the most user friendly and flexible tool to be tailored to the needs of all users. The tool will allow two way translation and learning of key words and phrases needed, and suggest and build phrases using the selected words . This will include categories for all the vocational jobs we are focused on. 6200 individuals as a minimum will test and validate the application and provide feedback which will be encoprated into the final version."

Functional not fluent. The ability to communicate with prospective new business partners is a fundamental language skill that is frequently lacking within EU countries where companies, particularly SMEs, are seeking global business opportunities. The life sciences sector being a global industry this is a known barrier to business growth.EasySpeak was a 2-year activity that developed a core vocabulary of over 500 words and phrases in those languages known from previously funded Leonardo project work to be critical for global business development. This learning was developed via an online learning platform using an open educational resources approach. The selected languages include European languages (English, French, Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish) and some perceived “hard to learn” languages (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean).EasySpeak then developed a further 500 words vocabulary that is specific to business conversation and the life sciences industry to facilitate further business engagement and then tested the transferability of this core vocabulary into four other sectors: advanced manufacturing, ICT, tourism and public services.Five partners, from four EU countries worked on the development of the language materials and platform as well as on the dissemination strategy and sustainability plan. Two of the partners are specialist life sciences cluster groups (Bioindustry Park and One Nucleus) that bring sector knowledge of need and routes to market for the materials. The other three partners (ALOS, EDCCC and RLN) are vocational education training specialists that provide the key understanding of the development of educational online learning resources and the specific skills in the selected languages.The result of the project is an online platform available here: http://easy-speak.today and accessible at no charge by any computer or mobile device users. The adoption of a simple to use host platform that does not require a large amount of online storage capacity offers partners and other agencies the facility to incorporate EasySpeak into their normal business offer. The platform contains over 1000 words and phrases of general conversation, business and life sciences vocabulary translated in 10 different languages available in writing and audio files. The platform has been disseminated by partners to local companies and agencies and has had a positive impact on those willing to expand abroad that is related in the case studies. It has also been tested on other sector specialists in advanced manufacturing, ICT, tourism and public services and was adopted - likely highlighting a longer term need for sector specific vocabularies to be developed for other sectors that are critical to business growth for EU based businesses in the global economic marketplace.

The project I-TALES finds its rationale in a context, easy to identify in a lot of contemporary societies, affected by a number of emergencies among which: massing migrations for different causes to the richest countries; fear of diversity and increasing racist behaviors; misinformation and hate speech spread by social networks. So the needs on which we want to intervene are:-urgency of construction of a cohesive community based on mutual respect, collaboration, dialogue, appreciation of cultural diversity -urgency of history education, critical thinking Each partner will work with 25/30 learners. This group is first of all made up of migrants coming from outside Europe or internal to European countries. It will be integrated by students from Art Schools, from Adult Education Centres and other adults, identified in collaboration with Municipalities social services and local associations, who need improve critical thinking, communication, responsibility, positive attitude, interpersonal soft skills, because influenced by misinformation and hate speech against migrants that some political parties, opinion makers, clubs use and social networks spread more and more. A number of musicians, either from partner organizations or external, will be part of the group too Our objectives are:1. To promote long-lasting interaction between the local communities and people/groups of different origins whose aspects are equal dignity of cultures, mutual acceptance, equal exchange, open dialogue2. To develop learners’ critical thinking, creative thinking and new patterns of behavior combating intolerance, discrimination3. To spread the use of creative methods in adult education and develop educators' awareness of their importance in building intercultural dialogueThe project I-TALES -Integration Through Arts Learning to Enhance Society- has at its core “The Arrival” a graphic novel with the TALE of a family journey to the “gold land”. In the six long lasting laboratories planned for the 2 years project, learners will go into deep the family story step by step, from the departure to the arrival in the new country. Through it other TALES will be narrated, first of all the migrants’, and also old migrations stories. Alongside the analysis of the panels of the novel, learners will be involved in a number of different arts and/or crafts-based- activities that will be the medium to express feelings, communicate and interact each other. Reciprocal knowledge and knowledge of the facts will permit to refuse fakes and prejudices in favour of respect and appreciation. Other activities will support their process of integration (language support, intercultural mediation support, sociality support) also with the collaboration of the community through a net each partner will build with some stakeholders active in the social field. Each of the six long lasting laboratories is closely connected, both in the theme and in the organization of the activities, with the corresponding blended mobility that will follow it. In particular music and performing art activities will be started during the virtual mobility through web applications for making music cooperatively and live streaming to learn about the performing art and to be completed during the physical mobility. The project will produce tangible and intangible results. Among the tangible ones there are original music pieces, artworks, artistic performances, exhibitions, workshops, concerts, the project website, a booklet of good practices, digital products, deliverables, a conference. The staff's intangible results include the skills gained by the staff in using the art-based approach in the adult education and in participating in Erasmus+, increased knowledge of the issues affecting refugees and migrants, promotion of processes of social inclusion and intercultural exchange among the other target groups they work with, input to use the arts-based approach in other contents and for different objectives. Concerning learners, they will learn/improve communication skills, ICT skills, collaborative skills, creative and critical thinking skills. They will improve confidence and self-esteem and get better knowledge about the cultural aspects related to the project topic. These results are strategically important because they will impact learners in the exercise of individual and collective rights, in being stimulated to working towards new goals for a better integration in society. Impact on stakeholders and public will be increased awareness of migrants issues that can take to longer benefits at societal/political level such as developing behaviors conductive to dialogue, non violence, appreciation of diversity, breaking down barriers, implementing local and non-local policies based on a shared model of citizenship. We hope to succeed in keeping the partnership with stakeholders alive beyond the end of the project to continue some of the project’s processes, implement new services

"The key objective of the ""Compass"" project was to enable migrants and receiving authorities and volunteers to be able to communicate far more effectively with each other. Compass developed a platform (available for both PC and phone) that contains basic vocabulary, including phrases particularly relevant to migrants and the situations they face (927 words and phrases in total). The language content covers the 6 most widely spoken migrant languages (Tigrinya, Pashto, Arabic, Kurmanji, Albanian and Dari) and the 7 most relevant EU languages (English, German, French, Spanisch, Italian, Greek and Turkish). Any one language can be instantaneously translated into any of the other thirteen languages. This provides a highly flexible tool that caters for the wide number of possible language combinations between migrants and authorities in receiving countries.In achieving the overall aim of far more effective communication between receiving countries and migrants, the following objectives were achieved: Authorities and volunteers are better able to communicate with migrants by: 1 clarifying legal and statutory status and responsibilities. 2 describing support that is available - such as food, shelter and clothing. 3 clarifying short term or urgent needs and support, such as healthcare and onward travel options. The key results are: 1 A mobile telephone and internet based learning application was developed through a unique collaboration which enables instantaneous and fully flexible translation between 6 key migrant languages and 7 key languages spoken in receiving countries. 2 The project developed a partnership between the language experts, the support and volunteer agencies and the ICT provider to enable the most user friendly and flexible tool to be tailored to the needs of all users. The tool allows two way translation and learning of key words and phrases needed, particularly in early contacts. This includes categories around health, legal issues, transport and women’s issues. Both support agencies and migrants are able to personalise their own vocabulary library, adding and subtracting words and phrases as needed. 3 210 individuals tested and validated the platform, learners being drawn from the 6 target migrant groups and the target 6 receiving countries. 4 Total usage levels was monitored - open access traffic to the websited exceeded 11348 users by October 2019 and at least 5 migrant/ asylum support agencies have adopted its use.The online tool can be found here: www.project-compass.eu"