"WISE (Working in Soft Skills for Employment) is an exchange of good practices with the aim of supporting the trainers of VET organizations in finding ways to transfer soft skills for the labour market to participant of VET courses, especially initial VET education. In order to promote VET “as a first choice” for learners to discover their talents and to advance in learning and career, is necessary that VET provides high quality curricula and skills needed in the labour market. In addition to adequate technical and professional skills, companies nowadays look for employees owning a wide range of ""soft skills"" (e.g. creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability, emotional intelligence, problem solving, critical thinking, communication, time management…).VET Providers then have the commitment to facilitate the acquisition of soft skills within the VET pathways.As for technical skills, learning is generally based on theoretical lessons and then practical examples followed by a work-placements in a company but, in the case of soft skills, the learning process is not the same and requires very specific and innovative teaching methodologies.Some countries have adopted reforms that have structured innovative VET systems, some are struggling to overcome regional differences some others have just started focusing on these topics. The partnership aims at exchanging good practices on tools and methodologies to improve and empower soft skills in trainees. The nine partner organizations come from Italy, the Basque Country, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Portugal and their core activity is the training of vocational subjects to students (14-19 years of age). The methodologies for transferring soft skills will be exchanged keeping in mind that they will be useful for the insertion in the labour market. Each partners will involve stakeholders coming from the business sector so as to have a point of view of the companies that normally insert the students for work- based learning experience (WBL). The ""success factors"" will be identified, as well as the needs of the companies and the trainers.During the first phase of the project the partnership will exchange and analyse methods and tools according to indicators agreed during the first transnational meeting: in accordance with the priorities set by the European Union to raise the competencies provided by VET organizations and their trainers, 2 learning activities (""Short Term staff Training Event) will be organized. The events will take place in the Basque Country and in Finland, which have in the past few years developed innovative methodologies supported by VET systems reforms and are the frontrunners in this field. Trainers from all the partner organizations will be involved: they will mainly be trainers who are normally the link with companies but they can also be trainers of general or specific subjects inserting the soft skills focus in their lessons. Three transnational project meetings are also foreseen to manage the project. Therefore, the main aims of the project are on the one hand the exchange of good practices and on the other hand, starting from the findings, also the building of a future project of ""development of innovation"", developing tools and methodology that can be transferred to other contexts and courses of the partners."

Femme Forward is a forward-looking project targeting the low representation of women in digital jobs and start-ups. Through an innovative and comprehensive training programme, women with various backgrounds will be empowered to either start a career in tech or employ their experience and knowledge to set up a tech start-up. The Femme Forward consortium is a partnership of 15 stakeholders led by Simplon.co (SIMPLON.CO), bringing together key industry, technology and education stakeholders in Europe. Each participant in the project has a well-defined role and contributes to achieving a qualitative and comprehensive partnership. The consortium will work to identify, develop and pilot high-quality digital education content that will tackle the current gender gap in the digital economy, enabling at least 500 women to start on the track to tech employment or entrepreneurship. The project will be delivered across 8 interconnected work packages, during which 23 outputs will be delivered over 24 months.Femme Forward will support women with various backgrounds with a special focus on: migrants and refugees whose qualifications are not recognized in the EU; professionals and women who want to change careers for better job prospects; young graduates from non-tech degrees who want to move into tech positions; women who have a tech business idea and want to make it a reality; women re-entering the labor market after maternity, etc.At the end of the project, we will have created an easy to use and extensive repository of tested, high-quality educational materials, available in multiple languages, and on a multi-device compatible learning platform.

"Within the framework of the “KA2 - exchange of good practices” the project wanted to identify, analyse and synthesise success models of work-based learning starting from good practices and innovations from each partner. The partners were involved in WBL at various level (apprenticeship, general work-placements, dual system, on-the-job training..), some have a long experience and some others have a long experience in training young people but are new to the dual system. For this reason, the idea was to compare success factors, exchange lesson learnt and learn from each other to create a model to train students as workers with technical skills with soft skills. The focus was meant to be also on the role of the trainer/mentor in companies. Starting from well established experiences the project wanted to underline their characteristics and transfer or/and adapt them to the different national contests, keeping in mind the different legislation too. The project lasted 36 months and involved organizations from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, United Kingdom and Bulgaria. After an initial preparation phase the partners met in Italy, Germany and Portugal to focus on the following topics: • differences between vocational training to train for professional/technical skills worker and vocational training to train for the soft skills; • vocational training and models for WBL; • vocational training between tradition (Italy, Spain, Portugal) and innovation (Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria); • the role of trainers as coaches or mentors or educators; • the role of the companies and the company mentors.For each organization there was a project manager, an educator/coordinator and 3 or more trainers involved in WBL according to different features (apprenticeship, work-placement, internship, dual learning). Each organization has also involved their most trusted companies, available for interviews and meetings. Starting from the mapping of their best practices, the organizations shared them through a common framework and, where possibile, through visits on the field. Taking into account the critical points and the needs of the learners a learning activity has been organized in the second half of the project. The main need was that of the ""soft skills"": their transferability from the trainers to the students and their evaluation. The LEARNING ACTIVITY, which was the main result of our project, involved 28 participants: in 5 online working days and many more at a distance the partners used tools to reflect on their process and methodologies for WBL. Using as a base the ""7 principles"" of Needs Base Working in the Belgian model and with interactive methodologies, the partners explored the different features of the WBL process and learnt from each other sharing their working methodologies, tools and also acquiring a new awarenss which proved quite effective."

"Internationally, lifelong learning has come higher on the political agenda since the mid-1990s. There is now a broad consensus on the importance of adult learning taking place in many arenas, not least of these being in the workplace. At the same time, immigration and social exclusion is a challenge, which many EU countries must address. European research on labour migration over the same timeframe has shown us that immigrants have so far been over-represented in the lower-level labour market, in uncertain and low-paid positions, and with limited income mobility. Many therefore can feel excluded from their new societies, when the need for them to be included in society and the workplace has never been higher. There have been many ways in which immigrants have attempted to be integrated. The latest numbers in Norway show that 67 percent of those in Norway (two thirds!) return to NAV within seven years of their Introduction Programme finishing and in need of financial support. The consortiums own experiences suggest that in the majority of cases, the participants skill set does not match the current needs of the labour market. There are many factors, which contribute to their ""social exclusion"". Some suffer from lack of primary and/or secondary education, whilst others have little and/or no work experience. Many have poor language skills, and many show a lack of understanding of how their new countries function both socially and economically. Naturally, challenges such as social integration, adult learning, and immigration in their entirety are far too big for any singular institution to solve by itself, but many countries share the same problem. After primary discussions with our partners in Turkey, Scotland and Italy, we found they too are experiencing the same issues that we are. We, the consortium feel that it maybe possible to develop and implement a model which increases the chances of the participants of securing work by upskilling in certain trades with have future needs for labour. Others may have a goal of reaching a linguistic qualification of B1 in their new country. B1 is the minimum for many which means that they can apply for further schooling/education, and is the minimum standard which many professions crave (from childcare to the medical profession). Being active in either education or securing skills within vocational trades are one of the main methods of going from being socially excluded to inclusion in their new society.The consortiums idea is based on a three-stage plan. We will begin with a local needs study and immediately assess our findings. We will look at existing learning offers available to immigrants and migrants in specific areas and see if they can be incorporated into our model. Four groups will be created(one in each country) of ca.20 people and we will put them on a course to give them an opportunity to either take up a vocational trade or an academic pathway which can lead to qualification B1. We aim to give them the necessary tools to choose the right pathway by helping them recognise their own strengths, abilities, attributes and weaknesses, as well as understanding what it can take to reach their goal. We will produce our own model and incoporate existing curriculum based on the participants needs. From a test group Oslo Service Senter worked with in 2014, we found that early mapping and career advice (both in individual and group form) led to fewer wrong choices and a higher percentage people qualified from our project than with the Norwegian national ""Introduction Programme.""The second part of the plan will then lead to each participant taking a conscious and informed decision as to whether they choose to take a vocational trade (with the possibility for further linguistic tuition which will be customised to their chosen trade in the workplace and work placement) or the opportunity to stay in the classroom and attempt to reach the B1 level aided by the introduction of digital software and digital learning. Those choosing vocation will also receive some form of linguistic education whilst they are onsite/ in the workplace, whilst crucially upskilling. The third part of the plan will involve following up of each participant and publishing a Best Practices Guide. Research has shown us that some immigrants can be exposed to the risks of dropping out in periods of uncertainty and/or transition. We have therefore planned to optimise the following up of the participants in this period, as well as prioritising assisting those who wish to apply for further education wherever needed. Five Intellectual Outputs will be made within the project lifetime, with each member of the consortium having senior responsibility for producing at least one of these.Objectives for the project: (keywords)Better integration for immigrants/migrants, social inclusion, better skills mapping; career advice, upskilling, employability"

"The project’s context was formed from the European Commission's contribution to the Leader´s meeting in Gothenburg, 17 November 2017 “Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture “-is that one of a Europe with deep cultural diversities at the basis of its strength and, at the same time, a common ground that makes up the distinct feature of the European way of life. Within this framework, we started from the valorisation of CLIL “Content and Language Integrated Learning” methodology experiences now capillary in Europe, as testified by the Eurydice Key data Report on Languages at school in Europe, in line with the updated European Reference Framework of Key Competences for Lifelong Learning and in line with the Communication of the European Commission ""Towards an integrated approach to cultural heritage for Europe"", our goal is to approach and explore one specific topic, the European cultural heritage, and one methodology -the integrated teaching and learning one -mixing them together we aimed to foster a new and crucial topic for VET and offered a new approach, breaking down the traditional barriers between disciplines and integrating the topic in some existing training paths within the VET provider offer in Europe. In other words, the project wanted to create a connectedness between disciplines that otherwise might have seemed unrelated to many learners. We wanted to introduce and fully implement the integrated teaching and learning methodology, through the European cultural heritage topic, in the VET system. The main target group was represented by VET trainers and the project designed, implemented, tested and disseminated a kit of didactic-educational tools tailored made on VET trainers because: -it exploited the cultural heritage topic within, and in connection with, different conventional subjects (such as economy, history, sciences); -it resorted to alternative and multimedia sources, exploiting the strengths of the ludic methodology and ICT tools learning strategy: an online team quiz game and an app for mobile use were part of the kit. -it offered an attractive material to be directly used within the classroom: the kit is available for free for all the VET teachers and trainers that want to use the kit within their lessons. In a consequent cascade flow, the second main target group was represented by VET learners, as the final beneficiaries. The benefits for them were an enhancement of their learning motivation, real opportunities to study the same content from different perspectives and development of crucial key competences, such as social and civic competence, cultural awareness and expression. The kit was released as an OER and this action was considered to be crucial in order to get long term benefits and let the project results be heavily promoted among VET providers and their stakeholders. The project activities took place over 34 months, in four countries, from north to south Europe: from Sweden to Lithuania, passing through Italy and Spain. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, our project was extended to allow us the time and opportunity to complete all necessary activities and outputs. Even though Covid impacted the duration of our project, we didn't allow it to affect the results of the project and still realised our final transnational meeting online. The partnership was built on a heterogeneous team made by complementary competences and expertise, background and missions that valorised a widespread network and the importance of a high quality and attractive VET system. The participants in the project, during its whole cycle, Lithuania reached 242 persons, 110 reached by Spain, 500 were reached by Engim, 150 were reached by Bluebook and 200 were reached by MEXPERT. Totally across the whole project cycle and the project partnership we have reached 1444 persons. This number was reached by focus groups in each country, testing exercises by teachers, testing final activities by students, participants in multiplier events and some of these in direct dissemination activities. These also included people with fewer opportunities and special needs. The participants actively took part in the preparation and testing phase of the intellectual output. All multiplier events were realised but smaller number of participants were involved. Lithuania did the event totally online. Across the partnership 88 were reached face to face and 75 were reached online. In facing the European cultural heritage topic and the mainstreaming of an integrated approach, the partnership pursued a transnational approach to look at the main framework within plural dimension, valorising the inputs, feedbacks and suggestions coming from different contexts and exploiting a dense network of stakeholders."