"<< Background >>The starting point and idea: Professionals in adult education, whether in general or professional continuing education practice, increasingly come into situations where polarizingly fought out positions on political, social or personal events trigger massive disruptions and negatively influence group dynamics to such an extent that a simple return to the actual learning topic is not possible. Be it the current topic of Corona and the regulations that apply to it or other topics: it seems in many cases that discussion, debating or arguing in the original sense is impossible. The erosion of the culture of debate can be observed throughout the Western hemisphere and is fueled by the social media. They play a major role in ensuring that camp thinking prevails in many areas, in that their algorithms reinforce opinions and ideological positions with similar content posts and no reference is made to counter-positions on the net. Those who only take note of positions that confirm and reinforce their own become incapable of dialog. It is becoming increasingly clear that a culture of debate cannot be created in the digital space. Only in face-to-face encounters do opportunities for debate seem to exist.The competence and willingness to enter into an interaction in which different opinions, perspectives, and convictions have a space and are expressed in language does not seem to be sufficiently present among many participants in the courses and measures. In an increasingly complex world, it is a key democratic competence to consciously deal with other opinions and perspectives and to accept diversity instead of leaving the situation resigned or aggressive.This is where the project ""Controverse"" comes in with a specific approach: The aim is not so much to develop behavioral change-oriented methods as instruments for professionals to practice behavioral patterns of debating and arguing. Rather, the aim is to develop a concept with practical approaches that make it possible to experience linguistic or non-verbal exchange with opinions and positions other than one's own, with the goal of changing one's consciousness toward greater acceptance of being different, of tolerating and, if necessary, of letting other opinions stand, or even - ideally - of achieving a kind of consensus or constructive agreement. The project wants to contribute to an integrated political basic education, which starts from the life worlds of the participants, follows the concept of situated learning (learning at authentic occasions and situations in the course everyday life) and realizes linguistic and non-verbal forms of the argument with different opinions with experience-oriented methods.The idea for the project arose in the context of a previous project that focused on the development of civil courage. The project sees itself as an important element of political basic skills, because the confrontation with other views or opinions is an important foundation of democracy, whose fragility has become obvious. The confrontation with the foreign and the other is one of the essential, if not sufficient, prerequisites of democratic societies. Adult education is called upon to make a decisive contribution here.<< Objectives >>With our project ""Controverse"" we would like to achieve the following: Improved competencies for adult educators as the direct target group of the project, i.e. lecturers, teachers, social pedagogues as professionals in different measures of adult education.The aim is to encourage them to take up and deal with situations in which black-and-white thinking and entrenched pigeonhole thinking can be observed among (so-called low-qualified or non-educated) learners in a way that is appropriate to the situation and effective for learning, and to equip them with correspondingly innovative theoretical-conceptual and - above all - practically applicable methods and instruments. We plan to achieve this goal through a set of clearly defined SMART objectives:- By the end of October 2022, we will design and develop a CONTROVERSE EXPERIENCE BOX ""Fair Disputes"", consisting of an introductory textbook and a practical toolbox for trainers* working with low-skilled, educationally disadvantaged adults (i.e. inidirect target group of the project).- By the end of April 2023, we will design and develop CONTROVERSE SHOWCASES ""Fair Disputes"", consisting of practical case studies for trainers working with low-skilled, educationally disadvantaged adults (i.e. inidirect target group of the project). These will be presented in concrete pilots of the previously developed experience box - with the active participation of trainers (min. 15) and learners (min. 30) - in an attractive and innovative way.- Until the end of June 2023: Realization of three (1 per partner country) multiplier events to disseminate or concretely promote the implementation of our results.Within the funded duration of the project, the Controverse partnership aims to reach at least 5000 stakeholders in the partner countries Germany, Austria and Norway directly. This is to be achieved through extensively planned dissemination activities in terms of maximum sustainability of the project results.<< Implementation >>The Controverse project is implemented over a period of 20 months to allow sufficient time for development work. At the same time, our methodology is based on experience in the implementation of comparable projects and enables feasible time efficiency, quality and sustainability of results. The small number of partners and countries involved, as well as the proven expertise of the teams that have been coordinated in our cooperation, also contribute to achieving maximum results.Overall, the project execution is divided into 3 overarching activity areas (A1, A2, A3) that will be implemented during the project duration and within which sub-activities are defined and distributed accordingly as follows:Activity1 - Management, Lead P1 (bbb). Duration: 20 months (November 1, 2021 - June 30, 2023)Main activities: development of project management guidelines (Project Manual), task allocation and distribution among partners, continuous communication and cooperation process within the partnership; monitoring through internal progress reports; risk management; interim and final report to NA-BIBB; preparation and follow-up of 4 transnational project meetings (kick-off online, 3 meetings in presence) and other activities described in more detail in the application form. Activity2 - Development of project deliverables, Lead: P1 (bbb) for PR1 (Controversy Experience Box ""Fair Disputes""), P2 (BEST) for PR2 (Controversy Showcases ""Fair Disputes""); the respective lead will coordinate the process, but each partner will be responsible for important sub-activities. Duration in total: 18 months (PR1 November 1, 2021 - October 31, 2022, PR2 October 1, 2022 - April 30, 2023).Activity 2.1: PR1, Develop the Controversy Experience Box, Lead P1 (bbb), M1-M12;Consolidate a draft proposal for the content of the experience box; Create the methodology for conducting a focus group in each country; Select and invite adult education experts (trainers, coaches) for the focus group;Consolidating the information from the focus groups and additional desk reasearch. Design of the experience box and its main contents (textbook and toolbox);Joint evaluation and fine-tuning;Consolidation of the final version of the Controverse experience box.Preparation of the language versions for publication: German, Norwegian, English.Activity 2.2: PR2, development of the Controverse showcases ""Fair Disputes"", Lead P2 (BEST), M12-18; Consolidation of a structural draft for the content of the showcases incl. creation of a methodology for the real and reconstructed case studies from educational work (image, film, sound, innovative media documentation methods); Development in a dynamic testing process (piloting) of result 1 in different educational practices and in cooperation with the associated partners in DE, AT, NO and with active participation of both professionals (trainers) and learners (participants of direct and target groups); Design of three showcases (each partner, i.e. showcase DE, AT, NO) with attractive case studies; joint evaluation and fine-tuning;Consolidation of final versions,Preparation of language versions for publication: German, Norwegian, English.Activity3 - Dissemination/Dissemination (Sharing and Promoting), Lead P3 (LoPe). Duration: 20 months (November 1, 2021 - June 30, 2022).Main activities: set up website (bbb/LoPe) and social media account (LoPe); 60 online publications; 15 thematic presentations at external events; organization of 3 multiplier events (1 per country), described in more detail elsewhere in this form.<< Results >>The partnership of ""Controverse"" aims to achieve the following (tangible and intangible) main results: - Creating the CONTROVERSE EXPERIENCE BOX ""Fair streiten"", consisting of a textbook and toolbox, to improve adult educators' competencies in basic political education and teaching debating skills (""Fair Disputes"") to low-skilled, educationally disadvantaged adult learners. - Creation of the CONTROVERSE SHOWCASES ""Fair Disputes"", which provides adult educators with attractive, practical and multimedia illustrative case studies and gives concrete impulses for their work with the target group of learners- at least 15 trainers and 30 learners will be actively involved in our Controverse pilot activities- Dissemination of the project results to a total of at least 5000 professionals & stakeholders from the partner countries and beyond- 3 multiplier events (in Germany, Austria, Norway)- 60 online publications- 15 thematic presentations at external events, ongoing information provision for dissemination of the project- Improved professional competences of adult educators to conduct trainings in the field of basic political education and skills transfer on factual debating and ""fair arguing- Improved skills and competencies of disadvantaged adult learners in the area of basic political education and in factual debating and ""fair arguing"".- Improved awareness of the adult education communities in the partner countries and beyond in the area of basic political education and skills transfer for factual debating and ""fair dispute""."

"“Integration requires not only the will and commitment of the immigrants as well as the support of the receiving society, but above all one thing: time. In addition, integration policy must not overlook people with a migrant background who have been living in Austria for some time already.” (Dr. Pabel, Chairwoman of the Expert Council for Integration in AT, ÖIF Report 2020).An integration process can be a personal burden for a newcomer or minority member. At the same time, weakly integrated immigrants can represent a significant social and economic burden for a society. Research has shown that -for migrants themselves- slow or ineffective integration often causes an experience of hopelessness and frustration, leading to mental illness, unemployment and further problems. In society, these negative processes can lead to prejudice, discrimination and xenophobia. In Norway, Austria and Greece, i.e. the partner countries of the MiMi - Migrants' microintegration into work and social life - project, many organisations and government agencies are working on different aspects of the integration process. They often lack, however, actual consideration of migrants' concrete life situation and real concerns (micro level) and, at the same time, do not consider integration as a ""two way process"", i.e. a give and take of both, migrants and the members of society individuals move into.In Norway, there is an official agreement and policy that successful integration of migrants is determined by people`s personal surroundings, i.e. labour and community integration: The Norwegian Ministry of Education declared in its 2019-2022 integration strategy “Integration through knowledge” that one of the government's main projects is to implement an integration lift. The goal is that immigrants should participate more actively in working and social life. All who are living in Norway must be part of our community. The main objective of the integration strategy is that more immigrants get out into work, so that they can support themselves and their families. (Regjeringens integreringsstrategi)Greece has faced enormous migration waves since 2015, with flows continuing (UNHCR, 2020). The 2019 integration strategy identifies the promotion of integration into education, labour market and access to public services as important components for immigrants’ integration (EUROPEAN WEBSITE ON INTEGRATION, 2020). The Austrian government has initiated refugees’/ asylum title holders’ integration into the education system, providing a variety of training possibilities.A crucial aspect about integrating well into society is entering the labour market (in official jobs), necessary for staying in Austria. And, it is particularly Afghani, Syrians, Iraqi showing the lowest labour force participation (employment rate 2018:36% vs 7.7% overall unemployment Statistik Austria/ 4.9% acc. to ILO). Still, “it is necessary to further intensify efforts to integrate migrants. A decrease in the number of asylum applications does not mean a decrease in the number of migrants to be integrated. The economic and cultural integration of people who have recently migrated is a process that is currently taking place intensively, but it is far from completed.” (ÖIF , 2020).MiMi will offer practical solutions and material for daily work with migrants following the aim of particularly improving their personal integration in work and social life. During its implementation stage, the project will actively involve min. 150 facilitators (and reach 500), as well as involve 150 final migrant beneficiaries (and reach min 500 by exploitation). By dissemination, an overall number of 5000 individuals will be reached.O1 - Migrants' Micro-integration into work life – a practice set for recipient labour representatives offers new details on micro-integration which they (e.g. teachers, coaches, but also HR counsellors/ managers at companies) could use for better supporting the integration process. O2 provides “work and social life - mind-changers” learning material to them, aiming at a change in their stereotype way of thinking about/ behaviour towards migrant populations.In total, the project outcomes can nurture migrants' equity, social inclusion, help better address migrants' issues. The target group for this are ""recipient labour representatives "". Final beneficiaries are migrants (but also the society in general) with better social inclusion, higher numbers in labour market inclusion and lower social benefit needs.Doing this in the present partnership shall foster transferability of outputs to other countries in Europe: from south (e.g. ES, IT) being also major “entrance” points into the EU to central and north (e.g. NO, SE) as preferred destinations."

<< Objectives >>The aim of the project is to promote opportunities for young migrant women in society and to encourage them to stand up for their interests so that they are represented in our societies. Young women are supported by role models and their experiences in the development of accompanied by educational and career ideas as well as for social & political participation. We want to promote inclusion, diversity & equality. The end users of our efforts are young migrant women or from a minority aged 16+.<< Implementation >>The main activities will be briefly summarized as follows: - form a network with positive role models (interviews, workshops)- develop tools for trainings with young women with migration background on the basis of proposed solutions by those affected- piloting with young women with migration background- developing a handbook for trainer and society- sensitization of trainers- dissemination activities- management activities<< Results >>1) Network: women with migration background or from minorities who have successfully built their careers & life paths in various fields despite obstacles. They will serve as role models for the community network to advocate for gender equality and inclusion.2) Handbook for Trainers & civil society for working with young migrant women: The content: concepts & methods for workshops in which women are taught political & social knowledge & opportunities for their own political or civic engagement

The INSPIRATION ELEVATOR project combines the efforts of 4 partners, representing three main regions of Europe – Nordic (Norway), Central (Austria) and South Eastern (Bulgaria and Croatia). The starting point of our joint effort is supporting youth workers in introducing, organizing and implementing design thinking processes in their daily interventions with youth in risk, which will enhance youth employability and employment prospects. In most cases, employment support interventions targeting youth at risk have temporary effect (Piqué, M. Angels, 2015). Young persons experience training and support activities to enhance their employability, which in the best-case scenario result in their short-term employment. Following this employment period, they are forced to seek again support from above mentioned services hoping to get sustainable realization in both personal and professional life. Despite the positive effects from national measures, the reality of young persons in risk staying long out of job and education calls for reconsideration of the philosophy and methodology of existing youth work services. As youth trainers, what we notice in our work and the work of our colleagues in youth work community is that most of our efforts are focused on provision of basic skills. In other words, we try to provide young persons with “instruments” to operate successfully in life. While skills development is a crucial factor for success, it would need to be accompanied with building the right set of attitudes, so to be able to apply these skills in the best and sustained manner. Stepping on this premise we have realized one of the limitations of current youth in risk training programmes in our countries, i.e. they don’t fully address the psychological consequences of being at risk such as low self-esteem and decreased drive for achievement and initiative and the need to build strong growth mindsets of learners. The COVID-19 unprecedented crisis on all levels would place youth in risk in our countries and across Europe in even more unfavorable situation, which would require strong resilient aptitude to handle all unpredictable challenges to come. We are determined to develop outputs that will contribute to building this resilience.Our aim is to create conditions for improved employability chances of young people in risk in our countries. Our objectives are: - design and develop methodological manual for youth workers and coach app on how to embed design thinking as a horizontal activity in their daily training and support work with youth in risk to re-/enter the labour market;- piloting the developed outputs with 24 youth workers (8 per partner country) and 48 youth at risk;- expand outputs exploitation to 48 youth workers (16 per partner country) and 96 youth at risk;- disseminate project activities and results to 850 youth workers and other relevant stakeholders. The immediate target group are youth workers. The end users of our efforts are youth at risk. In each partner countries there will be an emphasis on specific youth sub-groups, e.g. Refugees and Migrants (Norway); Roma (Croatia); Economically Disadvantaged (Austria and Bulgaria). ++Tangible results (outputs)++1. IO1 – Methodological manual for introducing design thinking in youth work, electronic document available in all partner languages and English.2. IO2 – Coach app for youth workers to develop their design thinking mindset and encourage application in their daily work. 3. 72 youth workers integrate IO1 and IO2 in their daily work (piloting: 24 and exploitation:48).4. 144 youth at risk are engaged in new youth work activities, led by youth workers using IO1 and IO2 (piloting: 48 and exploitation:96).5. 850 youth workers and other stakeholders reached through dissemination activities (1 multiplier event, 24 online publications, 16 thematic presentations at external events, ongoing information provision).++Intangible results (outcomes)++1. Improved professional competences of youth workers in partner organisations and beyond to embed design thinking principles and processes in their daily work with youth in risk. 2. Increased professional development motivation of youth workers.3. Improved motivation for learning and development of youth at risk.4. Improved employability skills of youth at risk. 5. Improved awareness of the benefits of design thinking of the wider youth work community and other relevant stakeholders.The overall impact of our efforts will be to foster social inclusion of youth in risk and raise the quality of professional learning opportunities for youth workers in partner countries and beyond.

The Enterprised project combines the efforts of 4 partners, reflecting current challenges and trends in the field of adult education from different regions of Europe -Nordic (Iceland and Norway), Central (Austria) and Southern (Spain). The starting point of our endeavor has been related to supporting our adult trainers in effective teaching of their courses (literacy, numeracy, language competences, digital skills, entrepreneurship, etc.) in line with current on-the-job realities. By equipping adult trainers with the adequate methodological framework and resources we aim at increasing the quality of training provided and respectively the prospects for our learners to be successfully employed in long-term perspective. The above aspect of our proposal is in direct link with one of the adult-specific priorities of Erasmus+ programme for 2019, which emphasises on “extending and developing the competences of educators and other personnel in effective teaching of low-qualified adults”. The end-users of our efforts will be people with low-basic skills and low-qualifications, who are at risk of staying out of the labour market due to lack of labour market relevant skills and, most importantly, relevant attitude for the given job area. Tangible results1. IO1 –Resource guide for adult trainers, electronic document available in all partner languages and English.2. IO2 –Methodological guide for adult trainers, electronic document available in all partner languages and English.3. IO3 –Methodological Guide for adult training providers and employers, electronic document available in all partner languages and English.4. 60 adult trainers integrate IO1 and IO2 in their daily work.5. 12 partnerships between training providers and employers in the field of tourism are formed to deliver pilot work immersion programmes using IO3.6. 20 adult trainers are engaged in pilot work immersion programmes in the field of tourism.7. 160 adult learners with low qualification engaged in adult education courses based on IO1, IO2 and IO3.8. 1200 representatives of adult education providers, adult trainers, employers and other stakeholders reached through dissemination activities (4 multiplier events, 36 online publications, 12 thematic presentations at external events, ongoing information provision).9. 60 representatives of adult education providers integrated IO1, IO2 and IO3 in their daily practice.Intangible results1. Improved professional competences of adult trainers in partner organisations to deliver job-related training to low qualified adult learners;2. Improved job awareness, work mindset and motivation of low qualified adult learners;3. Improved collaboration between training providers and employers;4. Improved awareness of adult education communities in partner countries and beyond in the area of job-related training provision.We will focus on a particular pilot economic sector, i.e. Tourism, which is one of the main employers of low-qualified adults in our countries and Europe in general (OECD Economic survey, 2017). We will bring innovative solution related to adult workers’ sustainable motivation for high performance and reduction of staff turnover. The solutions we propose will be tested in the Tourism sector, but will be designed to provide easy transferability to other sectors, as well.