See above

Badge Europe aims to create a widely adapted and technically innovative Conceptual Model and Toolkit for the implementation of Digital Badges as a growth-focused training incentive across Europe. It is a Strategic Partnership between the Folkeuniversitetet (Public University) in Norway, which delivers high-quality, affordable classes to a large population of adult learners; the Stichting Bloom (Bloom Foundation) in the Netherlands, an organization focused on learning among vulnerable groups of society, including those distanced from the labour market and migrant communities; and relevantive GmbH in Berlin, Germany, an agency specializing in UX consulting that has focused on online skill-sharing and non-linear learning paths. The project will span 30 months, and will be focused around an iterative research and development process involving over 100 learners, 30 employers and 30 education providers from the three participating countries.Digital Badges are an online mechanism for making visible and validating a wide range of skills and learning. The purpose of Digital Badges is to overcome two main obstacles to development in the workforce and social equity: to incentivize learning and training across a maximum range of the populace, and to leverage competencies latent in jobseekers and the active workforce, focusing on those competencies that are vital to the modern economy but which are not easily validated by existing qualifications. As such, Digital Badges are a unique instrument with an enormous potential to transform the lives and careers of individuals, the impact of educational organisations, the success of public policy, and the strength of the European market and society. Of special importance to the project is the ability of Digital Badges to impact the professional lives of those who have not been integrated into existing educational frameworks, have not followed traditional career paths, or have not received formal qualifications. This may include individuals who exit school without a degree, former workers who have been disengaged from the labour market, adult learners with non-linear career or training paths, socially and economically vulnerable adults, and asylum seekers and refugees.By offering these populations a technologically enabled path toward motivated learning and transparent validation, Digital Badges will encourage social entrepreneurship across Europe, creating new pathways of incentive and qualification that will be well matched to develop the workforce for the rapidly evolving European labour market. However, to ensure the effectiveness of Digital Badges, comprehensive research and innovative solutions are required.Although disparate initiatives around Digital Badges already exist in Europe, there has been no comprehensive, research-based, fully inclusive initiative to create wide implementation based on the needs of all stakeholders; this project will undertake to be that initiative. The necessary culmination of this project will therefore be the Digital Badge Toolkit: a set of relevant, practical, and immediately actionable documents designed for stakeholders to begin taking advantage of Digital Badges for their individual and organizational goals. To create a Toolkit that is maximally effective across Europe, the project team will: 1) research the Digital Badge landscape in Europe and globally; 2) run consultation sessions with stakeholders across multiple European nations, including learners, employers, educational organizations, and policy makers; 3) lead innovation workshops that will leverage the team’s combined educational, technological, design, and management experience to conceive of powerful user-focused solutions; and 4) develop and compose the documents that will comprise the Digital Badge Toolkit. The work team will consist of ten lead researchers from the three participating organizations: the Folkeuniversitetet (NO), Stichting Bloom (NL) and relevantive (DE).The team brings important and varied approaches to integrating a wide range of adult learners into social and work life, and their different countries' contexts will provide critical insight into the research landscape, helping to ensure the development of a conceptual model that applies cross-nationally.

SHARE the Badge is a follow up on the Strategic Partnership 'Shared Responsibility'. Within Shared Responsibility we have made a SHARE method and system (collections of Badges and handbook) In this follow up project we want to make it very accessible for different kind of organizations. Main priority is to support open education and recognition of competences gained in all kind of learning (formal, non formal and informal) using a digital way (open Badges) in order to have good (job) opportunities for all, also those without diplomas or certificates. This project focuses especially on organizations working with migrants and unemployed with a distance to the labour market. The project will give tools to these organizations in order to have a better insight in learning pathways within their organization, on how to connect badges with these learning pathways. This will make them capable of upskilling the learning of their target group. When you have recognition of your competences (through badges) you have better opportunities on the labour market. This makes vulnerable target groups more included in society.In Europe we see a mismatch in recognition of competences between employers and potential employees. Within society you have people who are extra vulnerable and have problems in showing which competences they have, due to a lack of diplomas or certificates. In this project we focus on migrants and unemployed with a distance to the labour market. When someone has no diploma or certificate, it does not mean he/she has not gained skills and competences. When you can show to a future employer what your skills and competences are and the employer acknowledges the value of these skills and competences, the employability of this person will enhance and for the employers the possibilities to get the adequate employees will enlarge. The aim of the project is to narrow the gap between vulnerable groups of people in our society and the labour market in order to make these persons to active participants in our society. This strengthens them to be self-confident and make them economically valued in community. In this project the partners come from 7 different countries (Spain, Italy, Finland, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Austria).A Toolkit will be made and contains offline materials for organizations and users and an online training course for organizations on how to implement the SHARE method within their organization. A manual for organizations will be complementary to this training. Also there will be an online module for users on how to gain badges. The transnational character of the project creates a common language in recognizing skills and competences gained by any kind of learning. An internationally recognized system enhances the possibilities to get employed regionally and internationally. The input from different countries and regions makes the system well tested and transmissible in Europe. Especially for migrants it can be helpful to have a system which is recognized in different countries.In a period of 22 months, starting September 2019 we want to have different Intellectual Outputs in order to make the SHARE method and system ready to be implemented in different organizations and regions in Europe. In order to achieve this and make the SHARE method and system sustainable, we will make a Toolkit containing;O1: Offline materials for users (migrants and unemployed) in order to make competences visual and 'badgeble'O2: Offline materials for organizations in order to make learning pathways with 'badge-moments', including a manualO3: The SHARE collections of Badges, also translated in French and FinnishO4: Online training course (MOOC) for organizations about Open Badges, the SHARE method, learning pathways and how to recognize and use them in your organizationO5: Online module for users on how to earn badgesIn this project a TC will be held to train organizations in the SHARE method and how to implement this in their organization.All IO's will be tested and evaluated by the partners, associated partners and external evaluators. Each country do pilots with all outcomes.The results will be disseminated through Multiplier events. Printed versions of the offline material can be used freely by other organizations interested, the online training will be on our learning platform for at least 5 years and free of use.

The overall goal of the project is to have more employable vulnerable (future) jobseekers. In this project we develop 2 courses regarding 21st century and entrepreneurial competencies: one for the mentioned client group and the other one for the people supporting them, being teachers, instructors, job coaches. Within the scope of the project we also do research on how we can use Open Badges to recognise and acknowledge these competencies. An Open Badge is a visual digital and reliable proof of a skill or competence that someone has acquired. It gives insight and words to what the client is capable of. This strengthens clients’ self-confidence because their competencies are made visible in a digital, transparent and open way, it creates efficient learning paths and is recognisable for stakeholders (employers - funders - governments - business partners)The world around us is continuously changing and this in an always faster manner. Globalisation, digitisation, technology, robotisation, aging and hazing, social changes in the direction of working more and longer, growth and shrinking of companies, etc. The world is changing and so does the labour market. Today 's jobs will no longer exist in a few years, others will come instead. The work is increasingly flexible and volatile. In such a dynamic labour market, it is important for all involved (both employers, employees and self-employed) to be flexible and broadly employable. People on the labour market will need a different skillset that includes generic skills (key competencies). These key competencies entail the possibility to adapt to changing conditions and learn new technical skills when needed. At this moment of the Covid-19 crisis we are all convinced that digitisation will radically change our work, social live and learning environments and we must see this as a challenge to realise a positive support to an inclusive labour market. All the above mentioned changes can be confusing if a person feels uncertain about himself and doesn't understand all mechanisms in place to help find his own space in it. For people with more support needs due to all possible reasons, it is therefore immensely important that the people supporting them have a good understanding of this society and its labour market challenges.This means we need to be equip people in search for a job with futureproof competencies that meet these needs, whether they want to work as an employee or as a self-employed entrepreneur and especially support the underrepresented groups to find out about their skills and how to improve them.Often the staff supporting them has a background that has not put emphasis on the need of unveiling/ uncovering the key competencies of their pupils/clients. They either teach them technical competencies or guide them towards a job by general questions, internship follow up, helping with job applications etc. This all is relevant too, it's just not enough anymore. Therefore it is imperative that these front officers/staff become aware of this fact, what these key competencies are and how these keep changing over the years. Not only do they need to know more about the competencies, they also need to know how they can discuss them with their clients/pupils and how to reveal the competencies (by observation, by tasks, …)The course 'Discover and reveal your clients competencies!' that we will develop will support them to improve their knowledge and skills in the support of revealing extra potential of the people they support.The course for clients is a collective way of discovering and revealing their key competencies. When the course is finished, the clients will have an overview with the explored competencies and where the client is positioned compared to what is desired. The client will make an action plan to work on desired competencies that are currently missing (or insufficiently expressed). Also they learn to express their strengths and how they can be used to benefit the job. Competencies serve as a means to increase clients’ chances at employers because they can talk about their competencies open and clear and why these are important for the vacancy available. As said in the beginning, we will create Open Badges in order to recognise and acknowledge these skills. An indirect goal we hope for is that through learning about the entrepreneurial skills, more people will consider to become self-employed when they see they do have potential.

THE HUG TO EMPLOYMENT: comprehensive program of socio-labor insertion of young people from education and vocational training VET will create an innovative device within the training institutions and municipalities of individualized support to vulnerable young people to prevent school drop-out and make it possible obtain the ESO graduate (Basic FP), the basic qualification and increase their possibilities of employment, connection with the labor market, social participation and social inclusion.The project develops this methodology of individualized support for students that will be carried out through a socio-educational-emotional coaching oriented to the system, since emotion is the main part of the educational process. On the other hand, we will have a methodology for working with a Youth Coach that will influence the prevention of school drop-outs from peer to peer and not only in the school setting, but also in creative leisure. Finally, we will have a compilation of 60 good practices related to school dropouts that will serve as an inspiration framework or resource bank for other VET education professionals.During the 24 months of the project, the 4 partners from Spain, Norway and the Netherlands will work intensively in order to achieve the expected results with the best quality.