The common challenge of the MEVINO project is the increase of regional SMEs’ innovation activities through a more effective delivery of professional entrepreneurial support for potential innovative entrepreneurs and innovative start-ups. Fostering innovative entrepreneurship with public funding and public guidance for entrepreneurs contributes to a thriving economy and to the reduction of unemployment rate. All four consortium partners are responsible for designing and delivering entrepreneurial support in their regions. There are highly experienced and less experienced partners in this project proposal. By following the twinning advanced methodology all entrepreneurial activities of the partner organisations and their experiences will be shared in a structured way following the 4+1 Phase Model which is successfully applied by the MEVINO partner KOMPASS since years. The Model and the guidebook provide the theoretical and scientific foundation in terms of knowledge, competency and skills, needed by a Business Advisor in start-up consultation. Peer reviews of the current entrepreneurial support services provided by the partner organisations and the peer learning process with elaboration of the joint Design Options Paper with individual improvement measures for the 4 partner organisations will follow the 4+1 Phase Model. The project will gather the activities, approaches, Good Practices depending on partners’ post experiences in different applications of their entrepreneur support activities in the MEVINO GP pool where all partners can find something to import and implement in their own region. Considerable impact of this project will be generated through improvement of the entrepreneurship support model in partner organisations. The elaborated improvement measures as part of the Design option paper will be implemented after the end of the MEVINO project and MEVINO partners will stay in contact during implementation for exchanging their experiences in implementation.

CONTEXTAlmost 60% of Europe’s 74 million low-skilled citizens are over 45 years old and are the most hard to reach to participate in training, even though they need lifelong learning most. Efforts to reach out particularly to low-skilled adults over 45 years old, who need special motivation to participate in training are essential to reduce risk of social exclusion. CSOs that already work with low-skilled people living in poverty, have to play an important role in engaging them in training, and thus need methodologies and tailor-made strategies to involve the various stakeholders required. On the other side employers’ involvement in training programs for unemployed low-skilled older adults is essential to increase perception of benefits of upskilling and connection to employment.OBJECTIVES1 Establish effective local ecosystems that encourage participation of unemployed low-skilled adults over 45 years old in training opportunities.2 Increase collaboration among CSOs, employers and trainers.3 Produce recommendations for employers to increase their involvement in training initiatives for low-skilled older adults.4 Improve socio-labour inclusion of unemployed low-skilled adults over 45 years old.THE PARTNERSHIPThe Ac+45 project comprises 5 organisations from 4 EU countries representing the worlds of civil society, adult education, labour, policy and regional development. ActionAid Hellas is an affiliate of ActionAid International experienced in empowering vulnerable groups of people, provision of personalised guidance and delivering training on basic skills. The Labour Institute of Greek Confederation of Labour provides scientific justification about interventions related to labour, and training to socially vulnerable groups. Action Against Hunger is a large CSO in Spain working on the empowerment, training and employability of 10000 vulnerable people in 10 regions. RETE NGO in Italy works on social and labour inclusion of disadvantaged and delivers digital skills courses adjusted to low-skilled older adults. Stara Zagora Regional Economic Development Agency in Bulgaria works with businesses, authorities and civil society towards the regional economic development. The Confederation of Danish Employers (associated partner) represents 14 employers’ organisations and has 28,000 private companies as members.ACTIVITIES & METHODOLOGY 1 Desk research, interviews with low-skilled older adults and focus groups with employers to define the requirements for engaging unemployed low-skilled adults over 45 years old in training.2 Development of a collaboration framework among CSOs, employers and trainers in adult education, an implementation guide and experiential training material to establish effective local ecosystems/learning and employability centres.3 Collection of successful practices to produce knowledge resources for employers and encourage their involvement in training initiatives for low-skilled older adults.4 Training of the partnership on the use of Ac+45 collaboration framework and tools.5 Pilot testing and impact assessment of Ac+45 outputs through establishment of local collaboration schemes.6 Creation of a network of Ac+45 adopters to facilitate stakeholders’ collaboration and sustainability of results.7 Promotion of the Ac+45 outputs through multiplier events.RESULTS & IMPACT1 Requirements and influential factors for engaging unemployed low-skilled older adults in training to provide CSOs and trainers with greater understanding on the needs of this group, and support them in designing more attractive training and empowerment programmes (400 CSOs, 200 Training providers to be reached).2 An integrated collaboration framework and tools to empower CSOs staff to establish effective collaborations with employers and training providers, and motivate potential learners (4000 professionals, 1500 learners to be reached).3 Guidelines for employers to support their involvement in training initiatives for unemployed low-skilled older adults (500 employers to be reached).4 A network of Ac+45 adopters and repository of impact assessment results to promote adoption of project outputs, and support policy makers in the design of employability and upskilling measures for unemployed low-skilled older adults (40 adopters during project, 35 key policy makers to be reached).5 A European conference and four national infodays to reach and involve target groups (285 participants).LONG TERM BENEFITS1 Integration of the Ac+45 collaboration framework, tools and knowledge resources by CSOs, training providers, employers and chambers of commerce in EU, adjusting them in their contexts.2 Uptake and adaptation of the Ac+45 collaboration framework from policy makers in EU, with the aim to improve the impact of current policy measures.3 Participation of a growing number of unemployed low-skilled adults over 45 years old in training programmes on basic and soft skills, promoting their socio-labour inclusion.

This project was created to promote youth excellence in knowledge, to develop their entrepreneurial competences and the capacity to face societal challenges, along with responsible research, innovation, and critical thinking.The project partners coming from Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Bulgaria were able to maintain a structured bridge between schools, youth associations, government departments, and the business sector, with a focus on including people with different needs and with fewer opportunities in entrepreneurship education programs, due to the richness of their combined resources. A pedagogical proposal about entrepreneurship education was developed and implemented based on a set of tools and best practices developed by each of the partners, which were shared and analyzed during the project with the aim to mainstream them, making them available in a Manual to many other partners around Europe and other regions of the world. In summary, this project mapped inclusive and innovative educational approaches towards entrepreneurial learning, while at the same time focusing on youth and employability. This allowed the project partners to promote the entrepreneurial education of young people and the use of new methodologies to promote educational success and integration into the digital society.Therefore, we believe that our project was in line with the Europe 2020 Strategy and constituted a strong contribution toward the EU Youth Strategy, given that the project specifically contributed to promoting education for entrepreneurship, social and environmental entrepreneurship among young people; as well as to promote youth empowerment by strengthening autonomy and participation, including e-participation, active citizenship of young people, social inclusion of all young people, critical thinking and digital literacy among young people and their sense of initiative, in particular in the social field.The project also contributed to strengthen the transnational cooperation between regions under-represented in the Program, with the Outermost Regions (the Azores and Canaria Island region and rural areas where our international partners are active). Thus, the project achieved the successful creation of a partnership in articulation with different European organizations, establishing a competent, credible and focused consortium in the areas of education for youth entrepreneurship, digital employability and social inclusion.

BACKGROUNDThe decarbonisation of the EU27 is expected to result in the loss of ~76k workers’ jobs in coal mines & plants until 2025 (154k until 2030). Partnership countries (GR, DE, AT, RO, BG, PL) will be particularly affected, currently representing 81% of the total EU coal workforce (190k). At the same time, a surge of jobs in the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) sector is already happening and expected to continue and perhaps grow.RESKILLING OPPORTUNITIES Due to similar skillset, coal workers are ideally fitted for covering unfilled positions in the RES sector. The skills of coal workers (e.g. durability in hazardous environments, employment of manual & sophisticated technologies) are sought after in the solar photovoltaic (PV) & wind industries, being particularly transferable to the occupations of solar PV installer/technician & wind-farm/wind turbine technician. Thus, coal workers can avoid the lengthy training (~2 years) currently on offer by existing VET courses, requiring only a short course or on-the-job training.CHALLENGEVET education & the labour market are expected to be challenged by a) the spike of coal workers seeking reemployment in the near future, b) the surge in unfiled positions in RES. Reskilling initiatives for the transition of coal workers to the RES sector are currently extremely limited, with only 1 EU country offering relevant C-VET courses (DE; ~2,5 years degree).Job demand in the EU27 RES sector is growing by 304k new jobs/year until 2030 – 60% expected in wind & 24% in solar PV. In particular, the supply of new RES sector jobs in partnership countries could absorb up to 90% of current coal-related jobs. For example, DE, PL & GR are leading on offshore wind potential; certain DE coal regions have the highest potentially induced employment for wind energy (~16k new jobs) & rooftop-mounted solar PV systems (~3k). PROJECT OBJECTIVESRES-SKILL aims to strengthen VET provision in the energy sector aimed at coal workers for compatible RES sector jobs, to increase their reemployment opportunities & cover at the same time RES sector’s skills demand. The project’s specific objectives are to:1. Develop a novel curriculum & tailored training content to facilitate coal workers’ reorientation to the RES industry.2. Support VET providers to integrate the RES-SKILL materials into their VET & WBL offerings.3. Improve cooperation between VET providers & businesses to provide opportunities that will enable coal workers to transition to the RES sector.PARTNERSHIPThe consortium comprises 11 organisations (6 partners plus 5 associated partners backing the project) with high capacity & qualifications from 6 coal-intensive countries (GR, DE, AT, RO, BG, PL), representing the fields of VET, learning innovation, policymaking & research. PROMEA is a leader in designing innovative learning methodologies & tools for VET education & EU projects, with involvement in decarbonisation projects. RENAC & BFI have world-class experience in designing & delivering training curricula for the RES sector; LTT is experienced in retraining low-skilled workers from extractive industries. SZREDA is actively involved in job reorientation activities in regional coal value chains; MEERI is a leading EU education institution in coal & clean energy management. Also, PROMEA, SZREDA, LTT, MEERI have strong ties with and/or represent ‘Coal regions in transition’.ACTIVITIES-Identification of skill complementarities & mismatches between coal & RES sector workers’ occupational profiles, leading to the development of learning outcomes-Development of a novel curriculum to facilitate coal workers’ reorientation to the RES industry-Creation of tailored pedagogical materials, offered as Open Education Resources (OERs)-Development of transition profiles, self-assessment tools & skills portfolios to promote customised learning & career reorientation-Development of resources for the establishment of Joint Competence Centres for the career reorientation of coal workers-Communication & dissemination of outputs through multiplier eventsRESULTS -Learning outcomes for coal workers’ career reorientation -Learning units, career reorientation toolkit & guidelines to implement successful transitions-Open Educational Resources in 6 languages-Strategic & operational plans for the establishment of Joint Competence Centres-Pilot run of a Joint Competence Centre for career reorientation & reskilling-6 national info-days to promote project results & public discussion on increasing the quality & effectiveness of VET for coal workers.POST-PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY-Uptake of OERs from relevant VET providers across the EU-Uptake of the RES-SKILL toolkit & resources for the set-up of Joint Competence Centres by career reorientation actors -Participation of a growing number of coal workers in courses based on / integrating project outputs

The DUST project will develop and operationalise novel participatory instruments for proactive and strategic citizen engagement in sustainability transitions. It will combine design-led territorial tools with digital tools for citizen deliberation at scale. The project addresses a defining societal and democratic challenge for Europe, which is to hear the voices of least engaged communities, especially in structurally weak regions dependent on energy-intensive industries, which will be most affected by transitions towards a more sustainable future. Building on the concept of ‘active subsidiarity’, the project will employ an innovative mix of research methods, and experimental citizen participation, to understand the determinants of participation in decision-making on sustainability transitions at different levels of government, and to develop effective policy recommendations for inclusive engagement of civil society.