In the current global context of complex economic challenges, there is growing interest in how workplaces develop and use skills, and this involves understanding the nature of the skills demanded by employers, and therefore the need of VET-business win-win cooperation has become morepressing. Cooperation between businesses and VET is very important for both the quality of education and for making sure future employees have the skills which labour market needs. By organising the VET provision close to the labour market, the skills needs can be more directlycommunicated and solved and does not (necessarily) depend on skills surveys or skills forecasting models.Despite, as concluded by a recent study from EC, there exists several constraining factors to successful VET-business cooperation across Europe, and in particularly in BRIDGES’ participating countries (North Ireland, England, Ireland, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Poland and Cyprus), including: lack of effective dialogue between business, providers and government; insufficient ownership of the real needs of businesses and to a lesser degree, of providers; high costs of training making companies, in particular SMEs, reluctant to invest; lack of information about benefits of and opportunities in VET; limited business’ and learners’ participation due to still a lower attractiveness of VET (at least when compared with other educational paths).With a view to the above-mentioned challenges, partners recognise the need of upskilling their VET professionals and have an effective employer engagement internal policy and agenda. In this frame, BRIDGES project will provide a bespoke framework, blended CPD programme and digital resources to support VET providers and professionals in improving WBL through effective employer engagement. The following objectives, activities and participants are defined:-Supply VET providers with a bespoke 4-level employer engagement framework: i) Building Educational Capacity; ii) Co-designing Curricula and Career Pathways; iii) Leading and Networking; iv) Enhancing Internationalisation;-Upskill 64 VET professionals in effective employer engagement that has the required impacts, through a blended CPD course and digital resources;-Engage 40 associated partners and key stakeholders by involving them in development, validation, dissemination and exploitation actions;-Promote the excellence and attractiveness of WBL and VET among VET providers, professionals and stakeholders, through BRIDGES Community of practice and multiplier events in all partners' countries, targeting more than 210 participants (including VET providers, VET professionals, employers, but also Social Partners, HE and AE providers and professionals, chambers of commerce, employers’ associations, public bodies, decision and policy makers).Expected outcomes of the BRIDGES project are:- Knowledge acquired on efficient employer engagement pathways by partners’ organisations and other VET providers involved in the project;- Skills gained on employer engagement by VET professionals involved in the project;- Increased use of the BRIDGES virtual learning environment and community of practice;- Reinforced links, synergies and cooperation among partners’ organisations but also other VET providers and their network of employers;- Increased awareness of VET and WBL as an attractive way of education and employability;- Enhanced capacity of VET providers and professionals to proactively engage with employers to identify and respond to their specific skills needs;- Deep-rooted strategic partnerships with local, national and international employers of every size to work in designing and delivering VET solutions that meet their current and specific skills demands, whilst planning for those of the future;- Increased appropriation, transferability and scalability of the project and its outputs (available as OER is six languages - english, portuguese, german, spanish, polish and greek) by VET providers and professionals, but also by other educational players, such as AE and HE in other European countries;- Expanded awareness of VET and WBL as an attractive way of education and employability, across Europe.

Female migrants come to Europe for a variety of reasons – as economic migrants, to re-unite with family members, as refugees, etc. However, there is increasing diversity of legal status and the rights attributed to migrant women, and with this come disparity in integration outcomes for female migrants, especially in terms of their economic integration. Research confirms that female migrants face obstacles in their economic integration; both as women and as migrants. They also often take on roles within household and family life, which can further inhibit their access to the labour market. Families who migrate together, often comprise older and younger members who require care, and this responsibility ultimately falls to the woman. As such, when female migrants embark on their migration journey, regardless of the reason, they are often found at an economic disadvantage because of the role they have in the household, and their need to find employment opportunities that will facilitate their family and care commitments. Mastering the host country’s language and accessing its labour market are 2 key steps in any migrant integration process. However, with their domestic commitments, female migrants tend to have worse employment outcomes in comparison with migrant men and native-born women. Promoting entrepreneurship and an entrepreneurial mindset can support the advancement of economic integration and is increasingly viewed as an effective approach to overcoming the challenges of integration. Social entrepreneurship has also proven to support the integration of migrants into European society, both through the social enterprises working to support migrant integration and migrants establishing social enterprises (SESN, 2018). Supporting others to integrate; advocating for rights of marginalised groups; celebrating food and different cultures; addressing local needs - these are all actions within the social economy that are relevant to our target group. Despite this potential, migrants, especially female migrants, face particular and obvious barriers to engaging in entrepreneurial activity, which include lack of business skills, underdeveloped entrepreneurial mindset, difficulties in accessing finance; and language, especially business language, and cultural barriers. CHAMELEON aims to address these barriers by developing an introductory-level curriculum that will support female migrants to build their basic skills and confidence, as a first step towards self-employment. The resources developed will support female migrants to develop their entrepreneurial mindset, increase their knowledge of business structures and supports in their host country, improve their business language skills, examine their motivations for taking on this new challenge, spot local opportunities in the social economy and to access alternative funding streams available. As such, while this an entrepreneurship project, it has an adult education focus. Through CHAMELEON, we aim to invest in female migrants, helping them to develop the core skills and competences that will become the building blocks of their economic integration.From our collective experience of delivering projects involving migrant women over the past ten years, the project partners know that if you bring migrant women together for learning in a safe and supported environment and provide opportunities to build self-esteem and confidence, promote language learning, foster friendships and networks, and offer avenues for progression, the results are long-lasting and impactful on the women and their families. As part of the CHAMELEON project we want to change the narrative of migrant women; to move away from the categorisation of women solely as vulnerable and in need of protection, as we have been involved in many projects where migrant and refugee women lead the education and integration process, supporting other female migrants as well as their families and communities. Through CHAMELEON we aim to foster these attributes of female migrants and harness their skills so that they can enhance their own economic integration by exploring the opportunities afforded to them in the social economy. CHAMELEON aims to support migrant women to establish their own social enterprises to overcome the barriers to their economic integration; taking full advantage of the range of online and digital tools available to support business start-ups in Europe today. The project also aims to support migrant women to engage in meaningful networking opportunities by developing a network of like-minded social entrepreneurs in their local communities and across Europe.

Despite the endless cavalcade of online think pieces about millennials, there’s a new generation that demands our focus and attention. Generation Z, born after 1995, is starting to grow up, with the oldest members of the cohort now approaching 21 years old. Millions are now entering the workforce, with another 60 million or so to follow over the next two decades. Unlike millennials, who might remember a time when computers were not commonly found in the living room or home office, members of Generation Z are true digital natives. They are not only technically savvy, but also expect technology to be a natural — and frequent — part of learning, work and everyday life. Generation Z is more likely to value independence and therefore is poised to become the most entrepreneurial generation ever.Nowadays, social media has become pervasive in empowering young Europeans in their educational, academic and professional life, and Gen Z is the first generation to innately understand the true power of social media. They understand social media allows them to circumvent traditional recruitment channels and talk directly to potential employers, and they know that if they want to start a business, they can have direct contact with their customers. This entrepreneurial energy has the potential to provide huge economic benefit for businesses that are willing to embrace it. Our young people literally represent our economic future and we must provide them with appropriate platforms and support.In light of the challenges and opportunities arising from social media and a clear need for better support for VET learners with cutting-edge approaches, Gen-Z project aims to join efforts for empowering this generation to become social media entrepreneurs and at the same time developing their key competences and employability skills. A further by-product of this project will be to enable linkages where Gen-Z beneficiaries will be able to support other businesses with their own capacity to use social media to improve their businesses. A key aspect to achieve this is to ensure that we also equip VET professionals so that they have the confidence and acquire the necessary know-how to teach social media business to VET learners Gen-Z.In this context, partners from United Kingdom, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Spain, will:•identify role models to serve as good and ethical examples of social media entrepreneurial activity; •develop and test a bespoke training curriculum on social media businesses for VET learners;•develop and test a blended in-service training for empowering VET trainers, teachers and mentors;•develop a social media entrepreneurship learning hub, for both VET learners and VET trainers, teachers and mentors.The project will benefit from the direct participation of 16 social media entrepreneurs, 96 VET learners Gen-Z, 80 VET trainers, teachers, mentors and 16 associated partners in activities related with the development of the outputs, including research, contents development, piloting, external validation. Moreover, 280 key stakeholders include generation Z learners and graduated, VET teachers, trainers and mentors, career counsellors, experts, VET/school/HE/AE/youth players, policy-makers and entrepreneurship associations, will attend the eight multiplier events in partners’ countries. And more than 1200 stakeholders in partners’ countries and across Europe will be reached through the project dissemination and exploitation activities and have the opportunity to deploy Gen-Z.The Gen-Z project wants to bring together the opportunity provided by the world of social media and the motivation that drives this generation of youngsters, to develop their employability and entrepreneurship skills. We believe that by making the project's outputs digital, open and freely available to all, the resulting learning, skills and outcomes to be deployed is massive, not only in partners' countries but also across Europe and generate longer term benefits for other generation z youngsters, educators and educational providers.

The project is complementary to the ARTISAN project.However, apart from complimenting the ARTISAN project, this project suggests an innovative strategy and takes it one step further. The basic aim of the PINOLO project is to provide unemployed artists with specific skills, in order to offer to them aptitudes in social entrepreneurship, for improving their competencies and therefore their employment opportunities and to encourage them to undertake Social entrepreneurial initiative. Therefore, our direct target group is the one of jobless artists. However, trainers, career guidance organizations, counsellors and every professional, who works on the filed of Art or unemployment, will benefit from this innovative project and its materials. The objectives of the project are the following:- Introduce artists to a unique Training Material and help them appreciate the value of experiential learning and adult education - Offer specialization to professional artists, who are unemployed- Provide them with the tools to venture into social entrepreneurial initiatives and employment opportunities- Inspire them to continue experimenting with new techniques and improving their skills and qualifications- Infulence policy makers around Europe, by improving the conditions in the labor market and create new job opportunities- Influence the entiry community, by setting Art as one of the best ways of expression, which can also be used in educational environments- Raise awareness about the discrimination that unemployed people face in the society and foster their social, economical and professionals inclusionRegarding the deliverables of the project, we expect:- The PINOLO Social Business Manual (PSBM) under IO1.- The PINOLO Training Guide, inspired by Art tools in Education and Adult Education principles, under IO2. - An on-line Platform and an on-line Training Course, which will be used as learning tools as well as means of communication, under IO3.The expected impact of the project refers to:Participants will gain through their participation the knowledge of useful tools, which will offer them specific skills and thus empower their employability. Moreover, through this project and their introduction to the culture of experiential learning and adult education, they will be inspired to take social entrepreneurial initiatives and create their own businesses, since they will empower themselves and their skills. Participating Organizations: The organizations, both the ones on the filed of Adult Education and the ones working on the Art-based sector, which will take part in this endeavor will benefit from having in their arsenal a useful set of innovative learning materials, that they could apply as a tool of vocational training, and in particular, a more artistic way of offering a training. Furthermore, they will gain important experience in providing education, which focuses on advancing the participants’ social entrepreneurial skills and their intergration to the professional society. They will also enhance their capacity in offering training to professionals.Stakeholders: Through their involvent in the project and the cooperation with the consortium, the relevant stakeholders will become aware about the project’s main topics, as a good initiative that can be applied to their contexts, as well. In consequence, they will have the opportunity to exploit and adapt innovative educational tools, which can be easily integrated to other similar or different trainings Furthermore, they will be able to take advantage of a new Network and expand their contacts with other organizations and external professionals, something that can easily offer good chances for future collaborations.Entire Community: This project aims to influence policy makers domestically and in a European Union level as well. The Business Manual and the PINOLO Training Guide, that will be produced from our project, will serve as a non-formal learning tool in vocational training. The results of our project will be available to professionals and institutions that will be able to use them as a learning technique. Furthermore, as said above, the project aspires to equip unemployed artists with new competencies and thus enhance their employment opportunities and their social entrepreneurial skills. Taking the latter into consideration, our project indirectly aims to improve the conditions in the labor market, by helping its direct target better their working situation and through them creating new jobs.The undertaking of a social initiative will improve the working conditions of the participants, will create more jobs and will also help to achieve a sustainable, social objective. The very definition of a social enterprise is to solve social problems and provide social benefits. In addition, another benefit of this project for the community will be the promotion of art as a way of expressing feelings, emotions and deal with the everyday struggles.

We all share the same planet and will share the same climate future!Climate change needs behaviour change!Speaking at a high-level event organised jointly by UNESCO and UNFCCC, Sławomir Mazurek, Deputy Minister of Environment of the COP24 (December 2018), said: “I am glad that climate action and education are so visible at this COP, and that the room is packed, showing the great interest in education.” HRH Princess Abze Djigma, Special Envoy of the President of Burkina Faso for Climate Change and SDGs, said: “The solutions to climate change are right there. We should not wait for them because we are the solutions and education is critical.”No doubt that an absolutely central foundation for raising global climate action is to ensure that everyone in the world knows both the impacts of climate change and the way how one can adapt. In short, we need to understand the transformation that must be made, and equip ourselves with the necessary competences, in order to make it. However, the complexity and uncertainty of the topic requires a new approach for effective climate change education. TAKE IT partners from Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain and the UK, have embraced this challenge aware that changing behaviour is notoriously difficult, but believing that education is a powerful tool in empowering individual, boosting voluntary action and helping people through the transition so they understand and accept climate change, and take appropriate adaptation action. To achieve this, partners’ organisations identified a gap in current adult education offer, and decided to joint efforts and develop cutting-edge and meaningful resources aiming to offer opportunities for real-world education to boost appropriate climate adaptation action. TAKE IT addresses various Erasmus+ horizontal and adult education priorities, and has the following objectives:Develop a culture of change and sustainability, creating the background for effective climate change education to boost behavioural change and better adaptation to our changing worldUpskill the educators with science and social-based competences that has the required impacts in how they can empower individuals and drive appropriate climate adaptation actionEmpower individual with personally relevant and meaningful information, focused on achievable behavioural changes and appropriate climate adaptation action.Provide a set of innovative and cutting-edge training resources, available in digital and open media, to empower educators and individualBoost European dimension and cooperation, through the participation of nine countries representing various regions who are experiencing climate change´s impacts and organisations of two transnational experience exchanges with educational peers Engage associated partners, experts and key stakeholders in development, validation, dissemination and mainstreaming actions, through the local working groups and multiplier eventsTAKE IT will generate a circular benefit effect and impact and targets- over 180 adult educators - over 180 individual/citizens- over 300 stakeholders (AE providers, other educational providers, local authorities, NGOs, civil society organisations, academic and research community, the public sectors, the private sector, media, sectors, other sectoral bodies, umbrella associations, other relevant institutions that facilitate and support education and civic participation, medial partners)- 20 associated partners from all participating countries, including both public and private, training and education providers, NGOs, experts, research institutes, civil organisations, professional associations, social partners, networks, regional and national bodies.