"<< Background >>By 2050 and even in North Africa alone, no less than 300 million young people will enter the labour market (World Bank data). If the current unemployment rates of these same countries, which for example exceed 35% in Tunisia in 2019 (World Bank data) do not decrease, nearly 90 million young people will be unemployed. The situation in European countries, particularly southern Europe, is also alarming, with for example youth unemployment rates close to 30% in Spain or Italy in 2019, and 19.4% in France (World Bank data). As detailed in the literature review of the Mediterranean Network New Chance (MedNC) (conducted as part of the previous MedNC strategic partnership), school drop-out and lack of access to training are among the structural causes of these integration difficulties. In its 2016 ""Panorama of Society"" study, the OECD highlights the lasting negative effects that periods of inactivity and unemployment in early adulthood can have on people's lives: reduced employment and income prospects, a barrier to the decision to leave the parental home or start a family, etc. The OECD also stresses the impact of these phenomena on poverty, particularly in the absence of adequate public assistance. Access to the autonomy of a large number of young people is thus questioned, and beyond employment, their social and civic integration. These difficulties also weaken society as a whole, both socially and economically and politically. High unemployment, poor workers, lack of opportunities for decent training or employment, too much predominance of informal work, gender disparities are all obstacles to people's social and professional development, economic development and social cohesion.At the same time, companies also have high expectations in terms of skills, areas of expertise, soft-skills or mastery of technological innovations; and often struggle to recruit. Integration schemes are constantly seeking to adapt to these requirements, in order to optimise the employability and opportunities of young people to enter the labour market, but also to meet these economic needs.It is in response to these shared challenges on a Mediterranean scale that the actors of this project, all members of the Mediterranean New Chance Network (MedNC) which brings together 220 training centres and represents more than 54,000 young people in the Mediterranean, have formed this cooperation partnership. Designed as a transnational platform for the exchange of know-how, reflecting on innovative methods and civil society's actions in relation to the needs of the productive sector, this cooperation partnership will contribute to strengthening the capacity of actors in socio-professional integration in the Euro-Mediterranean area, formalising and valuing and giving access to their expertise for professionals of young people integration and mobilising all the actors in the region around this theme. Finally, more cross-cuttingly, this project will contribute to the strengthening of the skills of its partners in terms of remote project management and governance of a consortium with 12 members and 9 associated partners.<< Objectives >>The project aims to strengthen the capacity of actors working to reintegrate young people in difficulty of integration in the Euro-Mediterranean region through exchanges and transfers of expertise, to capitalise on their profiles, experiences and complementary skills, with the aim of replicating these good practices, and bringing them to the attention of states so they integrate them into their national policy, spread them, and then guarantee a better access to training and employment for all young people in a sustainable way. The overall objective of this project is therefore to strengthen the social inclusion of young people in difficulty of integration by strengthening Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and the skills of teaching and vocational training staff, with 4 defined sub-targets:-Strengthen the technical and cross-cutting skills of MedNC members to improve their support for young people in difficulty of integration;-Formalize and facilitate access to probative and relevant information, resources and expertises to all members of the partnership and vocational training and integration professionals of the region in order to share and spread projects and best practices in the Euro-Mediterranean area;-Mobilize, raise awareness and convince public and private actors to inspire a strong commitment to the professional integration of young people in difficulty of integration in the region;-Improve cooperation, cross-sector coordination and governance within the cooperation partnership.<< Implementation >>The global objective is to strengthen the social inclusion of young people in difficulty of integration by strengthening the cooperation and skills of education and vocational training staff in the Euro-Mediterranean area. A range of activities will be implemented to achieve these goals. In order to improve the quality of the work, activities and practices of the organizations and institutions involved, the MedNC partnership proposes to organize learning events for teaching staff and non-teaching staff, such as professors, teachers, technical trainers and other staff working in participating organizations. These events will be part of annual MedNC network conferences in Tunisia, Portugal and Rome (bringing together more than 80 actors of professional integration in the Mediterranean each year) and will consist of numerous sessions of exchange of best practices and expertise, training and visits to innovative devices. In addition, 3 other learning events will be organized as expert missions that will bring together 5 participants in a partner structure in one of the project countries to identify and appropriate new practices or methodology that they can replicate in their home countries.The deployment of a catalogue of training courses, coupled with the introduction of a digital platform for exchanges between youth integration professionals, will enable many professionals to benefit from the experiences, knowledge and best practices of the members of the strategic partnership. One of the objectives of this partnership is to make information available, free of charge, in order to optimize the resources, time and support of experts in teaching and vocational training. The latter will be able to replicate approach and good practices that have been proven before in similar geographies and contexts and thus strengthen the support available to young people in difficulty of integration. The Pro-Partnership also has a guide that will bring together all the best practices and recommendations of members in terms of integrating gender into the ""2nd chance"" devices. This guide will be available online, including but not only on the Erasmus + sharing platform and will benefit as many people as possible.Enhancing the visibility of the strategic partnership requires the development of an appropriate communication strategy to different target audiences with key messages and relevant and adapted tools. At the same time, the partnership will unite stakeholders around key ideas and concepts, such as digital access, which will be addressed in an advocacy document. This publication will be disseminated to the public stakeholders of the concerned countries and within the appropriate platforms, with the aim of having its recommendations integrated into public policies. Finally, for the partnership to be recognized over the long term and develop sustainably, at least 10 dissemination events will be organised to improve its visibility.In order to improve the cooperation and coordination of the strategic partnership, three transnational project coordination meetings will be organized to bring members together and define strategic directions. They will be coupled by remote monitoring meetings to provide an update on the progress of activities, the collection of indicators and the implementation of a monitoring/evaluation of project results. These three activities will improve coordination and strengthen the governance of this strategic partnership, which aims to remain sustainable after Erasmus funding.<< Results >>This project aims to improve the social inclusion and employability of young people in difficulty of integration which are supported by the member structures of this cooperation partnership, and ultimately, of the young people support by all the actors of vocational integration in the Mediterranean who will benefit from the results and from the cooperation dynamic thus instilled to better respond to the challenges of unemployment and young people integration in the region. The expected results of this project are strong, especially in terms of impact:- at the local level: through the strengthening of the skills of the field actors what will have a direct impact on the quality of young people support, and through the sharing and dissemination of the results of the project by each structure within its own network, which will promote synergies.- at the national level: with a strengthening of the mobilisation of public and institutional stakeholders on the 2nd chance and the integration of young people theme, which ultimately leads to a greater consideration of these issues in public policies, a better recognition of type 2nd chance solutions and ultimately a decrease in youth unemployment rates regionwide.- at the international level: a more structured and coordinated response on a Mediterranean scale through the formalisation of the expertise of all the partners and enhanced cooperation between actors as well as a better recognition and visibility of the challenges that exist around the socio-professional integration of young people.11 specific and concrete results have already been defined in the project: -3 special learning events with all the partnership and external stakeholders, as part of the annual MedNC network conferences, each with four best practice exchange sessions, a one-day training session and field visits. -3 expert missions will be organised for the benefit of at least 5 participants each, who will travel to the structure of another partner of the consortium in order to discover, identify and get to know a new methodology or innovative practice, appropriate it and potentially replicate it in its own structure.- 1 training catalogue will be created and disseminated, in which members will propose trainings and thematic expertise to be transmitted to any professional of the topic. - 1 digital exchange platform will be designed, allowing to reference expertise, gather educational tools and get to know the structures that are working in the field of vulnerable young people integration in the Mediterranean area.-1 good practices guide on gender integration in 2nd chance schools in the Mediterranean will be elaborated and disseminated. -1 advocacy paper will be drafted and disseminated towards public authorities, highlighting the dangers of the digital divide for young people's schooling and presenting the related investment needs.-At least 10 dissemination events will take place across the 9 countries of the consortium by 2024. -1 revised communication strategy will be operational. -3 2-day transnational meetings in Marseille, Alexandria and Barcelona will take place to determine annual priorities, strategic orientations and activities for the coming year. -6 follow-up meetings will be held remotely, with the aim of monitoring the progress of the project and collecting the follow-up indicators.-1 monitoring and evaluation of the project will be put in place to measure the proper implementation of the activities and the impact of the project on direct and indirect beneficiaries."

•Context/background of the project;Open the Doors operates on the principle that potential NEET youth and NEET youth are indeed able to develop strong intellectual and learning capacity, given the proper opportunities and learning settings.Therefore, to create new capacity in NEET prevention to support the learning of 21st century competences among young people, the project addressed and worked with the professional staff in NEET settings, mostly teachers, social educators and youth educators, based on the project’s 5 future-oriented methodologies: real-life learning, learning in mixed realities, working with community, entrepreneurial initiative-taking and using creative technology. We wanted the capacity building of the educators to result from the interaction between such practical experimentation and the collective reflections systematically included in the project.The DOCUMENTATION of the project’s extensive capacity building among participating educators generated NEW KNOWLEDGE, on which formed the project’s final intellectual outcomes, offering rich didactic guidance to a wider audience of NEET prevention educators across EuropeOBJECTIUSThe main objectives of the project were:-To create new capacity in NEET preventions by working with the professional staff in the prevention provisions, mostly teachers, social educators and youth workers.- To innovate in the didactics of NEET prevention, linking youth interests with community needs and creating practical learning processes.- To build capacity among NEET to re-engage in learning, community and work.- To link this new experience to the education institutions responsible for training the new generations of teachers and youth workers.- To produce experience-based documentation to share among education institutions in order to unify the criteria in NEET prevention.The extensive, pan-European consortium brought together institutions working and struggling at the heart of NEET youth prevention and empowerment, professional and highly experienced knowledge creators at research level, associations with long-standing European records and solid network partners at European level. The inCOMPOSITIONThe partnership was composed of practice partners from Spain, Hungary, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania and the UK; knowledge partners from the UK and Holland and quality partner from Spain. The partnership composition met the original quality criteria through basing the partnership on practice partners from different countries, bringing in strong knowledge creators and supplementing the partnership with organizations experienced in networking and quality assurance.European-nessOne of the key criteria for establishing the partnership was strong participation from NEET provisions from countries with serious NEET youth challenges.Such countries are precisely: Spain, Hungary, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania and the UK.This participation offered the project a solid base for authentic experimentation and change – and for creating solid and useful knowledge.The consortium creation was based on the following profile criteria. Profile of the NEET prevention partners: worked directly in special NEET prevention facilities, or facilities in which NEET prevention is a key objective, either in late secondary or post-secondary settings,willing to participate in radical didactic change processes,able to engage a team of teachers or youth educators along the project,had the full support of the management,able to link to and share with local or regional teacher educations and/or youth worker educations or similar.Profile of the knowledge partners:able to create valuable knowledge from the didactic experimentation and transform this knowledge into documentation and policy papers; able to link the knowledge creation to state of the art research; open to experimental knowledge creation and engaging NEET youth professionals and NEET youth as co-creators of knowledgeProfile of the quality partners: capacity to pro-actively develop, manage and implement a solid quality programme and to offer critical project management supportIMPACTSome organizations changed the way we organize the activities with youth. They have learned to function with a new methodology that helps improve the input of young people. Teacher teams now are looking for new strategies to work with youth from the point of view of entrepreneurship.ACTIVITIES: 4 Partners meeting and 2 seminar to reflect.RESULT: www.openthedoors.eu and Guidelines for 21st century NEET prevention.

TIP - ”transferring innovative practices in 2nd chance education addressing ELET” has been a strategical partnership project that established a practical learning partnership, as an open collaborative environment, between organizations and practitioners (artists, youth workers, trainers, social workers) active in social and educational work from 5 different European countries (Portugal, UK, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria), developing processes of networking creative practices in second chance education and social inclusion work. With this partnership we shared experience and knowledge, exploring the potential of non formal approaches in education, specially addressing young ELET (Early Leavers from Education and Training) and NEET (Not in Employment, Education and Training) but also connecting different target groups, disadvantaged low qualified youngsters and young graduates ready to integrate social and educational working places, both groups being mutually beneficial, both struggling for their first experiences for social and professional integration. We believe TIP partnership improved the quality and attractiveness of partners’ activities, developing along the 2 years of the project, a common strategy to create and deliver relevant and usable products that can help teachers and other professionals to extend their professional capacities and to engage as active agents of change in their educational settings. The 3 intellectual outputs that have been developed, a school-based staff training program, a toolkit of non formal creative practices and a documentary story telling film were implemented concurrently in the participating schools, with the necessary support for the introduction of these innovative practices through reflective supervisions with experienced trainers, most of them during the international mobility activities. The innovative practices that proved their potential and efficiency in social educational work addressing early leaving of education and training and attracting adults back to education are now available and easy accessible through the project communication tools, including a dedicated webpage - www.tip-eu.com. The project put a lot of efforts to promote the public awareness on the importance of non formal alternative approaches in social and educational work, addressing marginalized groups, organizing public seminars and trainings in the different countries as well as releasing a web interactive virtual platform for sharing and dissemination of results. Two joint staff training events were a fantastic opportunity for mutual learning between participants from our 5 partner countries. The wider dissemination of the project’s products and findings has been very relevant because of the wide local, national and international networks that the partner organizations are members of.

"Young people face uncertainties about their future, as a result of technological change, demographic trends, discrimination, social exclusion & their exposure to the fake news & increasing populism, with yet unknown effects on jobs, skills or the way our democracies work. Despite the temporary economic upturn in the European economies, leading to lower unemployment across the countries, the emergence of the pandemic is enforcing a deepening recession, which leads to heavy & long persisting inequalities, including between generations. For the first time since the Second War, there is a real risk and serious possibility that today's young generation will end up less well-off than their parents. In line with the EU Youth Strategy 2019-27, the GenY/Z-SCOODLE project recognises the need to enable young people to be architects of their own lives, build their resilience & equip them with life skills to cope with a changing world; to encourage them to become active citizens, agents of solidarity & positive change for communities across Europe and, ultimately, prevent youth social exclusion. Youth workers, mentors & coaches act and are perceived as role models & therefore need to show that they are lifelong learners, active citizens & innovators, in order to promote similar attitudes in their youth constituencies. 7 partners from 5 countries- Greece, Ireland, Germany, Italy and Portugal-aim to build, pilot and validate sustainable solutions, in order to upgrade the capacity of youth organizations through state-of-the-art second chance education (“SCE”) methods and practice and by deploying the European legacy & know-how in this field. Specifically GenY/Z SCOODLE aims to support the capacity building of youth workers and other professionals by developing & sharing effective methods in reaching out to marginalised youth, especially those with fewer opportunities (including NEETs) with particular emphasis on those at risk of marginalisation, with a migrant background, ex-offenders, former addicts etc. The project recognises the diverse competences needed for the youth worker to deliver the multi-faceted role of the ""mentor"" & aims to extend, develop, recognise & validate SCE Mentor’ s Competences by developing:•“Youth SCE Tutor” (professional) Competence Framework - to strengthen the professional awareness & identity of youth stakeholders by identifying and recognising the areas of competence (knowledge, skills & attitudes) that underpin the youth professional's diverse & multifaceted role•“Youth SCE Tutor (professional) Competence Development Courseware” - to provide a diverse offer of professional development opportunities specifically developed to meet the needs of youth professionals•“GenY/Z SCOODLE Learning Hub” online platform - to encourage the establishment & further development of cross-European networks of youth professionals to strengthen professional identity, providing access to the -•“Gen Y/Z - SCOODLE Transferability Toolkit”, embedding terms of quality reference to the “Youth SCE Tutor Competence Framework” & “Youth SCE Tutor Accreditation Scheme”, the learning design of the “Youth SCE Tutor Competence Development Courseware”, coupled with the “Youth SCE Tutor Courseware Quality Framework” (accrediting “Youth SCE Tutoring” Courses).Objectives are:•To promote and recognise the professional development of youth workers deploying second chance education practice - by building Competence Framework and modules for on-going CPD & piloting & validating solutions at community level in four EU Member States, with the participation of 15-20 Youth workers & the engagement of some 40-50 young people in need of support for social inclusion•To produce high quality tools & resources that promote equity in learning, by working with youth professionals, mentors, coaches & teachers of second chance education experts & tutors to adapt existing tools & develop new ones to local contexts so that they reflect the needs of marginalised youth;•To sustain a European online, federated “resource centre” for youth professionals populated with relevant & transferable tools - through open access to an on-line repository of tested good practices with explanatory media-based guidelines•To build a European community of youth professionals - by setting up local networks in partner countries & working with European networks. These communities enable youth professionals to meet, exchange knowledge & experience, & join forces to promote their collective interests. Youth professionals will reflect on their own practice, develop, adapt & test tools and work collaboratively both at local & European level to share good practice.The impact will ultimately be the enhancement of methods & effectiveness of rehabilitation/ re-engagement practice, through the provision of high-quality learning experiences for marginalised youth resulting from improved professional development of youth practitioners."

The EC communication(Nov 2012) ‘Rethinking education: investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes’ encourages EU Member States to ensure that young people develop the skills and competences required by the European labour market, particularly focusing on combating youth unemployment and promoting educational mobility. Young people’s interest in mobility is clearly shown by the success of programmes such as Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs and Erasmus+ KA1.Between 2014 and 2020, some four million people are expected to have benefited from Erasmus+, including around two million higher education students and 650,000 VET students. Mobility is already an established phenomenon in higher education but in second chance education this is a relatively new concept i.e. to integrate a vulnerable target group into society and the labour market International mobility is a challenge for disadvantaged young adults, evidenced in their low participation rate in international mobility (less than 8%).Several studies show that young people are the group most likely to move to another country, yet a number of obstacles hinder mobility for disadvantaged young adults. The purpose of work based mobilities in second chance education is to facilitate the small step progress in living and working in another country that is peculiar to disadvantaged young adults. However E2C-Europe members and partners within the INCAS consortium expressed that needs of disadvantaged young adults are not being addressed as existing actions & tools either focus on recognition of vocational learning outcomes (ECVET),require a certain degree of engagement and autonomy (e.g.EVS, European Solidarity Corps) or are non-transferable tools bound to an education provider. Furthermore existing paper based materials mean that progress during mobility cannot be monitored until the beneficiary returns, often too late to address problems. INCAS has two main objectives 1)To provide services that improve the quality of international work placement. 2) To provide tools and resources that support quality through all stages of preparation, implementation and evaluation of international work placement. INCAS selected and improved best practices from a variety of national/European resources and actions, making these resources available to disadvantaged young adults in a more engaging and practical manner, resulting in a mobile phone app ( i-phone and android compatible) to be used while on mobility, a range of e-learning courses for preparation, 4 toolboxes of resources to support all stages of mobility for learner and teacher, a quality monitoring system for sending and hosting organisations, and a database of European placement providers.(www.incasproject.erasmus.site) Teachers/trainers and work -based mentors will raise their understanding of the support needs of disadvantaged young people in preparing them for mobility and supporting them during the mobility. They will be equipped with the tools that satisfy the needs of the target group and the accompanying resources that will support the implementation of a learner - centred work based training mobility .