"<< Background >>As we all know, 2020 was the year when everything changed. It paused many people’s progress on family and career goals and it forced countless classes, trainings, and even holiday gatherings, either onto Zoom or out of existence. Many job positions that require face-to-face contact were lost or just dissapeared. These jobs were, in most of the cases, low-skilled positions occupied by young persons. Youth have now suffered two crisis in less than 10 years, as in some countries the effect of the 2008 crisis arose years later. This difficult situation for young people has resulted in a high and increasing rate of NEETs in Europe (17,1% Eurostat 2020) as the market seems to not being offering the right positions for this target group. Some of the reasons for this increase are the complex and multiple barriers they face, such as living in rural areas, the educational level, gender, migration backgrounds, ethnic minorities, drug and alcohol addictions, adverse family background, or mental health problems. On the other hand, it is been seen that EU Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are not digitalized and therefore can not make effective use of what digital tools can provide them. For instance, a company located in a small rural town in Romania could sell their artisan products to residents living in big EU cities if its staff were competent in digital tools and skilled in digital marketing, but the reality is completely different. Statistics reaffirm this fact, as the index for Digital lifelong learning fell in 3 three of the 4 participating countries in this project: Only Spain ranks within the Top 10 while Romania (24th), Poland (22nd) and Germany (27th) are at the bottom of the list. C4E sees this situation as an opportunity for young Europeans, SMEs and training institutions to impact on the digital transition. As one of the main subjects taught in C4E is Social Media, its staff started to see this as a tool to connect and digitalize both groups (NEETS and SMEs). The Needs Analysis conducted on both sides, reaffirmed Social Media as a tool to tackle NEETs problems since they provide participants with valuable opportunities for both social and digital inclusion. On the other hand, they help SMEs, as they give the opportunity to achieve visibility, reduce costs, and increase sales while achieving the digital transition. The Erasmus + call for 2021 offers an opportunity to promote social inclusion and reach out to NEETs and SMEs affected by socio-economic difficulties by contributing to creating inclusive environments that foster equity and equality, and that are responsive to their needs. By applying to this call, the project will develop the following tools that will address the following needs:- The Follow-us Training Programme for NEETs: Despite Social Media is considered as one of the most effective channels to reach NEETs, get them registered in Youth Guarantee, and later provide valuable opportunities for both social and digital inclusion, there is no programme that has been designed yet where Social Media is the vehicle to create employment for young people. - The Trainer UpSkill Course: A course aimed at training Socio Inclusion workers to become trainers of The Follow-us Training Programme for NEETs, as it requires professionals who are proactive towards working with the target group and knows well their needs. With this win-win strategy, Socio Inclusion Organisations working with NEETs will act as one-stop-shops, as they will outreach, engage, train and certificate NEETs to later putting them in contact with SMEs. - The Follow-us Platform: there is no platform or source where SMEs that are struggling can request Social Media content free of charge, and at the same time function as a tool to connect NEETs with the real labour market.<< Objectives >>The projects’ main objective is to use the existing digital and personal skills of NEETs to inspire, motivate and re-integrate them with innovative training-tools, services and methods to develop their skills as Social Media Managers and connect them to SMEs who need their services. By following this win-win strategy, these vulnerable youth will find a future career while becoming positive members of society, and SMEs will be able to request and use online content for the digital and financial improvement of the organisation. This will be achieved through a holistic approach by a multi-skilled team, which through counselling, mentoring, training, and follow-up will guide them to new opportunities. This approach also involves finding a way to address the main issues NEETs are facing, which are social exclusion, disconnection from groups, and demotivation to become again part of the active society.These innovations and actions will combat unemployment of NEETs as they will directly increase their participation in education and training, and support them to find sustainable work which can also easily be carried out remotely. This main objective will be achieved through the following specific objectives: 1. Connecting and educating NEETs through a motivational training programme of Social Media - The Follow-us Training Programme for NEETs - that will provide them with a Community Manager certificate that companies can trust,2. upskilling social workers in becoming Social Media Trainers through - The Trainer UpSkill Course - as they are the main point of contact with NEETs. This course will offer Socio inclusion institutions a tool to train their staff and act as a one-stop-shop for NEETs3. designing - The Follow-us Platform - where NEETS will be contacted by SMEs to create social media content and will, therefore, enable them to gain experience and build their own portfolio,4. providing SMEs with a tool - The Follow-us Platform - that will function as a Social Media department, that is often limited or even non-existent.By implementing the project, all the needs previously mentioned will be addressed by following this innovative strategy. The Follow-us project is also a good opportunity to foster cooperation within regions as it will implement joint initiatives in regions of Europe that are lagging behind. The implementation of Project Results will ensure transferability, as they can be adapted to other vulnerable groups, re-usability, as they will be of open-access to all interested parties (Socio Inclusion organisations, training institutions and Companies Cooperations) and the transdisciplinary dimension, as analysing multiple branches of knowldge, are needed to become Community Managers.<< Implementation >>For the accomplishment of the Follow-us goals, the partnership will carry out a detailed plan of activities to implement. These will be distributed in 6 different groups: 1. Activities that define the management framework of the project and guide the partnership through the timeframe of the project: These are Project Activities 1 to Project Activities 6 and are as follows: PA1 -Project Management System, PA2 - Management Plan, PA3 - Evaluation Plan, PA4 - Total Quality Management Plan, PA5 - Project Risk Management Planand PA6 - Dissemination & Exploitation Plan.2. Activities that are the building blocks of the dissemination strategy and support the projects' impact by widely informing stakeholders about the activities and the Project Results. These are: PA7 - Dissemination Materials (Logo, Posters, Notepads, Pens), PA8 - Project Website, PA9 - Social Media Presence (FaceBook, Twitter), PA10 - Digital news flashes, PA11 - Digital Flyer, PA12 - End of Project Booklet, PA13 - Tutorial Video.3. Activities that summarize and report the projects activities for control and monitoring of the planned successes, these will be: PA14 - Partner Meeting Minutes, PA15 - Project Evaluation Reports, PA16 - Dissemination Activity Reports, PA17 - Total Quality Management Reports, PA18 - Interim Report, PA19 - Final Report4. Activities that will make possible the tangible outcomes of the Project Results: The Follow-us Training Programme (PR1), The Trainer UpSkill Course (PR2), and The Follow-us Platform (PR3). These will include all tasks to be carried out during the research, design, development, testing and improvement of each project results. 5. Activities to enhance collaboration, face-to-face contact, exchange of practices, transnationality and better quality of Project Results. These will include the 4 Transnational Partner Meeting which will take place in the 4 participating countries and other planned online meetings in between. 6. Activities to present, explain, disseminate and give visibility to Project Results: These will be the multiplier events in its onsite and virtual form, including the National Workshops and seminars, that will be vital for the testing and improvement of the Project Results and the Final Conference, which gives a unique opportunity to present the Follow-us tools to stakeholders that will later make an effective use of them.<< Results >>The Follow-us project presents 3 interconnected tools that will make possible NEETs socio inclusion while achieving the digital transition of European SMEs. These are:a) The Follow-us Training Programme for NEETs, with motivational, innovative and interactive content that will engage youth attention. The training Programme will be conducted on-site, if possible, as NEETs need support and encouragement from the Follow-us Trainers (Socio-Inclusion workers), but also to have access to computers as , in general, this target group struggles to own a digital device that is not a Smart Phone. It deliver the following outcomes:1. Providing NEETs with a training programme that will support and encourage them to study and work again by making use of motivational resources of Social Media. 2. Enhancing access to training in digital tools and key competences to NEETs and Socio Inclusion workers. 3. Creating a Community of Practice of vulnerable youth willing to become Community Managers.4. Providing NEETs with accredited Certificates that companies can trust. 5. Undertaking a mapping of single-point of contact agencies in order to reach more young people and disseminate all Project Results. 6. Targeting support to individuals most in need. 7. Providing career guidance to NEETs.8. Involving NEETs in the design of the Training Programme. 9. Involving Socio Inclusion workers in the design of the Syllabus.b)The Trainer UpSkill Course, that will train and educate Socio Inclusion workers in a new and effective manner to become knowledgeable and successful trainers of the Follow-us Training programme for NEETs. This will result in the following outcomes: 1. Enabling Socio Inclusion workers to become Social Media trainers.2. Supporting Socio Inclusion centers with 3 interconnected tools for their users integration.3. Build a closer relation between NEETs and the Follow-us trainers, as they will be the main point of contact from the outreach till the integration phase.- The Follow-us Platform, a Web and Mobile Platform, that will allow, on the one hand, SMEs to request free social media services in form of one-off jobs, and on the other hand, young people to offer these services by applying what they have learned in ""The Follow-us Programme for NEETs"", with the objective to obtain a Community Manager certificate after successfully completing 10 one-off jobs (or what is the same, a traineeship period). The Follow-us Platform will: 1. Provide SMEs with a tool that will function as a Social Media department by enabling the selection of young people offering their digital services. This helpful service is not of easy access for the majority of SMEs. 2. Ensure sustainability of the Project Results by constantly updating Network/Partnership based iniciative with new actors. 3. Promoting the use of digital tools in youth education and its potential benefits for SMEs in productivity and competitiveness. The project will also produce intangible results which are:1. Fostering cooperation between the education sector, Socio Inclusion centres, young people and SMEs. 2. Building the trust of NEETs and engage them with the community. 3. Reducing the unemployment rates of NEETs in the EU. 4. Increasing the use of digital tools by SMEs. 5. Changing the minds of SMEs owners on Social Media as, in most of the cases, they are not aware of the importance of using them. 6. Creating a Community of Practice to spread the word among vulnerable youth to enroll into the course and to see the possibilities of using Social Media to exit Marginalisation (promoting the peer to peer support)."