Our commitment to Europe's Erasmus + programme dates back to 1999, as we believe it is essential in today's world — for our pupils and our school to be open to Europe. The learning mobility that Erasmus + offers to pupils in a Baccalauréat professionnel cursus, together with the opportunity to gain work experience in a business for a period of four weeks, allows the pupil to take part in a federating project that will assist him or her in both professional and personal undertakings. In today's world it is necessary to provide participating students, who often come from socio-cultural milieus that are modest, tools that will help them gain an awareness of what it means to be a European citizen.In recent years we have developed our mobility project to involve more students, and so continue to thrive in the long term. 2018 is the second consecutive year in which we have organized two separate mobility projects that cover four 11th grade classes (equivalent to UK year 12): Bac Pro ARCU (Customer Service) and GA (Business & Administration) for those who travelled to Belfast, and Commerce and Business/Sales for the Seville project. A total of 11 pupils (7 girls and 4 boys, ten of whom are minors) spent 4 weeks in Belfast, and 9 pupils (2 girls and 7 boys, with 8 minors) went to Seville. Globally we reached our objectives — in professional skills, cultural and linguistic aspects, as well as at a personal development level — even if, given our requirements, the results did not always live up to expectations in professional skills.The staff (headmistress, school secretary and teachers) took charge of managing the practical and logistical aspects of both the projects, coordinating efforts to ensure the meticulous preparation that was required. By September we had finished organizing the different stages with a retro planning and corresponding deadlines. Workgroup reunions, and others dealing with logistics and the information to be given to the families concerned (with the students also attending) were set up by the school principal in coordination with the teachers in charge of mobility. Both the Belfast and the Seville projects were set up using local providers (e.g. ABS, Step…) who worked to our requirements to find businesses in these cities that would accept our students and be responsible for their presence. To prepare the students, we put them in situation, with activities relating to the events planned locally during their stays abroad: the aim was to help them become the actors of their experience. Undeniably, Erasmus + has positive effects on those participating, but also on our own school. This programme offers a learning curve d'excellence and contributes to promoting professional education, with our own students acting as ambassadors. The success of the project allowed them gain confidence, and it has opened up new perspectives for them in the coming years and for their future employment.Many of our students have received an education that has not been made easy for them, due to either personal problems, or else learning-difficulties combined with a lack of confidence, which has at times led them to want to interrupt their schooling altogether. Mobility, and its experiences, not only allows the school to validate their achievements; it also allows the pupils concerned to discover different cultures, which is beneficial to their own lives as citizens of Europe.

"The project “Mobility for STaff and STudents – MO.ST.” is promoted by the Secondary Institute for Education and Vocational Training “Garfagnana”. Located in the town of Castelnuovo Garfagnana in the north-west of Tuscany, it represents an important “educational hub” for young people living in the area which also comprises isolated mountain centres. The Institute gathers four educational and training institutes: Istituto Professionale Industria e Artigianato/IPIA “Simoni”, l’Istituto Tecnico Economico e Tecnologico/ITET “Campedelli”, l’Istituto Tecnico Tecnologico/ITT “Vecchiacchi”, il Liceo Scientifico “Galilei”. In the current 2017-18 school year, 860 students are enrolled. The main project objective consists in improving the Institute’s training provision, adding a complementary component of on-the-job practice and personal development for all addressed learners (students and recent graduates, as well as teachers), giving them the opportunity to improve their training achievements and to better define their employability profile. In particular, for the involved staff (teachers) the mobility experience will contribute to their in-service records adding insight into the professional practice implemented in selected training centres abroad. They will particularly focus on the design and implementation of ""alternance training"" schemes (Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro”), implying curricula design as well as networking with local economic players, third sector and public agencies. Thanks to the MO.ST. project, 40 students attending the IV year will be engaged in an international internship programme with flows directed to the UK, Poland, France and Ireland. For 30 days, they will have direct/in-company professional experience, consistently with the alternance training which must be carried out by all students in secondary education and training. 3 newly-graduates will be involved in long-term mobilities, according to the ErasmusPro scheme. They will spend a three-month placement period at companies located in the UK, deepening their knowledge and competences in line with their qualifications and professional interests. 6 teachers will be engaged in a seven-day-long job-shadowing and an observation period at the premises of VET providers in the UK, Poland and Ireland. It is expected that the Institute, and the community in which it operates, will greatly benefit from the project’s outcomes, with respect to the development of curricula/training provision, project management and organisational advancement, networking at local and international level. The involved learners (students, graduates and teachers) will have an unforgettable experience: not only will it improve their skills and professional/technical competences, but it will also shape their attitudes and ability to live and work in an open and international environment."

Future Screens NI comprises the two higher education institutions (Ulster University and QUB) and a number of key industrial partners central to the creative economy in the region, including NI Screen, BBC, Belfast City Council, Belfast Harbour, Causeway Enterprise Agency, Digital Catapult, Catalyst Inc., RTE, Games NI, Kainos, Invest NI, Techstart NI, Matrix and Tourism NI. The Northern Ireland Assembly defines the creative industries as 'those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property'. The Partnership has, from this, developed a definition of, and a working model for, the creative industries in NI which is focused on participation, cultural and economic growth, and social and economic regeneration placing the Partnership as a leading developmental catalyst in this NI sector. In the context of Northern Ireland, the creative industries are more than just another key economic sector, generating, according to DCMS figures, £1.01 billion in gross added value of the NI economy, and employing 2.9% of the entire NI workforce. For a region emerging from a period of profound conflict, and social and cultural division and dysfunction, the creative industries sector has continued to offer an alternative and successful paradigm, a new model for cultural expression, personal growth, and economic attainment. The cluster of organisations involved in Future Screens NI may be defined as: (a) audiovisual-led, complemented by the strength of the digital sector and the impact of technology in other more traditional sectors, eg. in tourism, heritage, textiles and crafts; (b) operating across NI as a region, driven by the Belfast travel-to-work-area (add ref to NESTA) but with a region-wide remit linking, in particular, to the North West of the province; c) a spatially defined multi-industry cluster that is distinctive within the UK, shaped by the complexity of cultural space in the aftermath of 20th-century conflict, a plurality of commercial and cultural relationships including across the border with the Republic of Ireland, the role of economic development bodies such as Invest NI and Catalyst Inc., and the significant investment of the HEIs and FE colleges in the creative industries; d) comprising emerging animation, games and immersive technologies industries, which although small by international standards, is one of the fastest growing sectors of the NI economy. The overarching aim of Future Screens NI is to develop a new understanding of the role the creative industries can play in advancing the NI economy both in terms of financial growth and the creation of new employment opportunities. It will do this by researching new technologies and opportunities, developing appropriate educational and training models, placing NI creative businesses in front of international markets, and working with government and other key agencies to ensure sustained growth. The importance of this intervention is that it establishes the creative industries in NI as a neutral space where contemporary and emerging industrial forms can be advanced in secure settings in a transitional period which is still informed by underlying political tensions. The role of the Cluster as a safe space for high-risk creative endeavour in a low-risk innovation environment, one that fosters experiment and cultural opportunity, cannot be overestimated. As Benedict Anderson (1991) has shown, communities interact through concepts of imagined connection and Future Screens NI will actively work as a hub to create new forms of imagined community which advance and normalise political stability while creating real employment and building economic growth.

Community consultation is important for ensuring that we get a built environment that is fit for purpose and could be an opportunity for serious dialogue with the community about how best to make places for everybody, rather than the perfunctory and excluding affair it often is now. There is to date little consensus on how best to gather community responses to planning proposals to feed into the design and development of successful (high social, environmental and economic value) places. Ultimately community consultation has largely untapped potential for learning how the design of buildings and places can be done better, particularly important in the Climate Emergency and for 'building back better' in the aftermath of the pandemic. Although the focus of the project is on the UK, the problems are global and the outcomes scalable. In some parts of the country community consultation ceased during the pandemic, with decision making being delegated to pressurised Planning Officers who may not always have the interests of the community at heart. An imminent government review of planning in England is seeking to make the system more streamline. This could jeopardise community consultation which is known for being difficult and slow. A robust, inclusive, value for money format (digital and physical) for gathering data on what communities want from their buildings and places in the long term is urgently needed. To create such a platform is the aim of CCQoL. Led by the University of Reading, with Co-Investigators in all four countries of the UK, CCQoL is a collaboration with the Quality of Life Foundation, the community consultation platform Commonplace, inclusive consultation experts Urban Symbiotics and the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CACHE). It is supported by a wide range of policy and industry organisations including the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Civic Voice and the British Property Federation. Following a review of best practice in community consultation, user experiences (face to face and digital) will be designed for piloting on real planning applications in each of the four countries of the UK. Consultations will take place in an 'urban room', a community space, disused shop or pop up in the city with parallel, but interconnected, consultations on line. Community members will be asked to contribute to the making of maps to show what they value in the area and to anticipate the potential impacts of the planning proposal. A variety of experimental formats will be used to make the consultation as engaging as possible. Locally based Community Partnership Managers will be employed to encourage inclusive participation. The platforms will be refined based on learning from the pilots. The main output will be a digital format for community consultation. This will link to the CCQoL platform, a series of digital maps which will offer a standardised format for gathering data on what communities want on an ongoing basis, scalable for use elsewhere with potential applications for other spheres of decision making. The Quality of Life Foundation and Commonplace will be responsible for the further development of the platform beyond the life of the project. Guidance for delivering face to face consultation on the ground will also be developed, as well as a series of reports on community consultation for each of the four UK planning contexts. This pragmatic project will be underpinned by robust academic research published through a series of refereed journal papers. A generation has grown up designing virtual environments in games such as Sim City. CCQoL will provide the next step towards a digitally generated and constructed, co-created built environment. The foundations of such a future need to be designed with great care to ensure that it fulfils its positive potential.

Air pollution and ambient pollution, carbon-related issues ranging from GHG emissions to carbon shortages in soil, the opportunities provided by NBS and the intricacies of urban ecosystems present an extremely complex set of interdependent problems and opportunities that have to be addressed as such – interactively, mutually and innovatively. Upsurge is considering all these aspects and is providing evidence-based targeted responses that will enable EU cities to transition into a more regenerative future. At its core, Upsurge is presenting the European Regenerative Urban Lighthouse, which will enable cities to unlock their regenerative potential and provide them with knowledge and guidance in regenerative transition. Supported by an innovative continuous self-check progress mechanism (Regenerative Index) and by the Clearing House as a knowledge nerve centre, Upsurge will motivate cities and other clients through its networking activities to engage and step aboard the regenerative transition under Lighthouse’s leadership. Upsurge is demonstrating technical excellence through a multimodal adaptable sensing system, through integrated and integrative digitalisation environment supported by IoT and AI, several real-life demonstrations and based on extrapolated criteria conducted simulative demonstrations showcasing the viability, feasibility and implementability of proposed technical solutions. The knowledge core of Upsurge will be introduced within the quintuple helix verification model bringing together all relevant factors affecting the implementation of NBS and thus regenerative change. Quintuple helix approach will truly enable the assessment and exploration of complementary beneficial effects provided by project solutions.