The Placements in Environmental, Archaeological and Traditional Skills project (PEATS) brought together a consortium of 11 UK VET colleges and training institutions led by Grampus Heritage and Training Ltd. The project provided 181 vocational inspiring and educational 4-week work placements with our partnership of 20 experienced European host partners in 13 countries. The project also funded 64 VET tutors to undertake 8-day staff training visits to European host partners, to learn from their training methods, share experience and form lasting mutually beneficial partnerships. 26 Accompanying persons ensured that each flow of VET learners was visited, supported and monitored to ensure safeguarding, maximum impact and realistic and comprehensive evaluation of placement outcomes was achieved. This project benefited from over 12 years of promoting environmental, archaeological and traditional skills and craft placements through the Leonardo da Vinci programme. The application and consortium combined the experience of delivering five certified LdV projects per year between 2009 and 2013 which provided European placements for a total of 1180 participants in environmental, archaeological and traditional craft skills. (mobility certificate UK/09/LLP-LdV/MC/Z007). The PEATS project further built on the successful 2014 Erasmus+ ‘PETS’ consortium project (2014-1-UK01-KA10200265). Host countries represented in the consortium were Slovakia, Romania, Germany, Cyprus, Slovenia, Iceland, Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria, Finland, Ireland and Turkey. VET participants were accredited through the Green Village Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) ECVET curriculum, developed through the EU ‘Green Village’ DOI project. The achievements of all VET participants was also recorded through the Europass mobility document. Participants were recruited from consortium colleges and students undertaking Sustainable Rural Development modules at Grampus Heritage. The ECVET accreditation assisted in parallel UK accreditation within their own courses of study in the UK (e.g through work placement modules) and through the archaeology skills passport. VET participants developed a higher degree of self confidence, put theory into practice, gained new skills, improved existing skills and competencies, gained a renewed interest in their chosen subject, achieved new language skills and completed a CV enhancing placement which will improve employment prospects and/or enable an informed progression to higher level study in the future.Participating staff benefitted from placing their own training in a wider European context. Travelling tutors not only explored new skills, methods, approaches and techniques but were also able to share their own experiences with host organisations. This gave staff access to new ideas and approaches to training which will have a positive impact on their own delivery. The objectives of the project were to: 1 Provide a period of ‘real work’ experience for beneficiaries studying environmental, archaeological and craft courses in the UK at VET level. 2. To ensure that this period of European experience is of relevance to the participant’s course of study and can be accredited as such. 3. To increase cultural awareness in beneficiaries. 4. To increase competencies in key skills being used on the placement. These include: Environmental Skills: planting, coppicing, footpath design and construction, biodiversity assessments and species identification, habitat management. Archaeological Skills: Excavation techniques, site recording (planning, photography, context sheets), surveying (levelling/total station), post excavation finds processing. Craft Skills: weaving, embroidery, silversmithing, blacksmithing, ceramics, wood carving, green wood construction, traditional building techniques (natural materials), 5. To boost the skills and employability of our primarily young participants through gaining real-work experience and laying the foundation for language skills 6. To enhance UK VET training provision for young people by providing 8-day staff placements for tutors with relevant European hosts. The project management methodology for the PETS consortium was consistent with the ten principles set out in in the European Quality Charter for Mobility. Host partners provided a minimum of four language lessons with professional tuition. All staff mobilities were recognised within an agreed CPD plan with their own organisations. Host partners also provided certification and a record of achievement in their own format as additional evidence of achievement. Detailed learning agreements were drawn up prior to placement through discussion between participants, hosts and UK colleges. These provided a realistic benchmark against which the success of the project and placements has been evaluated.

"The EVS project ""Odemira in Europe"" is proposed by Odemira Municipality in consortium with local associations that work with youth and European associations experienced in EVS, aiming at propelling international cooperation in the field of youth in the region of Odemira. The project consists in four EVS activities: 1) hosting of 6 long term volunteers in Odemira (12 months); 2, 3 and 4) sending of 6 short term Portuguese volunteers (1 month) coming from rural context with less opportunities. The consortium is coordinated by Odemira Municipality and includes 12 volunteers, 7 local organisations, 7 international organisations and 7 countries: Portugal, Italy, Germany, Spain, Estonia, Poland and Sweden. In Activity 1 hosting entities in Odemira are GAIA Alentejo, Sociedade Recreativa Colense, Odemira-Te, ADMIRA, Associação Cultural, Desportiva e Recreativa de Brunheiras and Associação Humanitária D. Ana Pacheco, whereas sending organisations are Joint, TPZ Lingen, Asociación Cazalla Intercultural, EstYES, Ferso and Building Bridges. In Activities 2, 3 and 4 Odemira Municipality is the sending organisation and Cazalla Intercultural, Building Bridges, Projektor e EstYES are EVS hosting entities, respectivelly.The project is anchored in a strong strategy of non-formal education, targeted at all volunteers and also at partner organisations that are less experienced in EVS, with the aim of developing competences in international youth work. As long term results we expect the implementation of a new youth dynamics in the territory of Odemira, where young people, local organisations and entities from different sectors activelly contribute to a common strategy of animation, development and youth employability, benefitting the municipality as an atractive territory for younger generations."

The activities undertaken within this project are consistent with those outlined in our successful VMC application and internationalisation strategy. This project funded 188 4-week traineeship placements for VET students in archaeology, environmental and traditional skills and 68 staff delivering VET training in these fields.The objectives of the project were to: 1 Provide a period of ‘real work’ experience for environmental, archaeology and craft VET students to increase skills, confidence and employability. 2. Ensure that this period of European experience is of relevance to the participant and can be accredited through our Green Village ECVET curriculum 3. Provide beneficiaries with sufficient time and support to increase language skills and key competencies including:Environmental Skills: planting, coppicing, footpath construction, countryside furniture, biodiversity assessments, species identification, surveying, habitat management, organic food production.Archaeological skills: Excavation techniques, recording features, photography, planning, surveying, post-excavation, stratigraphic matrix, understanding archaeological and historic links across Europe.Craft Skills: weaving, embroidery, silversmithing, blacksmithing, ceramics, wood carving, , traditional building techniques (natural materials), 5. Develop a sustainable European VET partnership which can share experience and develop future cooperation projects. 6. Enhance UK VET training provision by providing week-long staff placements for tutors with relevant European hosts.The delivery of this project benefitted from the experience gained, partnerships developed and lessons learned during our previous mobility projects over the past 15 years and from our completed and current KA1 VET mobility projects under the Erasmus Plus programme. Student participants have developed a higher degree of self-confidence, put theory into practice, gained new skills, improved existing skills and competences, gained a renewed interest in their chosen subject, gained new language skills and completed a CV enhancing placement which will improve employment prospects and/or enable an informed progression to higher level study. Participating staff have benefited from placing their own training in a wider European context. Travelling tutors have explored new skills, methods, approaches and techniques and have shared their own experiences with host organisations. This experience gave staff access to new ideas and approaches to training which will have a positive impact on their own training delivery, enabling them to pass on new skills and information with a broader European scope.As outlined in our VMC application and internationalisation strategy, all participants have undertaken ECVET units within the Grampus Green Village curriculum, whilst we have continued to work closely with our network of UK partner colleges. In addition, archaeology students have complete the relevant modules of the Archaeology Skills Passport qualification with complimentary learning outcomes recorded and accredited through the Green Village ECVET curriculum.This project included a new receiving partner. The Hellenic Cultural Centre were visited by Grampus staff in 2016 after expressing enthusiasm for cooperation. They have good experience of hosting international groups, professional language tutors and well established accommodation facilities with dedicated and experienced mentoring staff. They work in close cooperation with archaeological research projects (Akrotiri and ancient Thera) and also have good links with craft practitioners on the island. In line with our internationalisation strategy, the addition of this new partner has been carefully considered but deemed to be strategically beneficial in the skills, training and experience they bring to the partnership. Feedback from the placements in Santorini was extremely positive and they are again included as a host partner in our 2019 project.In addition to the VET learners and staff, the project funded 29 accompanying persons. Each flow of VET learners benefited from the presence of an accompanying person for some, or all, of the placement duration depending upon the age and experience of the participants. In line with our safeguarding policy and guidance issued by the European Commission, accompanying persons were included at a ratio of one to every 10 participants. The main role was to provide pastoral care and support to our participants and to monitor the structure of the placement and ensure safe working practice and effective support is in place.In all of our project development and mobility actions we agree to abide by the 10 principles outlined in the 2006 European Quality Charter for Mobility. All Vet participants have received a Europass mobility document and certificate from hosts. Host partners also arranged language tuition from professional tutors (minimum 4 sessions during the placement).

The activities in this project were decided upon following a review of our VMC application, internationalisation strategy, partnership consultation (UK and European hosts) and an evaluation of completed mobilities under previous PEATS projects. The project: 1 Provided a period of ‘real work’ experience for environmental, archaeology and craft VET students to increase skills, confidence and employability. 2. Ensured that this European experience was of relevance to the participant and accredited through our Green Village ECVET curriculum 3. Provided beneficiaries with time and support to increase language skills and key competencies including: Environmental Skills: planting, coppicing, footpath construction, countryside furniture, biodiversity assessments, species identification, surveying, habitat management. Archaeological skills: Excavation techniques, recording features, photography, planning, surveying, post-excavation, stratigraphy. Craft Skills: weaving, embroidery, silversmithing, blacksmithing, bookbinding, ceramics, wood carving and traditional building conservation and construction techniques. 5. Developed a sustainable European VET partnership which can share experience and develop future cooperation projects. 6. Enhanced UK VET training provision by providing 1-week staff placements for tutors with relevant European hosts. This project funded 180 4-week traineeship placements for VET students in archaeology, environmental and traditional skills (excluding 30 accompanying persons) and for 76 staff delivering VET training in these fields. This is close to our aim of 185 student placements and 80 staff placements identified as a target for the 2018 call within our internationalisation strategy. The project had a positive impact on individual participants according to their individual learning aims and future aspirations. Student participants developed more self-confidence, put theory into practice, gained new skills and competences, gained a renewed interest in their chosen subjects and improved language skills. Participating staff benefited from placing their own training in a wider European context. Traveling tutors explored new skills, methods, approaches and techniques and shared their own experiences with host organisations. This experience gave staff access to new ideas and approaches to training delivery. As outlined in our VMC application, all student participants undertook ECVET units within the Grampus Green Village curriculum, whilst working closely with our network of UK partner colleges to ensure maximum accreditation of learning outcomes. Archaeology students also completed the relevant modules of the Archaeology Skills Passport qualification with complimentary learning outcomes recorded and accredited through ECVET curriculum. We were delighted to add a new Norwegian partner into the PEATS project in 2018 following a visit to them by Grampus Director Martin Clark in Autumn 2017. They hosted a flow of traditional skills and craft students who trained in traditional woodworking techniques and conservation of old wooden structures. Following a visit to Malta by Grampus director Martin Clark, we also included a new Maltese partner in this application. The National Library of Malta hosted a student placement focusing on the traditional craft of bookbinding and in the restoration and conservation of historic documents and manuscripts. This project funded 30 accompanying persons. Each flow of VET learners benefited from the presence of an accompanying person for some, or all, of the placement depending upon the age and experience of the participants. Accompanying persons were included at the recommended ratio of one to every 10 participants. The main role was to provide pastoral care and support to our participants and to monitor the structure of the placement and ensure safe working practice and effective support was in place. All partners agreed to abide by the 10 principles outlined in the 2006 European Quality Charter for Mobility signed an MOU. All Vet participants received a Europass mobility document and certificate from hosts. Participants benefited from OLS assessment and courses and linguistic preparation followed by professional tuition arranged by hosts in Norway. Partnership communication was excellent with feedback freely provided and outcomes openly shared between partners.