The transition to Circular Economy (CE) is an essential contribution to the EU efforts of developing a sustainable, low carbon, resource efficient and competitive economy (Closing the loop – An EU action plan for the CE, 2015). Such a transition represents the opportunity to transform our economy, generate green jobs and build up sustainable competitive advantages for Europe. This project aims to fill a gap in Vocational Education and Training (VET) programmes dealing with zero waste and circular economy.Skills and competences for Zero Waste and Circular Economy (ZW&CE) are becoming extremely important. In Europe, we are using per person 16 t/a (tons per year) of material, of which 5 t/a become waste. Although waste management continues to improve, the EU economy still loses a significant fraction of potential 'secondary raw materials' in waste streams. The CE package, adopted by the Commission in 2015, has created an important momentum to support the transition towards a more CE in the EU. CE gained more significance in 2018 when the new CE Action Plan and a series of more restrictive waste and product policies have been adopted (eg, plastic policy). Transition to CE may only be successful if the corresponding awareness, competences and skills are deeply embedded in the knowledge and daily routine of EU professionals and companies and from this perspective VET education for ZW&CE is critical.The primary goal of EduZWaCE Strategic Partnerships is to supporting exchange of good practices, enabling stakeholders to deepen and spread out knowledge, develop and reinforce networks, increase their capacity to operate at transnational level, and share and confront ideas, practices and methods. The project aims to create new VET programmes dealing with waste and circular economy, and focuses on developing the interdisciplinary skills needed for the jobs of the future that are tailor-made for the needs of the employers/SMEs. With this project we would like to build up a common approach for VET Teachers and learners across EU to respond to the requirements of the future and flexible job market. The project will focus on the following specific objectives:• Develop partnerships amongst educators, businesses and stakeholders with the purpose of supporting VET learners in acquiring and developing skills and key competences in CE and foster employability • Facilitate recognition and validation of competences for new jobs: the ZW&CE Manager and the ZW&CE Technician, by building two Skill Card Sets, structured in accordance with the standards and designed based on the ECVET requirements.• Make education in ZW&CE available for all, by setting the EduZWaCE as an Open Education Resource (OER)The project will be implemented based on a collaborative approach: cooperation between the project partners and collaboration between the consortium and the stakeholders at the local, national, and international level. EduZWaCE will respect the Sociocracy 3.0 collaborative approach. The project outcomes will be delivered using free, open, collective purpose based framework of patterns, will support exchange of good practices allowing organisations to develop and reinforce networks. It will increase their capacity to operate at transnational level, share and confront ideas, practices and methods whilst respecting co-creativity principles, fostering transparency and guaranteeing the equivalence of all participants in decision making.Through its deliverables: (1) EduZWaCE Knowledge HUB; (2) EduZWaCE Skill Card Sets for two jobs roles; (3) EduZWaCE online collaborative platform; (4) EduZWaCE course and (5) EduZWaCE diagnosis tool, the project will foster cooperation between companies, stakeholders and VET educators. It will increase motivation of VET Teachers to use/re-use, adapt and/or modify the training materials, with the aim to improve the acquisition of key competences for their learners/students and to raise awareness of the local and regional policy makers on the importance of taking measures for promoting best practices and flexible learning pathways in VET from an interdisciplinary perspective. On long term the project will have a strong impact on the creation of better interdisciplinary competences directly used for current or future professions and to the adoption of more circular economy solutions.The project involves an appropriate mix of complementary participating organisations with the necessary profile, experience and expertise to successfully deliver all aspects of the project. They will become the facilitators of the EduZWaCE platform, support its utilization and the co-creation of CE solutions through cooperation and exchange – this will empower them as main stakeholders of ZW&CE application in the countries and will contribute to their organisational development.

Context:The VOICE (Volunteer Organizations‘ Input to Community Education) partnership project was set up to follow on a major objective, namely: to promote Community Education (CE) and to showcase the input of volunteer and (inter)cultural centers to Community Education. As the current dominant discourse around education for the economy seems to ignore the value and impact of CE and its importance personal development and strengthening communities, partners want to address this important and innovative resource of learning. The partnership was founded by 6 volunteer/(inter)cultural/neighborhood-centers across the EU, working on local level but representing different traditions of volunteering in Europe. The VOICE partners use this Erasmus project to create a platform for exchange expertise among practitioners from different European countries. During project implementation, 6 transnational meetings were convened, involving at least 18 staff members and volunteers working in CE programs. Furthermore, each partner conducted CE programs at local level, and attracted at least 300 participants in total with at least 90 of them being disadvantaged. Additionally, partners involved other local NGOs, (adult) education providers, stakeholder on local, national and international level.The 6 transnational partnership meeting were used to explore and discuss a) the value and impact of “Community Education”, b) the role of CE providers in local communities, c) Professional development of CE practitioners d) Success factors of CE programs, e) how does CE increase the skills, confidence, networks and resources of participants, and f) how does CE contribute to tackle problems and grasp opportunities, which occur within local communities. Additionally host partners showcased good practices of them in the field of Community Education. All their discussions, results and lead to the creation of an EBook and pdf document with recommendations on how to implement Community Education programs, including partners experiences and expertise in form of ‘good practices’ collection. This eBook can be used as a guideline for promoting CE and to disseminate good practices of partners in order for others to copy them. And within this partnership most partners copied at least one good practice, which was presented by a different partner. It is published on the websites www.volunteertolearn.eu and www.professional-volunteering.eu to be used as a tool kit and inspiration for other NGOs to start their own community education programmes.It is available in English, German and Romanian.Methodology of the joint work:Tasks and activities of the project were undertaken as described in the methodology on the original project application. Upon approval, the ultimate work plan and time schedule were agreed on by the partners during the first transnational meeting (TM) in Passau-Germany when the project officially took off. A total of 6 TM were conducted, each partner hosting one TM. The transnational meetings were a platform for exchange of expertise and experience on CE between partners: The meetings also served as a think tank were ideas around providing, improving, supporting, harmonizing CE were discussed. The result was the joint EBook. Additionally, the meetings were used to monitor the progress made, plan future activities, allocate tasks and agree on the mode of operation and feedback.Parallel with the transnational meetings, partners maintain special web-section for VOICE within their designated websites. The web-section provides information about VOICE activities locally and transnational. Results of this partnership:The two year project has been successful implemented. The VOICE project met all the pre-set project objectives as presented in the original project application and within the agreed time.oThe transnational meetings were convened as planned and each led to a chapter to the eBook.oPartners were able to exchange experience and expertise on CE with a potential of further improving and harmonizing CE across Europe.oMonitoring, evaluation as well as dissemination activities were conducted by partners as initially agreed in the original application. oAn eBook on CE including an input about the community education approach in learning, practical tips on the implementation of community education programs in local communities, the role and success factors of volunteer/ neighbourhood/ intercultural centers as important providers of CE programs, as well as a collection of good practices of learning and training programs offered by the involved partners. This eBook was and will be disseminated on local, regional, national and international level in order:a) to raise awareness for the importance of CE and its contribution to the education system and community development, b) to promote the staff development of CE providers and to strengthen the expertise and skills of CE practitioners

Eurbanities 2.0 aims at empowering citizens for being actively engaged in the development of equitable and sustainable European urban neighborhoods. We intend to transfer them knowledge on the tools and methods of citizen participation in urban planning and neighborhood development through the creation of a game based learning tool. Eurbanities 2.0 will rely on the most recent approach of urban participation considering citizens as the co-creators of their neighborhoods.The main target groups of the project are:1. Experienced trainers and educators in non formal adult education, working with disadvantaged citizens and learners;2. Citizens living in disadvantaged neighborhoods or in marginal situation;3. Activists and facilitators supporting people on the local level The project will play an indirect effect on students, school kids in the frame of formal curriculum, and representatives of local authorities and stakeholders launching participatory processes.Eurbanities 2.0 is the direct follow-up of the recently finished Eurbanities project. The consortium is thus based on an existing and experienced partnership, completed with 3 new members. The 7 partners represent the main expertise needed on gaming, citizen participation and teaching.The main results of the project will be:1-The creation of a complex pedagogical method and toolkit empowering citizens for actively participating in urban planning and acting as co-creators of their neighborhoods. The toolkit will contain: a) a handbook on Smart Practices with a theoretical introduction of the context, 10 smart practices on participatory planning and co-creation of neighborhoods, and a summary on the tools and methods of smart participatory planning;b) the Eurbanities 2.0 online game and c) the Eurbanities 2.0 curriculum embedding the game.2- A strong and sustainable community of organizations committed to use and improve the method also after the project cycle. 3- The enlargement of the already existing Eurbanities platform. 4- A list of Policy Recommendations5- A Project Sustainability Plan including and Action Plan for the long term use of the method.The project implementation will be based on the critical design thinking method, an approach aiming at the critical and unbiased analysis of a given situation following the stages of design: observation/interaction, empathy, problem formulation, solution deduction, testing, alteration, and reiteration. The main activities of the project will be organized into work packages and will cut the project into different phases, as follows:1-Good practice analysis and a first part of the needs assessment will take place in the first year of the project, leading to the identification of the main tools, methods and scenarios of participatory planning;2-The co-design of the main objectives, messages and elements of the game and the curriculum in the frame of a First Co-design Training Lab and Game Hackathon;3-Production of the first prototypes of the game and the curriculum;4-Testing of the two prototypes and co-creation of improvements in the frame of two Co-design Training Labs;5-Creation of the final versions of the game and the curriculum embedding the game;6-Presentation of the project’s main outputs and testing of the game at 5 local multiplier events.The activities will be centered around 8 transnational meetings including the kick-off and a Final meeting and three transnational Co-design Training Labs destined to learning and co-creation activities.The project management will be implemented by the Lead Partner CRN, in close interaction with the entire partnership: each partner will be assigned to the co-coordination of specific work packages according to their completencies. The overall decisions and conflict management will be realised by the project Steering Committee with the contribution of the Board of External Experts. Project dissemination will be a global task of all partners, to be managed in the frame of a distinct work package. Eurbanities 2.0 method is foreseen to be used and improved far beyond the project cycle, based on the Project Sustainability Plan. Merged with the results of the first Eurbanities project, the overall Eurbanities learning method will cover the entire cycle of citizen participation in urban processes from the acknowledgement of the challenges, through community building, till participatory planning and engagement of the citizens as co-creators of their neighborhood.

Egypt is experiencing a transition from production-based economies to ones based on knowledge and information. This transition changed the nature of jobs and the required skills. Competing in this global economy requires a science and engineering workforce that is consistently at the technological forefront. So, EG should examine the extent to which their current workforce meets their needs for human capital.The wider objective of this project is Bridging the qualification gap of professional engineers in EG with the EU standards The project aims to develop a LLL framework and four e-Lifelong learning centers (e-LLC) in four different EG universities to create progressively evolution from establishing of framework to develop actions and connections with engineering communityThe Specific objectives of the project are:1. Defining the qualification gap between Egyptian engineering and the labor market2. Developing of an innovative LLL framework in partner universities3. Establishing of four professional e- Lifelong Learning training Centers (e-LLC)4. Developing an online Learning Management System (LMS)The engineering profession must revisit and update its mindset and adopt a new mission statement - to contribute to build of a more sustainable, stable, and equitable world. Engineers must adopt a completely innovative attitude toward natural and cultural systems and reconsider interactions between engineering disciplines and nontechnical fields.The project will be carried out to reach the following outputs1. EU experiences benchmarking in (3) engineering disciplines2. Gap analysis report & EU Best practice manuals3. Lifelong Learning framework and Professional standards4. Training Course Contents and Materials5. Training Program (4 training Modules)6. Four E-Lifelong Learning Centers7. Online Learning Management System8. Recognition Process and measures & Pilot implementation,