CULTURAL HERITAGE, NEW TECHNIQUES AND SUSTAINABILIY SHAPE OUR IDENTITIES AND LIVES The regions Friesland (NL), Central Bulgaria (BG), Valencia (ES) bear a wealth of intangible heritage, such as traditions, knowledge of old crafts and social networks. What all regions have in common as well is waste. It has become essential to create a circular economy in which the reuse of products and raw materials is maximised and their value destruction minimised. In Craft Your Future students examine whether the advancing technology and trends can help revitalize old crafts using waste as raw material. STUDENTS IN THE LEAD The rise of youth unemployment in the EU underlines the necessity to spark a dynamic and positive attitude among young people towards enterprising behaviour, networking skills and pro-activity. Learning by doing and educating students to take initiative and investigate opportunities themselves, rather than waiting for others to take the initiative, will increase employability. Craft Your Future addresses this need by the key focus on the initiative of the student. OBJECTIVES Craft your Future recognises that young people in Europe must look outwards and proactively engage with the challenges and opportunities that our modern globalising world provides. What trends & new technologies (e.g. 3D printing and laser cutting but also the use of big data, new ways of interacting, social entrepreneurship, circular economy) are feeding into our society today that can lift traditional crafts to the 21st century? Concretely, Craft your Future aims to: • Let VET students become closer to and more involved with their regions old crafts and traditions and cherish it. • Ensure young people have the power, knowledge and competences to be the change for sustainability that our world needs. • Educate VET students to be the innovators in the companies they will work for in the future by letting become aware of trends & new technologies and learn how to spot them. • Start the inter-cultural conversation and exchange between youngsters about cultural heritage (traditional crafts), trends & new techniques and the circular economy, let them discover what their regions have in common and how using trends & new techniques can push traditional crafts to the 21st century in a circular economy. • Increase the pool of work based learning opportunities for students in order to develop their competences for future working life. • Preserve cultural heritage by using culture as a driver for creative innovation, turning intangible tradition and waste management issues into a real future by using trends and new techniques. • Develop VET teachers’ skills by letting them to work with their students on ‘real-life’ cases. • Reinforce VET colleges network by setting up a cooperation with regional stakeholders. • Create a bridge between generations. The young generation will understand the elder generation better by getting to know them through their craft knowledge and stories and vice versa. PARTICIPANTS Craft Your Future is aimed at VET students from all fields of education, thus creating a cross-sector approach and allowing students from not only different countries but also different backgrounds to learn from each other. Secondly it is aimed at VET teachers and VET colleges anf world of work stakeholders (local authorities, cultural centres, regional craftsmen, artists, (social) businesses, etc.). ACTIVITIES Craft Your Future students are in the lead to 1) investigate challenges and opportunities on the cutting edge of traditional crafts, trends & new technologies and the circular economy, 2) design innovative solutions to the challenge of waste recycling by using traditional crafts and trends & new technologies, 3) propose solutions and innovations to the world of work and develop community strategies to convince communities to buy local & sustainable. Craft Your Future will develop the following tangible products: • IO1 - Craft your Future - Student Training Programme • IO2 - Craft your Future - Regional Alliance set-up toolkit • IO3 - Craft Your Future - Regional strategy and action plan • IO4 - Craft your Future - Online Community METHODOLOGY Craft Your Future is a true Strategic Partnership meaning all partners provide their key input that contributes to the realisation of the project goals and concrete deliverables. IMPACT & LONG TERM BENEFITS The Craft Your Future project unites educational institutions, students, local authorities, creative centres and (social) businesses in creating a strategy that help regions use intangible cultural heritage to increase their attractiveness, boost local economies and build a future based on regional resources. Craft Your Future ensures young people have the power, knowledge and competences to be the change for sustainability (in the broadest sense) that our world needs.

The project enhances the quality of Colombian, Cuban and Panamanian universities by transferring the EU expertise to design and implement a quality referential (framework, tools & methodology) based on impact assessment. This tool complements the actual QA systems currently limited to quality of teaching and research. This fosters an evolution towards an impact-driven culture in the institutions which improves the quality and relevance of the services that they provide to their community. The project results in an impact QA system, inspired by EU experience and customized to the 3 national contexts. The HEIs are capacitated for applying the quality referential at the institutional level (impact is measured and included in strategic development) and at the functional level (more activities/projects are targeted at local communities and their impact is maximized). The fitness for purpose and practical relevance of this QA system are verified by its implementation in 11 universities, under the mentorship of European experts.Results and best practices are compiled in two publications series: one for senior university management explaining how to measure, monitor and increase impact and collecting best practices. The second series, for faculty and specialist staff, provides guidelines and inspiration on how to maximize impact of universities activities for local environment and illustrates it it by a case studies compendium. Main findings and recommendations are shared with the 3 countries stakeholders during the project conference to build awareness and stimulate replication.The project promotes cultural changes in the universities who understand better how to answer the needs of their environment how to engage into innovative and more impactful activities. Regional & local communities benefit from the concrete results of the pilot projects and tighten their links with HEIs open to the local environment.