The project targeted youth workers and other professionals in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Scotland who work with young carers directly or indirectly. Young carers can be defined as young people who provide assistance or support to another family member. They carry out, often on a regular basis, significant or substantial caring tasks and assume a level of responsibility which would not usually be associated with their age group. The person receiving care is often a parent but can be a sibling, grandparent or other relative who is disabled, has some chronic illness, mental health problem or other condition connected with a need for care, support or supervision. Although research has provided clear evidence that heavy caring responsibilities can result in emotional difficulties, health problems, social exclusion, and limited opportunities for social and leisure activities, professional support services are lacking in many EU countries. This is largely due to the fact that the youth work, educational and social services sectors are not aware of this group. However, it can be seen from the UK experience that young carers are a large and important group that youth services need to address. Thus, the EPYC project’s objective was professionalizing youth work so they would put young carers on their agenda. This again will ideally allow young carers to take part in school, education, social life, and not be disadvantaged by their caring responsibilities. The partnership consisted of five organisations from four countries. Diakonisches Werk Berlin as the coordinator is a non profit institution based in Berlin, Germany, that provides many different social services. Care Alliance Ireland is the National Network of Voluntary Organizations Supporting Family Carers. The goal ist to enhance the quality of life for Family Carers. This is achieved by supporting the member organisations in their direct work with Family Carers through the provision of information, developing research and policy, sharing resources, and instigating opportunities for collaboration.Anziani e non solo is a non-profit organization working in the field of social research, community development, advocacy and training for informal carers. Carers Trust are the largest provider of comprehensive carer support services in the UK. Carers Trust works with the Scottish Government to influence national policy impacting on young carers, by feeding in responses from consultations with the network. They were key partners in developing the first ever national young carers strategy in Europe. The Austrian Red Cross is a private independent NGO. It is guided by the fundamental principles of the Red Cross movement and its volunteers and staff engage in many humanitarian activities to help the most vulnerable people in society, nationally and internationally. Versari Macrelli is a school with three fields of study: accountant, graphic, social operator. Many students show disinterest in school, have family problems and economic hardship. The main result of the project is the availability of a set of tools and interventions that empower professionals and service providers to support young carers. Such tools include handbooks, questionnaires, motivational interviews, checklists, etc. In addition, the creation of practical support services were promoted through a guidance report based on model support projects established by partners in their region. The tools are intended to allow identification of young carers; to allow practitioners to assess the situation of young carers, including measuring the level and impact of the care burden; and to allow practitioners to develop an action plan to address issues adversely affecting young carers. The tools were adapted when already existing in a partner country, or developed ex novo, and pilot-tested. Impact on participating organization was high in terms of awareness raised for young carers issues across all countries. Dissemination activities were also successful in terms of stakeholders who showed interest in the topic and the projects results. Peer evaluation of outputs confirmed useful resources and tools that have the potential to empoer professionals to support young carers. As all partners will continue raising awareness for young carers in their region, the project produced useful tools to support this work and in the medium term make young carers a well know target group among youth work in Europe.

"<< Background >>We chose to participate in the LOWE project because we believe in the importance of internationalisation of education for the development of our students and the educational community. We focused on project areas that aim to develop management skills, train mobility coordinators, promote the European dimension and take a systemic approach to internationalisation.We believe that the development of managerial skills is essential to ensure effective and collaborative management processes between schools, guaranteeing the quality of placements abroad and the long-term sustainability of the project. Training of mobility coordinators is equally important to ensure that teachers are able to manage mobility projects and provide relevant information to students.The European dimension is crucial for the acquisition of intercultural and language skills, which are essential for the education of our students.<< Objectives >>The general objective was the promotion of student employment through work-based learning experiences abroad. The specific objectives were inherent to the provision of work experiences abroad for students from Romagna such as short and long-term training stages, i.e.: the improvement of key and vocational skills in relation to relation to strategies for the relaunch of the local economy, the enhancement of the participants' sense of European citizenship and the innovation of the training offer and teaching methodologies of the teachers. The project also envisaged consolidating a pool of schools in the consortium related to the wellness sector and training them in mobility project management procedures. The project was part of a territorial promotion strategy centred on the theme of ""good living"" (wellness) and focused on four strands: healthy eating, culture and entertainment, wellness (sport and body care) and territorial promotion. The consortium schools will be involved in training experiences abroad to import useful skills for the region.<< Implementation >>The activities we implemented between 2021 and 2023 were manifold. We involved a total of 139 students in short-term mobility activities, divided into 4 mobility rounds, in cooperation with partners EDU GATE in Cyprus, MUNDUS in Spain, SEPR in France, IZI LTD in Malta, M.E.P. Europrojects in Spain, COPAE ILIS in Greece, MFR Bergeracois in France, EU TRADE in Lithuania, ALFMED in France and MEP GRANADA in Spain. The duration of the mobility for each student averaged 30 days.In addition, we offered 2 recent graduates the opportunity to participate in a 90-day long-term mobility activity with partner ALFMED in France.All these activities enabled the participants to acquire practical skills, develop interpersonal skills, improve their knowledge of English, and acquire values of inclusion and European citizenship. Thanks to the active participation of our partners, we were able to offer our participants a high quality educational experience of high quality, which helped them to grow both personally and professionally.<< Results >>The project achieved important results, including the realisation of 141 student mobilities. The participants acquired key and vocational skills related to their field of study and improved their language and European citizenship skills. In addition, the courses undertaken were recognised in the students' PCTOs via the ECVET procedure and the learning outcomes were certified via Europass Mobility. Another important result concerns the training of the staff of the institutions involved in the mobility management methodologies, which enabled them to acquire valuable know-how for the implementation of new European initiatives and for the internationalisation of the educational offer of the consortium schools. Overall, the project had a positive impact on the participants' training and growth, both professionally and personally."

In 2016, Leonardo da Vinci vocational school decided to develop an international policy and expose students to European culture as means to combat prejudices and encourage students to become citizens of the world. The aim is also to educate our students to become professionals within European culture by demonstrating understanding of international practices. A plan of European development within the establishment was written, in which teaching staff were asked to go abroad as a way to reconnect with the practice of the English language by assisting in structured courses and observing educative practice in foreign establishments. 14 participants requested and completed a training period in English abroad; 7 trips for foreign observation were also completed. One training period was not able to take place due to one of the participants having an accident and being unable to attend. Thus, these projects have permitted us to form a solid and invested team; our educators have been able to improve their language skills through participating in international exchanges. One educator was able to obtain their DNL in order to create a European section in the establishment. The observation periods have permitted our educators to discover other educational systems, other abilities and other methods and tools for their work. Partnerships have been formed with other establishments thanks to these training periods. We have received Italian students and our students, equally, have gone on trips in these establishments; This has created an ambitiousness within the establishment, a second project for international work placements has been validated and another project for a partnership in Spain is being written. Overall, within the institution, varying actions have emerged following these trips and this project of opening up to the international. So, after attending structured classes, the nurse does first aid in English with the TASSP. The P.E. teacher also held a class with the American assistant. A lunch in English is proposed each week to teachers to practice their English language with the American assistant. A satellite was bought and a television was installed in the student lounge for the students to have access to English channels. The librarian installed an easy doc link on the school webpage so that students could have access to online magazines in English. The art teacher created flags of all the countries with the students and held an art show. The American assistant is working with the students to create signage throughout the school in English. Cooperative initiatives have taken place throughout the school where the teachers went to observe, notably at IPS Versari Macrelli : work with IEM of Marrière (infographics, showing of a film about migrants), work with the preschool Bottière (reading books in French and Italian, songs), exchange with the educational restaurant Le reflet (integration of people with hadicaps), cultural visits to St Nazaire and Guérande, Pass-Nantes (the Island of the Machines, the city hall of Nantes, the restaurant La Cigale), French classes taken by Italian teachers in the high school. Integration of Italian students in classes because the study French language. Trip to Milan IIS caterina da siena : classes, cultural and industrial visits, Lac de Côme, students were received in Italian host families.But in addition to the cultural input our students could experience a different teaching approach. Here in France they do computer assisted design, and become fully trained to apply for jobs in factories. The smaller size of the Italian companies requires different skills from the Italian students - they get proper training for the luxury market (hand-making of their patterns for instance). That exchange program was also the opportunity for the Italian students to learn about our French way to make luxurious garments in the FCIL section. As far as our teachers were concerned, they learnt in English courses how to introduce some English in their technical classes. They could benefit from tools from Content and Language Integrated Learning. As an example, they will now start their class with genuine classroom language, which will be posted in the classroom with the help of the students. Our teachers brought a number of documents and books to get it started immediately on their return. Those European programs were a success for we could reach our main goals, that is: the cultural input in addition to the enhancingof the language skills of our teachers and students, in order to make our international relationships easier to manage. Last but not least, everyone in our school is now aware and/or involved in this European dynamic and these past experiences should fuel continued momentum towards more projects.

"The Erasmus+ project ""Entrepreneurship: a step to the future"" with the students and teachers from six countries; Lithuania, Portugal, Italy, Romania, Greece and Turkey had the new possibilities to learn about European Union and six countries of the project, to travel, to improve their geographical knowledge and deeper comprehension of the world which were deficient in the beginning of the project.The project organizers searched the ways to inspire young people to take the initiative, encouraged experienced entrepreneurs to share their experiences and skills about organization and development successful business, promote discover their creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial abilities. The most important aim of the project “ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A STEP TO THE FUTURE "" was to foster the economic and entrepreneurial skills of school communities, to develop the ability to work in international teams in different economic and entrepreneurial projects, to create business plans, to foster national heritage and to adapt them to the modern competitive environment.To reach the aim, the project fulfilled several objectives: 1. involved young people into positive economic and cultural activities of the country, acquired students with skills for entrepreneurial initiatives in the world of economy, enabled access to the traditions, business change in the region, country, the European Union and the world; 2. while developing entrepreneurial skills of the students it was necessary to provide economic, legal, cultural knowledge needed not only for business but also for the presence in it as an employee; 3. educated creativity, responsibility, diligence, integrity, achievement of the objective values needed for both business and personal life, taught to express their needs convincingly, realistic assessment of the circumstances, as well as the ability to plan, organize and to implement the work qualitatively to take risks in decision-making.4. presented the professional courses as a valuable alternative in which young people could not only achieve various competences but also, conclude their compulsory education and create conditions for a transition to working life. The target group: students aged 13-17 from Lithuania, Turkey, Romania, Portugal, Italy, Greece.The partners were chosen via eTwinning platform.To reach the aim and objectives 4 teaching/learning activities were organized where students worked together in multinational and multidisciplinary groups. The creation of a single group, with members from different countries, cultures, genders, religions, and social and economic conditions, worked on a theme that was transnational, involving different strategies and methods with the same goal. The skills and competences that students acquired would be useful in different contexts nowadays and in future mobilities and experiences within Europe or worldwide where might find employees/ employers from different cultures and different working conditions and methods.One more important moment-donation of products students sell at their Students' Training Companies, presented at the last meeting. Through this action, we wanted to let them experience the joy of helping others. Besides, for project management 2 transnational meetings were held for signing the agreement in the beginning and evaluation when the project ends.Several innovative learning methods were used such as thinking based learning, collaborative learning, modern and digital teaching/learning methodology which was organized during the mobilities, within a real-world environment.During the project a few final products were prepared:1. Students Training Companies set up in each partner school;2. Documentary about the economic situation in each country;3. Economical e vocabulary in English-Lithuanian-Romanian-Turkish-Portuguese-Italian-Greek languages.For educational purposes, all the materials will be free and open to everyone.As a result, this partnership not only helped our learners to develop spoken skills in foreign languages and build their European citizenship but has raised their future social inclusion opportunities as well.Teachers involved were given the opportunity to develop their language skills and learn the teaching practices related to discipline in the partner countries, how to incorporate innovative digital and ICT teaching tools in their practices and make their classes more engaging and more challenging for their students.Taking part in Erasmus+project gave a broader view of European values, as well as the impact of knowledge and experience for the future projects."

Accredited projects for mobility of learners and staff are implemented by organisations holding an Erasmus accreditation. Each accredited project represents a step in the implementation of the organisation's long-term Erasmus Plan.