<< Objectives >>The project intends to train the NGOs and the Organizations of each partner country on how to support young generations entering in the work environment through the involvement of Seniors professionals retirees. The actions supported by this initiative are focused on the collaboration/network among Voluntary Associations of Senior Professional Retirees, in Western, Central and Eastern European Countries in order to promote the concept of active aging, oriented in favor of the young generation.<< Implementation >>When the new Senior NGOs network will be established, the actions will be finalized, to:●Support young people while entering in the work environment through the development of active aging concept and involvement of Seniors NGOs. The project foresees : 1.Sharing good practices aimed at developing new capacities in the Associations/NGOs involved, 2. Developing a technical and cultural basis in the sector of mentoring in order to assist young people<< Results >>●Witness the value for the society to integrate Seniors professionals into the training and mentoring actions promoted by the Governments in favor of young generation through setting up of a network among the European Seniors Associations and the Associations of the countries in Eastern Europe, involved in the partnership, by sharing with them the best practices on-going in Western, Central and Eastern European NGOs and, where necessary, to adapt them to the local needs.

Context /background Against the background opf an avearage of 20% unemployed young people in the EU, 9 Senior Expert Organizations from 6 countries ( Austria, Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, Italy), all acting to supporting young people in need, came together to exchange their best practices for the assistance of young people, to analyse their transferability into different national educational systems and –if possible - start the transfer of identified good practices.They selected three target groups: trainees in Germany, NEETs in France, asylum seekers and migrants in all all partner countries.ObjectivesSupport young people through best practices tested in the home countries of the Seniors, learn from each other, avoid mistakes and shorten the testing times Number and Profile of Participants 9 partners are Senior Expert Organizations, one of them, the European Federation of Senior Expert associations - CESES-, who are active both at a national level to support young people but also at a global level to help in particular small and medium-sized enterprises in countries on their way to development to help themselves.To give scientific advice, the Comenius University of Bratislava joined as a partner, as well as the Vocational College of the City of Helsinki that gave input on methods to integrate migrants and also served as a testing ground for mentoring.Undertaken activities Main contents of the project were the exchange of best practice during 5 TPMs and 3 LTTAs.1. Development of a questionnaire on partners’ activities. This served as the basis of the cooperation and the compilation of best practice published at the end of the project. ANNEX 2. Creation of a dissemination tool- CESES ANNEX3. Explanation of practices and the national education system, identification of potential barriers and ways to overcome those. 3. Invitation of representatives of Chambers of Commerce, of ministries and public authorities4. Production and translation of flyer in English, German and French5. Compilation of good practices and recommendations for projects on mentoring 6. participation in many internal and official meetings . The most high ranking one took place at the New Year's Reception in 2019 of the wife of the Federal German President in Berlin. Her office asked for more information on MYDI.7. Input in preparation of follow-up project - accepted by the Italian Erasmus+ agency8. Input in the discussion of a European Recommendation on intergenerational cooperation9. Contacts with European Parliament, in particular MEP Manfred Weber, on the recognition of Senior workResults /Impact200 students in Helsinki Vocational College mentored according to the VerA model.Mentoring following the VerA model starts in Lyon.Mentoring introduced in the Luxemburg Senior Expert Service – not even a project partner but invited as a member of CESES to 2 meetingsMentoring following the VerA model in other cities in France, Italy and Spain.Recommendations on mentoring for third parties.Possible extension of MYDI activities to Central EuropeIn put in European Union recommendations Long term benefitsEven closer and smoother cooperation among the French, German, Italian, Austrian, Finish and Belgian Senior Expert organizations in the Confederation of Senior Expert Organizations – CESES - which is reflected, among others, in the running of a common platform for experts existing beyond the MYDI project.The three French partners stressed that their collaboration had much improved through the project.Connectivity between Germany and France in the field of vocational training.Higher awareness for the benefits of European Cooperation among but also within the partner organizations. Reports on MYDI and Follow-up have for example become a regular point on the agenda of Senior Experts‘ meetings in SES.Comenius University sharpened partners’ awareness about the need to establish Senior Expert Organizations in Central and Eastern Europe. A seminar on the German-Polish cooperation based on MYDI experiences is presently planned in Görlitz, Eastern Germany.If integrated in European Recommendations recognition of ther benefit of Senior workQuotes from partners and stakeholders“ Through the comprehensive explication of the different collaborators from the VerA initiative in Bonn and through the presentation of VerA by our own volunteers in Paris we became so convinced of the model that all three French partner organizations together started a pilot on VerA in Lyon in fall 2018.” OTECI“the cooperation between our 3 French partners has improved through the common effort in the MYDI project OTECI, AGIR, ECTI”“MYDI contributes to the connectivity of German French cooperation in the sector of vocational training” German Federal Ministry of Education and Research““The mentoring of Seniors for trainees who have difficulties is a great asset to our work” Chamber of Commerce Bonn, responsible Head of Training

In today’s society, high youth unemployment rates reflect difficulties faced by young people in finding a job. This problem is amplified in young people from disadvantaged backgrounds or with fewer opportunities, at risk of marginalisation, and suggests a hypothesis of change in systems of working, in relationship between generations and in training paths.The EvolYou project contributes to improve the level of key competences and skills, with particular regard to their relevance for labour market and their contribution to a cohesive society, in particular through strengthened cooperation between the world of education and training and the world of work. Specifically, it aims to intervene on the marginalisation and social exclusion phenomena, favoring active inclusion of disadvantaged young people aged 15-30 into labour market and consequently in society. This objective is achieved through a training path of participated involvement of senior expert volunteers in an intergenerational mentoring environment. The path contributes to upskill youngsters and bring them closer to work introduction systems, sharpening their soft and employability skills, so countering their conditions of fragility and disadvantage; furthermore it helps to develop the contribution of senior population to society.The starting point of the project is a good practice successfully applied in Germany for more than 10 years, the VerA initiative of the Senior Experten Service. Following the sharing of this initiative in a previous Erasmus+ KA202 project exchanging practices on voluntary work in the field of VET, some partners decided to transfer this good practice to their respective countries, but applying it to different targets of beneficiaries according to local needs. Thus the project realises the scaling up of the VerA initiative, bringing it in other EU countries where it still does not exist, to cater for the needs of young people in difficulties and to deal with differences in learning outcomes linked to social disparities, by cooperating with the responsible actors in the VET field of the respective Member States. This is done through a Strategic Partnership involving 6 countries and 9 partners active in the volunteering field.The partners develop a Didactic Experimentation, tested in 4 of the 6 countries on about 80-90 mentors and about 130 disadvantaged young people, specialising the target groups based on geographical area of belonging: in Italy, young migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, aged 18-30; in Spain, young people aged 16-20 undergoing Basic Vocational Training with special educational needs or with persistent economic problems and a low socio economic level; in France, apprentices and students in vocational education who have difficulties to follow their training and risk dropping out, aged 15-25 (most of whom with a profile very similar to NEETs); in Finland, migrants, low qualified apprentices and VET dropping out students, aged 18-30. The participant youngsters take part in the pilot test through training courses and Living Labs of mentoring in tandem, finding a mentor from the specific branch they are interested in.During 22 months of project, the partnership produces a Methodological Manual for implementing a new model of social inclusion by “redesigning the future in tandem”; the Didactic Experimentation in 4 European countries and the related curricula; and a Paper providing a series of Recommendations to influence the political discussion on volunteering, mentoring and the intergenerational cooperation at both national and European level. The project realises also a transnational mobility, with the goal to familiarize an interdisciplinary team of senior experts on intergenerational mentoring, starting from the experience of the VerA initiative.The main result of the project is the mentoring methodological model of social inclusion valid in Europe, which can favour the insertion of young people in difficulties into the world of work and can be maintained beyond the end of the project.The major expected impact involves enhancing the employability perspectives of target groups, by strengthening link among the youth field, senior volunteering and the labour market. Youngsters countering their conditions of fragility and disadvantage, by increasing their set of soft and employability skills and approaching themselves in a more conscious way the work introduction systems. In turn, senior experts strengthen their active contribution to society, making a service to themselves and to the community. In the long run, the project supports the alignment of the educational and training system to the needs of the labour market in terms of new skills for the future employees, closing the gap between education and businesses. In particular VET institutions can replicate or custom within their educational systems the new training path, adopting innovative approaches geared to social inclusion.