"The mobility of young people to vocational training and personal and social development has been a strong focus of the actors of Torres Vedras.The Town Hall, the Escola de Serviços e Comércio do Oeste, the Escola Profissional Agrícola Fernando Barros Leal, the Externato Penafirme and Seminfor have promoted and participated in Leonardo da Vinci and Comenius projects. Over the years, they maintained a dialogue that allowed joints to forward candidates, disseminate projects and share information and reflections.Considering this background, the Erasmus + was the push that was needed to formalize this network, increase the collective capacity to participate and enhance the impact and integration of mobility in the territory.Despite the continuity, there are changes, hence the Mills image choice, which all have history, roots and past of Torres Vedras, but also the future development and sustainability.The MISSION is ""Training for Innovation"".The Objectives set for the project were:1 | TRAINING AND EMPLOYABILITY - To improve young people's access to the labor market through vocational training and specialized in EU2 | EUROPE ALL / A - Create professional exchanges and flows, cultural, social and citizens to encourage membership and integration of the participants and the region in Europe3 | TRAINING NETWORKS - Consolidating existing sectoral network through enablers projects and bridges creators4 | HUMAN POTENTIAL - contribute to the sustainable and integrated development of the region, enabling HR, bringing new tools, methodologies and best practicesThe project involved 30 students, 21 graduates and 9 level 4 finalists, from 18 to 30, mainly from the West zone and generally medium-low socioeconomic level. Mobilities lasted 14 weeks and sectors found themselves divided according to their representation in destinations and network quality assurance partners.Professional design sectors were: Management, Marketing, Agricultural Production (crop production, animal production), Forestry and Environmental Resources, Restoration (Kitchen / Confectionery; Restaurant / Bar), Tourism, Tourism Aambiental and Rural and Renewable Energy (Solar Systems) .THEMES AND NEEDS that was intended to respond to this project were:# Improve personal and professional skills of participants# Employability as a priority of post-diploma of the House-Schools network support# Mobility as a strategy for improving vocational training and the recovery# The need to promote mobility and cosmopolitanism among young people# Facilitate the initiative and business innovation# Encourage a greater, exchange and intercultural dialogue at European levelThe implemented ACTIVITY divided by: project management, trust management, dissemination, selection, preparation, mobility, project evaluation and mobility, continuous dissemination and product and final event.With these, the following impacts are assured:** PARTICIPANTS: Strengthening of personal and intercultural skills and technical and professional skills; Increase the employability of young people trained in vedras towers; Increase the number of young ""absorbed"" by the companies in the region; More young people to sustainable life plans; Increased participation in cultural life, healthier lifestyle.** CONSORTIUM: Creation and consolidation of new methods and ways of working together; Improve the training offer of the schools; Multiplication of intervention capacity; Consolidation of European networks; Increased future capacity of sustainability and follow-up; Training for international work** INTEREMDIARY PARTNERS: Training for international work; Extending its network of contacts and work; Knowledge of new educational strategies and territorial intervention** RECEPTION PARTNERS: Contact with new ways of doing, seeing and thinking about reality and to approach the work; Enlargement of the network of contacts; New potential partnerships and / or access to new markets** School Community: Awareness of the importance of solid training paths in creating opportunities; Student motivation to study; Opening horizons and expectations of life and work; Creating spaces for reflection and debate on Europe; Team Update on methods and forms of educational work and industry** General Population: Increase of contacts and international partnerships; Increased interest in mobility and LLLParticipants were the starting point and the central axis of this project, and only then may be because they are the people who make countries and regions, are the people that make competitive economies and are the people, especially and young people, of whom fall the consequences of our present choices and all our hopes of a more prosperous, cohesive and sustainable future"

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.

Three of the 11 European Youth Goals as developed in the 6th cycle of the EU Youth Dialogue are: Inclusive Societies, Mental Health and Wellbeing and Quality Learning. They are in the core of this project as we believe that the mental health and wellbeing of the individuals will lead to the wellbeing of society as a whole. Also, working on social inclusion through involving and innovative methodology will create more motivated learners and teachers and therefore more quality learning.Being inspired by these principles, we have decided to work on a project based on a methodology of learning through and about empathy. Our students will face real-life actual cases, which they will elaborate into short films/videos by first writing a script, then directing, performing and filming. These case-study videos will end with questions for discussion and invite to action. They will be publicly available on the project website and YouTube channel. All 4 countries address a different topic connected with empathy. They have been chosen based on the schools’ expertise and curriculum and each LTT meeting will be centred around one of them:1)Empathy and Social Media 2) Empathy and Leadership3) Empathy: Nature and climate 4) Empathy and cultural diversity in Europe.The objectives are1.Students to increase empathy or raise awareness of the need to empathise with others as a key motivating factor for active participation in society; build social and communication skills and creativity; improve foreign language skills as a tool for communication in Europe; increase the level of digital competence; increase motivation for learning; raise awareness about environmental and climate change challenges, leading to changed behaviour in consumption habits and lifestyle.2.Teachers to explore, share, and get familiar with strategies for teaching informed empathy; motivate teachers and improve their competence through exploring innovative teaching methods; acquire innovative approaches for language teaching; get familiar with innovative use of ICT in teaching and learning empathy; explore innovative ways to address social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity.3.To develop case-study videos as free teaching resources and describe the methodology to use them in 4 lesson plans for the 4 LTT meeting topics. Also, the methodology of the whole project will be publicly available on the project website, which will contain all study materials used throughout the 2 years of the project, like worksheets, tutorial videos or presentations. Number and profile of participantsAbout 200 students aged 15-18 are (in-)directly involved. Of those, about 24 students of each school will travel abroad to a partner school and about 100 students will provide their help and efforts for the goal of the project. Also, about 20 teachers will work on the project activities, guide the students and share their experiences.Activities and methodologyBefore the exchanges1)Students discuss (a) statement(s) connected with the topic, taking into account the experience in their country, and document their responses using a digital tool, which they learn to use in a workshop 2)Students fill in a survey to assess their current awareness of the topicDuring the exchanges1) The students receive an introduction to the topic by an expert and have a study visit, workshop or other activities which help increase their awareness and promote informed empathy2) In heterogeneous groups, the students explore real life actual cases, write a script and produce a video which opens discussion and invites to actionAfter the exchanges1)Students fill in a second survey to assess how their awareness has shifted 2)Students share their work at their schools The concrete result will be 1)A website containing a description of the 4 topics with activities, methodology and learning materials 2) A YouTube channel with the videos produced by the students during the LTTs 3) 4 lesson plans, based on the 4 topics, describing how to use the videos produced by the students.Impact and benefitsWe focus on a connection with real life without obviously persuading the learners to actually solve the problems at the moment. This makes them feel safe, but also creates mindsets and understanding of oneself, others, nature and society, making them in the longer terms more caring, proactive and inclusive EU citizens. The work on the topic of empathy and in connection with the subtopics of each country will develop qualities in the students such as better communication skills, multicultural cooperation, care for nature and the environment, empathy in all spheres of everyday life.The public character of the project and the free availability and spreading of its results in the educational community through the results will provide the methodological tools and materials for the colleagues across the whole EU and will help them deal with the major problem of modern demands in education.

Localized in 3 different geographical and cultural contexts, 3 schools (from the Netherlands, Portugal, Bulgaria), have realized over the last decade the fundamental benefit of European cooperation for their students, teachers and the schools as such.The experience of working together on a specific project, not only in virtual space but also actually meeting each other, has proven an essential step in creating European awareness and fostering a sense of European identity and citizenship among students and teachers which could not have been achieved otherwise.Aware of the fundamental need to continue to provide this opportunity to a significant number of our students, the 3 schools feel the need to exchange, experiment and document innovative pedagogical practices in the context of multicultural learning.The fundamental objectives of our project is to implement the concept of personalized learning with an international group of upper secondary students and to create OERs. Over 2 years, 40 students and their teachers from each school will cooperate with their partners, virtually and during project meetings, conducting comparative research related to the themes of the project: 'food' for the students and 'personalized learning' for the teachers. The theme of food has been chosen as it it is linked to the Millennium Development Goals of the EU, it permits a multidisciplinary approach (relating the research to the local curriculum), permitting par excellence the study of European and global interrelatedness and also because, valorising cultural identity and diversity in Europe, it is a motivating theme for the students. Each year, a project visits in the three schools will bring together students and teachers from all participating schools for a week of intensive work. Before these project meetings, teachers are introduced to the concept of personalized learning and prepare the project activities in each school. Students and their families are selected and prepared intensively.Project activities during the project visits comprise lessons related to the theme (ex: Science, Economy, Geography, Language, History, Arts), study visits (ex: greenhouses, farms, plant-production firm, fishing harbour, large supermarket, regional food distribution centre/market, museum…), contact with persons related to food production / distribution. All of these activities follow the concept of personalized learning and will contribute to the comparative research of the students and help them to answer the research questions they will define together, in the beginning.This research results in OERs created by the students and by the teachers, which will be publicly accessible.A further result will be the diaries written by the students which will help the teachers to assess the progress and success of the strategy adopted (personalized learning) and to evaluate, document and share their experience with the use of this concept in an international group.The main impact expected on the participating students is the acquisition of research and communication skills in an international group and a significant rising of their European awareness. Moreover, they learn that they can actively intervene in issues of public interest (like what we eat), thus making an experience of intervenient European citizenship. The impact is increased through the recognition/validation of the learning outcomes through Europass.Other students in all 3 schools will profit from this experience as the participants will share it, in formal and informal settings, motivating and encouraging their colleagues.The teachers who participate in the project meetings will learn how the concept of personalized learning works and how they can guide students in this type of learning; they will also learn to develop OERs, both by themselves and their students. We expect this experience to have strong impact on their own normal lessons and, through sharing with the colleagues of their departments, also on a larger group of teachers in each school.For the schools as such, the most valuable impact of the project consists in bringing the European dimension to the school and the school community in a constructive and positive sense at a moment when large parts of the population have become disinterested in the EU.The project’s potential longer term benefit consists, therefore, in the formation of active young citizens with a European awareness. The experience of applying personalized learning to European student exchanges and its evaluation will be of long-term benefit to the three schools. Sharing our experience with others in our region and with other European schools to whom each school is related, we hope to encourage a wider use of this innovative approach.

The four schools involved in this project are located in different geographical, social and cultural contexts, but they were inspired to work together by 1) an article of the European Commission pointing out the need to help young people, through inspiring education, to discover and use their talents, 2) the increasing split in many European societies between more globally oriented and more nationalistic groups, and 3) the urgent need to ensure young people acquire active citizenship skills.The project has- focussed on such local/regional/national issues that are strongly linked to the broader European community- involved developing a methodology called European Challenge-Based Learning (ECBL), which inspired our students to work together on real-world challenges and acquire such 21st-century skills as problem solving, critical thinking, information literacy, as well as using a multi-angular approach to investigate the issues in question and to formulate out-of-the box solutions. CBL is related to Problem-Based Learning, but we have included steps that are directly linked to European cooperation, working in mixed, intercultural groups of young people and to such local/regional/national challenges that are relevant for the whole Europe.This will help the participants to experience concretely that problems can be seen as challenges which can be solved, not by ignoring them, nor by simplistic slogans, hate speech or by isolating oneself from the others, but rather through common reflection, discussion, and collaborative effort enriched by multi-angular, European perspectives.Our main objectives in relation to the EU and Erasmus+ priorities were:- To develop and reinforce a network among our schools, and to increase the capacity of our schools to cooperate and learn from and with each other- To foster social commitment and entrepreneurial spirit in young people- To encourage our students to learn in a practical and analytical way, as well as to develop their capacity to think out of the box and adapt to constantly changing circumstances while providing multi-angular solutions- To foster social integration and to enhance intercultural understanding and a sense of belonging to a community.Over two years, more than 100 students and their teachers cooperated with their partners, both virtually and during LTT activities, in conducting research related to four challenges. Many others have been involved and benefitted from the results.Each of the LTT activities involving student mobility focused on one of the four challenges. These challenges were linked, on the one hand, to the local school and the local curriculum, and, on the other hand, to the EU priorities and the reality in other European countries, thus allowing a multi-angular approach. The four challenges are the following:1. Sweden: Political involvement of young people2. Portugal: How can we contribute to the integration of immigrants?3. The Netherlands: How to make the city of Roermond attractive for young people in order for themto stay in their province in the south of the Netherlands?4. Finland: Reducing the use of plasticThe methodology, CBL, includes a set of steps, among them:- Before the LTT activity: preliminary research in the four countries about the challenge; teachers contacting organisations, companies, local politics, experts etc. in order to provide the students with a list of contacts that facilitate investigation;- During the LTT activity: in mixed groups, students describe the situation and identify the underlying challenge(s); supported by a coach, they gather more information by contacting relevant persons and/or organizations; they reflect on and discuss the information obtained; based on multi-angular approaches, each group defines a possible solution and presents it in a multi-media way to a larger audience.- Students document their learning experience in a Learning Log.By the end of the project, students have created products such as vlogs, films and digital posters to present the results of their research and their out-of-the-box solutions. The teachers have optimised the CBL methodology, which can be used in schools and in international projects. All this has been published on a website which young people and teachers can access anywhere and which will complement local and regional dissemination of the experience and the results.The project has been evaluated regularly so that necessary adaptations could be made in time.