Population ageing in Europe will continue with accelerating pace in the next decades. This trend requires societal adaptations regarding education and training, work, family life and social protection. One such adaption is intergenerational learning (IGL), which brings people from different generations together, to share activities, learn and understand each other better. Together Old and Young Project or TOY (www.toyproject.net) (2012-2014) was unique amongst European IGL projects with its focus on including children in the early childhood years (0-10 years) in IGL activities with older adults (65 +). TOY research and pilot actions demonstrated that intergenerational facilitators are crucial to the success of intergenerational projects and initiatives. However, to date IGL involving the youngest and oldest members of our society is not a strategy or approach or formally recognized and validated in adult education, nor in pre-service and continuing professional development (CPD) of professionals working with these age groups. Neither is this kind of IGL recognized in the field of Lifelong Learning. The objectives of the TOY-PLUS project are to develop, test and disseminate an innovative online curriculum and methodology in IG work for practitioners in early childhood education and care (ECEC), social care and community work. Specific modules in the curriculum will focus on including newly arrived and resident migrants and Roma in IG practice, as a means of fostering intercultural dialogue, participation and social inclusion. We also will develop and test an IG certificate of quality (TOY Quality Stamp) with agreed standards for local authorities and educational institutions. TOY-PLUS will forge a cross-sectoral and a community approach stimulating collaborations across the fields of adult education and training, health, community development, ECEC and care for older people.Participants in TOY-PLUS will be ECEC and Social Care practitioners and community development workers from 5 countries: Italy, Ireland, Slovenia, Spain and the UK. They will participate in a multi-faceted training and education experience which will incorporate workshops, international training involving study visits, joint reflection and exchange of good practice in IGL, piloting of a massive open online course (MOOC) and creating a peer learning community for IGL. At the end of the project the TOY-PLUS MOOC will be publicly available on open online learning platforms. Other participants in TOY-PLUS will be staff of local authorities and ECEC, and Social Care services, young children (0-10 years) and older adults (65 years +) all of whom will participate in the development and testing of a TOY Quality Stamp. The TOY Quality Stamp will be awarded to local authorities and service providers meeting the quality standards in IGL. The impact of TOY-PLUS will be that ECEC and Social Care practitioners will develop skills and competences to deliver successful IGL activities involving young children and older adults, paying particular attention to social integration and intercultural dialogue. IGL will be a powerful tool to foster inclusion of migrant and Roma children and older adults. The TOY-PLUS MOOC, designed to reach hundreds of practitioners internationally from 2018, will result in increased skills to develop, manage, deliver and monitor IGL practices Europe- and even world-wide. The TOY Quality Stamp process combined with the TOY-PLUS training will result in improved quality of IGL practice. Finally, researchers and trainers in partner organisations will become experts in designing and implementing accessible and flexible training curricula for practitioners in IGL. They will also be competent in developing content for digitalization in massive open online courses. We also expect synergies and cooperation between the partner organisations with respect to cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary adult online education in general, and in IGL in particular.

The project, whose geographical coverage will be North-West Italy (3 regions : Piemonte Liguria and Valle d’Aosta) aims at roviiding and upgrading a specific framework service for supporting SMEs in the innovation management capacity . The service, delivered through provision of 96 individual companies’ service packages, will be directed to SMEs with international growth potential via product, process service and or business model innovation- with gaps regarding innovation management. In particular, the action will focus on the following specific objectives: 1. Fine tuning of a Key Account Management based customised service provision directed to: a. SMEs /Scale ups international growth, including participation to European programs b. SMEs Innovation capacity enhancement and innovation projects implementation, job creation and new market access c. SMEs Innovation results exploitation 4. Integration of the service within local business innovation support delivered, EEN specific service official embedding within the regional innovation ecosystem 5. Advisory skill enhancement: ALPS EEN personnel, assisting the experts in this Action, will increase expertise and competences, providing high level advisory on innovation management 6. Upgrading a EU shared support methodology for EEN staff, which could be adopted for profitably supporting other local SMEs 7. Contribution to the enhancement of a visible and well identified Coach/EEN experts community at EU level 8. Updating the operational internal manual/chart for a harmonized service within the EEN ALPS Consortium and contribution to definition of a common EEN operational manual

The project, whose geographical coverage will be North-West Italy (3 regions : Piemonte Liguria and Valle d’Aosta) aims at providing and upgrading a specific framework service for supporting SMEs in the innovation management capacity . The service will be directed to SMEs with international growth potential via product, process service and or business model innovation- with gaps regarding innovation management. In particular, the action will focus on the following specific objectives: 1. Fine tuning of a Key Account Management based customised service provision directed to: a. SMEs /Scale ups international growth, including participation to European programs b. SMEs Innovation capacity enhancement and innovation projects implementation, job creation and new market access c. SMEs Innovation results exploitation 4. Integration of the service within local business innovation support delivered, EEN specific service official embedding within the regional innovation ecosystem 5. Advisory skill enhancement: ALPS EEN personnel, assisting the experts in this Action, will increase expertise and competences, providing high level advisory on innovation management 6. Upgrading a EU shared support methodology for EEN staff, which could be adopted for profitably supporting other local SMEs 7. Contribution to the enhancement of a visible and well identified Coach/EEN experts community at EU level 8. Updating the operational internal manual/chart for a harmonized service within the EEN ALPS Consortium and contribution to definition of a common EEN operational manual

A major policy and social challenge in the European Union is the ageing of the population, and the need to ensure quality Long Term Care for the increasing numbers of dependent and older citizens. Failure to promote technical innovation to support the millions of people in this situation in Europe will have severe impacts on quality of life and level of care provided to the elderly, disabled and chronic patients, social inclusion employment and economic competitiveness. As people are getting older and the need for long term care is increasing ICT exploitation and provision of personal development adult education (i.e. soft skills such as emotional intelligence, empathy) of employees are seen as possible solutions to this kind of dilemmas. Also, the development of basic skills in specific diseases (such as chronic diseases and mental health care) is crucial for a more equitable integration of the informal caregivers in the market. In the same line it seems that incorporating the potential of ICT skills (online management, etc) in this rapidly growing sector could boost substantially employment and services in this sector. In parallel, social (soft) skills in the social and health industry are increasingly being recognized as valuable skills that are necessary for nursing professionals to possess. They need communication and leadership skills so as to have a better understanding of their roles and responsibilities once they become licensed to practice. It is widely accepted by patients' organizations that these skills provision is absent on both VET and Tertiary Education level and this constitutes a challenge for quality of services and caregivers employability. This gap in skills provided in the education was the starting point of the consortium interest in order to share experience and best practices and develop practical tools for caregivers, patients and VET organizations.The underlying assumption was that ICT can be, and is, a cost-effective way to improve the quality of care provided to dependent people, to ease the burden on informal caregivers, improve the quality of life of both groups (homecarers and services recipients) and enhance skills and competence status of vulnerable populations involved in caregiving (i.e. migrants, low skilled women) as well as family relatives. Moreover, soft and ICT skills, being major transversal skills, are essential for the professionalization of the qualified caregivers and integration of vulnerable employees or/unemployed and can be crucial for a fast-changing labor market as they improve informal caregivers' learning experiences, transversal competences and employability.The I-CARE project’s main objectives were to address these challenges by developing a multifaceted methodology that aimed to improve quality of life both of carers and services recipients. In particular, the I-CARE project involved a broad spectrum of higher education institutions, VET organizations, patient associations and social cooperatives in four (4) countries in order to develop, implement and evaluate a learning-training methodology of adult education for both formal and informal caregivers. The project undertook and successfully completed all necessary activities so as to identify current practices in respect of ICT, social and basic skills of caregivers, investigate, analyze and map educational needs and skills gaps, collect and elaborate best practices among participating countries so as to develop specially designed courses, tools and mobility schemes (i.e. MOOC, self assessment tools, training mobility courses), tools that entailed the exchange of knowledge and skills for the mutual benefit of the parties involved.A Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) in 4 languages (English, Italian, French and Greek) on basic (healthcare), ICT and soft skills was developed and two (2) joint mobility 5-day sessions training activities took place effectively so as for a snowball effect in the partners and supporting organizations to be produced. The training content was written in 4 languages (English, French, Italian and Greek) taking into account criteria such caregivers’ educational level and socio-cultural background and patients’/service recipients’ perspective regarding their caregivers’ training needs and gaps. During the project’s life cycle and even after its completion, all project results and outputs were effectively disseminated through different channels of communication (portal, events, social media, ad-hoc meetings etc) and levels of governance (VET organisations, Universities, health care services providers, supporting and patient associations etc).

The project, whose geographical coverage will be North-West Italy (3 regions : Piemonte Liguria and Valle d’Aosta) aims at providing and upgrading a specific framework service for supporting SMEs in the innovation management capacity . The service will be directed to SMEs with international growth potential via product, process service and or business model innovation- with gaps regarding innovation management. In particular, the action will focus on the following specific objectives: 1. Fine tuning of a Key Account Management based customised service provision directed to: a. SMEs /Scale ups international growth, including participation to European programs b. SMEs Innovation capacity enhancement and innovation projects implementation, job creation and new market access c. SMEs Innovation results exploitation 4. Integration of the service within local business innovation support delivered, EEN specific service official embedding within the regional innovation ecosystem 5. Advisory skill enhancement: ALPS EEN personnel, assisting the experts in this Action, will increase expertise and competences, providing high level advisory on innovation management 6. Upgrading a EU shared support methodology for EEN staff, which could be adopted for profitably supporting other local SMEs 7. Contribution to the enhancement of a visible and well identified Coach/EEN experts community at EU level 8. Updating the operational internal manual/chart for a harmonized service within the EEN ALPS Consortium and contribution to definition of a common EEN operational manual