This project aims to develop, design and validate the newly-emerging occupational profile of the ‘Job Broker’ in Europe.The project identifies the new contexts (both in terms of current European labour market conditions and in the administration and management of Public Employment Services) that are impacting upon, and therefore changing, the traditional roles of employment counsellor or job matching services – with corresponding challenges for how this occupational profile is to be developed, trained for and accredited across Europe.The project therefore sets out a work programme and a series of deliverables (‘intellectual outputs’) that will meet this challenge.It builds on a previous Leonardo ‘small scale partnership’ which undertook some initial research and exchange of information, to explore the extent to which this new role is emerging in the countries that took part in the project. Some of those partners are continuing into this full Erasmus+ proposal, given the relevance of the project – but we are also seeking new partners with specific stakeholding in the field of public employment services.The project will look at the emerging role of the Job Broker – in particular in the context of the new ‘payment by results’ agenda which is becoming increasingly common in the world of learning and skills and particularly employability training. Following a base line study into the existence of the Job Broker role across a number of EU partners, this project will seek to indentify a set of key competencies which will then be tracked across to the EQF and NQF standards to identify if there is any scope for the development of a competency based framework. The project will also aim to develop a number of needs analysis ‘models’ and ‘tools’ which the successful Job Broker can incorporate into their work with employers and employees to ensure successful sustained employment outcomes.

"The ""MOBILE APPS FOR VET"" project is an innovative initiative that combines powerful training activities with best practices in technology in the different EU countries in the consortium, to develop and enhance a successful experiment carried out in sector of the Andalusian Social Economy. Through training and education of Employment prescribers (those who advise, assist, inform, accompany VET students who are being planted to create their own company or Young entrepreneurs) is aimed to facilitate the use of mobile apps among citizenship and new SMEs, contributing to the “Europe2020” goals and its “Digital Agenda for Europe” (DAE) Initiative. Context/background of project The project idea is based on an ICT initiative developed and piloted in Malaga and Seville (Spain), which demonstrated how small business services in the tourism sector could benefit through the use of an “App” specifically designed by Fundacion Innoves for businesses in the tourism sector to promote their services to visitors (tourists). Innoves identified that business advisers/mentors were in the best position to train small businesses/owner managers in the use of mobile apps and persuade them to embrace this type of technologies. The project address the VII Pillar of the DAE: “ICT-enabled benefits for EU society” belonging to the “Europe 2020 Strategy”, that aims to reboot Europe's economy and help Europe's citizens and businesses to get the most out of digital technologies. At the same time, contribute to the Strategic framework “Education & Training 2020” (ET2020) aligned to its objective of “Enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training”, training business mentors and VET teachers with a variety of digital skills. Objectives of the project The project main aim is to develop an educational program for business advisers/mentors to qualify them to pilot future trainings, which focuses on maximising the economic benefits that mobile applications on smartphones bring to young entrepreneurs, self employed and SMEs/small/micro businesses, in terms of speed, access to volumes of information and the commercialization of products and services, as more and more people and businesses are purchasing products and services via mobile devices (41% of 108 milllion users in Europe, according to ITU, 2013). Number and profile of participants The Partnership brings together 7 organizations with a wealth of expertise on ICT skills mobile technologies, learning and VET, enterprise development and business support. Fundacion Innoves, the lead partner and originators of the Toolkit, working together with Rinova (UK), EAES (ES), Editc (CY), Laval Mayenne Technopole (FR), MateraHub (IT) and RDA (SK) Description of activities The project will carry out the following activities: 1. Research & comparative analysis of mobile technologies & the app- training in the partner countries 2. Define the competences standards and training required by the VET ICT Trainer/Business Mentors, leading to the development of an occupational profile. 3. Curriculum development of a training programme for VET ICT trainers. 4. Delivery (Pilot/Testing) of Training the Trainers Programme. 5. Exploring the accreditation of the competency framework. Adjustment to the curriculum programme and competency framework and align it to NQFs and EQF. 6. Delivery of Dissemination Plan, including key events, project website + dissemination tools (leaflet/e-zine) Methodology to be used in carrying out the project It is scheduled to celebrate 6 transnational meetings, so it is expected to organize a transnational meeting at least every 6 months. They will have an operational sense, and will try to boost the project and perform any tasks that require the presence of all partners in face to face. Similarly, they will play a strategic role, by reviewing the project objectives, goals, achievements and potential deviations, etc., so they will count with the presence both Managers and technicians of the participating organizations. A short description of the results and impact envisaged The materials will accompany a new competency framework, which will draw from national VET systems and align to the EQF. The organizations that are part of the consortium will improve their training offer with the new technologies, creating an innovative branch in a new genre that still have a long way forward. Finally, at least 15 business support advisers/coaches will participate in a pilot phase. Therefore, there will be a group of business mentors trained in new technologies, which aims to keep running once the project is completed. (The potential longer term benefits) The “MOBILE APPS FOR VET” partnership will continue after the Erasmus Plus funding ends. All partners will be working on this project and similar initiatives to support business mentors in different regions and sectors"

Crafts act as an important buffer in economic downturns and play a central role in providing VET on the job, both highly relevant for the transition from education to employment and to ensure a qualified workforce. In the last two decades, some traditional Crafts have declined due to mass production and rising consumerism. Others have evolved, embracing the digital age, particularly in marketing their products and engaging with new clients, collaborators and audiences. Furthermore, the traditional distance between craft sectors and ICT technologies is disappearing. The new generation of high tech digital tools and cutting edge machinery, like 3D printers, is transforming and leading the applied arts and craft sectors to a new digital age. To lead this transformation Europe needs to count with skilled handicraft teachers and trainers, equipped with the necessary competencies and resources to integrate these digital tools into innovative ICT based teaching and learning practices. VET teachers and trainers in craft sectors are usually handicraft professionals with expertise in their respective areas, and teaching in VET craft courses is frequently a secondary occupation. In many EU countries, initial teaching education is not compulsory for these VET teachers and trainers or some minimum training is required. They tend to acquire their teaching competencies through their teaching practice or through some continuous VET courses on train the trainers, usually not adapted to the specific needs of teaching crafts. The situation with regard to the training on ICT-based teaching skills is even worst, due to this lack of training opportunities and because many traditional Crafts do not use ICT and, as a result, neither handicraft teachers and trainers use ICT for teaching VET. The consequence is a lack of innovative ICT-based teaching practices in traditional handicraft VET, losing all the potential benefits of using ICT in education. The aim of this project has been to support the professional development of handicraft teachers and trainers in Europe in their transition to the digital age by improving their teaching competencies on innovative VET education through ICT based methods and tools. The project has prepared handicraft teachers and trainers to adapt also their teaching practice to the next generation of high tech digital tools and cutting edge machinery, like 3D printers, vinyl cutters or laser cutting and engraving. To this purpose, an alliance of Craft sectors organizations and VET experts and providers from 7 countries (Greece, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and United Kingdom) have worked together to lead the project and co-create and test the following innovative methods and freely accessible OER: - A European ECVET Curriculum (IO1) on ICT skills for teaching Crafts. - Training Modules (IO2) on ICT based teaching methods specifically adapted for Crafts. - An innovative Mobile Instructional Learning APPs (IO3) designed to train handicraft trainers and teacher to use and design their own Mobile Learning APPs (IO5) for teaching Crafts. - A Multilingual e-learning platform (IO4), with innovative e-Learning courses and OER on ICT-based teaching methods for Crafts. - A Guide for validation, certification & accreditation (IO6) of innovative teaching learning methods through ICT in VET for craft sectors in Europe. Handicraft teachers and trainers are the main target users of the project products and final beneficiaries are craftsman students, learners and apprentices. During the life time of CRAFTS 3.0 project, the partnership have directly involved 99 handicraft teachers and trainers (32 partners staff / 42 experts involved / 25 target users in pilots), 125 I-VET and C-VET craftsman students, learners and apprentices (in pilots) and 500 stakeholders. A wider audience of more than 1000 recipients has been reached at local, regional, national and European level through all the partnes dissemination activities. The project applies European frameworks and instruments, like EQF, ECVET, EQAVET, Europass and EPALE, to promote and boost transparency and recognition of competences and qualifications, transnational mobility and the transferability of the project outputs to other Craft and VET organizations at local, regional, national and European level, with the support and active cooperation of a network of key associated partners and relevant stakeholders involved during the project. CRAFTS 3.0 supports the professional development of handicraft teachers and trainers in order to improve their teaching competencies in innovative education through ICT. The project has proved to have a direct impact in the improvement of the ICT skills of handicraft teachers and trainers. The long term impact envisaged is a strengthening of the VET system and programmes to fully exploit the potential benefits of ICT to support the transition of handicraft teachers and trainers to the Digital Age in Europe.

BIGTIME TAKEOVER is aimed at empowering young people to use their creativity and the potential of technology in positive ways that give them a voice in issues that affect their lives. It is based on applying the concept of a digital site “takeover” - where the users of a communications site monopolise that site to curate and promote their own message and creative content. It will use the Takeover model as a basis for engaging young people in devising their own Creative Action Projects – ie: projects that deploy and develop imaginative creative skills to create positive social change and to benefit the wider community. In the context of high levels of youth unemployment and predicted to rise dramatically in the wake of the COVID-19 virus, such projects, enabled and facilitated by professional Youth Arts Educators, offer young people a route to develop creative solutions to issues that affect their lives, engage productively with stakeholders in their communities, develop active citizenship and deepen political, social and civic participation.BIGTIME TAKEOVER will harness the capacities of evolving new digital technologies as a tool for transnational transfer and exchange of these models led by the young people themselves. Starting with projects aimed at making a positive change in their environment at a local level, it will incorporate increasing stages of transnational collaboration as young people gain confidence in taking over the power to direct their own expression, which will give them an edge as they prepare to enter a competitive labour market or progress into education and training.The project partnership consists of 6 youth arts providers in 5 European countries: Italy, UK, Cyprus, Poland and North Macedonia. Five have extensive experience and history of collaborating together on Erasmus Plus. The sixth partner from North Macedonia is a long established Youth Arts Cultural Centre with extensive experience of European and international artistic collaborations but new to Erasmus Plus, and therefore the project facilitates an important knowledge transfer element. The project targets young people at risk of social and cultural exclusion including refugees and migrants. It also addresses the needs of Creative Arts Educators, who play a key role in fostering young people’s creative skills acknowledging the impact of this crisis on Youth Arts Mentors by incorporating a module addressing wellbeing and mindfulness.The project will create the following results from the Intellectual Outputs:IO1: Youth Arts Educators Toolkit to enhance the transferability of Creative Arts Actions that foster young people’s empowerment and civic participation. The target users are Youth Arts Educators who support young people who face barriers of exclusion and disadvantage to develop confidence and motivation through creative expression.IO2: A Youth Powerpack designed and co-created by young people as a mechanism through which learning is transferred and expressed from local Creative Arts Projects in each country. IO3: The BigTime Takeover Digital Platform an online vehicle for young people’s transnational collaboration and a showcase for the BigTime Takeover, through which creative content generated by the project will be publicly shared and available, and which will continue as a legacy of the project, disseminating the Arts Actions and as a platform for future collaborations. All these results will be hosted on a new transnational online communications platform, through which all the learning resources and creative content generated by the project will be publicly shared and available.The project will generate the following additional results in terms of participation:- 100 young people participate directly in local Creative Action Projects;- 36 young people participate in BigTime Takeover;- 12 young people and 6 youth arts mentors attend 5 day transnational blended mobility event;- 5,000 visitors use the digital communication tools, platforms and social media;- 150 attenders at 6 Multiplier Events in 5 partner countries;- 10 Youth Arts Mentors participate in transnational peer-to-peer mentoring and achieve accreditation of their competences at EQF Level 4;- At least 60 % of young people participating will be female, addressing gender disparity in the field of digital technology.The combined results will create a package of digitally accessible learning resources, which can be used in formal and non-formal youth arts and education settings and will be widely disseminated through social media, supporting young people to find their creative voice, make new connections and collaborate with different stakeholders across national boundaries to make a difference to issues that affect their lives.

Global labour markets are changing at an ever-increasing pace, with new demands being made in terms of 21st Century Skills (OECD, 2018), new skills for new jobs (Europe2020), digitisation and automation. People who are unqualified, or who have lower qualification levels and those that are unskilled (whether unemployed or working in unskilled and low-skilled occupations) face the greatest risks from these changes, in terms of precarious employment, insecure and unhealthy working conditions and frequent periods of unemployment. This in turn results in embedded poverty and social exclusion in society. Access to lifelong learning, in work-progression and C-VET (continuous vocational and educational training) can offer a way out of unemployment and unskilled employment. However access to appropriate opportunities and pathways to break out of these circumstances is significantly dependent upon the availability of knowledgeable, relevant and effective vocational guidance. In many contexts in Europe. Guidance practitioners themselves are operating in a changing European labour market, in which the ability to understand and anticipate skills and modern work requirements is vital to being able to effectively support un- and low-skilled and un-and low-qualified people. Furthermore, Guidance practitioners themselves require new forms of C-VET and occupational development, new methods and techniques required to ensure that as their profession itself changes, their service is current, relevant, accessible and effective for those who are in real danger of being left ever-further behind. EMPLOYMENT PLUS addressed this challenge by focusing on guidance practitioners who are a crucial link between low- and unqualified job-seekers and the labour market. Often, guidance practitioners work in institutions whose guidance offers are not specifically designed for low- skilled and unqualified persons and do not specifically address their needs. They often use methods developed for higher educated clients or for unemployed people in general, focussing more on job-seeking and on job matching than equipping their clients with resilience, vocational orientation and on participation in C-VET. The overall aim of EMPLOYMENT PLUS was to support the adaptation and integration of guidance services in Europe, ensuring that they are modernised and relevant, highlighting and removing high-threshold barriers for effective interventions with those that are low and unskilled and those that have no or low levels of qualifications. A vital part of EEP was contributing to a consistent European criteria of success for guidance practice addressing labour market participants that are un- and low skilled and unqualified. The definition of European guidelines for guidance practitioners dealing with this target group as well as guidance methods, in the form of learning activities, which were developed by the project partners forming the EEP curriculum and facilitators guide (IO3 and 4). Thus, EMPLOYMENT PLUS achieved its objectives by designing, testing and adopting new learning interventions for vocational guidance practitioners, specifically: - developing new guidance methods - testing and establishing good practices and success criteria for relevant vocational guidance services - producing occupational guidance for professional guidance practice - creating ready-to-use methods for guidance practitioners, supported by a multilingual, universally accessible online database and a digital skills check tool - a newly designed set of learning modules and curriculum programme, supported by e-learning resources The work programme included: (1) defining common quality assurance criteria through evaluating international good practice that evidences effectiveness in reaching and helping the target group (2) designing and testing new learning strategies and creating structured guidance for guidance practitioners to work effectively with the target group of low and unqualified job-seekers (3) the development of 60 new guidance methods for group and single settings that will enhance progression for those that are low- skilled and unqualified EMPLOYMENT PLUS created a work-based learning solution directly relevant to the CPD needs of guidance practitioners, through peer and action learning design, supported by open source digital learning materials available and accessible 24/7. It will equip vocational guidance practitioners to enhance the employability of low- and unqualified and low and un-skilled labour market participants by - enhancing the participants motivation to participate in C-VET and in-work progression - strengthening learning technique skills. - improving their career development and progression skills (potential analysis skills, labour market information skills, validation of formally and informally-acquired competencies)