According to European Commission (EC), Social Enterprises (SEs) joint social or societal objective with entrepreneurial spirit and common good. An SE is an operator in the social economy and its main goal is to have a social impact. In 2011, the EC launched the Social Business Initiative (SBI) to improve access to finance, achieve more visibility and an optimised legal environment for SEs. Since then some progress has been achieved, such as the inclusion of a line of actions in support to SE as a way to create job opportunities and face poverty in 2014-2020 ESF. The final declaration of the SBI event (Strasbourg, 2014) confirmed the importance of CAPACITY BUILDING, TRAINING & EDUCATION, business start-up and development support for the SEs growth. In the same way, the EC acknowledged that appropriate support is needed to build SEs’ capabilities and capacities and that intermediary bodies and NETWORKING SUPPORT between SEs are critical. A set of obstacles identified, both at national and EU level, are the unclear legislation, poor understanding of SE concept and access to market/finance. The main problem though is focused on lack of TRAINING and INTERACTION among stakeholders from different regions/countries, as confirmed by a recent publication (DG EMPL, 2014).Despite differences, in all partner countries time for social entrepreneurship has come as a preferred route to confront high unemployment, as it is addressing important social needs with an approach that has the potential to be efficient, effective and financially sustainable. Based on the above facts, the @ESEN project aim is to become a catalyst for the rapidly growing social enterprise movement in EU providing social enterprises with the resources they need to succeed, support and grow social entrepreneurship on a national scale and serve as a voice for more sustainable social impact.The @ESEN objectives are: •Building of national and local social enterprise networks by expanding and interconnecting with existing networks •Raising awareness of social enterprise as a way to create job opportunities and face poverty with a positive social impact and promote the work of existing SEs•Curating and sharing knowledge to build capacity through a variety of offerings including the online @ESEN Knowledge Center which will provide: - CAPACITY BUILDING, TRAINING & EDUCATION services to SEs, using ICT to blend methodologies, integrate practices & overcome local boundaries- Success stories of SEs addressing important social needs with an approach that has the potential to be efficient, effective and financially sustainable. The @ESEN target group is active and potential SEs, facilitators, academics, consultants and policy makers in the field of social entrepreneurship &economy organisations looking for opportunities to interact and cooperate at EU level. The main activities that will be carried out in the context of the project, follow a logical sequence which guarantees that, at the end of the project, there will be a fully operative framework supporting sustainable Social Entrepreneurship throughout the EU. Synoptically, the following activities will be undertaken: 1. Transnational survey and analysis on successful stories and recommendations for social entrepreneurship enhancement at European level. 2. The @ESEN Programme and the @ESEN Syllabus to train support and guide active and potential social entrepreneurs in developing their social business idea.3. Creation and operation of the @ESEN eLearning platform to foster pre-incubation, acceleration and entrepreneurial facilitation through blended learning activities for a group of 100 participating the pilot training and open to all interested parties.4. Establishment of the @ESEN Knowledge Network, who will act as a body of networking of social entrepreneurs, social economy organisations, facilitators, business angels, mentors, trainers, students and every European citizen interested in social entrepreneurship and social economy. This network will be expanded to 400 members at EU level, which will continue running after the end of the project and will bring together the most appropriate actors in that topic.The long term perspective is that the @ESEN will become a reference point in social entrepreneurship in Europe, achieving the greatest adhesion from Social Economy Organisations and Social Entrepreneurs, consolidating and developing its services and offering its diverse expertise and qualified competences to public and private clients, generating social business opportunities at EU and international level.

ASK4JOB has developed a training and upskilling path for long-term unemployed adults with low or medium skills to work. The course has as its thematic focus the enhancement of digital knowledge and strengthening of cognitive skills, in order to help people use the basic technologies of the information society (IST) with a critical spirit, both in work situations and in professional and personal development. In particular, Ask4Job implements the DigComp 2.1, that is the common European reference framework for digital skills. It is a path that focuses on the first 4 proficiency levels of the digital competence, i.e. basic and intermediate, with the aim of supporting an advancement towards more advanced levels or to consolidate the entry level.The Ask4Job consists of 3 macro-activities:1. The first activity (IO1) consists of an online digital knowledge self-assessment test, the Digital Knowledge Quiz. At the end of the test, the system identifies the digital competence entry level and suggests which training modules need to be followed to enhance it. The path begins with registering on the following platform https://quiz.ask4job.eu/. The SASS (Skills' Assessment for Job Requirements) is available in all the languages of the consortium (BG, EL, EN, ES, IT, LT, PL, SW, TK). At the end of the test, consisting of 80 questions that investigate the proficiency level in the five thematic areas of DigComp 2.1, users will obtain an evaluation of their digital competences in each area, which will be useful for customizing the access to the MOOC (IO2) (Basic or Intermediate level). The questions of the course were developed on the basis of the results of research work and consultation with stakeholders (medium and long-term unemployed; entrepreneurs; institutional representatives; employment centres and vocational education and training providers) conducted in each country, with the involvement of over 200 people in the first project phase. 2. The second activity (IO 2), which stems from the first, is a distance course (MOOC). The course consists of two macro-areas: the first one is dedicated to digital skills, while the second to the enhancement of cognitive skills. With reference to the first part of the course, it will be possible to attend all the lessons (basic and intermediate level) or only those suggested by the self-assessment test. The second part, dedicated to strengthening cognitive skills, is mandatory for everyone. The Ask4Job Online Course (IO2) is a free online training course of 15 hours in total (which can be reduced based on the test results), useful for consolidating one's own digital and cognitive skills or for developing new ones. The course consists of slides with audio commentary, accessible from any device, and has been fully translated into all the languages of the partnership. The Mooc was also published on the ERIFO e-learning platform to facilitate access by Italian low-skilled adults, the first to be affected by the pandemic lockdown and therefore potentially the most affected in the piloting action (IO3)3. The third activity consisted of in-presence or virtual laboratories (IO3) (delivered remotely as a result of the Covid pandemic). Remote piloting was carried out with the support of a tutor available on the phone, via online chat or video calls. Through the laboratories, aimed at the learners’ capacitation (Capability Labs), the beneficiaries of the ASK4JOB course were able to become aware of what they are able to do and be. This awareness arises from the experimentation of how the acquired digital knowledge can be transformed into useful actions for job search and / or career development. The experience of the laboratories, created to validate the SASS and the MOOC, was then codified into guidelines for the implementation of the Capability Labs, aimed at labor market operators and adult trainers / educators. The validation of IO 1 and IO 2 within the Capability Labs involved about 200 beneficiaries and led 160 low-skilled adults to the conclusion of the path (20 people for each country involved in the piloting).The project involved a large number of users:- 200 adults with low digital skills took part in the ASK4JOB course, testing the products developed by the consortium, namely the SASS, the MOOC and the Capability Labs;- Over 260 people participated in the 9 events of the ASK4JOB project in all countries of the consortium- 186 people supported the partnership in the realization of the laboratories, sharing useful information for the realization of the project outputs- Through the Strategic mailing list, 1200 organizations of various kinds were reached (adult education centers, employment agencies, career guidance centers, companies, social partners, etc.).- Through the project's social media, over 400 users have been updated on the project's products- Through the pledge of association, 8 organizations have already joined the A4J network as associated partners

The EwasteR – “Designing and Testing new management skills for the development of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Recycling and Re-use System in Europe” is a three years Sector Skills Alliance project funded by ERASMUS + programme (2014-2020). The EwasteR project sector in the SSA framework is “Environmental technologies”.EwasteR was primarily concerned with the vocational education and training (VET) dimension of the WEEE reuse and recycling management systems.The EwasteR project developed an innovative European competency Framework - new high-quality interdisciplinary VET Curriculum and professional profile for “E- waste Reuse and Recycling Specialist”, working through the production and the waste phase of a product, increasing the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship as well as the quality and potential of employability and mobility and bringing to award new Qualifications to be transferred into NQF-RQF, becoming accessible to a broader audience. The three years EwasteR journey, undertaken through a series of nine closely related work packages, developed and established the partnership as a collaborative high performance team. The EwasteR alliance consists of four different countries (Italy, UK, Poland, and Cyprus) and thirteen organisations from different sectors as requested by the Sector Skills Alliance action. i) Public or private entities that provide VET, higher education; ii) Public or private entities that have sector specific expertise and represent or are active in a given sector (at regional, national and/or European level); iii) Public or private entities that have a regulatory function for education and training systems (at regional, national and/or European level). The EwasteR project addressed the increasingly relevance of the Electrical and electronic waste (E-waste) sector in Europe which is currently the largest growing waste stream.The main beneficiaries of the project are young aspiring workers/technicians and entrepreneurs (learners) wishing to work in the weee recycling and reuse management sector.The EwasteR Consortium has been collaborating for three years achieving a comprehensive series of inter-related results to address these issues, specifically:•Mapping of the current qualifications routes across Europe relevant to this field of UEEE/WEEE reuse and recycling and producing a final Research Report•Collaboratively designing and developing a joint professional training curriculum for “E- waste Reuse and Recycling Specialist” with a strong package of “VET” Units - combining: i) management skills area and ii) vocational skills area - tightly connected to the European Qualifications Framework (EQF Level 4) and experimenting the EU Credit system for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET) •Designing and delivering National PILOT training activities through an integrated blended approach including: career guidance, classroom, open management schools, labs shadowing and LOs assessment, and involving young and well-motivated aspiring technicians/specialists, learners, experts and VET providers.•Designing a joint Handbook including the final transparent recognition and validation process for the assessment of learning outcomes •New EwasteR Qualifications awarded at National level (Italy) and transferred into NQF-RQF and new processes for awarding and transferring (Qualification designed or part of it) started and implemented in the other Countries in compliance with each National legal-framework, increasing the employability-occupation chances in the sector across Europe.•Providing new mobility opportunities in EU for aspiring entrepreneurs in the wee recycling and reuse sector through the EYE programme•Defining a multi-actor approach to undertake a comprehensive raising awareness programme about the SSA framework, VET dimension of the WEEE recycling and reuse across EU, through robust dissemination activities