The 'Partnership for Rural Improvement and Development in Europe' - PRIDE is led by Grampus Heritage (GHT) from the UK’s Lake District, leading a 15-strong consortium of Adult Education (AE) organisations, from Government agencies to heritage blacksmiths to ancient castles, training at risk adults. Over 280 AE staff are mobilized to 15 EU+ states and most have completed a structured training course for adult educators named 'DELIVERING GREEN VILLAGE' and have received their own ECVET award backed by London based CPD Certification Service. The project 'Green Village' (GV), supported centrally by EACEA, developed ECVET aligned training courses for adults in 4 core areas - Rural Food, Rural Energy, Wood Products, Sustainable Building and 2 Transversal Areas. 'Our Sustainable Ancestors', focuses on culture, tradition and empowering communities, having elements of community art and local sustainable fashion. It currently lacks trainers to deliver it, but PRIDE addresses that. Concentrated versions of the GV units and teaching notes are built into DELIVERING GV and prepare participants to offer ‘GV / Sustainable Rural Development’ to their own staff and clients in the UK. PRIDE follows on from 18 years of international mobility and projects led by GHT, with over 50 international partners and over 100 UK network partners. The other forming factor for the consortium has been a UK HLF supported ‘Landscape Partnership’ which brought GHT into partnership with NGO’s and UK Government Agencies (now in PRIDE). We are interested in 'ECVET for Adult Trainers and Learners' and how AE organisations can use ECVET. The common linkage between the consortium members and the foundation of PRIDE, is local achievement of sustainability in the countryside, which focuses on culture and nature. The placements for AE staff are in two strands - Cultural (art to archaeology) and Environmental (nature conservation to sustainable technologies). The sustainability we seek is not just about environment but must be cultural, social and critically, it must be economic. Europe is in crisis, job losses, business failures, unemployed college diplomates, university graduates and adults; all resulting from and contributing to, economic downturn. It’s ironic that we have the raw materials and the skills to create jobs and stimulate the rural economy without compromising environmental, cultural and social sustainability in the pursuit of financial income. The problem that PRIDE addresses is that the necessary linkages, in order that skills can be passed on and contemporised are missing. Those linkages have been achieved within individual networks and organisations (8 partners were in GV) in many EU+ states but they are not being multiplied. Because of this, the products which incorporate the best of the past, but are suitable for modern life. Whether we talk of utility items, clothing, timber houses or art work, they are not enjoying the market success they deserve. In PRIDE we are concerned with AE and how certificated training for adults can more widely delivered and pick-up success stories, focus on innovative and sustainable products and processes and feed them into downstream ECVET accredited AE training. The consortium is generally not involving Universities and colleges - except a very important few (Oulu in Finland and Pamukkale in Turkey) who are successful in linking to enterprises, SME's and NGO's and can help measure ECVET points for PRIDE and further KA2 ambitions. PRIDE is about AE outside the lecture theatre, about learning by doing and linking to the world of work. AE staff traveling from the UK will see success stories and also transfer some from their own organisations and personal experience; examples in PRIDE are, in Cyprus they have some success at incorporating traditional textiles into fashion, in Germany, they build community bread ovens, in Slovakia they revitalise traditional building skills to create low carbon buildings, in Romania they develop cultural and eco-tourism, in Bulgaria sustainable rural food provides jobs and 'sense of place' for visitors, in Finland farm and forest products are entering multiple markets, including health foods, eco-housing and chemical extractives, in Iceland they lead the world in geothermal and hydro power as well as offer Norse culture and art to visitors. Some of the 16 host EU+ partners are entirely art and culture, others are work with nature, some do both, all are about sustainability. In addition to structured training courses, some of those mobilized will teach UK specialisms in archaeology and the use of landscape for adult training (Iceland and Slovenia), others will teach in teacher training units of Oulu and Pamukkale universities (Finland) to embed ‘sustainable rural development, adult education in a new breed of trainers. There will also be a work shadowing process for 3 participants who will learn long term from Romanian and Cypriot AE-focused organisations. In addition to 'DELIVERING GREEN VILLAGE' certification, placements can be recognised by 3 national UK awarding bodies + elements of Europass.

The ALITHE project brings together partners from the UK, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Germany, Cyprus and Romania with a shared experience in engaging adults in education, using the latent cultural and natural assets of the immediate area. During the last 10 years of joint working we have seen great changes in the European villages we work in 1. more young people leaving and a concentration of older people. 2. Less and less intergenerational learning. 3. Growth in eco-tourism but a much greater growth in CULTURAL TOURISM, showing us that the culture of rural areas represents an asset ripe for sustainable development. Cultural heritage becomes latent and hidden and the active engagement and inclusion of older learners within adult education activities more and more necessary. ALITHE will engage and involve older learners but with more IT savvy younger adults facilitating this, thereby encouraging intergenerational learning. The project activities and new curriculum module will celebrate the coming together of generations and empower senior and junior adult learners with new skills, self-confidence and a sense of place within our shared European history and culture. Project Objectives are: 1. Share experience between the partnership of delivering adult education within the Historic Environment (Historic Buildings, Cultural Landscapes, Museums, Archaeological Sites, Heritage Reconstructions, Historical Re-enactment…) 2. Focus on ‘learning by doing’ examples that have potential to twin older and younger adult learners together, facilitating intergenerational learning.3. Highlight the inspirational potential of providing all adults with learning opportunities in the historic environment, with a range of fully recorded examples and case-studies available online 4. Mobilise a minimum of 15 individual senior learners, twinned with 15 younger learners from within the partnership, including disadvantaged and ethnic minority groups, to participate in curriculum testing and development activities arranged by host partners (6 blended mobility of learner activities each attended by 2 learners from each partner + 1 AP). 5. Demonstrate European transferability of learning outcomes, the activities incorporate Roman and medieval themes. 6. Develop a new ECVET curriculum module to be added to Green Village training, with transferrable Learning Outcomes of relevance across the partnership. The module ‘Intergenerational Cultural Learning’ will be developed, tried and tested during the blended mobility of learners activities in a range of historic environment settings. 7. Record the blended mobility of learner actions in detail through photography, video, personal reports and participant impact and upload to dedicated, linked project websites hosted by each partner.8. Produce a professional 25 minute film (on the web through Youtube) entitled ‘Developing Cultural Assets’, which will serve as both dissemination for project achievements and as a learning resource for those delivering new curriculum. 9. Provide training for adult education staff working with adult learners in delivery of the new module through a 6-day short term joint training action in Romania. The 24 month project structure has a clear timetable and methodology to test and record learning outcomes in a variety of historic environments which lead to a staff training event to ensure that the training can be delivered effectively.The potential of historic environments as a learning resource is exciting and far reaching. ALITHE will showcase the diverse nature of education activities in a range of environments which are transferable across Europe and accessible to a broad range of adult education providers. The benefit for junior and senior adult learners (learning alongside each other) will be tested, measured and recorded to ensure that the curriculum and specified learning outcomes are relevant and valued for learners from each partner region. ALITHE is about sharing experience and best practice between a partnership with great experience but now recognizing even more the value of local cultural heritage and the critical importance of intergenerational learning. We will promote learning across generations through ACTIVE delivery of training and systematically recording the impact on learners, achievement of learning outcomes and broader impact on self-confidence, social interaction and health. It is clear that the recent COVID-19 outbreak and social-distancing restrictions have had the hardest impact on older members of the community. It is hard to predict how quickly social-distancing and self-isolation for older people will come to an end. But, it will end, and we must look to the future and ensure that opportunities are available for inclusive intergenerational learning at the earliest opportunity. It has never been more important to bring all ages of society together.

The Placements in Environmental, Archaeological and Traditional Skills project (PEATS) brought together a consortium of 11 UK VET colleges and training institutions led by Grampus Heritage and Training Ltd. The project provided 181 vocational inspiring and educational 4-week work placements with our partnership of 20 experienced European host partners in 13 countries. The project also funded 64 VET tutors to undertake 8-day staff training visits to European host partners, to learn from their training methods, share experience and form lasting mutually beneficial partnerships. 26 Accompanying persons ensured that each flow of VET learners was visited, supported and monitored to ensure safeguarding, maximum impact and realistic and comprehensive evaluation of placement outcomes was achieved. This project benefited from over 12 years of promoting environmental, archaeological and traditional skills and craft placements through the Leonardo da Vinci programme. The application and consortium combined the experience of delivering five certified LdV projects per year between 2009 and 2013 which provided European placements for a total of 1180 participants in environmental, archaeological and traditional craft skills. (mobility certificate UK/09/LLP-LdV/MC/Z007). The PEATS project further built on the successful 2014 Erasmus+ ‘PETS’ consortium project (2014-1-UK01-KA10200265). Host countries represented in the consortium were Slovakia, Romania, Germany, Cyprus, Slovenia, Iceland, Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria, Finland, Ireland and Turkey. VET participants were accredited through the Green Village Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) ECVET curriculum, developed through the EU ‘Green Village’ DOI project. The achievements of all VET participants was also recorded through the Europass mobility document. Participants were recruited from consortium colleges and students undertaking Sustainable Rural Development modules at Grampus Heritage. The ECVET accreditation assisted in parallel UK accreditation within their own courses of study in the UK (e.g through work placement modules) and through the archaeology skills passport. VET participants developed a higher degree of self confidence, put theory into practice, gained new skills, improved existing skills and competencies, gained a renewed interest in their chosen subject, achieved new language skills and completed a CV enhancing placement which will improve employment prospects and/or enable an informed progression to higher level study in the future.Participating staff benefitted from placing their own training in a wider European context. Travelling tutors not only explored new skills, methods, approaches and techniques but were also able to share their own experiences with host organisations. This gave staff access to new ideas and approaches to training which will have a positive impact on their own delivery. The objectives of the project were to: 1 Provide a period of ‘real work’ experience for beneficiaries studying environmental, archaeological and craft courses in the UK at VET level. 2. To ensure that this period of European experience is of relevance to the participant’s course of study and can be accredited as such. 3. To increase cultural awareness in beneficiaries. 4. To increase competencies in key skills being used on the placement. These include: Environmental Skills: planting, coppicing, footpath design and construction, biodiversity assessments and species identification, habitat management. Archaeological Skills: Excavation techniques, site recording (planning, photography, context sheets), surveying (levelling/total station), post excavation finds processing. Craft Skills: weaving, embroidery, silversmithing, blacksmithing, ceramics, wood carving, green wood construction, traditional building techniques (natural materials), 5. To boost the skills and employability of our primarily young participants through gaining real-work experience and laying the foundation for language skills 6. To enhance UK VET training provision for young people by providing 8-day staff placements for tutors with relevant European hosts. The project management methodology for the PETS consortium was consistent with the ten principles set out in in the European Quality Charter for Mobility. Host partners provided a minimum of four language lessons with professional tuition. All staff mobilities were recognised within an agreed CPD plan with their own organisations. Host partners also provided certification and a record of achievement in their own format as additional evidence of achievement. Detailed learning agreements were drawn up prior to placement through discussion between participants, hosts and UK colleges. These provided a realistic benchmark against which the success of the project and placements has been evaluated.

The main focus of the mobility was agricultural, forestry, horticultural and agricultural. This is the most important professions in the rural regions. The target groups were trainees and Trainer from these professions. These included farmers, home economics, foresters and gardeners. In their internship, the trainees discussed the options fore vocational training and the different conditions in the host country. They have been active in animal care, as well for sustainable ecological land and forest management in climatically complicated regions. The trainees got the chance to learn about the use of renewable natural materials fore building and fore energy generation. The distribution of products and services was part of the learning activity.The participants did learn about traditional and new methods and work techniques that are not used in there training companies. Participants with physical and mental limitations were able to achieve social cohesion by working together with trainees of other institutions. The traveling participants where persons witch got trained to achieve the capacity to train fore the vocational training. Also persons in the 3rd year of apprenticeship in forestry home economics and Farming where send. With the help of the appointed supervisor, the inclusion was successfully implemented.In the project period, the mobility of trainers could be varied and were interesting for them. On the basis of the different professional groups, the project themes were carried out within different trips fore different training subjects. The instructors came from agriculture and forestry, alternative energy supply, nutrition, home economics and social care, rural development and health care. There was a combination of different professions and subject involved in this activity’s.Sustainable forest management, ecological livestock farming, alternative energy use, food production and marketing, professional training of disabled people and integration into professional life were the main themes of project mobility. In the UK options for founding companies were explored, in Iceland alternatives for the care of disabled people and possibilities for the use of renewable energy, solutions and problems in afforestation were discussed in Ireland and Cyprus. The participants in Spain were given lessons and experiences in organic farming, the production and marketing of organic food. The options of vocational training and the options of academic education where shown. To se the structure and network connections of small tradesmen and institutions with the receiving partner organizations was very revealing. Through the visits to the educational institutions, we learned about the structures and contents of the education system. Overall, the project was successful both in terms of numbers, content and budget. We have sent in this Project 5 more Trainees then in the application. The traveling trainers in the mobility were employees of HVHS, vocational school teachers and instructors of our networks. In addition to the experience in agriculture, forestry, nutrition, health education and energy, we managed to find new partners in Ireland, Iceland, Great Britain and Spain. The cooperation with long - term partners was further strengthened and improved conditions were created to secure the financial budgets fits.The 51 mobility of the trainees was carried out only in Spain, Cyprus and Slovakia. Of these, 27 were young people with limitations, 1 youth with low chances and 3 mentors. In the UK, Ireland and Iceland, mobility was not possible due to the lack of capacity at the time of the planned travel dates of the trainees. With our partners in Slovakia, Cyprus and Spain the content defined in the project was fulfilled. Due to the preparation for the examination in the months of April, May, June and the various vocational school blocks in the federal states, the mobility possibilities of the trainees were restricted so that the planned participants were not available. To send participants with disabilities it was not possible to find trainers with was willing to travel for 30 mobility days so they travel 16 days. The result we only used 1,317 of 1,472 provided participant days. However, 5 more trainees have traveled (from 46 to 51 ).

In general, in our country Baden-Württemberg, there are sufficient means to earn a living, and good prospect for school-leavers. Nevertheless, the work-related integration of people with physical, mental and socio-emotional handicaps is still a challenging task. Indeed, the demand for qualified professionals has increased steadily over the last years, but the requirements for the applicants are often so exacting that people with handicaps could only benefit partly and were not considered enough. Industrial businesses often still manage to fill their apprenticeship places, whereas there are large gaps between the numbers of offered apprenticeship places and the numbers of applicants in the fields of handicraft trade, agriculture and in certain fields of service. As a result, many apprenticeship places remain vacant which leads to higher chances of integration for people with handicaps on the job market, particularly in the fields of household arts, building trade, agriculture and service. As part of the diaconal youth aid, our institution has set itself to support and promote the integration of handicapped people to the regular employment market and enable those people a participation in working life where we are specialized in working with youths with autism spectrum disorder and youths with mental and emotional disability. With our ERASMUS-project, we want to motivate apprentices in the field of rehabilitation and participants of vocational preparation through a stay abroad, and, moreover, we want to open up new professional perspectives. A large part of our participants is heavily handicapped and under 18 years of age. Usually, the company of a caretaker is absolutely necessary. With these stays, we plan to mediate practical and theoretical knowledge in the field of household arts, building trade, agriculture and service, and to strengthen crucial social key competences which are essential for a work-related integration. Furthermore, we want to prepare our student educators for the work with handicapped people in an extensive way and impart basic knowledge and techniques in these professional fields, so that they can support our youths in care with work-related integration in an ideal way. The stays abroad offer our educators an outstanding opportunity to acquaint themselves with methods which have proved to be successful at our project partners. For an adequate support, it is also necessary that training and development actively work with concepts to teach apprentices and employees skills in the fields of handicraft and service which can be used practically by handicapped people. For our instructors, the project shall be a possibility to acquaint themselves with concepts of the partner institution in the professional field of education. In this manner, new impulse for suitable forms of apprenticeships shall be elaborated and implemented. The project is also after opportunities and solutions for the issue of effective recruitment in service occupation, and asks how an inclusion of people with handicaps into factories and work life is possible in general. There are many interesting and different approaches among partners which ensure a worthwhile visit for instructors and apprentices. Moreover, general issues of work-related inclusion in partner countries are similar to the issues in Germany, so that a mutual transfer of knowledge could be useful for both sides. One purpose of the project is therefore to examine whether the offered education-modules in partner countries can be carried over into education in Germany. The involved instructors and apprentices shall be confident and emboldened to apply and share the knowledge which they acquired through the cooperation with partners. “Education-networks” of the administrative districts of Tuttlingen and Rottweil take part at the project. The shown modules of apprenticeship by our partners in ECVET are the results of the TOI project Green Village. Another result of the project will be the expansion of contacts to domestic and foreign cooperation partners. Hence, there is a development of the consolidation of the cooperation, and a spread of the acquired training schemes.