On February 2, 2023, the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) and the European Commission will organise an online information day to discuss the Forward-Looking Projects 2023 program. The initiative’s goal is to explore, develop, test, and evaluate innovative (policy) ideas with the potential to become mainstream and enhance education and training systems.

The Forward-Looking Projects 2023 have been divided into three lots: 

• Digital education; 
• Vocational Education and Training;
• Adult learning;

Each lot has its own set of goals, and proposals must meet at least one of them. The entire budget allocated for the activity is €35,000,000.

Let’s take a closer look at these 3 areas!

Digital Education

EU’s Digital Education Action Plan aims to support high quality and inclusive digital education, focusing on three priorities: 

• education technology; 
• effective pedagogical approaches for primary and secondary education;
• teacher training to tackle disinformation and promote digital literacy.

Vocational Education and Training (VET) 

The VET plan aims to implement the principles and objectives of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, the European Skills Agenda and Council Recommendation on vocational education and training for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience. Proposals under this lot should address two priorities: 

1. micro-credentials for employability;
2. partnerships and networks to improve the attractiveness of VET;

Adult Learning

The Adult Learning lot is responsible for putting into action the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, the European Skills Agenda, and the Council Recommendation on Upskilling Pathways: New Opportunities for Adults. Proposals submitted under this lot should seek to achieve one of two goals: 

• building national registers of quality-assured and relevant training options;
• supporting the Pact for Skills programme;

Conclusion

For further information on the 2023 Erasmus+ Forward-Looking Projects, please see the 2023 Erasmus+ Programme Guide, which is available in all official EU languages at the link given. More information is also available on the Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal. 

Discover more about the 2023 Erasmus+ Forward-Looking Projects at an interactive online event organised by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) and the European Commission on February 2nd, 2023 from 2:00 PM to 5:45 PM CET.

Read also:

Publish Your Volunteering Projects For Free

EWP Stats Portal: New Service to Assist Higher Education Institutions

L'articolo Forward-Looking Projects 2023: Innovative Approaches to Education and Training proviene da Youth Networks.

The budget will increase from approximately €89,6 billion to approximately €106,8 billion – around 19% more than the amount proposed by the Commission.

The proposal of the Employment Committee

At the beginning of last December the Employment Committee voted a proposal to increase the budget in order to strengthen the ESF+. It passed with 38 vote to 3 and the Parliament voted exactly the evisaged measures.

The main issue to tackle regards the young people currently not in employment, education or training (NEET). It was decided that at least 15% of the ESF+ shall go to the countries with a percentage of NEET above the european average or at least of 15% – the European Commission set the bar at 10% of the Fund. Moreover, at least 5% of the available budget shall go to the implementation of the European Child Guarantee (for which it has been also introduced a specific allocation of EUR 5.9 billion).

The management of the budget is partly shared between the European Commission and the member states. The Commission proposed that this should be 25% out of the total, while the Committee made it increase up to 27%. What is left to the Commission to manage (for EUR 1,1 mio, out of a total of EUR 106, 781) are the two strands of employment and social innovaton, on one side, and health, on the other.

For more details, check the Multiannual Finance Framework 2021-27.

L'articolo More investments for young people: MEPs voted for strengthening of EU Social Fund proviene da Youth Networks.

The international seminar will explore the role of youth work in supporting young people’s access to social rights. Furthermore, it will foster peer-exchange on the approaches and frameworks of cooperation between local authorities and youth workers, in order to promote social inclusion for young people. The seminar will bring together up to 50 youth workers, youth specialists and representatives of local and regional authorities who will meet and exchange practices related to the promotion and implementation of the two Council of Europe Committee of Ministers’ Recommendations ( Enter! and Youth work Rec)

The seminar will be held in Kazan, Russian Federation from 9-12 October 2018, and will gather youth work practitioners and local authorities in a 50-50 model. Please share this information with the youth workers, youth organisations or local authorities that you work with and who could contribute with their experiences in working on social inclusion with young people.

Objectives of the seminar:

1. To develop an understanding of Council of Europe standards and tools of youth policy, youth work and youth participation for interventions aiming to combat discrimination and social exclusion at local and regional levels;
2. To consolidate experiences and good practices of youth work and youth policy on access to social rights in the Russian Federation and other states parties to the European Cultural Convention;
3. To identify and explore challenges in working with the Enter! and Youth Work Recommendations and devise future plans for their implementation;
4. To identify good practices and youth work approaches which support the social inclusion of young people and their access to social rights;
5. To support and strengthen the networking and cooperation between different stakeholders and partners interested in the implementation of the Enter! and Youth work Recommendations.

Detailed information and online application forms

L'articolo International seminar: From Policy to Practice proviene da Youth Networks.

Building on developments in the region, the activity aims to make a contribution to strengthening youth work in the region, by analysing its state of play and identifying the support needed from youth work policy, and in turn will consider the crucial role that youth work can play in supporting youth policy at different levels.

The seminar objectives are:

• to strengthen the knowledge about youth work in South East Europe;
• to explore current challenges and needs that youth work as a field has in SEE and how youth policy can respond to them, at different levels, through frameworks, capacity building, and support tools;
• to enhance synergies between different relevant actors in the region for the development of the youth work sector;
• to analyse the crucial role that youth work can play in supporting youth policy at different levels.

The event will gather up to 50 participants, representing the triangle of youth work practice, policy and research.

Background information

Increasing knowledge and supporting the development of youth work and youth policy in SEE has been for several years one of the objectives of the EU-CoE youth partnership. In this framework, the EU-CoE youth partnership organised in 2016 the peer-learning seminar ‘Getting Across’, which brought together 55 participants involved in youth policy and youth work, particularly in the Western Balkans. The event reaffirmed the role of youth work in supporting young people in exclusion situations and generated guidelines for increasing the quality and impact of cross-sectoral youth policies and youth services.

From 2017 onwards, EU-CoE youth partnership has carried out a research project on the educational paths of youth workers, which aims to collect data and analyse the formal and non-formal education paths and career steps of youth workers, as contribution to the quality development in the youth work field.

Moreover, youth work is today very prominent in the priorities and processes of the Council of Europe and of the European Commission.

Slovenia, furthermore, has established, over the years, a strong youth sector and a well-developed cooperation within South-East Europe in different policy areas affecting youth, while its Office for Youth has been fond of deepening regional cooperation in the field of youth, contributing to the implementation of the Council of Europe Recommendation on youth work.

L'articolo Peer-learning seminar on youth work and youth policies proviene da Youth Networks.

If you are between 25 and 35 years, have networking skills and are interested to foster your expertise in regional development, cultural cooperation and sustainable tourism, please refer to the  Call for young professionnals

Objectives
(1) Increase the visibility of the four EU macro-regions (Adriatic-Ionian Region, Alpine, Baltic Sea and Danube Region) as well as the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe Programme through the involvement of young professionals;
(2) Disseminate information and knowledge on cultural cooperation, regional development and sustainable tourism in the 4 EU macro-regions;
(3)Develop a platform for the exchange of information on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), start-up businesses, as well as innovative and creative industries in the field of Cultural Routes;
(4) Stimulate the peer-to-peer exchange among young people working in the 4 EU macro-regions on regional development and on cultural tourism.

Structure
The network will be managed by its members under the supervision of Routes4U. Among the network members 4 young professionals
(1/EU macro-region) will take the responsibility as coordinators for their respective EU macro-region; the role of President will be rotating among the 4 coordinators. The mandate of coordinators will be of 2 years; the mandate of president will be of 6 months. The activities of the network will be developed by the members and coordinated by the President and the coordinators.

In line with the objective of the Routes4U Project to “enhance the participation of networks and association, involve local stakeholders and encourage bottom up processes” and to put a “special attention to young people and women entrepreneurship”, we are looking for young professionals to create a network (refer as “Routes4Youth network”) on regional development through the Cultural Routes in the Adriatic-Ionian, Alpine, Baltic Sea and Danube Region.

The young professionals will be in charge of carrying out a variety of tasks, such as:
* Creation of a macroregional network of professionals including a mentoring programme with senior professionals;
* Development of an action plan to increase the visibility of young professionals in the four EU macro-regions;
* Dissemination of information on regional development and cultural cooperation in the four EU macro-regions;
* Strengthening of professional knowledge and expertise through trainings and courses on the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe programme.

Eligibility Criteria
Professional experience: A minimum of 2 years working experience in at least one of the following field of expertise (internships can be counted as professional experience):
-Economic development;
-Regional development;
-Sustainable tourism;
-Cultural cooperation;
-Cultural tourism;
-Cultural heritage;
-Any other related field to Cultural Routes in the four EU macro-regions.

Academic Background: A Master’s Degree in Social Science, Humanities, Science, Management or other related fields OR about to attain the Master’ Degree (planned by March 2019); or a Bachelor’s Degree and at least 2 years of professional experience.

Nationality: Of one country of the EU macro-regions.
-Adriatic-Ionian Region: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.
-Alpine Region: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia and Switzerland.
-Baltic Sea Region: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.
-Danube Region: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Ukraine, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Romania.

Age:Minimum 25 years and maximum 35 years when joining the network.

Languages skills: Proven fluency in English (written and spoken)

If you are interested in applying, please fill in before the 30th of September 2018 the online form
Note: You will berequested to attach a CV to the form.

More information about the Routes4U Project

L'articolo Routes4Youth network – Call for young professionals proviene da Youth Networks.

The Europe 2020 strategy, adopted by the European Council in June 2010, is the European Union’s agenda for jobs and growth for the current decade. As a main objective, the strategy strives to deliver high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion in the Member States, while reducing the impact on the natural environment. To reach this objective, the EU has adopted targets to be reached by 2020 in five areas: employment, research & development (R&D), climate change & energy, education and poverty reduction.
These have been translated into national targets in order to reflect the situation and possibilities of each Member State to contribute to the common goal. A set of nine headline indicators and additional sub-indicators, compiled by Eurostat, give an overview of how close the EU is to its overall targets.

Today Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, issues the 2018 edition of the publication “Smarter, greener, more inclusive?”, which provides information on past trends and latest statistics useful to monitor the progress towards the targets of the Europe 2020 strategy.

A complete picture of trends in the Europe 2020 headline indicators

The analysis in the Eurostat publication is based on the Europe 2020 headline indicators used to monitor progress towards the strategy’s targets. Other indicators focusing on specific subgroups of society or on complementary issues are used to deepen the analysis and present a broader picture.

The publication aims to shed light on the trends in the headline indicators over the past years and helps understand the factors behind the changes observed so far. Since 2008, substantial progress has been made in the area of climate change and energy through the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years, the positive trend has however slowed down. In the area of education, the EU is within reaching distance of both headline targets. The most recent developments in R&D investment and poverty alleviation are less promising, while the EU’s employment target can be reached if the growth recorded over the past few years continues.

For more information
Eurostat website section dedicated to the Europe 2020 strategy.
Eurostat scoreboard on Europe 2020 headline indicators.
Eurostat publication “Smarter, greener, more inclusive? – Indicators to support the Europe 2020 strategy” (2018 edition).

L'articolo How is the European Union progressing towards its Europe 2020 targets? proviene da Youth Networks.

The situation of young refugees in European societies is an important topic for human rights, democracy, living together in diversity and social cohesion. Among different sectors working for and with young refugees, youth work offers a diversity of spaces and initiatives for young refugees to become a full part of their communities and to have a voice in all matters that concern them.

This publication offers practical tools for youth work on the inclusion and participation of young refugees at local level. It focuses on youth participation and inclusion as key dimensions to build inclusive societies and, at the same time, to create an enabling environment for young refugees to be fully fledged actors of their personal and community development. It tackles the following themes: intercultural learning; access to social rights; young women refugees; youth participation and mental health and trauma.

About STEP-by-STEP

The Guide encompasses a variety of experiences and practices of youth work, including from the so-called transit and host countries, as well as working with unaccompanied minors, young asylum seekers and refugees. Step-by-Step will not tackle in an exhaustive way the different realities of young refugees across Europe. Instead it gives a general overview of the main challenges and possible practices in the youth work field with these young people who are refugees. In addition, it chooses to focus on the young person rather than the profile of the country, meaning that it is important to consider the context, needs and aspirations of that young person and, if we are working with young people “on the move”, it is also important to be able to define the best way to work with them. The authors are aware that realities change depending on whether young people are in transition, on the move or if they have reached their final destination.

The publication is addressed to:
► youth workers and other professionals and volunteers working directly with young refugees;
► policy makers who co-operate with the youth sector at the local level, so they can develop programmes to support youth work further or types of funding for youth organisations working with young refugees.

This publication has two chapters.
■The first chapter, “Youth work and young refugees”, puts the emphasis on the role of youth work in the inclusion and participation of young refugees in Europe, highlighting its added value and, at the same time, underlining the main challenges and needs of the youth sector.
■ The second chapter, “Support, tips, examples and possibilities for youth work with young refugees”, offers tips and good practices on the specified themes, while reflecting on the specific challenges and contributions of the youth field in each one of them.
■ At the end of the publication, suggestions for further learning on youth work and young refugees are included.

This publication was developed by the partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth, on the basis of three seminars and workshops held in 2016 and 2017 and a collection of good practices of youth work with young refugees. The practices were collected between May and July 2017, through the online survey “Youth Work and Young Refugees in Europe: Speak about Your Initiative!”, and we have included in this publication those practices that provided sufficient information about their youth work with young refugees.

Read it here.

L'articolo Step-by-step together – a guide for NGOs working with young refugees proviene da Youth Networks.

The course included basic information, so it could be of particular interest to those starting off in the field of youth. This course was open and free for anyone interested. It doesn’t have specific requirements, except for intermediate English skills.

Course Date: Oct 8 – Nov 18, 2018
Duration: 6 weeks
Commitment: 4 hrs/week
Course Type: Instructor-led
Credential: Certificate (free)

Objectives
By the end of the course, learners will:
* Understand the “basics” of youth policy (concepts and definitions, scope, objectives, actors, European and national levels).
* Become aware of the relevance of the key elements for youth policy (cross-sectoral, knowledge-based, participation, inclusion, youth work).
* Understand how to build a framework for youth policy (identifying key issues, priority areas and themes).
* Understand the major steps for youth policy development, implementation and delivery, and evaluation.
* Reflect on the future of youth policy and their future engagement in youth policy.
* Gain motivation and information about different ways of getting involved in youth policy.

Target Audience:

Our course is open and free for anyone interested. We encourage in particular youth policy makers from different levels, youth workers and youth leaders, youth NGOs and youth researchers to join the course.

MOOC’s structure

Module 1: Introduction
* It included basic user orientation on the Canvas platform
* Introduced participants to the structure, objectives, methodology of the course
* Included a short self-assessment questionnaire that users fill in to assess their prior knowledge on youth policy

Module 2: Youth policy essentials
* It included information about the main concepts and definitions of youth policy, actors and roles, history, objectives of youth policy
* It included information about the link between the transnational and the national level of youth policy

Module 3: Key elements of youth policy
* It included information about the main elements needed for youth policy to develop
* It included 4 sections with theory and examples on : cross-sectoral co-operation in the field of youth policy, evidence base for youth policy, social inclusion of young people, youth participation and youth policy

Module 4: How to build a youth policy framework
* It included information about practical mechanisms to develop a youth policy strategy

Module 5: Implementation of youth policy
* It included information about the delivery of youth policy, as well as monitoring and evaluation of youth policy

Module 6: Future of youth policy and course closing
* It included information on recent developments, opportunities and future trends in youth policy in Europe
* It included the evaluation of the course by participants.

Course is offered by partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth.

EU-CoE youth partnership

The partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth is meant to create synergies between the commitments and activities of the two partner institutions in the youth field in situations and on issues that justify a common European approach.
Youth policy is an important focus of the work of the EU-CoE youth partnership.

MOOC team
Laimonas Ragauskas – Instructor
Mara Georgescu – Instructor
Sandra Roe – Instructor
Ron Salaj – Instructor

Enroll here

L'articolo Enroll for a 6 weeks MOOC with Essentials of Youth Policy proviene da Youth Networks.