Context and background:Developing international activities in VET requires new initiatives to global mobility. Bridge the Ocean (BTO) project meets these needs. The mobility between European and Canadian VET colleges is still very rare. We want to prepare our students for global labour market. We look forward to future Erasmus programme 2021-2027 and develop our services accordingly, since there is a growing interest among students for mobility overseas. Besides, the New International Education Strategy launched in Canada in 2019 promotes international collaboration. Developing internationalisation strategy is one of the Finnish national priorities in 2020. The project meets priority by developing the structures and practises of mobility and by establishing a network to support the internationalisation of VET. Besides, we will build the partnership with partner countries, i.e. Canada. The activities include validation and recognition of learning outcomes as well as encouraging students with special needs to participate. Objectives: - to understand the global perspective in VET- to strengthen the international aspect in the strategy of partner organisations- to create a structure for reciprocal mobility and further cooperation between European and Canadian VET colleges - to build a network of VET colleges to support the international collaboration- to promote the validation and recognition of nonformal and informal learning- to create study modules in three professional sectors: Hospitality, Construction and Entrepreneurship- to prepare a toolkit with practical information to help other VET providers to start overseas mobilityParticipants:Teachers and other staff members of the participating VET colleges from Finland, The Netherlands, Denmark and Canada. Students will participate in the LTT-activities. The management of the VET colleges. Managers play an important role in supporting the strategy and providing resources for collaboration. As a secondary target group, we intend to reach other VET providers and future students by dissemination activities. Description of activities and the methodology used: We will organize five transnational meetings to monitor and evaluate the progress, to work on the products and to ensure dissemination and sustainability of the results. Besides, we will organize three multiplier events as dissemination workshops.LTT-activities play an important role in the project, since we aim to pilot the study modules during LTT-activities in Finland and in Denmark. Our products i.e. intellectual outputs are1.Model for international collaboration as a part of strategies of VET providers2. Hospitality in International working environment study module in Finland3.Green construction study module in Denmark4.Entrepreneurship study module in Canada5.Canada-Europe VET mobility -toolkit including practical advice to carry out overseas mobilityWe will have a hands-on approach in the BTO. The model and toolkit are based on the previous experiences of participating organisations as well as small surveys on the background information. The modules will be designed together with the partners and after piloting and feedback from the students, they will be developed further. The expected impact and long-term benefits:Bridge the Ocean will have an impact on the individual participants through developed professional skills especially in global context. The participating organisations can incorporate the global aspect to the strategies of the organisation. In addition, they will get more skilled and competent staff in the field of internationalisation. There will be more visibility for global issues in internationalisation of VET. For Canadian community colleges the project will have an impact as promoting mobility with European VET providers. We expect that we can reach a wide group of VET colleges through our networks and our dissemination activities. In VET colleges the topic is quite new, and we believe that our project will have a positive impact by sharing the best practises of overseas collaboration and preparing VET colleges for a new Erasmus programme. We will provide a practical toolkit for VET providers to enhance the collaboration. The products will be available for wider use after the project.

Objectives: Net-Working for Quality Culture and Assurance aims to design, develop and implement a model of Interagency working which focuses on Quality Culture and Quality Assurance across the VET journey. Eight partners from across six programme countries will adapt and develop the Net-Working for Quality Assurance model (developed in a previous Leonardo da Vinci TOI project - LLP/LdV/TOI/2012/IRL-502) so as to ensure its relevance across a wider VET journey (defined as including some/all of the following stages: decision to access VET, through employment services, through a guidance process, initial referral into VET, VET provision, transition to employment/ higher education, up-skilling in the workplace). Context/needs addressed: The previous NQA project identified that quality tends to exist within services/provision but can be significantly reduced during transition points in a clients VET journey. The Interagency approach aims to strengthen the links between stakeholders particularly in relation to shared goals and trust, and develop a culture of quality which will be aspired to by a range of stakeholders representing various stages of the VET journey. Previously, NQA sought to influence the long term achievement of Bruges (2010) which advocates the progression of individual citizens through the creation and delivery of quality assured VET initiatives 'Given the role of VET in European Societies and economies, it is crucial to ensure the sustainability and excellence of vocational education and training' (Bruges Communique, 2010). However, NQA found that quality VET journeys involve many stakeholders and many stages and that the quality of this journey particularly for those most disadvantaged required a continuum of quality assurance underpinned or enabled by quality cultures. Quality assurance within VET provision is not sufficient, but requires the VET sector to cooperate with a range stakeholders from employment services, to employers and that 'a transparency and a common approach to quality assurance in VET' (Bruges, 2010) should be a longer term objective. NQCA seeks to do just this. NQCA will research VET journeys, identify VET case studies, research QA/quality culture/Interagency working and develop an NQCA model. It will further develop NQA as a quality label, design and test Master training and NQCA training, implement 91 interagency meetings , 6 transnational meetings and 7multiplier events. It will take a serious approach to Policy-Practice gaps, create a space for this dialogue and design a Toolkit for Policy Makers to support sustainability and recognition. NQCA will demonstrate the value created through use of a Social Impact Evaluation and disseminate widely the learning achieved. The partners will utilise a Implementation science methodology (IO3).Target Groups: Learners (particulraly those disadvantaged in Education/Labour market), stakeholders involved in the VET journey (including employers), National stakeholders with a Quality agenda, European wide QA. Core partnership: 8 organisations representing 6 countries (Ireland, UK (Northern Irealnd and England), Finland, Germany, Hungary and Italy) and includes community based employment support services, learning/skills/entrepreneurial consortium, a Chamber of commerce, a large VET school, a national VET organisation, an EU wide social inclusion/labour market/and policy focused consortium, a large city based employment support service focused on employment & labour market policy, education policy and lifelong learning.Main results: NQCA model, NQA quality label, Implemented and tested pilot of interagency working (7 locations), Toolkit for Policy makers, Master training & NQCA training, Social Impact Evaluation.Impact: -Learner impact: quality will underpin their entire VET journey, placing the learner at the centre of VET provision. -Particiapting organisations: development of interagency working and quality culture, enabling bottom up approaches to QA, creating geographical areas recognised by the NQA quality label-National organisations: improve channels of communications between the bottom up approach & the top down policy approach, to lessen the gap between policy and practice, and enable quality culture to exist within the full quality cycle. -The NQA evaluation identified that many partners/stakeholders were not aware of the need for a forum to discuss quality assurance and VET. NQCA aims to have this type of wide scale impact though the creation of such fora and interagency networks in order to support organisations to work on/understand quality in VET. NQCA seeks to have long term enduring impact on partners & stakeholders as it will affect values, beliefs and behaviours and is a model which is transferable to many situations, contexts and other sectors. Improved cooperation between stakeholders will lead to improved quality across the VET journey, ultimately impacting on the low skilled and the unemployed.

"This project ""Discovering new beauty treatments abroad"" brought together two vocational high schools, one French, the vocational high school Saint Joseph l'Amandier, and the other Finnish, the school TAI in Turku, around a common training course, beauty care, and a partnership for school exchanges. Initially planned for the two school years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, these exchanges were finally carried out only during the school year 2021-2022 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, the French pupils involved in this project were in vocational first year in 2019-2020 and therefore in vocational third year in 2021-2022. For the Finnish pupils, it was different because the pupils involved in 2019-2020 were not involved in 2021-2022. It was therefore new pupils who participated in the exchanges.Despite this, the objectives and priorities of the project have remained the same. These are : to include the pupil in a European citizenship programme from the moment he/she enters secondary school through different subject areas and to promote his/her professional integration by improving his/her language skills. The objectives set were achieved thanks to the implementation of the various project activities. Only the planned timetable was disrupted, but the good relationship between the schools allowed for a good adaptation.The participating organisations are two vocational high schools : with approximately 400 students enrolled each year, the Saint Joseph l'Amandier vocational high school offers several courses : hotel and restaurant management, sommellerie, bakery and pastry-making, and beauty care. It prepares students for the French CAP qualification (NVQ equivalent) and an A Vocational Baccalaureate (A level) in all these fields. Since 2004, European mobility has been offered to students in the final year of the A Vocational Baccalaureate. Thus, each year, about fifty students go abroad for their professional training. This desire to open up to Europe has led to the signing of a partnership with the Turku Vocational Institute. This is a very important vocational school in Turku and in Finland. It offers 26 different vocational qualifications to 4,000 students and 6,000 adult learners and offers European and international mobility to around 100 students each year. The project thus brings together two professional establishments around the same training: beauty care.Various activities were implemented as part of this project. The two main ones were exchanges of groups of pupils. During one week in October 2021, the French pupils were able to discover the TAI establishment, its beauty care training and the Finnish culture. And during one week in January 2022, the Finnish students discovered the French beauty care and the culture of the country. It was a very fruitful exchange even if the pandemic and the school calendar of the year 2021-2022 of the vocational third year students did not allow to optimize it. However, following the first exchange in October 2021, educational activities were set up in November-December, such as feedback on the chocolate and mud wraps done in Finland.The results of this project were generally achieved. Following the two exchanges, a self-evaluation highlighted the success of the partnership. Indeed, a large majority of the pupils said that the project had increased their sense of European citizenship and given them the desire to travel and work abroad. In addition, these pupils improved their professional and linguistic skills, which increased their motivation for the rest of their schooling up to the vocational third year. For some students, this partnership has helped to prevent them from dropping out of school, a theme addressed in this project. Another result achieved was the influence of this project within the school. Even if the pandemic has frozen European mobility during the 2020-2021 school year, the ErasmusDays organised in 2020 and 2021 within the school have highlighted this partnership and have accentuated the European openness of the school's students.The impacts - benefits identified are, on the one hand, an increase in the number of students who wish to continue their studies in BTS, post A level Vocational Training Certificate, with the possibility of an internship abroad. On the other hand, this project has led to an increase in the number of European mobilities of students in beauty care training for the 2022-2023 school year, especially since new internship locations have been created thanks to this partnership. Finally, an increase in the number of students in the European section was identified during the last pre-registrations."

When we submitted SUDEGO we had reflected that there hadn’t been enough debating about sustainable development so far, neither in the society. On a strategy of global sustainability, this topic plays a critical role and will be of great support in the future for the next generations. Towards the same direction have moved both the 2015 UN program, with its 17 goals to be targeted within 2030 -endorsed by the European Commission with an official directive on 22/11/2016- and the EU document COM(2011) 571 Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe document, dealing with the creation of a sustainable European economy within 2050.We were confident that the world of education would be the right place to engage this debate and the final results have proved us right. The teachers, as well as the great receptiveness and enthusiasm of their students have been the right targets and beneficiaries of our project. They are the ones that can better spread this crucial information and promote best practices among their families and communities. SUDEGO has provided them with a innovative tool kit to create basic and advanced knowledge and effective skills about five out of the 17 goals of 2030 Agenda: Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being; Goal 5: Gender Equality; Goal 7: Affordable Energy; Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production; Goal 15: Life on Land.The work was completed in 2 years by a partnership of 7 qualified organizations from 5 different countries (3 IT, BG, SP, FI, UK); all with great experience in either the education sector and productive or social field.In line with the priority Relevant and High-Quality Skills and Competences, SUDEGO has provided a set of consistent information and a program of didactic modules for teachers of ISCED2 and ISCED3, intended to help them and their students create a different point of view and a positive vision towards 2030 Agenda. The project was organized in 4 different intellectual goals aimed at creating innovative materials and supported by different side activities to implement the smooth and effective project coordination (management, quality control, communication, dissemination & sustainability). The final results are available for free on the project’s web site and platform:1) a report on the state of the art and best practices;2) 5 ISCED2 level school didactic modules3) 5 ISCED3 level school didactic modules4) the SUDEGO e-book that sums up the project’s action and highlights its results. It’s made up by: guidelines, evidences, best practices, test analysis and the trend updates of the 5 goals in EU-28.The methodology for the didactic modules was a tiered structure: 1) the core of the lesson, made up of slides, videos, multimedia and interactive materials; 2) the lesson book, i.e. a teacher manual with the plan of the lesson, further information on the presentation materials, teaching strategies, references; 3) an end-of-the-module multiple choice test with answer feedbacks.The project was monitored by a Quality Control System to which all of the partners contributed; the assessing activity was focused on the results and was organized on a peer review basis and supported by the partners’ general consensus.Thanks to the 5 meetings hosted in each of the countries and the positive climate that the staff was able to create, the project was supported by the absolute coordination among the partners. Not any friction, nor argue was ever reported, but a positive cooperation and fruitful internal and external communication; a massive action of dissemination was pursued by means of different channels (web pages, social networks, newsletters, contact and decision makers mailing lists, 5 multiplier events).We noticed, with great satisfaction, that the information and suggestions that we shared suddenly returned a positive feedback: the large attendance during the events, the social actions taken by the schools, the first positive results (i.e. the aluminum bottle to reduce the use of disposable plastic bottles). Actually, thanks to the project, we eventually answered to the Goal 4 request “Quality Education”; as a matter of fact, UNESCO is convinced that only education can provide the so-called necessary core “Competencies for Sustainable Development”. According to this, although not funded, all the partners decided to run test activities and assessment procedures for the didactic modules, in their own country and on a volunteer basis.It’s been estimated that about 3,500 people - mainly target groups, stakeholders and beneficiaries - have been directly targeted by the project and had the opportunity to test the SUDEGO materials. The partners have agreed to the creation of a sustainability agreement that will guarantee the project’s products to remain available on platform for at least three years, along with a supporting program. They will also keep up with the dissemination program, as well as being testimonials to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda principles.

Young people are often encouraged to develop the technical skills needed to enter the labour market, but competencies on how to conduct themselves in the workplace, as well as create opportunities for employment mobility for themselves can be neglected, despite disadvantaged young people having few opportunities to be exposed to these key skills. The YEC project aimed to help young & youth worker professionals identify key gaps in employability competences & address these through youth worker led training modules. The objectives of the project were to: Increase the employability of young people Increase the validation of young people’s employability competences Increase the engagement of young people and employers in competency tool development Increase the focus on young people’s employability among young people and their practitionersThe partnership was drawn together to create a diverse range of partners who have an evidenced commitment to youth engagement, upskilling & training of youth workers/practitioners & young people along with validation of these skills, as well as sharing and promotion of best practice in the area of youth work and employment.The project set out to:•Develop and pilot a methodology which creates a space for dialogue between young people, employers and the project partnership when developing project tools. •Create a suite of employability competences training modules for young people, with focus on the personal, social & learning to learn competency from the Council of The European Union. •Create a train the trainer course with specific focus on youth workers & guidance practitioners engaging with young people who are seeking employment•Create a guide for youth workers and practitioners to map the modules from the train the trainer course, or any employability skills training, onto current validation systems under ET 2020. The final products developed by the YEC Project through 4 Intellectual Outputs:IO1 – Youth & Employer Advisory Boards – The partnership created a Methodological Guide which includes case studies of the YEC experiences of advisory board participation. This can be used as a “how to” guide for external organisations who which to develop and run their own youth or stakeholder participation schemes, resulting in more organisations having information to include young people in programme development. IO2 – Employability Competences Training Moules – a full suite of Training Modules, which are dynamic in nature and practitioners can utilize either in totality or pick selected modules according to the groups or young person needs has been developed. The modules can be used in either a classroom or online setting and have been piloted with young people in Ireland, Italy, Finland and Poland, increasing their employability. These modules also enhance the skills of youth workers and practitioners who partake in delivering them. IO2 is available in English, Finnish, German, Italian and Polish. IO3 – Employability Competences Train the Trainer Course – A Train the trainer programme including a training compendium, tool development documents and module session plans, so that anyone delivering the modules has access to step by step guidelines on how to do so. This will also result in a sustainable rolling out of the YEC tools post project due to master trainers within the partnership committed to providing training to youth workers who request it and meet the competency criteria set out. IO3 is available in English, Finnish, German, Italian and Polish. IO4 – Competence Validation Guide – The YEC tools have been mapped onto European & National frameworks where they are applicable, resulting in any young person who partakes in the training course having validated skills after completion. This guide will also promote the use of validation methods within the field of youth work and increase the use of these scales among partner organisations and anyone who chooses to download the guide. IO4 is available in English, Finnish, German, Italian and Polish. A clear dissemination strategy is in place to share our tools with youth practitioners and young people across all partner countries and more widely at European level. All final products along with a number of videos showcasing the work of the project were produced and are available on the project website www.yecproject.eu The partners had 5 transnational meetings to collaborate on the development of the above outputs. The tools were all piloted in each partner country before they were finalised. The advisory boards were responsible for reviewing each IO before they signed it off as being complete. Evaluations of the effectiveness of the advisory boards were carried out internally and also by an external evaluator whose role was to draw conclusions on the added value of facilitating youth and employer advisory participation. A copy of the final report is attached and available on the project website.