The NEST project is an initiative aiming at fostering social and labour inclusion of asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection in European Countries involved in the project and encourage their inclusive citizenship by enhancing soft and technical skills to social operators (educators, social workers, psychologists,..) working in the countries of the partners organisations and improving the autonomy level of beneficiaries in accessing local services. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nowadays, around 65,3 million individuals have been forcibly displaced worldwide. More than 1.7 million of them have reached Europe since 2015. This unprecedented inflow of asylum seekers in Europe, pushed The European Union to take actions and to redefine its priorities. Although, many efforts have been made to prepare effective integration programmes for those who have been granted protection status, in the majority of EU countries this large scale immigration generated controversial reaction among civil societies and overcharged the daily activities carried out by local governments and communities. Integration process for Asylum seekers and beneficiaries of International protection is requiring time and requests tailored strategies because of the peculiarities of these people, the violence and the traumatic experiences suffered in their countries and during the journey to reach Europe. A huge burden to facilitate these integration is on the shoulder of front line organisations, responsible for supporting asylum seekers in finding house, accessing to education, health, legal services and the job market. In particular, in Europe, thousands of social operators (educators, psychologists, language teachers, lawyers, social workers) who directly work with this peculiar category of people are experiencing a demanding a challenging daily job which requires a set of soft and technical skills not always acquired in their academic career. For that reason this project will promote social and labour integration of AS and BoIP through the elaboration of three main outputs:(1)The development of a guidelines on policies and services implemented in Italy, Spain, Slovenia and Sweden for the AS and BoIP integration, based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis on the respective context. This will help NGOs to have an overview on UE contexts and on good practices that can be transferred and used by partner organizations.(2)The development of a training methodology aiming at enhancing operators’ soft and technical skills on the following 6 topics: Conflict mediation/negotiation, Cross-cultural and Intercultural communication, community engagement, burn out prevention, skills assessment and balance of competencies and career /training and services guidance. Being employment perceived as a core part of the integration process by the majority of refugees and asylum seekers [IPOL, 2016], a relevant part of strategies and tools will be focused on the enhancement of employability opportunities by the target group. (3)A toolkit easy to use with mobile devices (smartphone, tablet, laptop), both online and offline, to support beneficiaries in accessing local fundamental services. This competences will be transferred through an innovative multidimensional training based on successful integration case studies and on-the-job experiences gained by the involved partners organizations with a recognized expertise on integration practices. In particular the Italian, Swedish and Slovenian NGOs, Farsi Prossimo, Pro Ifall and Društvo za razvijanje prostovoljnega dela Novo Mesto, which have a large experience in managing integration projects in the AS/BoIP/migrants sector will design the training material related to the soft skills identified through an initial skills need’s assessment carried out among partners organizations. FUNDEUN, University Foundation, with a large expertise in job guidance services development for young and adult people, will be responsible for the development of the methodology and training material of the modules focusing on technical skills employability oriented.Training material will be enriched by innovative tools, based on audio-visual and digital technology and will be developed by ARGO private company specialized in the design of audio-visual products for training and communication. We believe that the development of this project will provide organizations working in the field of asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection with an innovative methodology and tools that will make more effective the daily job carried out by operators and will support beneficiaries in their process of social and labour integration.

In many European countries people with visual and hearing disabilities are still excluded from cultural life as the level of accessibility is extremely low. When it comes to audiodescription and subtitling (practices which offer visually/hearing people an equal opportunity to enjoy arts under comparable circumstances), across Europe there are some good practices but generally the level of implementation of these services is very low. Audiodescription/subtitling must become the norm, not the exception (as it is now). Unfortunately, the profession of Audiodescriber/Subtitler is still not widespread at EU level, and in many countries is not even recognized as a profession. Many audiodescribers and subtitlers are working in isolation, or on a voluntary basis, and the possibilities to make their job sustainable over time are very limited. The rationale behind the CASTLE project was to fill an identified gap: in recent years many projects have been implemented to improve audiodescribers' and subtitlers' artistic competences, but these projects have not focused on the artists' concrete need: to increase their sense of entrepreneurship in order to foster the creation of new and professional providers of audiodescription/subtitling services which will be sustainable over time. The general objective of the project was thus to promote entrepreneurship and support people working on audiodescription and subtitling to start their own businesses and improve self-employment skills. This was achieved through 2 specific objectives: 1) Increase basic enterprise skills of artists/cultural operators working as audiodescribers/subtitlers,2) Develop practical tools to support artists/cultural operators to start and manage their own business.These objectives were reached through a set of well-defined activities, implemented in 24 months, by 6 partners from 5 different EU countries:- 1 international workshop planned to improve key enterprise skills of people already working in the audiodescription/subtitling sector (24 participants); - 1 international workshop to improve knowledge on how to set up and manage a business which will be successful and sustainable over time (25 participants);- development of a practical handbook to concretely support people working in the audiodescription/subtitling sector in starting their own business. The handbook is available in English, Italian, Polish, Slovenian and Spanish, and is free to download at http://accessibleculture.eu/pratical_handbook-29.html;- development of an interactive platform to support audiodescribers/subtitlers to successfully manage their business in order to make future companies sustainable and profitable over time - http://accessibleculture.eu;- implementation of dissemination activities and 5 multiplier events to actively involve the participation of stakeholders (183 participants at the multiplier events, and an overall reach of around 900 people). Feedback from the international workshops demonstrated a real improvement in the participants' enterprise skills. For example, after the first workshop, there were increases in how participants in every category rated their skills at the *highest* level, compared to before the training:Entrepreneurial skills - 0% to 15.79%Knowledge on different business models - 0% to 5.26%Business management - 0% to 5.26%Knowledge on business opportunities - 0% to 21.05%Competences on how to start a business - 0% to 10.53%Ability to sell - 0% to 15.79%Creativity - 26.32% to 47.37%The ability to work in teams - 26.32% to 57.89%Increased curiosity about EU opportunities – 90%CASTLE's impact can be measured in 4 areas:SYSTEMIC• Identified best practice about audiodescription and subtitling in Europe.• Specific training materials available.• Professionalisation of audiodescription and subtitling. ORGANISATIONS• Increased European links• New project ideas • New training opportunities • New knowledge about sustainable business modelsLEARNERS (Audiodescribers and subtitlers / cultural providers)• Business start-up skills• Links with cultural institutions• More AD / subtitled performances• New business models for existing businesses • Users find it easier or less stressful to deal with business aspects• More audiodescribers / subtitlers availableSTAFF• Management and finance experience• Language practice• European and local networking• Experience in EU/Erasmus+ projectsThe CASTLE consortium included 2 non-profit associations (Centro Diego Fabbri and Cultural Centre Wroclaw), 2 private companies: 1 providing the audiodescription and subtitling (Audiosigno) and 1 experienced in accessibility policies and dissemination (ARGO), 1 University (University of Wolverhampton) and 1 business incubator (SASA Inkubator) experienced in delivering tailored training for young entrepreneurs.

"""Who trains in small and medium enterprises: characteristics, needs and way to support"" [Cedefop 2015] highlighted how the trainers received little attention in the company and how their potential as multipliers on increasing the participation and quality of the VET offer remains untapped. The number of different standards of competence required for CVET trainers, together with the heterogeneity of corporate training approaches, limit the transnational mobility of the Trainer profile, reducing the opportunities for growth of these professions.SEniors Learning Value aims to design and test new ways of recruiting and training trainers and mentors among senior workers, who can thereby develop skills and competences according to a personalized learning pathway. The profile of Senior Learning Facilitator can be used both in the organisations from which they come (e.g. for apprenticeship in companies) as well as in other contexts that make use of work based learning (VET Providers, Territorial Research Centres, Competence Centres, etc.). The SEAL project is aimed at leveraging the capital of know-how represented by senior workers, with very advanced levels of technical skills that can facilitate learning processes at work. The project includes following main actions:- the definition of a European framework of competences for the SLF - an open access online platform where tools for self-assessment of learning facilitator capacity will be available, together with teaching aids for the improvement of SLF training, guidance tools on how to activate work-based learning experiences- pilot training activities, together with the activation of learning paths dedicated to 80 senior workersThe project brings together different approaches that aim at a common objective: the development of individualised training pathways, through access to MOOC and Open Educational Resources available from previous Erasmus + projects; interventions for the application in a work context of the skills learned from SLFs. The SEAL project foresees the realization of workshop activities in which the SLFs and the trainers designated by the project partners will participate, together with other stakeholders and policy makers active at local, national and European level in the definition and monitoring of work-based learning processes.A robust phase of stakeholder engagement and conslutation will accompany all phases of the project to validate the project results, ensuring their sustainability and immediate transferability into VET Provider management systems and facilitating dialogue with work-based learning systems."

Digital technologies and online tools are a key driver to foster improved library services for visually impaired readers.Nevertheless, in most EU countries:- library staff is not fully aware about the scope and potential of ICT tools and services for the involvement of visually impaired users, and awareness is also poor on valuable experiences and best practices that could be reproduced at local and international level;- digital competencies of library staff are often insufficient to effectively integrate digital tools.TECH.LIBRARY focuses on 3 main objectives:1) favour the exchange of best practices among staffs of different libraries on services and ICT tools for the involvement of visually impaired users2) expand library staffs’ digital competencies through tailored training activities on ICT tools3) establish a network of libraries for cooperation in responding to visually impaired users’ needs.Following activities will be implemented in order to reach the foreseen objectives:1) Project coordination, which will guarantee a sound technical and financial management of the project,2) Exchange of best practices and study visits so as to give the possibility to each participant to learn and understand how other libraries and countries use ICT for the involvement of visually impaired users,3) Development of a web platform enabling users to get trained, share experiences and opinions, communicate, networking and disseminate project activities and initiatives,4) Short term joint staff training on latest ICT technologies to offer services to visually impaired users,5) Targeted dissemination and exploitation activities: 6 conferences (3 at transnational level and 3 at national level) to disseminate the project achievements and to engage stakeholders within the TECH.LIBRARY online platform.The partnership is composed by 6 public libraries from 6 different countries, supported by one technical partner. The project will involve 122 participants in the training and exchange of best practices activities, whereas 260 will participate in the multiplier events.Moreover, a significant number of external libraries will be engaged in networking and sharing of experiences through the web platform, which will also provide them with useful information, training videos and materials, demos and much more contents to improve their staffs’ digital competencies (it is estimated that more than 300 users will register and actively participate in the platform).Three intellectual outputs will be produced by project activities:1) TECH.LIBRARY online platform2) Training videos in 7 different languages3) Practical handbook and recommendations of best practices in 7 different languages.The expected impact of the project is to promote the professional development of libraries' staff in ICT methodologies all while upskilling their key competencies and fostering much greater inclusiveness in libraries by improving key services dedicated to blind and visually impaired users all around Europe.Becoming a genuinely inclusive library for visually impaired readers is not only about the capacity to adapt to ever changing digital technologies, but also about enabling library staff to play an all-inclusive role.