The Talents project focused on a new form of comprehensive language and professional training for immigrants and refugees with the aim to support their fast access to the labour market – as jobs are considered to be the most important basis for successful integration. Project partners from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Norway and Sweden commonly developed and tested new strategies of integration in countries and regions which welcomed high numbers of refugees and which, in general, have high immigration rates. The heart and driving force of the project was the “Hotel Talents” project of the City of Göteborg - an innovative fast-track programme for immigrants and refugees that combines vocational language training with practical experience at the workplace. The Talents trainings prepare participants for a first job within a short period of several months and build a direct track to the labour market. The parallel, alternating structure of classroom language and professional training and internship in companies led to promising results. High employment rates of participants after the trainings in Sweden proved that the concept is effective and a suitable measure to increase employment rates among persons with migration background. In the course of the Talents project, the Göteborg role model was transferred to Germany and Norway, and the Swedish partners extended and further developed their fast track concepts as well as upskilling initiatives. The goal was to test the fast-track training model in different legal, financial and structural frameworks focussing on main characteristics of fast track and necessary functions to be taken over in the context of such concepts. In Germany and Norway, Talents fast-track trainings and curricula were developed in the sectors hotel and gastronomy, retail trade, warehouse and logistics as well as building and construction Moreover, some project partners developed fast-track trainings for immigrants and refugees with an academic background, e.g. for doctors, for persons who finished pedagogical and social studies or hold a degree in business administration. In Göteborg, fast-track trainings have meanwhile been developed for more than 50 professions. In addition, upskilling pathways were designed in Sweden to guarantee that career options and the perspective of a second and a third job are available.The Talents project partners are main stakeholders of integration in their countries on different levels and in different fields. They are responsible for the political and strategic steering of education and integration on the regional and local level, they are experts in the field of validation and guidance, they offer language classes and vocational training and do research on integration issues. The following institutions contributed to the Talents project: Volkshochschulverband Baden-Württemberg e.V. (Co-ordinator) / DE, Ministerium für Kultus, Jugend und Sport Baden-Württemberg / DE, Göteborgs Stad / SE, Cuben Utbildning AB / SE, Oslo Voksenopplæring Rosenhof / NO, Steirische Volkswirtschaftliche Gesellschaft / AT, Università degli studi di Firenze / IT, and EARLALL (Association Européenne des Autorités Régionales et Locales pour l'apprentissage tout au long de la vie) / European, based in Belgium. Outputs of the Talents project are: 1.) a European modular tool box, providing training concepts, curricula, pedagogical material, and other training documents for practitioners carrying out fast-track trainings, 2.) a competence balancing App to support the exchange on necessary competences for a certain job between employer, trainee, teachers, and coaches, 3.) a study on the project activities and 4.) curricula for trainings for language teachers and guidance counsellors that work in fast-track training programmes. During the project lifetime of three years, the project reached up to 9000 participants, among them staff of all project partners, counsellors and teachers participating in trainings, staff in companies and partner institutions involved, persons receiving guidance in connection to training activities, participants in 20 pilot training courses, users of the European toolbox and modules of the training concept, persons who will participate in Talents courses in- and outside the project within five years from the project start, persons who have a profit from improved guidance and training in partner organisations and other institutions and persons reached through other dissemination activities like press articles. The Talents project contributed to the successful integration of immigrants on the local and regional level. Talents classes have high access rates to full employment. Talents motivated a large number of follow-up initiatives in the Talents regions with additional budgets of several million Euro, it initiated structural changes on local and regional level land was a role model for national and EU initiatives to tackle the refugees crisis.

<< Objectives >>The objective of this project is to develop a civic integration education tool using storytelling and other non-formal learning methods for refugees/migrants that have difficulties with formal learning methods. We want to improve the civic integration education provided by teachers as well as help the learners; which in turn will generate a better social inclusion, for refugees, migrants and other people with learning problems and a bigger distance to society.<< Implementation >>CASE STUDIES (to test the tools created on their usefulness, practicality and effectiveness with people in the field)TRAINING ACTIVITIES (e.g. Joint Staff Training and Train the Trainer events to test and finalize the outcomes of the case studies)MULTIPLIER EVENTS (e.g. local multiplier event and a final conference to share the results of this project with trainers, teachers and other stakeholders)PROJECT MEETINGS (for project management, sharing knowledge, creating tools and evaluation)<< Results >>* a toolkit with civic participation and integration exercises, using storytelling and other non-formal learning methods for (new) refugees as well as guidelines for teachers that work in civic integration teaching* a (digital)self-assessment tool to assess the acquired skills and level of integration in an encouraging and fun way* a blueprint on how to provide trainings using the tools * an interactive digital platform with the tools, guidelines, project information, reports on case studie

"In the Project, different type of organizations in the European Union collaborated to fight digital illiteracy among adults and youth who are not able to use or unaware about ICT in daily life and who belong to vulnerable social groups like school drop outs, immigrants and women in order to equip them with the skills needed to use digital technology. We live in a world today where using digital technologies and accessing information via internet is becoming increasingly necessary, using services like health and education, attaining jobs, connecting friends, relatives and colleagues, sharing moments, ideas and experience, expanding innovation and remaining globally competitive. It was thought that target group are struggling to gain basic access to technology because of various reasons and ways. In this respect by providing different activities people equipped with the basic digital skills to get the advantages of being digital and necessary skills to face the ""online” challenge. Throughout the Project period, basic computer knowledge, internet usage, tablets and their applications for the specified purposes were the main subjects of the activities with the help of seminars, meetings, courses, competitions and exhibitions. The partnership also aimed to support people by using web tools to socialize with other EU citizens online and personal (through mobilities). They had new friends, saw different cultures and lives. It gave them a chance reduce their loneliness and in some ways their isolation and helped to improve social inclusion.The project also enabled different organizations in EU to share best practice, their expertise and experience in supporting target group to face challenges brought about by online technology.The main target was to work with people from vulnerable social groups who do not have or lack the skills to stay active online. They provided with training which enabled them to operate a PC, use the internet and other relevant software such as communication software (Skype, Facebook, etc). With the help of local and international activities, people shared experiences, connectted with each other and learned new cultures. With project activities, partners collaborated to remove the problems to make digital technologies and internet more accessible to the target group and attractive on both a non formal and informal basis. On personal level the learners got the chance to raise their self- esteem by fighting with digital illiteracy by improving their knowledge. They had the opportunity to develope contemporary communication skills to catch the world, to communicate and to share.Project activities stimulated awareness of the possibilities of learning digital world, made them user instead of just being watchers. The projectgave a chance to see the richness and possibilities of digital world to them. Project participants had also chances to improve their language skills with language course activities. Projects participants saw the similarities and differences of cultures. On national level partner organizations addressed and informed project target groups about project activities; inviting people to join in local workshops. On international level online interactive E-Learning modules about ICT have been the most effective and benficial side of the project. The E-Learning Modules which were based on learning by doing and scenario based learning have been used not only by EU citizens but also by people who are from different countries of the world because of the structure of the Modules which are easy to use and educational. Also the Modules have been prepared in 8 different languages, so it helped the increase the number of people that the Project targeted. The modules will be active for years and the number of the beneficiaries will be dublicated in years."

LIFE, ALL IN: Connecting formal and informal learning to enhance social inclusion” (=LAI), financed by Erasmus+ - KA2 – Cooperation and Innovation for Good Practices was carried out during a time when more than 25% of EU citizens was being affected by social exclusion, therefore, the overarching objective of the LAI project was to contribute to social inclusion and integration of adult participants in second language (L2) education program by developing and connecting the synergy between formal and informal learning by providing a systematic methodology that addresses the gap and build a bridge to fully exploit the synergy of formal, non-formsal and informal learning in L2.More concrete, the project was designed to equip adult education providers with a toolkit on how to connect formal, non-formal and Informal learning (FNIL) and empower concerned policy makers to be informed on the efficacy of FNIL in L2 programmes for adults with the help of a validated tool-kit.The project had 5 participating organizations.CVO Antwerpen (BE) was the coordinating organization. CVO Antwerpen is an adult education center with several campuses in and around the city of Antwerp in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is one of the largest centers for adult education certified and funded by the Flemish Government. It organizes more than 950 modular daytime and evening courses per year. This are courses for immigrants, formal vocationaleducation and second chance to learn, higher professional education, language courses, entrepreneurial training courses, maritime training, welding and courses in application software.Axxel is a training organisation which offers VET and independent studies both for youngsters and adults in Helsinki, Finland. Axxell has about 2700 students that study at the 6 different departments of Axxell (Lappfjärd, Helsingforsregionen, Åbo, Pargas, Kimito, Karis, Ekenäs och Esbo). In addition to vocational training, Axxell in one of the biggest integration training providers for adult migrants. C.P.I.A. 6 - Centro Provinciale Istruzione degli Adulti (IT) organises modular daytime and evening courses in Viterbo, Italy. The courses offered are structured as follows: literacy and learning of the Italian language for foreigners, first level courses - First and Second Teaching period.Oslo Voksenopplæring Skullerud (NO) is an organisation working within the field of Adult Education, qualifying adult refugees and immigrants for life in Norway by teaching them Norwegian language and social sciences. Youth Entrepreneurial Service Foundation (FYROM) is a non-governmental organization, which aims to stimulate the entrepreneurship in Macedonia through reinforcing the business and soft skills of future entrepreneurs needed for successfully running of an own company. YES sets the goal to support innovative start-up businesses through many activities and subventions in order to help the local development of the currently most productive sector – SMEs. The main activities were project management, a requirements analysis including the identification of good practices and conducting peer visits and focus groups, the organisation of a workshop and final conference for stakeholders, the development, piloting and validation of the toolkit, quality assurance and exploitation and dissemination. Concrete results of ‘Life- all in’ are the requirements analysis report, the online toolkit, a validation report, a project website, project management guidelines, a quality management plan, 2 critical friend reports, a dissemination plan and report, a sustainability report and a project leaflet/brochure. Relevant stakeholders are now aware of the fact that a toolkit is there for them to support them during the development of programs that optimally utilize the combination and blend formal and non-formal learning of the participants.

"The implemented project ""FAMILY+"" must be divided into the 2 phases before and during the Covid19 pandemic. This marked a decisive caesura for the course of the project. Parallel to the total lockdown of family education and (pre-)school institutions, project activities largely came to a standstill. Particularly painful was the cancellation of the 3rd TPM in Oslo, which had already been meticulously prepared by the Norwegian project partners, as well as the postponement or eventual cancellation of the LTTA in Brussels, initially planned for June 2020 and then scheduled for the fall. The project had started promisingly in autumn 2018 with the motivated project partners* from the regions of Västra Götaland, Oslo and Baden-Württemberg (B.-W.). In several Skype conferences before the kick-off event in Stuttgart, the participants had already exchanged information about their respective practical interests and possible program points. The key terms listed in the project application were also discussed, with the following categories in particular being strongly weighted by the project partners*: Empowerment, intercultural opening, cooperation with other institutions, gender equality. At the first TPM with 14 Scandinavian guests in Stuttgart, an effective mixture of project presentations, practical visits and excursions to city districts as well as professional discourse among the participants and with municipal and regional cooperation partners and networks came to fruition, which was also the guiding principle for the second TPM in Gothenburg.Already before the kick-off event, the project FAMILY+ was presented by the two regional project partners at a meeting of the Network Family Education with atending members from all over B.-W. and with online connection of one Swedish and one Norwegian project partner.During the three-day TPM in Stuttgart, the best practice presentations of the two hosts were supplemented by on-site visits with excursions in the respective districts in order to gain insights into the socio-spatial context and framework conditions of the educational offers. Other institutions were introduced, such as the Welcome Center or various family centers, which have a connection to the selected practical examples. In addition, the Department for Integration Policy presented the ""Stuttgart Pact for Integration"" (Bündnis für Integration).The highlight of the TPM was the concluding conference ""places, skills and resources for families - international exchange of good practice"" at the Mütterzentrum Süd with other local and regional educational actors. The numerous guests were able to engage in professional discourse on the international best practices presented by all the participants at topic tables and in workshops. A cross-sectional topic across the individual fields of practice was the accessibility of and educational work with migrant families.At the 2nd TPM in Gothenburg, the 18 guests from Oslo and B.-W. came into professional exchange with numerous experts from integration practice as well as with responsible persons from municipal / regional policy areas and institutions. The varied field excursions led to 4 different districts, 3 of them suburbs at a considerable distance from the city. During the visits to various institutions in the field of family education, informative and stimulating insights into their work and organizational forms were given, and contacts with the target group could be established on site. A focus of these visits and discussions was again and again the cooperation, but also the independence of governmental and non-governmental or civil society actors. In the end, the project ""Doula and Cultural Interpreter"" and the ""Support Group Network"" by and for refugees made a great impression.Although the 3rd TPM in Oslo had to be cancelled at short notice due to the pandemic, a series of interviews on the project topic with the project partners who had traveled to Oslo could be conducted and published on Spotify under TODCast- The Oslo Desk - a series well worth listening to.The final event of the project took place on November 19, 2020 as an international online conference with all participating project partners* on the current topic ""Impact of the Corona Pandemic on Family Education"". Moderated by the Oslo journalist Ka Man Mak, various workshops were held to report on and discuss negative and positive changes, e.g. with regard to the accessibility of the target group and possibilities of media use, and another best practice example ""Youth Ambassadors"" in Oslo was presented.In conclusion, it can be said that despite the pandemic-related limitations of the project, there was a fruitful and successful exchange among the project partners involved, which will continue to have an impact on the fields of work of the respective institutions."