GreenVETAfrica (GVA) mission will be to offer an innovative capacity building programme based on a five-pronged approach: i) Pedagogical upskilling, ii) Digital Pedagogy, ii) Digital Tools for teaching, learning, assessment and validation, iv) Green Waste Management technical foundations, and v) Foundation of micro-entrepreneurship skills for Micro-SMEs to two accredited VET providers in West Africa. GVA will also aim to integrate unemployed youth and vulnerable groups into the labour markets in Ghana and Nigeria, by offering technical and entrepreneurial training on green waste management to 100 young people (with a focus on vulnerable groups). GVA will design and pilot an innovative VET programme closing the existing skills shortage of professional figures capable of supporting a twin sustainable transition. The VET programme will use innovative ICT applications, such as a remote expert solution, coupled with smart glasses for augmented reality enabling highly interactive - on the field - learning sessions. GVA will: a) analyse the skill gaps and market demands; b) design a multi-competence programme including: i) technical green waste ii) basic ICT-skills iii) green micro-entrepreneurship; c) deploy a Train-The-Trainers programme engaging 50 trainers in Nigeria and Ghana d) pilot a 3-month dual learning VET programme with 100 students (50 in Nigeria and 50 in Ghana) e) foster i) official accreditation of the GVA VET programme by both Ghana and Nigeria authorities iii) foster valorisation through the replication of the GVA VET programme across Ghana and Nigeria (and possibly beyond through the partners’ international network) ii) promote the learners’ employability.

"<< Background >>By 2050 and even in North Africa alone, no less than 300 million young people will enter the labour market (World Bank data). If the current unemployment rates of these same countries, which for example exceed 35% in Tunisia in 2019 (World Bank data) do not decrease, nearly 90 million young people will be unemployed. The situation in European countries, particularly southern Europe, is also alarming, with for example youth unemployment rates close to 30% in Spain or Italy in 2019, and 19.4% in France (World Bank data). As detailed in the literature review of the Mediterranean Network New Chance (MedNC) (conducted as part of the previous MedNC strategic partnership), school drop-out and lack of access to training are among the structural causes of these integration difficulties. In its 2016 ""Panorama of Society"" study, the OECD highlights the lasting negative effects that periods of inactivity and unemployment in early adulthood can have on people's lives: reduced employment and income prospects, a barrier to the decision to leave the parental home or start a family, etc. The OECD also stresses the impact of these phenomena on poverty, particularly in the absence of adequate public assistance. Access to the autonomy of a large number of young people is thus questioned, and beyond employment, their social and civic integration. These difficulties also weaken society as a whole, both socially and economically and politically. High unemployment, poor workers, lack of opportunities for decent training or employment, too much predominance of informal work, gender disparities are all obstacles to people's social and professional development, economic development and social cohesion.At the same time, companies also have high expectations in terms of skills, areas of expertise, soft-skills or mastery of technological innovations; and often struggle to recruit. Integration schemes are constantly seeking to adapt to these requirements, in order to optimise the employability and opportunities of young people to enter the labour market, but also to meet these economic needs.It is in response to these shared challenges on a Mediterranean scale that the actors of this project, all members of the Mediterranean New Chance Network (MedNC) which brings together 220 training centres and represents more than 54,000 young people in the Mediterranean, have formed this cooperation partnership. Designed as a transnational platform for the exchange of know-how, reflecting on innovative methods and civil society's actions in relation to the needs of the productive sector, this cooperation partnership will contribute to strengthening the capacity of actors in socio-professional integration in the Euro-Mediterranean area, formalising and valuing and giving access to their expertise for professionals of young people integration and mobilising all the actors in the region around this theme. Finally, more cross-cuttingly, this project will contribute to the strengthening of the skills of its partners in terms of remote project management and governance of a consortium with 12 members and 9 associated partners.<< Objectives >>The project aims to strengthen the capacity of actors working to reintegrate young people in difficulty of integration in the Euro-Mediterranean region through exchanges and transfers of expertise, to capitalise on their profiles, experiences and complementary skills, with the aim of replicating these good practices, and bringing them to the attention of states so they integrate them into their national policy, spread them, and then guarantee a better access to training and employment for all young people in a sustainable way. The overall objective of this project is therefore to strengthen the social inclusion of young people in difficulty of integration by strengthening Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and the skills of teaching and vocational training staff, with 4 defined sub-targets:-Strengthen the technical and cross-cutting skills of MedNC members to improve their support for young people in difficulty of integration;-Formalize and facilitate access to probative and relevant information, resources and expertises to all members of the partnership and vocational training and integration professionals of the region in order to share and spread projects and best practices in the Euro-Mediterranean area;-Mobilize, raise awareness and convince public and private actors to inspire a strong commitment to the professional integration of young people in difficulty of integration in the region;-Improve cooperation, cross-sector coordination and governance within the cooperation partnership.<< Implementation >>The global objective is to strengthen the social inclusion of young people in difficulty of integration by strengthening the cooperation and skills of education and vocational training staff in the Euro-Mediterranean area. A range of activities will be implemented to achieve these goals. In order to improve the quality of the work, activities and practices of the organizations and institutions involved, the MedNC partnership proposes to organize learning events for teaching staff and non-teaching staff, such as professors, teachers, technical trainers and other staff working in participating organizations. These events will be part of annual MedNC network conferences in Tunisia, Portugal and Rome (bringing together more than 80 actors of professional integration in the Mediterranean each year) and will consist of numerous sessions of exchange of best practices and expertise, training and visits to innovative devices. In addition, 3 other learning events will be organized as expert missions that will bring together 5 participants in a partner structure in one of the project countries to identify and appropriate new practices or methodology that they can replicate in their home countries.The deployment of a catalogue of training courses, coupled with the introduction of a digital platform for exchanges between youth integration professionals, will enable many professionals to benefit from the experiences, knowledge and best practices of the members of the strategic partnership. One of the objectives of this partnership is to make information available, free of charge, in order to optimize the resources, time and support of experts in teaching and vocational training. The latter will be able to replicate approach and good practices that have been proven before in similar geographies and contexts and thus strengthen the support available to young people in difficulty of integration. The Pro-Partnership also has a guide that will bring together all the best practices and recommendations of members in terms of integrating gender into the ""2nd chance"" devices. This guide will be available online, including but not only on the Erasmus + sharing platform and will benefit as many people as possible.Enhancing the visibility of the strategic partnership requires the development of an appropriate communication strategy to different target audiences with key messages and relevant and adapted tools. At the same time, the partnership will unite stakeholders around key ideas and concepts, such as digital access, which will be addressed in an advocacy document. This publication will be disseminated to the public stakeholders of the concerned countries and within the appropriate platforms, with the aim of having its recommendations integrated into public policies. Finally, for the partnership to be recognized over the long term and develop sustainably, at least 10 dissemination events will be organised to improve its visibility.In order to improve the cooperation and coordination of the strategic partnership, three transnational project coordination meetings will be organized to bring members together and define strategic directions. They will be coupled by remote monitoring meetings to provide an update on the progress of activities, the collection of indicators and the implementation of a monitoring/evaluation of project results. These three activities will improve coordination and strengthen the governance of this strategic partnership, which aims to remain sustainable after Erasmus funding.<< Results >>This project aims to improve the social inclusion and employability of young people in difficulty of integration which are supported by the member structures of this cooperation partnership, and ultimately, of the young people support by all the actors of vocational integration in the Mediterranean who will benefit from the results and from the cooperation dynamic thus instilled to better respond to the challenges of unemployment and young people integration in the region. The expected results of this project are strong, especially in terms of impact:- at the local level: through the strengthening of the skills of the field actors what will have a direct impact on the quality of young people support, and through the sharing and dissemination of the results of the project by each structure within its own network, which will promote synergies.- at the national level: with a strengthening of the mobilisation of public and institutional stakeholders on the 2nd chance and the integration of young people theme, which ultimately leads to a greater consideration of these issues in public policies, a better recognition of type 2nd chance solutions and ultimately a decrease in youth unemployment rates regionwide.- at the international level: a more structured and coordinated response on a Mediterranean scale through the formalisation of the expertise of all the partners and enhanced cooperation between actors as well as a better recognition and visibility of the challenges that exist around the socio-professional integration of young people.11 specific and concrete results have already been defined in the project: -3 special learning events with all the partnership and external stakeholders, as part of the annual MedNC network conferences, each with four best practice exchange sessions, a one-day training session and field visits. -3 expert missions will be organised for the benefit of at least 5 participants each, who will travel to the structure of another partner of the consortium in order to discover, identify and get to know a new methodology or innovative practice, appropriate it and potentially replicate it in its own structure.- 1 training catalogue will be created and disseminated, in which members will propose trainings and thematic expertise to be transmitted to any professional of the topic. - 1 digital exchange platform will be designed, allowing to reference expertise, gather educational tools and get to know the structures that are working in the field of vulnerable young people integration in the Mediterranean area.-1 good practices guide on gender integration in 2nd chance schools in the Mediterranean will be elaborated and disseminated. -1 advocacy paper will be drafted and disseminated towards public authorities, highlighting the dangers of the digital divide for young people's schooling and presenting the related investment needs.-At least 10 dissemination events will take place across the 9 countries of the consortium by 2024. -1 revised communication strategy will be operational. -3 2-day transnational meetings in Marseille, Alexandria and Barcelona will take place to determine annual priorities, strategic orientations and activities for the coming year. -6 follow-up meetings will be held remotely, with the aim of monitoring the progress of the project and collecting the follow-up indicators.-1 monitoring and evaluation of the project will be put in place to measure the proper implementation of the activities and the impact of the project on direct and indirect beneficiaries."

"The Project ""Skilling VET ecosystem: enhance enabled environments for private and public VET key actors"" aims to foster the transition of VET to emerging local labour market and to boost employability of vulnerable youth and women as a key to prevent illegal migration in Ghana and SenegalThe target countries are Ghana and Senegal. The 2 Countries have VET and employment as a priority in their development agendas and, in the recent years, have identified the shared development of employability oriented integrated services, led by empowered VET clusters of key actors in strategic green sectors (organic agriculture, solar energy) as keys to boost sustainable processes of local development, and, finally, as a core pillar to prevent and tackle irregular migration. Our consortium is made up by an already rooted European & African partnership of VET Providers (in Europe LUOVI, CNOS-FAP, in Ghana & Senegal DBYN, ADAFO and Db Tech Africa), NGOs (in Europe VIS and MUNDUS), University, research and business development Centres (in Ghana & Senegal the University of Kaolack, BRC) which have already set up VET platforms and are already working in the two Countries to co-design comprehensive schemes of capacity development and capacity building.The project will move from effective proved methods, practices and pilots, South-South and triangular cooperation schemes, key VET areas (WBL, school to work transition, job service offices, greening TVET paths, business-TVET clusters, Quality VET service) in order to reach the following objectives: Increase employability supporting a stronger alignment of VET to emerging local labour market opportunities;Increase the technical, managerial capacity and pedagogical skills of VET providers especially in the fields of management, quality assurance, innovation and inclusion;Improve the level of competences, skills and employability potential of VET learners by developing new and innovative VET programmes and integrated services."

Context and background:Companies are looking for employees who are very well qualified and who have all the necessary skills for future-proof work. The shortage of skilled workers is evident in many areas of the economy. Young disadvantageous people, on the other hand, must catch up on skills that are needed for the current and future labour market. There is a need for our project to minimize the gap between the two stakeholders.The employees in our diverse facilities also need support in imparting relevant skills. The trainers therefore must be trained to provide the young people with the necessary know-how. Learning digital methods plays an essential role here. Our employees need training on how to use digital tools in learning. Vocational preparation and vocational training, individual advice and support on the labour market need future-oriented development in the direction of technological and digital change, always from the perspective of inclusion.The Future Jobs from North to South project aims to respond to these developments in a three-step process. Thanks to the project partners' many years of experience with young, disadvantaged people, we can share our knowledge of the projects at European level.Objectives:We want to share the expertise of partner organizations and learn together new ways, how we can work with the world of work and achieve future qualification requirements. We aim to: 1. Improve the skills and competencies of the participating employees 2. Strengthen the link between the strategy of the organizations and the cooperation and collaboration with companies 3. Promote wider opportunities for cooperation and collaboration and joint development of partners 4. Get more visibility for internationalization 5. Raise the awareness of the needs of future jobs at all levels Participants:The partners in the project are CJD from Germany as a coordinator, CNOS-FAP from Italy, Luovi Vocational College from Finland and Stiftelsen Utbildning Nordkalotten, the Arctic Vocational Foundation, Utbildning Nord from Sweden. The partners have many years of expertise in working with young, disadvantaged people, in working with companies and in international work. Furthermore, all project partners have experience in working on international and national projects.The participants are teachers and other staff members who work closely with companies in as a part of their daily activities.Description of activities and methodology used:The method we use in the project is sharing good practises, sharing knowledge and learning together. We will organise one transnational project meetings during the project duration of two years. Otherwise coordinators meet online to monitor and evaluate the project progress and to ensure the sustainability of project results.Besides, LTT activities are important to work together in practice. There will be four LTT activities in the project, one in each participating country to share the knowledge and work together. We aim to involve companies and local authorities e.g. employment offices to participate. Each partner will collect background information of the characteristics of each country from surveys and other available sources. Between the activities we will work online, too. After every LTT activity the participants will publish a blog to share the core findings of the workshops.We have planned dissemination activities based on the wide networks of each partner to support the sustainability and use of the results. Results and impact:Blogs are the direct products of the working together. They will introduce the main findings and lessons learnt from each LTT activity. Besides, the blogs will result in a cooperation model, how VET providers can work with the companies and what are the different aspects that should be considered. The impact at individual participants’ level can be summarized as increased skills and competences in collaboration with the world of work as well as international skills. The participants will have a better understanding of the future skills and competences.At organisation level the impact will be a more developed models for collaboration with the companies and strengthened possibilities to meet the future needs of labour market. They will have more competent staff to work with the companies and more possibilities for international cooperation.The project process and results will reach a wide group of VET schools and companies through the networks directly involved and through linkages to other existing relevant organisations and networks.

Peer Review – More Impact, Excellent Results Background:We built the project on the experiences and the feedback received from the Strength from Peer Review project. The aim was to widen the use of Peer Review to new quality areas as well as to pilot the materials, criteria and indicators and the method in new organizations and countries thus improving also the existing criteria and indicators. The project addressed the objectives of the Erasmus+ program by fostering quality improvements, innovation and internationalization. Enhancing mobility is one of the objectives of Education and Training 2020 framework. When planning international activities VET providers must take into consideration national and European policy objectives. Student and staff mobility and development projects are ways to carry out internationality. However, international activities are not always written in the strategies in all the participating countries. VET colleges and students could benefit more from home internationalization activities. Thus, the impact of the activities is not easily to be shown. Continuous quality improvement of VET is a priority in the participating countries. In addition, we wanted to develop Peer Review as an opportunity for continuous professional development of VET teachers as stated in Riga Conclusion 2015 and thus raise the overall quality of VET. Objectives: We aimed at developing and piloting uniform operational principles, procedures and processes that help to achieve the aims set for VET internationalization in collaboration with national and international partners through Peer Review methodology. All the partners of the project agreed on the importance of developing the quality of their services and linking internationality deeper in the core activities of their organizations. Premier helped participating organisations to - get familiar with the Peer Review method, especially the new partners, for others it deepened the competence and new staff members participated - learn how to utilize the method in order to evaluate not only their international activities but also other activities since the method is transferable - improve the quality of international activities - understand the link between international activities and the strategy and development of the organization Participants: The consortium consisted of three Finnish VET providers, two of them were Special Needs Vocational Colleges. Besides, three nationwide organizations from France, Italy and the Netherlands, two vocational colleges from Estonia, one from Slovenia and one from Sweden took part in the project. Ammattiopisto Luovi was the coordinator of the project. The participants were either teachers or administration staff members involved in international activities in the partner colleges The quality managers or persons in charge of the quality issues were reached, too. The secondary target group was the management of the college. Each partner chose two to three persons to be trained as Peers. Other staff, students and stakeholders participated during the self-evaluation and Peer Review Visit phases. Activities: The project included a training module to instruct the partners to carry out Peer Review and to train staff members. Practical training took place at Peer Visits. We organized five transnational meetings to work on the criteria. In addition to on-going evaluation and dissemination, we organized five multiplier events. Premier products are: 1) Peer Review Training module including materials, face-to-face training, on-line training and Peer Visits as practical training exercise. 2) Criteria for home internationalization, I@H. This includes activities carried out excluding mobility, e.g. receiving students and staff. 3) Revised criteria on student mobility including apprentices, staff mobility, partnership projects and international strategy. Impact and long-term benefits: At individual level, the skills and competences of the trained Peers increased. At organizational level, the quality of internationalization and international processes improved. Besides, strengthening and building new partnerships is a result from the project. The link between the organization’s strategy and international activities was strengthened and the impact and efficiency of the international processes became measurable. Participating organizations have more competent staff members in quality issues and international activities. At national and European level, the idea of Peer Review as a tool for evaluating activities and processes is familiar in new partner countries. Peer Review, as a method of external evaluation is transferable and sustainable and can be used in other quality areas, too. As one of us summarized: It gives the VET colleges a clear view on possible developments for improvement. It is a tool to promote international activities and to draw positive attention of the management and the board.