In many European countries various programs, laws and policies have been adopted to fight against social exclusion of people with disabilities in all fields from home one to working one. It suffice to think about EC Council Directive 2000/78/EC of November 2000 -Article 5 which supports the idea of creating a reasonable ambience for all disabled people guaranteeing compliance with the principle of equal treatment in relation to people with disabilities. Social exclusion of people with disabilities, especially for those with mental disabilities, alongside with all possible prejudices that employees and managers may have or develop, tends to worsen their mental health and compromise also their ordinary life, affecting the way they are perceived by the others and the way they perceive themselves in relation to the others. In the working field it is frequent to find situations in which human resources managers and employees don’t know how to relate with people with mental disabilities creating a difficult and hostile environment for their disabled colleagues and not considering potentialities of their presence and of their work in the enterprises. For this reason, Work in progress steams from the necessity educate employees and human resources managers to respect and correctly relate with people with mental disabilities in working field with the objective of giving birth to a more inclusive and warm environment. How it is possible to realize this new environment? Work in progress aims at the creation of three principal outputs: a conceptual manual ( available in english, italian, greek and polish), that will educate and inform employees and human resources managers to all needs, limitations and skills of people with mental disabilities, alongside with a training course, at local level in each partner country, that will give the possibility to experiment what learnt and with an app that on the one hand, will contain the manual and post -training course exercises to verify knowledge acquired by participants; on the other, will be also the guarancy for dissemination for both previous outputs. Long term life of the project will be guaranteed by the online format of the app that gives the possibility to obtain an easy and more involving way of learning on the one hand and continuity in it on the other. Moreover, Human resources managers and employees, at the end of the course can share what they have learnt with their enterprises, increasing the spreading of the project and its impact; training course contents are based on the practical application of what learned at theoretical level through the manual, so also manual concepts will be spread and more and more employees and human resources managers will access the manual contents and the training results. Innovative aspect of “Work in progress” is that it combines this three important outputs that can offer a complete approach to the problem of the exclusion in the working field of people with mental disabilities, creating, as said before, an “in fieri” system. Main target group of the project will be therefore employees and human resources managers of enterprises, while indirect one will be people with mental disabilities. Project will be spread at local, national and international level thanks to a website of the project and the app that will be available at any time for both IOs and Android system and for all devices. We will involve through 4 different multiplier events at local level, staff member of organizations, staff members of partner organizations and all other interested stakeholders (enterprises at local, regional and international level, municipalities, VET providers and researchers, etc). We are a consortium made by 4 partners ( Multikultura, CEIPES, MBM training development centre and IDEC) coming from 4 different countries and realities, experts in the field of training courses, long life learning, web and app design skills, consulting and coaching ones.

An increasingly larger part of the population in industrialized countries is spending longer time in retirement than before. People can expect on the average a retirement that will last between a quarter to a third of their lifetime. The increasing life expectancy of individuals will lead to a steady increase in the number of people in retirement, their „third age“, and within Europe one can expect up to a quarter of the population in this category. The additional life expectancy of European citizens who have reached the age of 65 is estimated to be around 20 years, and has increased considerably over the last decades (Eurostat Demography Report 2010). The UN report on World Population Ageing 1950-2050 states that „Europe is currently the world’s major area with the highest proportions of older persons and is projected to remain so for at least the next 50 years. About 37 per cent of the European population is projected to be 60 years and above in 2050, up from 20 per cent in 2000 and almost 30 per cent is projected to be 65 and above, up from 15 per cent in 2000“. Consequently, it is of utmost importance for future Europe to guarantee the highest quality of life for this large group of citizens and to ensure that their valuable resources of experience and knowledge are made accessible to the younger generations and to the society at large. It is against this background that the project presented here was defined, aiming at facilitating the entry into dynamic third age, the years after 50, through early and successful planning. This project implemented the recommendations and guidelines developed in an earlier Erasmus + project, BALL (Be Active through Lifelong Learning). A survey undertaken in the BALL project showed that the expectations of people are more towards the positive rather than negative aspects of old age. Based on that conclusion and the team´s belief that it is essential for every individual and stakeholders at the labour market to prepare and to plan for an enjoyable and active latter part of life ( „third age“) the team also believed that it is important have access to appropriate tools and guidance to facilitate this exercise, the emphasis being on creating a stimulating learning environment and ambiance, and on the exchange of knowledge.The main objective of the project was to develop and implement two tools, i.e. European Warehouse of Opportunities and European Academy of Opportunities.There were four partners in this project: 1) Evris Foundation ses (Iceland) that was coordinator and took responsibility in leading an expert group in development of Academy of Opportunities. Evris Foundation was coordinator in previous BALL project and has a team of experts in teaching, development of curricula and coaching 2) U3A Reykjavík (Iceland) had a leading role in the expert group that took care of development of Warehouse of Opportunities. U3A Reykjavík is an association of people in their third age who want to keep on learning and sharing their knowledge. It is a part of an international movement of U3A which has now hundreds of thousands of members worldwide. 3) Kaunas Science and Technology Park (Kaunas STP) (Lithuania) is the largest partners of science and business cooperation in Lithuania. It offers training sessions and consultation for people that wants to establish business. 4) MBM Training and Development Centre (UK) offers trainings, consultancy and coaching for individuals and organisations. The main activities were to develop and implement two outputs, i.e. Warehouse of Opportunities and operating plan for it and an Academy of Opportunities - two tools for individuals at the entry of the third age (50+) and stakeholders at the labour market. All partners shared their expertise in this development work and outputs are highly qualified tools ready to be used in Europe in general (in English) and two specific countries (in Lithuanian and Icelandic). The tools have been presented and activated in countries concerned and presented to worldwide networks that focus on development of people of third age. Other activities, as a part of the development of Academy of Opportunities, were so called pre-pilots and pilots courses, undertaken in all three countries added to a Joint Short term training course. In all three countries there were Multiplier events where intellectual outputs, the two tools, were presented.Project´s consortia believe that longer-term benefits will be that individuals and stakeholders at labor market better understand and start to plan earlier for the the third part of life, i.e. at the age 50+.

ContextThe last decade, two unexpected things happened in Europe: a financial crisis and a significant rising of unemployment (especially in youth). In this context social entrepreneurship was risen as a sustainable solution for economy and an answer to the new needs that widely appeared. The SE+ED project, on one hand, draws on the social entrepreneurship tradition and at the same time offers a new perspective bringing together five different countries (Austria, Portugal, Poland, UK, Greece) with different cultures, needs and experiences of economic recession. On the other hand, fosters the exchange of educational practices, sharing ideas and know-how, active involvement of youth and raise awareness about social entrepreneurship.ObjectivesThe main objective is to promote entrepreneurship education and social entrepreneurship among young people focusing in innovation, creativity, active citizenship and use of digital media.More specific:- reinforcing cooperation of different institutes (Universitites, NGOs, SMEs)- training young people in application of innovative methodological tools of digital entrepreneurship - creating and applying original ideas by young participants in local social enterpises- disseminating the project’s results in an international conference with wide participation of young people and social enterprises across Europe- empowering the sense of community and sharing among European citizensPartnersFive partners from five different countries are participating in SE+ED project.1. Univeristy of Macedonia (Greece): a public higher education institution (tertiary level) located in Thessaloniki. UoM is focusing in lifelong learning and responsible entrepreneurship and empowering youth in entrepreneurship and innovation as well as support counseling schemes.2. MBM Training and Development Centre (UK): an international agent working on lifelong learning. The MBM TD Centre for Social Entrepreneurship acts as a network hub and fosters innovative social transformation through education, research, and collaboration.3. Gain & sustain: europe (Austria): a youth organisation that aims to support social, economic and ecological sustainability in Europe and developing countries worldwide.4. ECOS – Cooperativa de Educação Cooperação e Desenvolvimento (Portugal) is promoting non-formal education with expertise on participatory-based project development involving young people and decision makers on local or regional level.5. University of Rzeszów (Poland): a public higher education institution (tertiary level) that develops research projects and participates in various educational programmes important for South-Eastern Poland development.Main activities- Transnational Meeting: held in Klagenfurt, Austria (28/01/17), hosted by gain & sustain, 11 representatives participated. Main aims: discussion and clarification of the research project, planning the training and the conference.- Learning Activity: a 5 day Training Course held in Thessaloniki, Greece (20-24/03/17), hosted by University of Macedonia. 25 young participants, 5 partner countries. Lectures, workshops, methodological applications on Social Entrepreneurship, digital tools, research tools.- Multiplier Event: an International Conference held in Portimão, Portugal (11/09/17), hosted by ECOS in cooperation with DYPALL Network. Main aim: the Intellectual Outputs presentation and the final evaluation.Results- Web-Portal/Forum: website for documenting SE+ED activities, uploading educational and informative material, promoting interaction among all stakeholders. Keeping the material up-to-date is a long-term goal.- Webinars on Social Entrepreneurship: a series of online courses (educational videos) on SE. The content is based on the lectures and workshops of the training course. The supplementary material (EU documents, presentations or references) that accompanies the educational videos aims to help the young social entrepreneurs around Europe to benefit from the webinars even more.- e-Book: a digital book in two parts. The first part is based on the preliminary research of young participants in each partner-country about the SE context and legislation, practices of non-formal and formal education, resources and tools to support SE. The second part consists of various case studies conducted by the young participants at local social enterprises and showcases the young participants’ innovative action-plans implemented to improve the business model of the studied enterprise. The e-Book will be used as teaching material in academic modules by the participating Universities.

"The ""PATH FOR CAREER"" (PFC) project was addressed to graduates that are looking for a job and employees who want to advance in their careers and aimed to harmonize their skills with the requirements of employers. We aimed to develop them skills that are not taught in school, but which are essential in their careers.The PATH FOR CARERER project is the result of a cross-sectoral cooperation between SEP (applicant organization) and ESSENIA UETP (Italy), MBM (UK), UCAM (Spain), INTERACTIVE 4D (France), AcrossLimits (Malta), in order to find a solution for a faster insertion on the labor market and the achievement of career objectives by harmonizing the skills of new university graduates with those required by employers.The problem for which the project aimed to provide a solution is a common one in all the countries of the partnership, reason for which we considered that an international approach is needed to confer viability in as many EU countries as possible. Approaching the problem from different points of view and based on a different experience, offered by partners, has led to a wider applicability of intellectual output.The project achieved its goal by fulfilling 3 objectives:OB1. Improving the skills of 16 trainers of partner organizations to provide quality training in the field of career management, software skills (creativity, time management, problem solving, leadership, teamwork) and internships for graduates. OB2. Development of software skills (listed in OB1) and career management skills for 90 graduates by using of the PFC kit in 9 workshops to facilitate their access to a job and career development. OB3. Development of a European network of organizations involved in adult education that will use PFC output in their trainings. The PATH FOR CAREER project was organized in 3 parts.The first part aimed at improving the skills of trainers from partner organizations in order to provide quality training in career management, software skills development and internships for new graduates. This was achieved through the 3 learning activities hosted by MBM, UCAM, ESSSENIA. Following the learning activities, the 3 chapters of the PATH FOR CAREER guide and the related educational games were created (the PATH FOR CAREER kit).The second part of the project consisted in the development of software skills and career management skills for 119 graduates by using intellectual output, to facilitate their access to a job and career development.Part 3 focused on the dissemination and multiplication of project results through multiplication events, social networks, expanding the PATH network of intellectual output users.The materials created in the project have a high degree of transferability and utility for both the universities, youth, and scholar domain (these can be used by school counselors and career counselors in universities, high schools, etc.)The premises for the subsequent use of the project results were ensured through new partnerships established by partner organizations with higher education institutions wishing to organize training workshops for students conducted in the format of those organized with the target group, but also through free access to all project materials for all interested categories."

This Project results from our need as teachers of adult language learners to satisfy the needs of a mixed-ability language class, helping students improve their achievement, thus reducing disparities in learning outcomes. Our Team embodies the aim that permeates the Project, that is, diversity, because we are a diverse group (language schools, teacher training centres, and NGOs) which, at the same time, share the same necessities and a common goal: to help adult students develop their competence in foreign languages as a way to open doors to employment, training and mobility opportunities in a globalised and especially ever competitive world. We want to work with diversity in a way that can serve any educator (and any student) anywhere in any context. How are we doing this? by standardizing student learning models, methodology approaches, and evaluation criteria. These learning models will be approached from an analytical perspective analyzing aspects like learning styles, learning paces and personality traits, but also from a holistic perspective taking into account aspects like age, socio-cultural and educational background and how their reality as a whole can affect their learning process. We want to create a kind of standard and, at the same time, flexible approach from which we can personalize student profiles attending to their individual needs, making them conscious of what type of learner they are. The activities of the Project have been organised into two different stages: 1. Analysis and Training - Good practice exchange workshop, not only examples of good practice to attend diversity in the classroom, but also of any other aspect regarding the organisation and management of centres, considering the hetereogeneity of our association. - A training activity that will provide the theoretical framework from which we can standardize learning models, tools for their identification and those of self-assessment and materials to be implemented in the classroom. - Elaboration and asessment of those tools and materials that will be used in class during the implementation stage. 2. Implementation, Assessment and Dissemination: - Case studies as a didactic technique: teachers will select a practice group and a control group, which will serve as a comparison group when results are assessed. Those results will also be included in a comparative research study. - Progress analysis and methodology comparison: with the objective to learn how the work is adapted to the different realities and situations experienced in the different establishments. - Assessment of results, which must be in line with the indicators of achievement applied to objectives and results of the project as a whole. - Dissemination activities: a Manual for teachers, a comparative study research, and the creation of a website and mobile app containing information about the project, its objectives and results and from the Manual can be downloaded. The methodology applied is characterized by a respect towards diversity, and values the aspects and experience of such an heterogeneous team as ours and the enrichment that it brings to the Project. In that sense, we also include the case study method to analyze diversity which, by nature, can present different variables and is subjected to change depending on the context it is found in. The results, benefits and the impact expected is looked at from two different perspectives: Teachers being the target group: - Gain expertise to identify a wide range of profiles of adult language learners and develop skills to design effective pedagogical activities and methodology approaches responding to the diverse needs of students. - Develop inter-disciplinary language training skills for all adult learning context and to encourage learners' critical thinking and self-assessment. -Develop transferable and generalizable pedagogical models that can be applied at transnational level. Students, being the beneficiaries of our work: - Experience the improvement of linguistic and communicative competence of students in a foreign language, according to the level they are in, and learn how to take responsibility of their own learning process, favouring independence, and also how they learn best based on an awareness of their abilities, strengths and weakenesses, thus fostering self-confidence.