European education and training systems continue to fall short in providing the right skills for employability, and are not working adequately with business or employers to bring the learning experience closer to the reality of the working environment. These skills mismatches are a growing concern for European industry's competitiveness (Industrial Policy Communication Update COM, 2012, p:582 ). By 2020, 20% more jobs will require higher level skills. Education needs to drive up both standards and levels of achievement to match this demand, as well as encourage the transversal skills needed to ensure young people are able to be entrepreneurial and adapt to the increasingly inevitable changes in the labour market during their career. The scope and pace of reforms needs to be scaled up so high quality skills can support both growth and jobs (EU Commission Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes, 2012, p:2). Skills mismatch refers to a discrepancy between the demand and supply of skills on the labour market. In other words a situation in which the skills sought by employers are different from the skills offered by job-seekers or workers. In order to achieve excellence in VET, curricula must be systematically renewed, delivery must be constantly modernized and businesses, especially SMEs, must be actively involved. VET must be able to react to the demand for advanced vocational skills, tailored to the regional economic context. Within this context given, this project aims to develop a platform through which vocational education systems and the labour market, especially the SMEs, communicate interactively, while one side voting for/valuing the skills they need and the other side, that's the vocational systems answers by updating the current curriculum. Also, the training content developed on skills analysis and mapping through the ECVET Skills Platform is considered to serve the quality of vocational education and training systems, giving the experts responsible for teaching technical skills the mission of teaching also the personal and conceptual skills.Target group of the project is vocational education and training institutions, teachers/trainers in VET, SMEs, employers, decision makers, non-governmental organizations and trainees. It aims at creating a channel among the members of the target group to keep them updated about the needs and requirements of the firms and the provided skills at educational institutions. During the project, the first step will be to identify qualifications of CNC Machining according to EQF as Level 4. Then, secondly, defining the expectations of the firms will be taken together with the opinions of technical teachers. In this context, ideas and expectations from firms and individuals in decision-making positions in the labour market will be gathered and a list of the necessary skills required will be established. Then, with ECVET Skills platform that will be installed on the internet, a ranking of importance will be listed by firms. This is the most innovative part of the project. Following this, the training curriculum in vocational high schools for CNC Manchine will be renewed and/or developed in order to ensure the most needed top ten skills. Trainers will be trained on this platform and will be informed about how they should implement their education. Then, hese trainers will apply the top ten skill-building training curricula on the qualification list from the digital platform.The students and teachers will be able to access into the videos and teaching materials on the platform and assess their own learning with the rubric provided. Therefore, they will have higher self-esteem in terms of qualifications and the market can be more satisfied in with hiring more qualified employers. On the other hand, top ten skill lists created by firms; and all teaching materials and videos created in a dynamic fashion can be downloaded openly to all individuals in order to ensure that the created platform reaches wider population. Thus, as students, teachers, and trainers easily access these information, the widespread impact of the platform will be increased.Establishing a vocational education and training curriculum and extensive content by using an online web portal to develop a system for skills and qualifications that are supposed to be based on the needs of the labour markets is the innovative wall of the project. One of the pioneering innovative elements will be enabling countries to obtain the skill ranking of CNC machining. The proposed web portal can be seen as one of the most key innovations of the project, since it will be accessible by all related stakeholders.

ACE-EX project provides a multidisciplinary profession, the “Expert at applying Circular Economy processes in agriculture” and tools to guarantee quality of training, recognition, transferability and exploitation. General objectives:- to support the agriculture sector in the transition to a Circular Economy (following “CE”);- to develop an entrepreneurial mind set for the new opportunities coming for the CE applications;- to facilitate the transition to a “green” chemistry using the waste/ surplus coming for agriculture;- to contribute to sectoral compliance with the EU Green Deal standards. Specific objectives:1. To upskill professionals working in the agriculture and industrial sector, specifically production of oil, wine and corn, in the reuse of agricultural production waste/surplus for the production of new business products and/or innovation of business processes by developing an innovative and multidisciplinary curriculum, also through V/R modules. 2. To provide Open Access and flexible training for a certification EQF 4 and 5, accessible virtually from professionals located in at least 9 EU and Extra Eu countries, guaranteeing sustainability of contents, constant update and scalability to an EQF 6 Master. Developing horizontal digital and green skills applicable to other professional sectors.3. To guarantee procedures for the RPL of professionals and link these arrangements with national accreditation authorities.4. To certify experts at applying CE in agriculture by developing professional skills that, on one side, enhance individuals’ employability and, on the other, are highly beneficial for agricultural firms, particularly wine, oil and cereals, since they provide them with the concrete opportunity of applying and benefit from CE practices.ACE-EX involves 20 consortium members from 9 EU and extra Eu countries, representing more than 200.000 agriculture firms Europe Wide, which will be approached during the project

"The project “Europe4refugees - follow the routes” (Eu4R) is a Strategic Partnership/Key action 2 for networking and exchanging best practices for qualification trainers working with refugees in Europe. Refugees cross the southern and eastern European borders, remain in their initial host country, or travel on towards central or northern Europe. The conditions of admission, legal situation, and efforts towards integration of refugees are, in most cases, different between the European countries. Also differing is the degree of support by state and municipal structures, or structures of civil society staffed by volunteers. Finally, there are different approaches for housing refugees, from transit zones to settling in cooperatively organised housing and learning project in rural areas, to accommodation in transitional facilities and flats in urban agglomerations. Refugees traveling through transit countries, with stopovers of varying lengths, thus find quite different conditions in European countries, and in some cases have to reorient themselves multiple times. General further education professionals support and realise the social, structural, and linguistic integration of these often quite heterogeneous refugee groups in projects and regular offers via courses, consulting, and temporary offers with various content. Always the goal is conveying a diversity of basic and professional competencies to adult refugees for their future opportunities, and to consult them accordingly, independently of their prospects of permanent residence. The project “Europe4refugees – follow the routes” gathers co-workers of refugee work from five southern, central, northern and eastern European countries (Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, and Norway) over a duration of 27 months to exchange experiences on these models via training seminars for practicing professionals in their five countries."" The idea is to follow the refugee routes and stopovers of refugees within Europe from the perspective of further education. The seven participating partner organisations (two each from Greece, Region Thessaloníki / Island of Lesbos, and from Germany, Dortmund and Hitzacker, one each from Italy, Region Apulia, from Hungary, Budapest, and from Norway, Oslo) are not-for-profit, profit and private institutions of further education, associations of civil society, cooperatives, small enterprises and NGOs, all working immediately or indirectly with refugees or their support structures, usually made up of volunteers. The partners are nearly equally active in urban agglomerations and in rural regions, which constitutes a further quality for the exchange of best practices. In shared short-term learning activities in each of the five countries, the project participants will develop new perspectives in three-day workshops. These take place as a combination of seminar units with experts, work shadowing visits at NGOs and educational organisations, and dialogue events with those locally responsible for refugee work, coupled with subsequent transfer and evaluation units. In exchanging on their work in the participating European countries, they acquire intercultural sensitivity, knowledge on the situation of refugees in Europe across national boundaries, as well as consultancy and planning competence for their own work in further education. In comparing degrees of integration and approaches of inclusion in these example countries, the project participants get to know best practices, similar, and new approaches in working with refugees. Through the adaptation of ideas for working in their own countries, a further advancement towards European standards in educational work and in social work with refugees will be initiated."" At the same time a network within European adult education is formed by these learning activities. The regular exchange of participating practitioners on migration and refugee movements during the project duration and beyond (e.g. through network cultivation using quarterly newsletters or similar means) also allows for a more rapid response to demands of planning and education in working with refugees. Such a developing trans-national educational task force as a counterpart to multilateral working groups on the political level can inject valuable suggestions and information to the regional and local educational networks of the participating countries, and encourage suitable follow-up measures, like for example the development of a European handbook for refugee work."

<< Objectives >>The issue of missing people and children, in particular, is increasing in Europe (200.000 children are reported missing and only the 33% were found). LOST2 focuses on the needs to create an effective European system of research by the definition of a European core professional profile of the “Expert in the research of Missing people &minors” with the aim of defining a high level of common training contents at European level leading to the recognition of the new qualification in the EU countries.<< Implementation >>- Preparing a consistent documentation with the European standards of representation of professions and qualifications in order to make national/local Authorities able to proceed with the verification, validation & recognition of the related learning;- Planning and testing a competence & module based Joint Training flexible programme as a complete path for learning the contents of the individual Units taking into account the minimum and common parameters of the professional standard proposed.<< Results >>Suitable documentation Dossier for the recognition of the Qualification where the representation of the competencies of the professional is interconnected with the ESCO, EQF and the different National standards & Qualification systems of the participating countries.A tested on-line innovative curriculum, structured on a set of skills common to different countries in terms of LEARNING OUTCOMES and associated with each UNIT, EQF / NQF level of the qualification, according to the ECVET methodology

<< Background >>Our experiences from previous projects have proved to us that transnational collaboration is valuable. “Differences are a good base for innovation” is a saying we have based some of our EU-funded projects on. Once again, we want to join forces with like-minded and ambitious actors in Europe, trying to make a difference within the field of Vocational Education and Training. Our focus this time is on horticulture and cultural heritage, and how we can support lifelong learning by creating flexible learning pathways for vocational skills within garden conservation. Two of the major crises that characterise the third decade of the 21st Century - Covid and Climate Change underpin the need for this Erasmus + project. With green spaces playing a major role in our health and well-being during the covid crisis, it is ever more important that we have the skills to protect them from climate change, as well as the knowledge of sustainable techniques to reduce carbon emissions whilst doing so.Heritage gardens encapsulate a significant amount of the natural and cultural capital that sustains us during a time of crisis: tranquility, beauty, productivity and biodiversity. Safeguarding these values require knowledge and skill that is in increasingly short supply.<< Objectives >>CSGC aims to address this problem by finding best practice in the various fields of Garden Conservation and sharing it via the diverse bodies of Vocational Education and Training as well as professional horticultural associations. Whilst some nations have retained expertise in certain specialisms, others have not and are searching for guidance, whilst yet more have been researching the increasing relevance of historic techniques to our current challenges. This knowledge deserves wider dissemination if we are to build the necessary expertise throughout the European Union and beyond.<< Implementation >>We aim to use the latest developments in mixed reality and virtual learning to allow a wide range of participants to share in this expertise. An all-day winter webinar will introduce each topic, followed by a range of videos/simulations/animations to explore the practical skills required. A smaller number of participants will then visit the chosen craft skills centre attending workshops, using sustainable transport options, to practice those skills in the field and bring them back to disseminate to colleagues and fellow students. The digital approach will be followed throughout the project and beyond.<< Results >>The easily accessible curricula and videos will be the tangible results and outcomes, developed by combining traditional craft skills and digital tools. Adding some innovation into Vocational Education and Training, we are aiming for increasing the relevance for the current and future students and lifelong learners. This Erasmus+ project also focus on improving the competence of educators, both in the horticultural and digital field. At the end of this three-year project we aim to see a growth and spread of such expertise throughout Europe, so that more local craft skills centres emerge, avoiding the need for expensive travel. The information gathered during the webinars and workshops will also be freely available on the Internet. The training resources (curricula, videos, animations and simulations) will be accessible to all, thus positioning the craft in a much broader sphere for diverse audiences. Ultimately we hope to see further growth in the restoration of historic green spaces that can then form the focus for community participation, particularly amongst disadvantaged people who stand to gain so much from this important resurgence of green skills.