CONTEXTEarly leaving from education and training (ELET) is a serious issue in many EU countries and has attracted the attention of many researchers, policy-makers and educators. Although the situation varies between countries and the underlying reasons for leaving early differ from student to student, the process leading up to it has a number of common elements.According to the report of Eurycide and Cedefop, “Tackling Early Leaving from Education and Training in Europe: Strategies, Policies and Measures” (2014), one out of seven young Europeans leaves the education system presenting a lack of skills and qualifications necessary to prepare them for the labor market. Currently, more than 4 million young people in Europe are classified as early school leavers, only 40% of whom are employed.In the last two years, due to the pandemic, this problem has been emphasized, especially as regards Italy, one of the worst countries in Europe.Research shows that leaving education early leads to reduced opportunities in the labor market and an increased likelihood of unemployment, socio-economic disadvantage, health problems, as well as reduced participation in political, social, and cultural activities.On the other hand, abundant research indicates that a higher level ofn education can lead to a series of positive outcomes for the individual as well as for society. The benefits of young people staying longer in school are improved employment prospects, higher salaries, better health, less crime, improved social cohesion, lower public and social costs, and higher productivity and growth.Dealing with the underlying causes of early leaving and developing ways to overcome them has become a central issue in Europe.OBJECTIVESThe overall goal of motivatEyoUth is to develop a multi-intervention program for youth and youth workers and focus on the early school leaving phenomenon, to reduce the factors that create it and draw direct and indirect actions towards the target groups. MotivatEyoUth is based on two key pillars: Early School Leaving (ESL) Prevention and Intervention; through the project, prevention actions for youth prone to present high-risk behaviors was developed, as well as intervention measures and actions for youth classified as Early Leavers from Education and Training” (ELET), to prevent, remedy and reduce Early School Leaving. TARGET GROUPThe main target groups of the project have been young people between 14 -18 years old and youth 18-24, classified as Early Leavers from Education and Training & experts; teachers, educators, youth workers, trainers, social workers, healthcare professionals, coaches, social workers etc.It is estimated that more than 1200 youth and experts have been involved, directly and indirectly within the project activities, and around 90.000 have been achieved, through dissemination activities, during the three years of the project.ACTIVITIESFour main Intellectual Outputs are been designed and developed: O1: Experts Programme Toolkit O2: Online game “Journey to your Future” O3: ICT Tool for Competence Assessment O4: Online educational platform The project results are available in English, Italian, Greek, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish languages. They are developed in such a way and method so as to have the availability to be transferred and adjusted appropriately to other EU countries in the future.RESULTS AND IMPACT Youth involved in the project have been developing digital skills; they have been motivated and encouraged to continue on education and training through innovative material, tools, and activities; they have been developing their interest in Educational opportunities and other opportunities in entering the labor market Experts and other stakeholders have increased their awareness of ESL, the factors that create it, and the risks that derive from it; they have new educational tools and methods that will be applicable in their daily work and will support them in addressing the risks and issues raised by ESL/ELET (both for prevention as well as intervention purposes); they have been the development of their digital skills and opportunity to make better use of digital technology. Partner organizations have updated, improve & widen their educational and training offer, putting their competitiveness ahead; they have new tools that will be applicable to their daily work; they have exchanged know-how and define the best practices in the field of ESL/ELET so as to incorporate them into the project products; they have participated in an international network across diverse professional fields and gain expertise in a demanding and important field.

Small NGOs (SNGOs, <15 employees) in Europe are facing rising operating costs in terms of new skills to acquire, accelerating competition for public funds, and shrinking government support, particularly in countries suffering from nationalism and restricting laws. SNGOs are facing higher operational costs and worse visibility (particularly with regards to refugee support). At the same time, in 2018 the EU Commission launched a plan to protect European values having a special focus on NGOs, launching a new Justice, Rights and Values Fund aimed at strengthening civil society facing several threats in several member states. In fact, as also the Fundamental Rights Agency stated in the same year, European civil groups are far from reaching sustainable long-term financing – this is expressed in short-term projects or in not-qualified personnel doing the fund-raising. As such, every year SNGOs face to quit as they cannot plan ahead – this is transversal in Europe and particularly evident in Southern states. The project regards particularly to the dramatic data regarding financial and digital education – 1 out of 3 adult Europeans are not sufficiently equipped to reach satisfactory digital competencies or with sufficient financial literacy. e-PATTERNS (E-learning platform for up-skilling in fund-raising practice, financial digital literacy in NGO management) wants to support poorly- ICT-equipped SNGO practitioners (30+ years old) who need to be up-re-skilled in ICT & financial literacy (budgeting, planning ahead, choosing products (brand) and using independent advice )to develop strategic competencies in fund-raising, crucial for the development of any social project. Gender makes the situation even more dramatic, both in Italy and in the rest of the partner countries. Fund-raising (as financial literacy) requires a broad approach - entrepreneurial techniques, financial analysis, digital knowledge and branding are required for social projects. Differently, SNGOs often see fund-raising just as limited tool to finance something, and not a permanent strategic activity that regards entrepreneurship strategies, financial and digital positioning as well as digital marketing techniques.e-PATTERNS aims to up-re-skill adult SNGOs practitioners (30+ years old) to support their work in fund-raising and strategic digital positioning through new technologies, developing a web-platform to help strategical planning and to incubate projects in a sustainable way, creating also a self-assessment tool to analyse the state of digitisation within the organisation. Indeed, the project wants to support concrete SNGOs projects in each partner country, improving also working flexibility of adults in SNGOs which face the hop-in/hop-out problem with regards to job market.Specific objectives:- Train low-skilled adults and develop their competences in financial literacy/fund-raising through simplified ICT tools developing a Step-by-Step Educational Framework connected to Open Badges System (OBS) to be tested/complete through two specific training sessions during the project life time;- Support local projects incubating them through fund-raising preparatory actions (or through crowd-funding, partnership building, budget planning etc.) during the project enhancing the impact of SNGOs (C1,C2);- Create a web-platform hosting an interactive online step-by-step web tool to guide target group users in learn financial basics to make a fund-raise plan, where they can train/consult FAQ/orienteer better. Learning qualification will be issued through Open Badge System.- Define/develop a self-assessment tool for digitisation of SNGOs in order to define areas of work and training patterns within organisations.The project main aim is to empower at local level SNGOs and to improve the project management, implementation and delivery of them in order to keep them alive within the European democratic system.

"The SenQuality project addresses the topic of individual later life preparation in order to support well-being in old age.Demographic ageing is likely to be of major significance in the coming decades. Low birth rates and higher life expectancy will lead to a much older population structure. In 2018 about one fifths of the EU-28 populated were 65 years and older. During the next decades this is expected to gradually increase up to 28.5 % in 2050 (eurostat, Ageing Europe, 2019). The demographic change will have far-reaching implications. Expected cuts in social security systems, challenges for the health and care systems etc. emphasize an increased responsibility of individuals to prepare for later life. But also personal age-related changes influence future well-being. This includes bodily changes, role transitions when retiring but also loosing independence or trusted people. Several studies have shown that planning and preparing for age related changes is associated with increased well-being in later life, e.g. Noone et.al., Preretirement planning and well-being in later life, 2009; Yeung & Zhou, Planning for Retirement: Longitudinal Effect on Retirement Resources and Post-retirement Well-being, 2017; Preston et.al., Planning and preparing for later life, 2018. However, many people have not thought much about their later life nor taken future-oriented actions. The aim of the project is to raise awareness for the importance of planning for later life in a positive way and offer an individual, easy-accessible and flexible planning tool for own measures. The main result will be an online platform at which adults can search and find answers for their personal later life planning. This will be done with the help of self-reflection and different material and good practices as inspiration for a concrete action-plan.Preparation will not only concern financial aspects, which some persons might see as difficult to influence, but nine different life domains:- Finances- Emergencies & Exceptional Circumstances- Mental & Physical Fitness - Housing- Looks & Appearance - Social relationships- Health - Leisure Activities & Lifestyle- Work& Employment.The project follows by this the assumptions of Anna E. Kornadt (University of Luxemburg) and Klaus Rothermund (University of Jena) who see preparation as a lifelong and multidimensional process and defined in their studies these domains (e.g. Preparation for old age in different life domains, 2014). Preparations are considered for an active ‘""third age"", where the loss of the work role and its substitution with leisure activities or bridge employment are relevant, and for a ‘‘fourth age’’ in which the deterioration of one’s health, dependence/independence, generativity issues, and closeness to death becomes more important.The main target group of this project are therefore adults in their middle age between 40 and 65 as well as seniors in their 3rd age around retirement. They will be the direct beneficiaries of the preparation tool. Piloting is foreseen with 175 adult learners. In addition, also adult educators, counsellors, psychologists and other related professional groups will be involved as participants to contribute to the different IOs but also to benefit from the self-reflection concept and the online platform for own counselling offers.In a first Intellectual Output, “Domains for later life preparation”, an information pack will be elaborated with description, concrete information and advice on the nine domains relevant for later life incl. good practice examples for preparation. This will form an individual result but also the basis for the contents of the online platform on later life planning.The 2nd output contains the development of a methodological framework as concept for assessment, self-reflection and action plan in the nine domains concerned. It will ask about the current situation and where it should go (plans, hopes, values etc.) besides supporting to find individual answers what to do to reach the own aims.Both outputs lead to an online platform for later life planning (IO3) as main result of the project. After introductions into each domain, the current situation of the users will be illuminated in form of a self-reflection, based on the conceptional framework developed in IO2. Good practice examples and different also country specific sources and materials will serve as inspiration for own planning.The impact of the SenQuality project will be an increased motivation of adults to prepare for later life in a stage in which this still can be influenced in addition to an increased knowledge on how to plan for later life. Considering the demographic changes in Europe and its related challenges but also individual challenges for people in getting older, there is no doubt about the necessity of individual preparation for later life. The topic is of societal interest. The project intents to offer a European solution for a European problem."

<< Objectives >>Specific objective 1 Ensure quality of resultsSpecific objective 2 Support HE students’ achievement of competenciesSpecific objective 3 Create and test the DOEER MOOCSpecific objective 4 Put in place long term exploitation of the project results<< Implementation >>Activity 2.1 Worst and best practices on (in)equal methodsActivity 2.2 DOEER framework Activity 2.3 DOEER Quality Guidelines for HE on equality-based practicesActivity 3.1 Contents of DOEER MOOCActivity 3.2 Creation of the DOEER online course for HE Activity 3.3 Pilots of the DOEER MOOCActivity 4.1 Dissemination activitiesActivity 4.2 Evaluation of achievements and sustainability<< Results >>R1.1: Interim technical reportR1.2: Final technical reportR2.1: Worst and best practices on (in)equality (OPEN DATA)R2.2: DOOER framework (OER)R2.3: Quality guidelines for HE digital and pedagogical competencies on equality (OER)R3.1 Contents of DOEER MOOCR3.2 DOEER MOOC (OER)R3.3 Pilots of DOEER MOOC in tourism sectorR4.1 Technical report on organized dissemination events and activitiesR4.2: Exploitation and sustainability project agreement

<< Background >>The EQstudents project is one-of-a-kind project which addresses the lack of a structured curriculum in national educational systems regarding the development of the EQ components in primary and lower-secondary schools, as understood by Goleman (emphasis on scientific achievements, development of cognitive intelligence). It adapts cross-sectoral approach, bringing together 7 EU partners coming from 5 EU countries from within and outside the education (specialization in neuro-science, game development, therapeutic intervention, development of innovative and creative teaching tools) - to create an alliance of different experts, organizations and sectors with diverse perspectives and resources to address complex educational challenges more effectively.The importance of EQ was already recognized in the Analytical Report of the EU (2018) “Strengthening Social and Emotional Education...”, which states that developing emotional competences has a positive impact on various aspects of children’s and young people’s life with regard to their education, learning, well-being and mental health. The emotional component of education is compulsory in some EU countries, while in others it’s not existent, e.g. the national guidelines on the Italian school curriculum describe the learning aims that schools have to pursue to develop social and emotional competences from early years across the mandatory school years, while in Poland the deficit of social capabilities is indicated as one of the key barriers in the long-term development of the country as low levels of emotional competences have been reported and still no guidelines have been introduced. Cultivating children's EQ to be better prepared for the challenges in life, recognize and manage their own emotions is especially important in today’s pandemic and tomorrow’s post-pandemic world.Additionally, the project corresponds to the Commission Recommendation of 20 February 2013 Investing in children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage (2013/112/EU) as it increases the capacity of education systems to break the cycle of disadvantage, ensuring that all children can benefit from inclusive high quality education that promotes their emotional, social, cognitive and physical development; addresses differences in the availability and quality of education and strengthens the link between students, teachers, pupils and other school experts. What’s more, the project addresses the needs of the future. Acc. to the Capgemini Research Institute “EQ - the essential skills for the age of AI”, 74% of executives and 58% of non-supervisory employees believe that EQ will become a must-have skill, 61% of executives and 41% of non-supervisory employees believe that it’ll become so in the next 1 to 5 years. People who have high EQ capacities, who can connect with others, display empathy and understand emotions are needed in the workplace. EQ is no longer an additional set of skills, it’s a core skillset of the future. Acc. to N. Frasquet of Coty Inc., “Only those people who rate highly on EQ skills will have a higher chance of retaining their jobs, compared to the ones who just have their basic technical and digital skills in place.” The EQstudents project is the answer for the detected needs as it aims to develop, test and implement a comprehensive system supporting development of emotional intelligence (EQ) of school-age children (6 - 15 years old) with active participation of primary and lower-secondary schools, parents, experts and project partners in the participating countries. It’ll directly address the need for the educating community (school, teachers, parents, etc.) to come and work together with the aim of supporting children and teenagers in the development of EQ by providing specific tools and models. In the long-term perspective it’ll contribute to building an emotionally intelligent generation, increase awareness of EQ, their significance now and in the future, in schools, in the job market.<< Objectives >>The aim of the EQstudents project is to boost EQ of children and adolescents by developing, testing and implementing a comprehensive system supporting development of EQ with active participation of primary and lower-secondary schools, parents, experts and project partners. Also it’ll directly address the need for the educating community to raise an emotionally intelligent generation.The EQstudents project will aim to:- develop, test and implement a comprehensive system supporting development of emotional intelligence (EQ) of school-age children (6 to 15 years old) with active participation of primary and lower-secondary schools, parents, experts and project partners in the participating countries- increase capacity of school teachers, specialists for teaching children emotional intelligence- support parents in raising emotionally intelligent kids- protect the most vulnerable children from the impact of pandemic threatening their growth and development- strengthen cross-sectoral cooperation (schools, partner organizations, stakeholders) across project countries in order to stir innovation in the education sector- promote inclusive education providing all primary and lower-secondary students with equal access to high-quality , free of charge services, diagnostic tool, activities, resources- promote the development of the emotional intelligence components in national education systems- contribute to raising emotionally intelligent generations in the long-term perspective.The objectives of the project are fully in line with the detected needs in the project countries (PL, CY, IT, GR, RO) as well as respond to EU call of action and recommendations. It will increase the capacity of education systems to “break the cycle of disadvantage”, support children and young people's emotional well-being during and after the pandemic, and provide high-quality support programmes and tools to primary and lower-secondary schools across countries. The consortium also wants to raise awareness in local communities on the importance of development of EQ from early years and how it affects the quality of lives, influences human behaviour and relationships, and drives future success.<< Implementation >>The EQstudents partnership will implement the following activities: (1) MANAGEMENT, (2) SHARING, PROMOTION, (3) QUALITY CONTROL & EVALUATION activities, which will take place during the whole lifetime of the project implementation.1) MANAGEMENT. To ensure the proper project management, OIC Poland will develop the Management and Financial Plan which will include the timetable defining all activities, project outcomes, time limits, project milestones, risk management etc. It will also describe the reporting requirements and the communication rules and tools. Management will be supported by communication, meetings and reporting. The Project Management Group (PMG) will be formed involving a representative from each partner. The project management will be based on the PRINCE2 methodology. Transparent rules of management and direct contacts between all project partners will be the foundation of effective project coordination.2) SHARING & PROMOTION activities coordinated by OLYMPION with the support of OIC Poland. These activities will be carried out during the lifetime of the project for the benefit of primary and lower-secondary schools, relevant stakeholders and engaging the end-users. They will be based on the Communication Plan, approved and executed by all project partners. The exploitation activities will be focused on integrating the project results into national practice and provision in their respective countries as part of the overall strategy. 3) QUALITY CONTROL & EVALUATION led by COMCY will aim to ensure that the project has a robust quality management plan and a culture of continuous improvement achieved through regular evaluation. The project partners will establish a quality board to support evaluation of the project results and peer review group for evaluation of results and activities in terms of the planned products, time limits, budget and communication between them. Within the QE Plan, all evaluation indicators, tools and criteria used in the project evaluation will be included. The project products will be assessed taking into account their usefulness, accuracy, impact as well as keeping international requirements and standards too. The evaluation results will be used to improve and adapt the project results to the needs of the target group. They will be presented in reports and discussed during each transnational project meeting.The production of the project products will be divided into 3 phases:Phase (1): Design, development & capacity building - The PR1-5 will be designed and produced with active involvement of all project partners, experts and end-users (participatory, bottom-up approach: focus groups, consultations) to elicit their perceptions on the planned results and have their recommendations on the design from the early stages of the project. In this phase, all products will be tested internally and evaluated. To exploit the products, FPP will organise a short-term joint staff training event (Italy) to facilitate working with the tools, training materials and methodology developed.Phase (2): Pilot testing and evaluation - coordinated by FPP. The products elaborated in the 2nd phase will be tested among end-users (PR3, PR4, PR5) and subject to evaluation by the experts (PR1-2) in every project country according to the provided guidelines and milestones. The trainers participating in C1 will be engaged in this phase, in order to support the process.Phase (3): Fine-tuning, translation and adaptation - Based on the testing results, PRs will be fine-tuned and translated/ adapted to national context. Adaptation is especially important to ensure that the results are found to be effective in the national school setting. The products will be made available on open license in EN, PL, GR, IT, RO.<< Results >>In the course of the project, there will be 5 project results produced i.e.:PR1:Model of working with a pupil aged 6-10 for development of emotional intelligence- EQ Kids- it will define processes, tools and rules of working with a pupil aged 6-10, especially the ones with adaptive difficulties, for development of emotional intelligence in educational environment and at home involving teachers, tutors, school pedagogues, psychologists and parents. The addressees of the model will be school personnel i.e. teachers, tutors, school pedagogues, psychologists, parents but also sociotherapist and other experts working with a pupil aged 6-10 experiencing difficulties. PR2:Model of working with a pupil aged 11-15 for development of emotional intelligence- EQ Teens- it will define processes, tools and rules of working with a pupil aged 11-15, especially the ones with adaptive difficulties, for development of emotional intelligence in educational environment and at home involving teachers, tutors, school pedagogues, psychologists and parents. The model will concern older pupils being at different stages of cognitive development than younger children where there are new opportunities for development of emotional intelligence and new problems and issues connected with the specificity of the adolescence period.PR3:Emotional Intelligence Assessment Tool for a pupil aged 11-15 - a multidimensional psychometrical electronic tool designed for diagnosis of 5 dimensions of emotional intelligence of students aged 11-15 based on Goleman concept. It will measure the following key components of emotional intelligence: Self-awareness , Self-regulation, Social skills, Empathy, Motivation. The accurate diagnosis of 5 dimensions of emotional intelligence would allow to tailor teaching methodology and to develop the child support programme. The tool will automatically generate individual feedback on the subject of 5 dimensions of emotional intelligence.PR4:Emotional Intelligence: What Teachers and Parents Can Do - training and professional development - The training toolkit for teachers and parents will be available in the form of asynchronous on-line training on emotional intelligence, in multimedia form (videos, exercises, practical tasks, podcasts, live short webinars for teachers and parents on the topic (recorded) OER, etc.) available via on-line platform (not Moodle). It will concern how to nurture and develop 5 key dimensions of emotional intelligence of pupils aged 6-15- the topics are not included yet in curricula at universities and the training offers. It will include 30 short trainings for teachers and 20 short trainings for parents.PR5:Hybrid game for children aged 11-15 (story, script, cards, coach's manual etc.)- it will aim at developing and nurturing 5 key dimensions of emotional intelligence in social relations i.e. Self-awareness, Self-regulation, Social skills, Empathy, Motivation. The game will be addressed to children aged 11-15 who will be taking step by step in the game according to the developed story to learn how to adapt to a changing environment, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges or defuse conflict correctly.The hybrid game means that some part of the game will take place in a virtual environment (on-line groups via laptops, tablets) and some part of the game will be in a form of outdoor game with printed materials (e.g. maps, tasks) moderated by a teacher. The game will be accompanied by a moderator’s manual, cards, maps according to the tasks included in the game.All the project products have potential for transfer and exploitation in other EU countries.The products will be available in EN and national languages of the partners on open Source licence. They could be easily taken up by individuals to their everyday work and organization. The partners will also create powerful promotional material targeted at schools,pedagogical staff, learners,stakeholders,multiligual www, social media.