Putting the “unheard gender” in spotlight Over the years the EU Parliament and the Commission are determined to advance and promote equal and inclusive societies where equal rights for women and men, girls and boys, as well as the same visibility, empowerment, responsibility and participation is being reality. The Erasmus+ Partnership Putting the “unheard gender” in spotlight fits in that framework. Over the last decade’s adult education institutions were building gender knowledge and practical skills. Nevertheless, a critical review shows, that •the assumption that gender is not any more an issue in adult education is both erroneous and dangerous; •gender equality policies have been contextualised mainly as a women’s issue;•despite increasing attention to fathers in adult education practice and research, men – specially from underprivileged situations- are still largely the unheard gender;•it is indispensable to break the stereotypical understandings and to raise awareness of the different needs of boys and men;•the issue of men is essential for both gender equality policy and an inclusive and collaborative cultureDaily practice, regular monitoring and different researches on gender issues show a significant lack: currently men are under-represented in all forms of learning (that are not directly connected with their work) and fewer men than women get involved in or benefit from the social projects, no matter what their age, ethnicities or social backgrounds is. Although evidence has shown that there are subsisting barriers across all male groups, some groups of men appear to be even harder to reach than others. The evidence suggests that young men appear to be the hardest group to reach, followed by men from minority and/or ethnic backgrounds. The reluctance of men to engage with educational and other services is due to the presence of a cluster of identifiable factors ranging from language and cultural barriers to the susceptibility of peer influence. Within that cluster the gender biases are gaining an outstanding importance. Gender stereotypes have not changed that much during the past decades and gender still constitutes one of the basic categories to evaluate themselves as learners and as performers of roles as fathers, professionals, citizens, political leaders, and so on. However, both women and men are victims of stereotypes restricting their full capabilities. In the process of adult learning, either it occurs in formal or non-formal institutionalized contexts, there is still not enough presence of gender questions and reflections on gender and education in order to minimize the potential of any gender biases. In that context it is important to raise the question of reinforcing and reimagine men as a “target group” for educational, health and other social programs with the aim to overcome the barriers standing in their way to ensure effective engagement of men. The overall goal of the Erasmus+ Partnership is to promote an innovation process that allows all implementing partners to develop and reinforce gender equality in their training and services arrangements as well as increase their capacity to reach male beneficiaries on a sustained basis, to expand the performance of their training and services arrangements and to ensure advocated the long-term goals. The Erasmus+ Partnership sets up an effective framework for exchange of good practices, compromised to gender sensitiveness, and knowledge transfer concerning the stereotypical and extremely polarised views of masculinity and femininity, mainstream competences, well-equilibrated approach of non-toxic masculinity as well as gender fluidity, and inclusive teaching of heterogeneous groups. Different project activities, on local level of each implementing partner as well as on partnership level, are aimed to initiate capacity-building and network-building activities at three stages:•Awareness of the need to be committed to include men-specific perspectives in gender issues as something unique and healthy and to bring benefits of gender equality to all individuals and members of communities and societies;•Knowledge of the good practices that allows to transfer appropriate and impactful activities/campaigns concerned about gender equality; •Skills in the practical use of the tools and guidelines that should be used in each partner organisation in order to plan, implement and monitor gender sensitiveness across their training and services arrangements. Highly experienced and committed professionals from Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Turkey will work for a period of 18 months. An important focus will be identifying and sharing good practices. Using mainly internet based platforms, they will organise fluid exchange of professional experiences and know how. Three partner (Germany, Portugal and Italy) will prepare short-term learning activities for staff members.