<< Background >>It is known and understood that economy is changing, new concepts are emerging (concepts such as knowledge economy, 4.0 economy, circular economy), and all these new concepts impact the challenges to increase transversal skills. Networking is one of the most important elements of job search. Professional networking has been shown to be the best way to find a new job. Nevertheless, nowadays networking continues to be seen as a high-performance professional career development skill. In what concerns networking, is commonly understood that 85% of employment opportunities are related to networking outcomes (says a recent survey conducted to more than 300 thousand persons in conjoint research in which the Adler group and LinkedIn participated (www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-survey-reveals-85-all-jobsfilled- via-networking-lou-adler/ - 2016). The research concluded that “(… active candidates represent around 5-20% of the total talent market, Tiptoers about 15-20% and passive candidates about 65-75%. reflecting fewer candidates for a high position.” This confirms that networking is a key and fundamental skill to labor market integration and job retention, or in an extended approach to generate opportunities that benefit people inclusion – having in consideration that a workplace is a key to social inclusion and personal wellbeing. Target groups: disadvantaged groups - NEETs, migrants, immigrants, and others According to the Skills for jobs database by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), at least 80 million workers in Europe are mismatched in terms of qualifications. This means workers lack the proper qualification for the job they have been hired to do, either because they are under-qualified or overqualified. According to the OECD, this is the case for 42% of workers in Greece, 41% in Portugal, or 37% in Germany. The so-called ‘skills shortage’ has an economic impact both on workers and businesses. At the partnership level, it has been observed in each country that ‘skills shortage’ is a real problem and especially for NEETs and migrants, who are facing a pool of challenges in being socially included. The expertise of the team members and the experience in working with disadvantaged groups constitutes an asset for the development of this project concept – foreseen activities. The general objective of this project is to help disadvantaged groups (NEETs, migrants) to become successful participants in the community by developing their networking skills and by using the links they have created for better inclusion. We believe they will be better prepared if their networking and soft skills are empowered and oriented to invest in their social capital increase. SHAREN(E)ET was designed to develop innovative results but also to intertwine innovative practices with existing activities considered as good practices adaptable to young adults, namely the creation of opportunities for self-development and empowerment towards the labor market. Some innovative resources: 1) Networking Self-assessment for disadvantaged persons 2) Learning paths or programs around the learner - Learning paths tailoring tool 3) Learning resources catalog To develop these resources, partners will invest knowledge they have consolidated during their lifetime of fieldwork & implement other key projects.<< Objectives >>The overall objective of this project is to help disadvantaged persons to become successful participants in the economy. We believe they will be better prepared if their networking and related skills are empowered and oriented to invest in the social capital increase. Thus, the project goals are to: Enhance networking and related skills, identified as critical in the 21st-century economy in disadvantaged young adults (especially NEET) and adults. Identify existent open-source networking self-assessment tools and design one suitable to disadvantaged persons. Develop a tool that analyses and issues learning paths proposals for networking and related skills enhancement in disadvantaged persons and practitioners. Generate a set of learning paths to train the trainers (practitioners) in providing the most effective support to trainees (disadvantaged persons) Create a networking and related skills development guide, providing to practitioners a set of guidelines, resources, and tools to apply when working with disadvantaged persons Pilot the PRs’ in each country targeting 12 practitioners and 24 disadvantaged persons (in PR3 pilots) from which will result in a Catalogue of Successful Case Studies in “Building Human capital to sustain social inclusion and employment” Target groups: practitioners: psychologists, social workers, trainers, educators, and other related professions. This group will be mostly engaged in core project activities, integrating the first direct beneficiaries of what the project aims to develop and deliver. These participants are asked to provide their experts' points of view and influence the development of the results. Furthermore, they are to be engaged in the activities that provide critical input to PRs’ validation and improvement - validation workshop. They will also be invited and enrolled in the piloting activities in which they benefit from the learning experience but also have the duty to provide informed feedback to the developers. They can be integrated into the groups for transnational activities - STJSTE - and in the communication and dissemination actions.<< Implementation >>SHAREN(E)ET is a 30-months project which aim is to support inclusion and employment pathways, by creating a series of learning pathways (self-assessment and training offer). The self-assessment instrument will allow creating disadvantaged people’ self-awareness regarding their current levels of proficiency in key soft skills, and the training will cover the gaps and train disadvantaged groups on how to develop and value their soft skills. To the project purpose, it is required to design a participatory approach and to be as close to the beneficiaries as possible. Therefore, SHAREN(E)ET methodology will be based on delivering pilots simultaneously to a single group in each country. The development of the PR’s will also be almost in parallel, making sure the resources are working and taking advantage of synergies.The project will start with the planning of all the necessary PR’s, they will be detailed at the same time with a conjoint effort from all partners. The PR’s are interconnected. PR1, PR2 and PR3 will be developed at the same time and cannot be implemented independently in a sequential manner, but they are all to be applied to the same beneficiary in an integrated process, so the prototypes need to be ready at the same time. The PR1 will be focused on setting the right framework of skills and providing the beneficiaries with the possibility to measure their levels in terms of networking and related skills. PR1 will pack with PR2 since this one provides the personalization or the paths to develop the skills according to the self-assessment. So in the pilots, the participants, supported by practitioners, first perform the self-assessment and then receive guidance and counselling to go through a pre-defined learning-tailored path. The partnership will go through the development of a set of learning paths that can ultimately fit and be tailored to self-assessment results. The accumulation of these learning paths (or in smaller unit learning objects) will constitute the PR3 - Learning resources catalogue. This PR3 is an open catalogue in the online format being to accommodate new learning paths and resources as the PR1 is used. The final PR (4) is a guide to support the practitioners in using the previous PR’s but also with resources and activities for guidance and related supporting methodologies.<< Results >>PR1: Networking Self-assessment tool for disadvantaged person skillsThe project proposes to add innovation to existing tools by creating a networking online self-assessment for disadvantaged persons. The self-assessment tool will be a user-friendly tool to appraise the level of networking skills of one person with basic level skills. By evaluating the level of networking competence, we will be able to prepare a customised training to improve this ‘must have’ competence and to promote social inclusion, fostering disadvantaged people to enter the labour market and the capacity to retain their job (career progression). People will feel more capable to overcome their difficulties to communicate. Communication is very important to enter the labour market and retain the job: developing and maintaining relationships with others for the purpose of mutual benefit can help individuals search for and secure employment opportunities, gain access to needed information or resources, obtain guidance and social support. PR2. Personal inclusion and employability paths tailoring toolThe learning paths tailoring tool is about tagging and matching the self-assessment results from PR1 and the suitable learning recommendation to develop the participant talent and potential in terms of social capital and network. The PR1 delivers an appraisal and help to better understand what that person must do to be empowered. The learning paths tailoring tool is composed of a document / online platform (in which beneficiaries can visualize the tailored path) and a board game (customized for digital use). PR3. Learning resources catalogThe catalog will combine resources self-awareness/ self-development and networking development skills that will be developed or selected and presented in the catalogue. The resources, materials and activities in the catalogue must be aligned with what was developed in PR2, that is, the beneficiaries create their tailored learning path and find the necessary resources, materials and activities to perform it in the catalogue. The catalog will be organized in a process of design thinking and it will comprise an instruction guide to facilitate transferability and a guide to provide more robust information on replicability procedures. This result also comprises the functional specifications document for the web-based development and coding, allowing the transferability to many other stakeholders and context.PR4. Guide for Social Capital and Employment Opportunities Development This guide will be focused on how to support the generation of opportunities to develop social capital and employment. The enhancement of disadvantaged persons (DP) networking and related skills can’t be only about finding a job, must also prepare the person to invest in self-development, social capital investment and professional development. This guide is all about supporting the generation and development of opportunities. This PR intends to provide guidelines, that practitioners can use, to increase the human capital of the DP. It will also emphasize the integration of guidance and insertion schemes, activities, tools, and techniques (PR3) and their potential to generate opportunities, e.g case studies. One of the resources at the disposal of the practitioner will be the PR3 with a wide variety of learning objects and paths that can be evaluated to fit the beneficiary needs.Project outcomes1) the empowerment of disadvantaged people with key skills – focused on networking - and new tools, to overcome labour market alienation (applying for a customized training course); 2) the upscaling of Job Placement Professional’s tools for the integration of disadvantaged groups on the labour market, ensuring their retention; 3) a strong engagement both from disadvantaged groups and JPP with continuous learning and with new learning technologies.