The Up-skilling Europe project reached the end of its journey with results impacting all Europe

Video summary of the project:

The execution of the Up-skilling Europe project has reached its end. For two years, since September 2014, the partners have been working on the development of the following five toolkits to contribute to the improvement of the employability of adults at risk of social exclusion across Europe. 

1. Toolkit for Social Entrepreneurship education.  

2. Toolkit for ICT training. 

3. Toolkit for English teaching. 

4. Toolkit for Lifelong Learning.

5. Toolkit for Learning Mobility.

Now the toolkits are available on this website in six European languages: English, Greek, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Spanish. 

The toolkits are easily transferable to other countries and to other organisations working in the field of adult education. Every organisation or trainer using the toolkits will be a positive step towards a more inclusive European society and this is the reason why the project partners developed and implemented an ambitious Dissemination Plan to ensure the widespread use of the toolkits across Europe.

Furthermore, as public administrations, policy-makers and decision-makers in the fields of adult education, employment and social inclusion were among the target groups of the project’s Dissemination Plan, it is likely that they will use or exploit, partially or totally, the results of the project, by taking them into consideration for future policy developments and reforms in the fields of education, employment and social inclusion.

         

The toolkits are also easily adaptable to other target groups, making them a strong base for further innovative developments in the educational sector. This has been ensured by deploying the toolkits as OER under the Creative Commons licence “Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)  so anyone can freely use and modify them. 

This potential for the exploitation of the project’s results by a wide range of organisations and target groups at all geographical levels means that even after the end of the project, the results will continue to be exploited, transferred and adapted beyond the project partners.

Successful fourth transnational meeting of the “Up-skilling Europe” project

From 4th to 8th June took place the fourth transnational meeting of the “Up-skilling Europe” project in Larisa (Greece). Delegates from the six partners of the project attended the meeting: the City Council of Alcalá de Guadaíra (Spain), Interactive English Language School (United Kingdom), SIKXGNL (Greece), Stowarzyszenie Wiosna (Poland), Cantiere Giovani (Italy) and Media Partners (Romania).

The objective of the project is to improve the employability of adults at risk of social exclusion across Europe through a process of developing and updating skills. To achieve this, the project partners have been working since September 2014 on the development of five toolkits:

1. Toolkit for Social Entrepreneurship education.

2. Toolkit for ICT training.

3. Toolkit for English teaching.

4. Toolkit for Lifelong learning.

5. Toolkit for Learning mobility.

The meeting in Larisa was the last one of the project. During the meeting the partners planned the last activity of the project: the dissemination of the results. Between the mid of June and the end of August, the partners will organise several dissemination events in the six countries represented in the project. The objective of these events is to introduce adults educators across Europe to the use of the toolkits.

The toolkits will be published in six European languages (English, Greek, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Spanish) on the project website for free use and re-purposing by any interested party as OER (Open Educational Resources).

This project, co-funded by the European Commission within the framework of the Erasmus + programme, will be a stepping stone towards a fully inclusive European society where every European citizen has access to high quality education and employment.

Successful third transnational meeting of the “Up-skilling Europe” project

From 13th to 17th January  took place the third transnational meeting of the “Up-skilling Europe” project in Cluj-Napoca (Romania). Delegates from the six partners of the project attended the meeting: the City Council of Alcalá de Guadaíra (Spain), Interactive English Language School (United Kingdom), SIKXGNL (Greece), Stowarzyszenie Wiosna (Poland), Cantiere Giovani (Italy) and Media Partners (Romania).

Since the start of the project in September 2014, the six project partners have been working on the development of five toolkits to provide training to adults at risk of social exclusion on the basic and transversal skills necessary to improve their employability. The five toolkits include a set of innovative educational and training methods, tools and materials based on the principles of Active Learning.

During the months of October, November and December, three pilots were organised in the cities of  Alcalá de Guadaíra (Spain), Krakow (Poland) and Frattamaggiore (Italy) to test the toolkits with the target group: adults at risk of social exclusion. 72 adult learners and 16 trainers participated in the pilots. The feedback received from the adult learners and the trainers during the testing of the five toolkits was presented during the meeting in Cluj- Napoca. Based on the results of the testing, the project partners have established the necessary improvements before the final publication of the toolkits. The toolkits will be published in July 2016 in six European languages (English, Greek, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Spanish) on the project website for free use and re-purposing by any interested party as OER (Open Educational Resources).

This project, co-funded by the European Commission within the framework of the Erasmus + programme, will be a stepping stone towards a fully inclusive European society where every European citizen has access to high quality education and employment.

Third transnational meeting of the “Up-skilling Europe” project

From 13th to 17th January, Media Partners will host in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) the third transnational meeting of the Up-skilling Europe project. There, the organisation will be joined by delegates from the other five partners of the project: the City Council of Alcalá de Guadaíra (Spain), Interactive English Language School (United Kingdom), SIKXGNL (Greece), Stowarzyszenie Wiosna (Poland) and Cantiere Giovani (Italy).

Since the start of the project in September 2014, the six project partners have been working on the development of five toolkits to provide training to adults at risk of social exclusion on the basic and transversal skills necessary to improve their employability. The five toolkits include a set of innovative educational and training methods, tools and materials based on the principles of Active Learning.

During the months of October, November and December, three pilots have been organised in the cities of  Alcalá de Guadaíra (Spain), Krakow (Poland) and Frattamaggiore (Italy) to test the toolkits with the target group: adults at risk of social exclusion. 72 adult learners and 16 trainers have participated in the pilots. The feedback received from the adult learners and the trainers during the testing of the five toolkits will be presented during the meeting in Cluj- Napoca. Based on the results of the testing, the project partners will establish the necessary improvements before the final publication of the toolkits. The toolkits will be published in July 2016 in six European languages (English, Greek, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Spanish) on the project website for free use and re-purposing by any interested party as OER (Open Educational Resources).

This project, co-funded by the European Commission within the framework of the Erasmus + programme, will be a stepping stone towards a fully inclusive European society where every European citizen has access to high quality education and employment.

Cantiere Giovani (Italy) hosts the second transnational meeting of the “Up-skilling Europe” project

Between 24th to 27th September took place the second transnational meeting of the “Up-skilling Europe” project in Frattamaggiore (Italy) during which the six partner organisations continued their work on improving the employability of adults at risk of social exclusion.

Since the start of the project in September 2014, professionals from the social, education and employment sector have worked together to develop innovative educational materials, in the form of five toolkits. These toolkits provide adults at risk of social exclusion with the basic and transversal skills necessary to improve their employability: social entrepreneurship, English, ICT, lifelong learning, and learning mobility.

During the first part of this meeting, the partners revised the improvements brought by each partner to the toolkits since the training event in Krakow (June 2015). The second part of the meeting was dedicated to the planning of the validation of the toolkits involving real beneficiaries: adults at risk of social exclusion. The validation activities will take place during the next months in three pilots located in the cities of Krakow (Poland), Frattamaggiore (Italy) and Alcalá de Guadaíra (Spain). The results of the validation of the toolkits with real beneficiaries will be very useful for the partners to ensure that the toolkits meet the needs of the target group and deliver the desired learning outcomes.

This project is the result of the cooperation of: Alcalá de Guadaíra City Council (Spain) as Coordinating Organisation, Interactive English Language School (United Kingdom) and SIKXGNL (Greece) as organisations specialised in language teaching, Media Partners (Romania) as a private company specialised in social entrepreneurship, and Stowarzyszenie Wiosna (Poland) and Cantiere Giovani (Italy) as social sector organisations. It is co-funded by the European Commission within the framework of the Erasmus + programme, and it will be a stepping stone towards a fully inclusive European society where every European citizen has access to high quality education and employment.

Successful training of trainers of the "Up-skilling Europe" project

Between 9th and 15th June took place the training of trainers of the Up-skilling Europe project, held in Krakow (Poland) during which the six partner organisations continued their work on improving the employability of adults at risk of social exclusion.

So far, professionals from the social, education and employment sector have worked together to develop innovative educational materials, in the form of five toolkits. These toolkits will provide to adults at risk of social exclusion the basic and transversal skills necessary to improve their employability: Social entrepreneurship, English, ICT, lifelong learning, and learning mobility.

During the training of trainers in Krakow, the participants were trained on the use of the toolkits. They also carried out a first validation to evaluate whether the toolkits meet the objectives of the project. The next step will be to apply the necessary improvements to the toolkits before the next transnational meeting in Frattamaggiore (Italy) during which the partners will prepare for the second validation of the toolkits with real beneficiaries: adults at risk of social exclusion.

This project is the result of the cooperation of: Alcalá de Guadaíra City Council (Spain) as Coordinating Organisation, Interactive English Language School (United Kingdom) and SIKXGNL (Greece) as organisations specialised in language teaching, Media Partners (Romania) as a private company specialised in social entrepreneurship, and Stowarzyszenie Wiosna (Poland) and Cantiere Giovani (Italy) as social sector organisations. It is co-funded by the European Commission within the framework of the Erasmus + programme, and it will be a stepping stone towards a fully inclusive European society where every European citizen has access to high quality education and employment.

Training Event in Poland for the “Up-skilling Europe” project

From 9th to 15th June, Stowarzyszenie Wiosna will host in Krakow the training event of the Up-skilling Europe project. There, they will be joined by the coordinating organisation (City Council of Alcalá de Guadaíra) and four other European organisations from the United Kingdom, Greece, Romania and Italy. The seven-day event will give participants the opportunity to continue their work on improving the employability of adults at risk of social exclusion.

So far, professionals from the social, education and employment sector have worked together to develop innovative educational materials, in the form of five toolkits. These toolkits will provide training to adults at risk of social exclusion on the basic and transversal skills necessary to improve their employability: Social entrepreneurship, English, ICT, lifelong learning, and learning mobility.

During the training event in Krakow, the participants will be trained on the use of the toolkits. They will also carry out a first validation to evaluate whether the toolkits meet the objectives of the project. The results of this first validation will be used to apply the necessary improvements to the toolkits before carrying out the second validation with real beneficiaries during the pilots.

This project, co-funded by the European Commission within the framework of the Erasmus + programme, will be a stepping stone towards a fully inclusive European society where every European citizen has access to high quality education and employment.