Work Based Learning – Pathway to youth empowerment Erasmus Project

Project Title

Work Based Learning – Pathway to youth empowerment

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality Assurance; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

Inspired by the Erasmus+ strategic goals, the current project idea has been developed with the aim to ease transitions and contribute in reducing the gap between the labor market and education systems. EAfA continues to identify major problems related to lack of broker actors, able to bridge the education and employment sectors, and offering support in the implementation of apprenticeship schemes. This role could be best handled by youth organizations, since the youth sector has a great potential for leading such networking, due to already well-established expertise in this field, and direct contact with youth.

As committed bodies within the education and youth fields, the consortium members have decided to provide their quality contribution for bringing some relevant answers to the above stated situation. Therefore, after implementing a very successful project in the same field for the past 2 years, the current Pan-European partnership seeks to provoke a larger long term impact for enhancing youth empowerment, through the provision of a rich offer of WBL opportunities for young people.

“Work Based learning – Pathway to youth empowerment” aims at facilitating the creation of WBL solutions for enabling more youngsters to enrol in. It promotes a deep holistic approach for fostering youth empowerment and employability by bridging non-formal, formal education and labor market sectors, contributing to the creation of a long term multilevel cross-sectorial cooperation. Such follow up initiative is meant to upgrade the already achieved results and to further stimulate quality and excellence within the education, training and youth systems across Europe in the future. The project objectives are described as follows:

• To provide youth organizations with further guidance for bridging sectors, in view of operating sustainable strategies that promote WBL paths as complementary educational patterns for boosting youth empowerment
• To foster the effective use of EU funding instruments, support the implementation of initiatives and dissemination of relevant EU tools in the field of education, training and youth systems
• To strengthen cooperation among youth NGOs and WBL providers, by engaging them in mutual learning and peer counselling, aimed at raising the quality and attractiveness of WBL provision
• To reach-out and involve new WBL providers that do not yet contribute or benefit from European cooperation
• To launch the development of a multilevel networking system that concretely stimulates learning through other than formal educational means and especially through direct involvement in practical assignments
• To support the development of internationalisation strategies at institutional level that increase cooperative work in this direction

The project addresses youth NGOs and educational institutions from 8 EU countries.The overall project idea relates to the creation of bottom up partnerships that will encourage the work in network for transnational apprenticeship providers, in view of further improving youth professional competences at EU level. The created network and partnerships will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of WBL and traineeship schemes across Europe, enhance the impact and relevance of vocational education for the youth, as well for employers. The strategic actions undertaken shall be seen as a prerequisite for building cross-border cooperation that offers greater attractiveness of such educational options.

The main final outcome of this strategic cooperation consists of the establishment of cooperative network that will support the quality implementation of WBL schemes and will facilitate the creation of such environments across Europe. Also, sustainable promotion of WBL strategies will be achieved, thanks to new transnational projects and capacity building actions among youth organisations and other types of educational providers, in particular for countries that have limited representation arrangements within the chain of apprenticeship actors.

The network of stakeholders, interested to work further for fostering youth employability through WBL, represents a positive long-term impact to be achieved through this project. It will indirectly work for building up professionals skills of youth, through provision of WBL opportunities, in order to allow target groups to easily gain positions in the labor market and make smooth transition from education to work. The fact that various stakeholders and institutions will cooperate together is of significant importance for the future of policy-making procedures regarding WBL and youth employability on national and EU level.

The project is a step towards a cooperation which on a long term basis shall impact the EU society on a larger scale and shall become a way to deal efficiently with the youth unemployment, educational difficulties, economic crisis, as well with other relevant EU issues such as social exclusion or school dropout, etc.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 117328 Eur

Project Coordinator

“Horizont ProConsult” EOOD & Country: BG

Project Partners

• Wissenschaftsinitiative Niederösterreich (WIN)
• ASOCIACION MUNDUS – UN MUNDO A TUS PIES
• INNOVATION HIVE
• MINE VAGANTI NGO
• ASSOCIACAO INTERCULTURAL AMIGOS DA MOBILIDADE
• REGIONALNE CENTRUM WOLONTARIATU
• ASOCIATIA D.G.T