The development of nationalistic viewpoints and the growing lack of interest for the original European project show a need for an input in European literacy and intercultural, inclusive, approaches. The increasing difficulty for Europeans to face up to competition from other international countries and growing rates of unemployment in the EU show a need for more effective education and training environments. If we look at the European 2020 strategic framework, we see the following challenges: - Making lifelong learning and mobility a reality; - Improving the quality and efficiency of education and training; - Promoting equity, social cohesion, and active citizenship; - Enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training. Those are the priorities that our ELICIT+ project will address. It is the result of a cooperation between two successful networks: ELOS and ELICIT and it will be enriched with input from the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE). The main objective is to establish a sustainable and growing network of training modules and training locations for teachers, parents and other actors in education to educate a growing number of European pupils, students and adults to become responsible European citizens who can be competitive in the global community. The project consortium is composed of 26 partners from 13 different European countries including universities, education institutes, associations, INGOs, schools, local authorities. The target groups are adults involved in education (formal, informal and non-formal) and students at all levels, from schools to universities. The main activities will be the implementation of different training modules: training the trainers, initial and in-service training for teachers, long life learning for adults, training teachers, educators and parents in the principles and methodology of inclusive education, and the common European mention for universities. The modules and pedagogical material will be designed during the first year, based on the frameworks of competences elaborated at two levels by ELOS (CFEC) and ELICIT. During the second year, they will be tested and updated so that they can be implemented and evaluated during the final year of the project. Products: For the different modules, Elicit + aims at developing toolkits which will be available not only in paper version but also as web-based tools, various dissemination products such as booklets, brochures, flyers, posters in all the partners’ languages. A final dissemination conference will be held in a country which is not a project partner. Throughout the project, the transnational working language will be English, but national languages will be used in all dissemination activities. Expected results and impact: the network envisages a number of 14 in-service training modules to be developed and implemented at different venues in Europe. Initial training modules will be offered by each partner involved in initial teachers’ education. A “train the trainers” programme will be offered for parents and other adults. The training programme will be developed and tested by the project partnership consisting of organizations representing the different categories of the target group. As mentionned above, the results will be available in all partners’ languages to support the dissemination and further exploitation. At the end of the project, we will have an important number of people trained: parents, teachers, student-teachers, and pupils in a framework of recognized European and international competences. In addition, the project will follow a clear exploitation and sustainability strategy in order to guarantee the transfer of the core project results into the mainstream such as by establishing regional round-table groups with relevant stakeholders or by linking the project to other relevant networks such as the Education Commission of the Council of Europe. This ambitious project is rooted in a very strong partnership, which covers a wide variety of organisations and which spans a large geographical area. After ELICIT+ is completed, it is envisaged to enter the Jean Monnet programme with Jean Monnet Modules, Networks and Projects. The products will remain freely available on the dedicated website and ELICIT+ partners will be willing to accompany the dissemination of their training modules. A research group will be set up to study and assess the longer-term impacts of the project.
*Context of our project The rise of nationalistic and populist opinions in Europe and the growing lack of interest for matters European show the need for a more inclusive, intercultural and dynamic education of EU citizens. The current global environment, the climactic changes, the high level of unemployment cry out for innovative educational approaches to meet tomorrow's challenges. Europe 2020 strategy underlines the following claims: - Making lifelong learning and mobility a reality - Improving the quality and efficiency of education and training - Promoting equity, social cohesion and active citizenship - Enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship at all levels of education and training. And such are our priorities in our ELICIT+ project. *Objectives Our first objective was to conceive and to implement a set of training modules for teachers, parents and other educators in order to establish a sustainable and growing network for the education and training of a growing number of pupils, students and adults, to help them to develop into responsible citizens, capable of finding their place and assert themselves as Europeans in the global community. This project is the result of a cooperation between two networks: ELOS and ELICIT and has been enriched with the participation of CSIE, the Center for Studies on Inclusive Education. *Number and profile of the participating institutions At the beginning of the project, in 2014, the consortium counted 25 partners from 13 different EU Member states; for personal reasons, 2 of our partners opted out and it is a group of 23 institutions which has successfully cooperated throughout the 3 years to meet the project's objectives. The group includes 15 associations or foundations, 2 schools, 5 universities and 1 inspectorate. The geographical span is a cultural asset, as it goes from Lithuania to the South of Spain, from Bulgaria to the West of France and includes Romania, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The participation of associations brings real added value as their members are to be found at national levels, thus ensuring a wider zone of influence for the project. *Main activities implemented during the project True to what was announced in our application, we designed, tested and implemented a set of training modules known under the code name of "short intensive training programmes": the 3 C1 prototypes, designed in a collaborative manner by trans-European teams were delivered at the beginning (October 2015 in Paris, FR) and toward the end of the project (February 2017 in Constanta, RO and June 2017 in Kecskemet, HU). They were adapted and published as 11 C2 training courses targeted at teachers and educators and 3 C3 training sessions aimed at mixed audiences. Based on the reference frameworks developed by ELOS and ELICIT, the ELICIT+ training sessions produce pedagogical tools and interactive approaches in an intercultural and inclusive perspective. The catalogue is published on the valorisation platform as O2. *Results and impact A total of around 370 participants attended our courses and training sessions. Besides the training sessions and the production of pedagogical tools, ELICIT¨+ has initiated various studies carried out by University researchers to assess the short-term impact of our training sessions on the participants' representations and attitudes as EU citizens in their personal, professional and civic life. The results of these studies have been published on the Erasmus+ valorisation platform as O3. ELICIT+ researchers plan to carry out more studies to try and measure longer-term effects. The intellectual outputs of ELICIT+ have all been published on the Erasmus+ valorisation platform: 19 pedagogical tools known as O1-A1; 9 course manuals distributed as follows: 4 O1-A2, 2 O1-A3 and 3 O1-A4. 7 publications O2 and 4 research papers, O3. The 370 persons who took part in ELICIT+ training sessions are all educational mediators and therefore they have a strong power of multiplying influence with their children, their pupils, their students, their colleagues, their schools. We have already noted some concrete consequences in the form of potential school partnerships initiated during our training sessions between teachers from different EU countries. Equally significant is the project of cooperation between the educational institutions of Tirol (AT) and the rectorat of Nancy (FR) following the ELICIT+ training session in Innsbruck (AT). Regarding French educational authorities, we are very positive after our recent meeting at the Ministry of Education, on October 16th 2017, when we presented the ELICIT+ objectives for the development of a European educational project.