Overall, the project ACROSS “Appraising transversal skills in green jobs for employability of youth and workers in restructuring processes” intends to strengthen the capacity of VET and labour market organizations to reduce the gaps between available skills and labor demand and to deliver innovative tools to bridge such gaps focusing on two main tenets: sustainable development in the so-called green economies and the appraising of transversal skills as portable skills in times of high unemployment and restructuring. With many restructuring processes undergoing in the partners’ countries, and prolongation of working life, with green jobs it is understood as a cross-sectorial overhaul of traditional jobs in transforming/ restructuring sectors and the development of innovative, technology- and efficiency-driven new jobs also in traditional sectors. It also includes the definition of different profiles that include low, medium and high skilled workers, to include more workers in the process of transition to new jobs. The project, draws on different analyses of sectorial trends (CEDEFOP, OECD, ILO) and builds on past current work on employability during restructuring processes, , plus the experience in the green sector, and in light of demographic changes in the labour market, the experience in skills forecast, and the long experience in skills’ assessment and key skills/profiles for innovation, including the partnership’s numerous experiences and work with SMEs. ACROSS has a clear and marked trans-national and multi-stake holder dimension as it involves different actors, bodies operating in the relevant fields of VET and employability operating directly in many territories in different Members States, covering 9 different countries (FR, IT, PT, DE, HR, BE, NL, DK, FI), featuring partners whose expertise ranges to different realms of VET, including capability to influence policy, devising and delivering career support services and social inclusion, effective transversal competence assessment, support to entrepreneurship, analysis and development of tools, also ICT driven, and have joined the ACROSS project to contribute from their unique and complementary expertise. To respond to these needs, ACROSS has identified the following specific objectives: 1. To expand and improve the knowledge of current practice on ACROSS’ two tenets to provide partners and other stakeholders with concrete methodologies/indicators to plan and deliver practical guidance, counseling and coaching methods/ policies formulated on quality benchmark models ; 2. To provide multi-stakeholder accepted analysis of issues and innovative, blended solutions as a set of concrete tools for professional development pertaining to the ACROSS skills and jobs nexus in greening sectors, to be streamlined in wider VET frameworks; 3. To test and transfer ACROSS tools and strategies in order to reinforce the partner alliance to allow for a better sustainability and exploitation after the project’s life and to other contexts in line with local and EU policies and measures 4. To make the project’s results and outputs accessible to the highest possible number of actors, stakeholders and beneficiaries by means of accessible ICT and OER mechanisms To sum up, the project foresees to deliver 6 outputs: 1. good practice-based knowledge toolkit; 2. ACROSS’ model, which represent the methodological framework to build concrete tools linking transversal skills and greening economies; the three tools: a tool for transversal skills assessment; a tool for guidance and employability in greening jobs; a tool to anticipate green skills needs; will be developed in a blended way, using ICT and innovative practical learning methods and will be tested and evaluated. A short term staff training will build the capacity of the partners use the methodology of the tools in the delivery of services ACROSS also assigns an important role to networking at local, national and EU level and will organize 9 local multiplier events to share, disseminate and streamline the project’s results at local and national level and 2 transnational events to disseminate at European level the results of the project and to promote its approach to external stakeholders Based on existing good practice and innovative tools, the ACROSS model and its tools are planned to be mainstreamed in VET and employment policy, aiming at creating durable services that have an impact well after the end of the project. The foreseen impact refers to internal stakeholders (partner organizations), external stakeholders (other VET organizations and local systems, social partners, research organizations, employment services, SMEs representatives, Chamber of Commerce etc), policy- and decision-making bodies. Finally the most important impact will be on the final beneficiaries (youth, other groups at risk of exclusion from the labour market, workers laid off as part of restructuring processes, but also companies, especially SME
ACROSS- “Appraising transversal skills in green jobs for employability of youth and workers in restructuring processes” contributed to strengthening the capacity of VET and labor market organizations to reduce the gaps between available skills and labor demand and to deliver innovative tools to bridge such gaps focusing on two main tenets: sustainable development in the so-called green economies and the appraising of transversal skills as portable skills in times of high unemployment and restructuring. The project has looked at green jobs as a cross-sectorial overhaul of traditional jobs in transforming/ restructuring sectors and the development of innovative, technology- and efficiency-driven new jobs also in traditional sectors. ACROSS has highlighted distinctive features that adapt general transversal skills to the green context and the different meanings that “green” could have in different job profiles and specializations. Led by a European network specialized in training and inclusion of people at risk, TANDEM PLUS (FR), the partnership is made up by diverse but complementary partners, operating in the relevant fields of VET and employability operating directly in many territories in different Members States, covering 9 different countries (FR, IT, PT, DE, HR, BE, NL, DK, FI), with expertise in different realms of IVET and CVET, including capability to adapt policy, devising and delivering career support services, effective transversal competence assessment, support to entrepreneurship, analysis and development of tools, also ICT driven. The needs identified at the project’s start: (1) the transition to new forms of “green” economy is not easily foreseeable but necessary to the fields of education, training, employment and business support services (2) the weak capability of micro, SMEs to identify not only products, but human capital with suitable skills to transit to a greener approach; (3) high need for flexible (on-the-job, practical) sound methods for skills appraisal and development available in the portfolio of VET providers; (4) the effort to develop tools for green skills must not be a separate policy from wider frameworks. To respond to these needs, ACROSS has identified the following specific objectives: 1. To expand and improve the knowledge of current practice on ACROSS’ two tenets to provide partners and other stakeholders with concrete methodologies and tools 2. To provide multi-stakeholder accepted analysis of issues and innovative, blended solutions as a set of concrete tools for professional development to be streamlined in wider VET frameworks; 3. To test and transfer ACROSS tools and strategies 4. To make the project’s results and outputs accessible to the highest possible number of actors, stakeholders and beneficiaries The project’s first output, “the ACROSS knowledge toolkit”, has drawn on different analyses of sectorial trends (CEDEFOP, OECD, ILO) and builds on past & current work, changes in the labour market, the experience in skills forecast, and the long experience in skills’ assessment and key skills/profiles for innovation, including the partnership’s experiences and work with SMEs. The partners have embedded the project into the appropriate transnational EU framework, using the ESCO (European Skills, Competences Qualifications and Occupations) taxonomy and standards. The extensive work done has been conducive to the development of three blended tools which are based on a cross-cutting principle: contextualization of transversal skills in jobs and work environments that have the attention to preservation, promotion and development of environmental, social and economic sustainability. The result is a set of integrated tools: a tool for transversal skills assessment (IO 3); a tool for guidance and employability in greening jobs(IO4); a tool to anticipate green skills needs(IO5). All tools are available online on a platform http://acrossonlinetool.eu/. A 5-day intensive joint staff training has been pivotal to the development of the methodology, which has been tested on a very small scale (IO6). The overall methodological approach has been codified in the “ACROSS model” (IO 2) and disseminated through local and transnational multiplier events to present the results of the project and to promote its approach to external stakeholders Based on existing good practice and innovative tools, the ACROSS model and its tools are, at the end of the project, already re-used in mainstream VET and employment policy (ESF funded activities). The partner organizations are already – and plan- using the tools developed in the project as part of their service delivery, in some cases within larger policy frameworks at regional and national level. The small experimentation has shown that final beneficiaries appreciate the simplicity of the tools, and professionals deem them as useful new support in their job.