With the Europe 2020 Strategy of the European Commission, one frequently noted critique on the European project is that from a citizen perspective it appears to be elitist and lacking popular support. Some perceive the activities and organizations around the “Brussels bubble” promoting the European idea for young people to be equally elitist, addressing and reaching only an already well-informed part of young people that are politically interested. However, the European project as such is too relevant to not be a point of interest for the great majority of young people not reached by those activities. One of these not reached groups are, among others, young trainees in VET. Although a great number of young trainees are able to participate in the VET learning mobility programme of Erasmus+, this experience does not necessarily activate them as citizens who are forming an active part of the European society. The project idea of Skills#EU starts here by using the existing enthusiasm of the trainees to equip them with the skills necessary to activate their European citizenship. The project is innovative because it connects mobility of young people in vocational training abroad with the goals of the "Youth in Action" programme, a new challenge across the sector (VET <-> Youth) . The program ERASMUS + provides opportunities for young people to gain essential skills for their personal and professional development. Young Europeans shall become "infected" by the European idea. Once the young people take part in mobility experiences as part of their formal training, we will use this chance to raise their awareness as active European citizens and inform them about the possibilities to actively get involved in European activities.Although the mobilities are embedded in a formal context, the focus is not only placed on professional / technical "credits" acquired abroad but on actors as persons. This includes both the young people from different countries of origin, but also the trainers of receiving organisations in the host countries. In particular, these mentors play a key role on our project. They are the multipliers who regularly provide guidance to young Europeans. They support young people to consider cultural differences in daily life but also raise awareness of European issues. Although it is difficult to measure and validate (ECVET), exactly this process of consciousness raising and personal development of young people represents the long term and sustainable value of this project.The overall aim of Skills#EU is to develop and pilot a blended-learning training programme for young trainees that accompanies them before, during and after their mobility experience and equips them with the means to activate their full EU citizenship, to develop key competences, and to fulfil their educational potential in the field of social and civic competences, cultural awareness and expression. Before developing the training-programme, project partners perform a study among trainees and trainers. This is ensuring that the skills conveyed during the trainings do not only activate the trainees as European citizens, but, at the same time is equiping them with verifiable European skills and competences. This makes them develop a European perspective both in their professional and personal life and is preparing them for the challenges of a European labour market. After the study is completed, discussed among the project partners and reflected, the training concept is elaborated and piloted in the project partners' organisations. Trainers and trainees are profiting from a sophisticated blended learning concept combining online and offline elements. All project material as well as guidlines referring to the respective methodologies are found on the Peers#EU web-portal which is hosting the blended learning processes, is providing trainees with additional relevant information about their stay abroad, and is connecting trainees among each other and is so helping them to develop a social environment before, during, and after their stay abroad.Finally, the long term goal is to establish the Skills#EU training concept as part of the common preparation and guidance of participants in VET learning mobilities before, during and after their stay abroad. Since VET mobility projects are carried out all over Europe the results can be applied to a broad range of trainees and their sending organizations as well as hosting organizations and their trainers.
With the Europe 2020 Strategy of the European Commission, one frequently noted critique on the “European Project” was that from a citizen perspective it appeared to be elitist and lacking popular support. Some perceived the activities and organizations around the “Brussels bubble” promoting the European idea for young people to be addressing and reaching only an already well-informed part of young people that are politically interested. We believed that bringing young people together from diverse cultures serves them to learn about each other and allows them to express openly their hitherto hidden capabilities and open European mind. Since 2008 IHKPG and their involved project partners ALFMED (FR), FOYLE INTERNATIONAL (UK) and HERMES (Malta) have been supporting EU VET mobilities in a very high performance and with great European added value. The project idea of Skills#EU started here by using the existing enthusiasm of the trainees to equip them with the skills necessary to motivate and activate their European citizenship. The Skills#EU project was initiated by IHKPG as VET provider and sending organization in DualVET mobility and partner EUROSOC#DIGITAL (E#D). E#D had high expertise in political education with a strong EU focus and an extensive experience in reaching out to those youngsters. Partner Auxilium belonged to IHKPG's network of providers of non-formal education and has gathered considerable expertise in developing approaches and training programmes related to European citizenship and participation. The six project partners were coming from 5 different countries: Germany, Malta, UK, France and Austria. While the German project leader IHK-PG was a further training institution with lots of experiences in sending young people abroad, ALFMED and FOYLE International have been mainly receiving organisations. HERMES from Malta had great experience in both preparing students for their mobilty program as well as welcoming them. EUROSOC#DIGITAL had complemented the partnership by its profound experience in training civic education to youngsters in German schools. In summary the whole partnership was permanently working with a big number of VET learners from different countries and cultures. The overall aim of Skills#EU was to develop and establish a blended-learning training scheme for young VET learners that accompanied them before, during and after their mobility abroad and equiped them with the means to activate a motivated, positive attitude as European citizen. In order to design a training concept tailored to VET trainees we collected data on the state of the art regarding the trainees´ needs and expectations related to various dimensions of social and civic competences, cultural awareness and expression with the aim of ensuring that our project promotes the acquisition of key competences (IO1 Whitepaper “Skills#EU meets VET in European mobility”). Based on this IO1 we developed IO2 “Curriculum Skills#EU, inluding guidelines for trainers and assessment of learning outcomes”. The curriculum was structured by three provided learning modules: M1: Challenges and Opportunities as European citizen; M2: Understanding, negotiation and decision-making; M3: Intercultural communication. Each module contained separate teaching and training material as attractive collection packed in a special “Skills#EU" training suitcase and additional as online material. This suitcase included instruction cards for teachers, pack of cards, flags, caps, and additional hints on learning material to be used. All material has been tested in piloting and short term training events in order to guarantee highest quality and flexibility in use. More than 1000 VET learners throughout the project consortium with its mobility networks were using the Skills#EU suitcase to better prepare students for their mobility stay. All project material as well as guidelines referring to the respective methodologies are stored on the website www.yourskills.eu and as OER in the EU project results platform VALOR. Our website is linked to our IO6 “European Peer Learning platform Peers#EU”. VET learners in ERASMUS+ mobilities learned a great deal by explaining their ideas to other participants and by taking part in activities in which they could learn from their peers. Go abroad – talk about – and learn from experiences! We built a bridge between VET and policy thus promoting European citizenship, youth participation, cultural diversity within VET mobility. Therefore, the project outcomes were contributing to the development of a European attitude, norms and values. This required a European dialogue which was taking place within the Skills#EU project. The project was innovative because it connected “formalized” VET learners mobility with the informal learning goals of the "Youth in Action", a new challenge across sectors. All material is free for use and available both on Moodle and on the Website www.yourskills.eu.