Sixty years after the Rome Treaty, more than ever, it is crucial to speak about “Unity in diversity” and revitalize a sense European belonging. Prevention of radicalization and violent extremism become also an important goal on EU priorities. This menace grows among poverty and social exclusion and targets young people from diverse backgrounds, with lack of prospects, easily influenced. It's important to stress that Europe needs to be prepared on all its fronts to face these new realities. Early school leaving results from social disadvantage and, at the same time, perpetuates the risk of social exclusion and, perhaps, radicalization. School, teachers, trainers and tutors "play a key role to help people who are at risk of early school leaving, including those who have dropped out already". Is urgent to continue to empower VET teachers, trainers and mentors with new methods, approaches and ICT competences. Myself&Europe project aims to answer to “Social inclusion” horizontal priorities and “further strength key competences in VET” and "introducing systematics approaches to development of VET professionals” sectoral priorities. This project will develop an innovative Training Pack - Curriculum (EQF & ECVET), Manual and Toolboxes - that servers both trainers and trainees. The purpose is to "foster the development of social, civic and intercultural competences" and, at the same time, empower "media literacy and critical thinking through education and training", briefly, "promoting an active European citizenship for disadvantage youngsters with diverse backgrounds". The main challenges and innovations thought this project will be: a) combination of EU citizenship/ awareness and Social and Civic Competences European frameworks and re-engineer them into an updated and innovative Curriculum, in national contexts (relating to partners’ countries) and, at the same time, transversal to all European 27 countries (post-Brexit) (EU VET Tools - EQF & ECVET guaranteeing is potential to be transferred to other European countries); b) selection of existing materials and design of specific ones addressing young people needs and motivations improving the quality of training, learning achievements and, in the end, preventing early school leaving; c) selection and exchange of innovative pedagogical methods and materials from emerging approaches; This project will involve directly: - Trainers / teachers /tutors who work daily bases with youngsters. They will get involved during National Working Sessions, to discuss&validate the direction and project outputs. Beside this, the testing phase will be deceive to the project success (2 partners staff *6 partners + 10 external trainers*6 partners); - Youngsters involved on testing phases in partners countries (15*6 partners) Social partners, associated partners and project stakeholders- namely national authorities for VET, national and EU VET networks, policy makers, relevant stakeholders, will be indirectly involved. They will also contribute to products development (during the National Working Sessions) and they will be invited to provide inputs and feedback for their incorporation in the national contexts. - National Working Sessions (40*6 partners) - Final Conference (40 + 1 participant per partner) We believe that the following Intellectual Outcomes will ensure the achievement of project goals: IO1 - Myself&Europe Curriculum (EQF & ECVET) IO2 - Myself&Europe Innovative Toolbox for trainers&teachers IO3 - Myself&Europe Innovative Toolbox for youngsters IO4 - Myself&Europe Exploitation Guide The Sustainability Guide will ensure the future products sustainability, and provide an action plan for further steps. We anticipate that a number of aspects of the Myself&Europe project will continue after the EU funding ends. In particular: - The Myself&Europe Training Pack: methodologies, materials, tools and concepts transferred and adapted during the project, as also the final products developed, that having been brought into the day to day activities of our partner institutions and their social partners, will continue to be utilized, developed and promoted both in our partner countries and across Europe, by partners networks and EU databases; - The Myself&Europe Curriculum will be a starting point for ECVET in each partner' country and the common guidelines produced and delivered in each national board will allow speed this process; - The project website will continue both as a resource for trainers&teachers and younsters, social partners and stakeholders; - Myself&Europe information will also be available via the partners' and social partners own websites and eventually at internal platforms; - 'Spin off' projects may well arise from the discoveries made during this Project; - The consortium will continue to liaise with each other, and the valuable networks they have built up during the project, to continue improving and updating the Myself&Europe Training Course;
The Maastricht Treaty aimed to transform Europe from a Europe of States to a Europe of citizens. By emphasizing citizen participation, a rapprochement between institutions and citizens, but also through establishing of common rights, Europe wanted to develop awareness of a common destiny and thus bring individuals together. Twenty years after Maastricht and sixty years after the Treaty of Rome, it is more crucial than ever to speak about "Unity in diversity" and to revive the feeling of European belonging. Preventing radicalization and violent extremism also becomes an important priority of the EU. This threat increases in the context of poverty and social exclusion and targets young people from diverse backgrounds, without prospects for the future, who are easily influenced. It is important to stress that Europe must be prepared on all fronts to face these new realities. Dropping out of school results from a social disadvantage and, at the same time, perpetuates the risk of social exclusion and, perhaps, of radicalization. The school, teachers, trainers and tutors "play a key role in helping people at risk of dropping out of school, including those who have already dropped out of school". There is an urgent need to continue to empower VET teachers, trainers and mentors to acquire new methods, approaches and skills in ICT and active citizenship education. Myself&Europe Project: Tools for promoting an active citizenship for disadvantaged youngsters with diverse backgrounds, is an ERASMUS+ project, implemented between November 2017 and December 2019 (26 months). This project aims to answer to “Social inclusion” horizontal priorities and “further strength key competences in VET” and "introducing systematics approaches to development of VET professionals” sectoral priorities. This project will develop an innovative Training Pack ‐ Curriculum (EQF & ECVET), Manual and Toolboxes ‐ that servers both trainers and trainees. The purpose is to "foster the development of social, civic and intercultural competences" and, at the same time, empower "media literacy and critical thinking through education and training", briefly, "promoting an active European citizenship for disadvantage youngsters with diverse backgrounds". Thus, 6 organizations working in the field of training, animation, guidance and advice, from 6 European countries, collaborated for 26 months (2017-2019) in order to develop a learning setting and exchanges that can be used throughout Europe by organizations working with these audiences in the context of the development of civic, digital and social skills. To do this, the partners identified and created 5 training units around the above-mentioned concerns, namely: Unit 1 - Foundations and European structure Unit2 - Democracy and citizenship Unit 3 - Employment and social rights Unit4 - Interculturality / Multiculturalism Unit5 - The challenges of the 21st century The training setting took the form of a manual containing the skill matrices per unit, educational content and advice for trainers. Then, a toolbox was produced offering exercises and methods per unit, a practical and ready-to-use tools. All of the tools had been tested on a full-scale basis with young people, adults and trainers in various learning situations (secondary schools, universities, popular education associations). A total of 244 young people and trainers, spread over 6 European countries, tested and evaluated the Myself & Europe training system, i.e. 74 trainers and 170 young people. Once the device has been validated, the partners have finalized an operating guide, a guide for getting started with the device intended for trainers. At the end of our project, a total of 492 people and around 100 organizations in the 6 partner countries had been directly affected by the project, including: - 18 staff members of the project partners (planned 12, training on average of 2 trainers per partner) - 74 trainers / users for the entire consortium (planned min 60 planned participants, or min 10 per country) - 170 learners / final beneficiaries for the whole project (planned min 90 participants, or 15 per country) - 200 participants in national dissemination events (planned min 180 participants, 30 per country)