Motivation: Our motivation for this project came from our belief in the power of ‘the arts’ to impact on youth workers development; employability; encouraging entrepreneurship and contributing to a more inclusive, diverse and democratic society. Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival (EIJBF) and its partners passionately believe in building the capacity and capability of the youth arts sector through inclusive training and development opportunities. EIJBF continues to be focused on diversity and participation within the arts, promoting and developing the links between diversity and creativity (the more diverse our workforce, our projects, our participants the more creative we are as an organization). Our focus for this project was to share and celebrate youth arts workers and young peoples performances work through the deliver of a high quality arts engagement training project, within a mobility action with young people from backgrounds of less opportunity. Project background: The arts and cultural sector amounts to around 4% of European GBP, remaining even in financially challenging times a growth sector. Across Europe the arts and cultural industries make valuable and significant contributions to the social and economic wellbeing of society as a whole. Through sharing arts engagement practice and performance work we hoped to build their capacity and capability to better create opportunities, develop initiatives and work within a globalized European cultural sector. The project's objectives: To provide quality international mobility opportunities for youth arts workers and mangers from backgrounds of less opportunity. To enable the participants to understand arts engagement initiatives that focus on 'hard to reach young people'. To deepen knowledge, skills and attitude in order to create international arts projects within the Erasmus+ programme. To build participant capacity through practical workshops, theoretical seminars, peer to peer learning, networking and partnership building activities. To equip the participants with competences and methods needed to develop and implement arts projects that act as key tools and drivers for youth development and wider community engagement. To use digital capture and social media platforms to create/disseminate the projects learning outcomes. Links with European Objectives: Our project aimed to reinforce the European Youth Strategy ‘Investing and Empowering’ and ‘Youth on the Move 2020’ both policies aiming to create equal opportunities for all, promote active citizenship and social inclusion. Our project originally was to create mobility experiences for workers from minority backgrounds who do not easily access international work, an issue echoed in 'Building a Stronger Europe' initiative (May 2018) and the which specifically states that the Commission's programmes still needed to attract more people from diverse backgrounds. The issues and needs we looked to address: Issues: Bridge the gap between non-formal learning and professional development for youth arts workers. Equality of access to professional development opportunities for managers within the cultural sector from backgrounds of less opportunity. Needs: Need to share, contrast and explore models of arts engagement best practice, to improve the quality of non-formal learning and volunteering, enhancing synergies and complementariness with other education systems, the labour market and society; Need to test arts and cultural learning methodologies in peer contexts, that support workers in combating social exclusion and re-engage young people; Need to develop common tools within the arts though capacity building activities that support modernization and internationalization; Need for non-formal learning mobility experiences that improve levels of competence and foster active participation in civil society; Need to develop professional competences and practices that impact on wider community/civil society development and intercultural/intergenerational practices.