Implementing the MARCO POLO 2020 project, gave the opportunity to pursue the initial goals described in the project proposal and the VET mobility charter and in some cases achieve unexpected results. The 'overall (long-term) goal pursued by the project was to improve technical and vocational skills and help many young people enter the world of work, thus contributing to the development of the local economic and productive fabric and reducing the youth unemployment rate. Specifically, the project was implemented, aiming to achieve the following objectives. Operational-professionalizing objectives: Support and orient participants toward future educational and professional choices; increase opportunities for personal growth and skills development; acquisition of technical skills essential for professional insertion in the labor market. Language objectives: Develop communicative, receptive and comprehension skills in the foreign language; communicative skills related to the interpersonal and cognitive functions of language. Cognitive objectives: to know methodologies for orienting toward business creation; to know cultural, educational, technical and operational tools for defining one's own business ideas; to self-generate sector organizational culture and self-confidence based on work experience (teamwork; practice of organizational routines and a direct approach to new organizational models of sectors); to develop organizational-behavioral attitudes (awareness of the European dimension of the world of work, ability to analyze one's own place in the world of work) Pedagogical objectives: deepening knowledge of foreign colleagues, cooperating for the realization of a common task/goal, developing socialization skills, conflict resolution, setting rules of cooperation and encouraging positive and inclusive behavior, fostering personal growth of each participant. European objectives: Deepen and share European goals and values, share European priorities, acquire social and civic skills, appreciate the value of different cultures, and better understand concepts such as democracy, justice, equality, citizenship and civil rights)At the end of the project, additional results were found that exceeded initial expectations. In fact, in the light of the mobilities carried out, evaluations and results recorded, the project responded positively to initial expectations and exceeded them with regard to the number of applications received, the no. of participants who found employment after the mobility, the establishment and enhancement of networks and VET organizations, cooperation oriented to the enhancement of the territory and the enhancement of skills required by specific sectors including ICT and Tourism.
The Marco Polo 2020 project falls under the internationalization strategy, designed by Euroform years ago, with the specific objective of completing its Educational Offer and going to give a high added value to its products, value represented by the actions of transnational mobility proposed to complete the courses, and by the innovativeness of methodologies, products and processes resulting from participation in the various transnational projects that represent real laboratories of experimentation and innovation (i.e. Strategic Partnerships, R&D, etc.). In fact, to achieve the internationalization objectives declined in the Strategy, Euroform RFS has designed a multi-year Action Plan based on an analysis of the external and internal context of the organization. The Marco Polo 2020 project, fits fully into that strategy and gave continuity to the transnational mobility projects implemented over the years, concluding the 2014/2020 E+ phase. Realized at the end of the pandemic emergency period and after a long journey of recovery and return to normalcy, of the desire to move and re-plan the life and work projects of many young people for too long left to wait for better times, for Euroform RFS and, many young people, it established a point of return to normalcy: restarting with young people, their opinions, moods and their desire to resume their lives, approach new worlds, learn, travel.