21ST CENTURY SKILLS RECOGNITION FOR ADULTS IN CITIES OF LEARNING
Dit project introduceert het Cities of Learning-platform in verschillende nieuwe communities: Gent en Hoogstraten (België), West-Brabant, Regio Rijnland, Curaçao (Koninkrijk der Nederlanden) en Lissabon (Portugal). Dit projectidee vindt plaats in de context van de digitalisering van samenlevingen, die extra versneld werd door de lockdowns als gevolg van de pandemische crisis. Een gemeenschappelijke uitdaging binnen dit project is het gebrek aan volwasseneneducatieprogramma's gericht op competenties en vaardigheden die nodig zijn om te gedijen in het heden en de toekomst.
Daar komt het idee van 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden vandaan. We verwijzen naar 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden als een breed scala aan kennis, vaardigheden, werkgewoonten en karaktereigenschappen die bijdragen aan welzijn, maatschappelijke betrokkenheid en werkgelegenheid. Deze vaardigheden omvatten ook digitale vaardigheden en geletterdheid die nodig zijn om digitale transformatie te benutten. Door het werk in de context van Cities of Learning en ook in de internationale volwasseneneducatie context zullen we kaders voor 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden combineren die wereldwijd en op nationaal niveau worden erkend: bijvoorbeeld DigComp 2.0, nationaal gebruikte werknemersvaardigheden (die per partnerland kunnen verschillen).
Projectpartners: CODEC (België), Badgecraft Ierland, Samen Leven Oost-Vlaanderen vzw (België), CAMARA MUNICIPAL DE LISBOA (Portugal), Kopa Werkwillig (België), Breakthrough Foundation (Nederland), Skills-Connect (Nederland), Ministerie van Onderwijs, Wetenschap, Cultuur en Sport (Curaçao)
PROJECT DOELEN
We streven naar de volgende doelstellingen:
Het in kaart brengen van bestaande goede praktijken voor het valideren en erkennen van 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden die zijn ontwikkeld via volwasseneneducatieprogramma's. (Artikel Empowering via 21e eeuwse vaardigheden)
Het uitwisselen van perspectieven over hoe 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden kunnen worden verbonden met bestaande of nieuw ontwikkelde competentiekaders.
Het creëren van trajecten voor vaardighedenbeoordeling, validering en erkenning voor volwasseneneducatieprogramma's gericht op de ontwikkeling van 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden.
Het ontwikkelen van technische oplossingen om vaardighedenbeoordelingen en competentiekaders voor 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden te integreren binnen het platform van Cities of Learning.
ACTIVITEITEN
De projectpartners zullen goedwerkende methoden in kaart brengen op het gebied van validering en erkenning van 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden in de deelnemende landen, evenals in andere landen in Europa en de rest van de wereld. De 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden omvatten vaardigheden zoals kritisch denken, creativiteit, samenwerking, communicatie, informatievaardigheden, mediavaardigheden, technologievaardigheden, flexibiliteit, leiderschap, initiatief, productiviteit, sociale en interculturele vaardigheden, leren leren, digitale geletterdheid, probleemoplossing en creativiteit.
De partners van dit project zullen unieke trajecten voor vaardighedenbeoordeling, validatie en erkenning creëren voor volwasseneneducatie programma's gericht op de ontwikkeling van 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden, waarbij rekening wordt gehouden met verschillende perspectieven van organisatierollen en landen. Tijdens dit project willen we de mogelijkheden van digitale technologie uitbreiden om de transparantie en erkenning van vaardigheden, in ons geval 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden, te verbeteren.
We willen de functionaliteiten voor vaardighedenbeoordeling en competentiekaders ontwikkelen en integreren in het platform voor Cities of Learning. De beoordelingsfunctionaliteit stelt leerproviders en lerenden in staat om gebruik te maken van een 360° beoordelingssysteem dat zelfbeoordeling en externe feedback combineert van andere lerenden, mentoren en supervisors. Het 360° beoordelingssysteem is gebaseerd op een specifiek competentiemodel dat door de leerprovider is gekozen. Het competentiemodel kan worden afgestemd op een specifiek kwalificatiekader of beroepsstandaard.
RESULTATEN
Webinaropnames en een uitgebreid rapport met goede praktijken voor de validatie en erkenning van 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden die zijn ontwikkeld via volwasseneneducatieprogramma's.
Richtlijnen voor de validatie en erkenning van 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden in volwasseneneducatieprogramma's.
Validatie- en erkenningstrajecten ontworpen, getest en gecreëerd voor geselecteerde volwasseneneducatieprogramma's die worden geïmplementeerd door de projectpartners.
Technische oplossingen voor de implementatie van beoordeling en erkenning van 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden via het platform van Cities of Learning. - Impact op het leren en de erkenning van volwassen lerenden om hun mogelijkheden voor validatie en erkenning van 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden te verbeteren.
BUILDING RESILIENCE: ERASMUSPLUS-SUPPORTED MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION PROJECTS FOR YOUTH IN CURACAO AND ORVELTE
Mental health is a critical aspect of overall well-being, and it's particularly important to focus on promoting good mental health among young people. Unfortunately, mental health issues are increasingly common among youth, with many struggling with anxiety, depression, burn-out and other challenges.
One way to promote mental health in the youth field is through community-based projects that provide youth workers and young leaders with support, resources, and opportunities to learn about mental health and build resilience. These projects can take many forms, from workshops and training programs to peer support groups and community events.
In Curacao, for example, there was a mental health promotion project for youth in May 2022. It included some combination of non-formal education, peer support, and community engagement. By bringing together youth workers that provide mental health projects, this project aims to raise awareness of mental health issues and provide participants with the tools and resources they need to maintain good mental health.
Similarly, Orvelte in the Netherlands had mental health promotion projects for young leaders in February 2023. It focused on similar goals of building resilience, promoting awareness, and providing young people with the resources they need to support their mental health and that of their peers.
The City of Learning Platform was utilised to showcase a variety of mental health activities and projects, providing participants with a valuable resource for developing new ideas and strategies to support mental health in their home communities.
The City of Learning Platform is a powerful tool for sharing resources and best practices, and it can be an especially effective way to disseminate information about mental health initiatives. By using this platform to showcase a range of activities and projects, participants in the mental health promotion project can gain inspiration and ideas for new approaches that they can adapt and implement in their own communities. This can help to create a ripple effect, spreading the benefits of the mental health promotion project to a wider audience and building a more supportive and resilient mental health culture across different regions and communities. Within the Mental Health Promotion in the Youth field training we used a Learning Playlist where learning activities are used for reflection about what daily happened, and in other cases participation of an activity was recognized by an Open Badge.
Overall, mental health promotion projects are essential for supporting the well-being of young people. By providing resources, support, and education, these projects can help young people build resilience and learn the skills they need to maintain good mental health throughout their lives.
The mental health promotion project in Curacao and Orvelte was co-financed by Erasmusplus, highlighting the organisation's commitment to supporting youth mental health initiatives and promoting positive mental health outcomes.
Erasmusplus is an important funding source for mental health promotion projects because it provides resources and support for organisations to develop and
implement innovative approaches to youth mental health. These projects can help build capacity, share best practices, and develop new models for supporting young people's mental health. By investing in these initiatives, Erasmusplus is helping to build a more resilient and mentally healthy future for young people across Europe and beyond.
This article was generated by Chat GPT, a language model trained by OpenAI. The text was edited by a human to ensure clarity, accuracy, and coherence."
This statement indicates that while the initial article was created by a machine, a human reviewed and refined the text to ensure that it is of high quality and provides valuable insights on the topic of mental health promotion in the youth field.
FUTURE SKILLS NOW!
3 trainings for youth workers and their local implementation
Future Skills Now is an international long term training project for youth leaders and youth workers from the Netherlands, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, Greece, Hungary, Italy and the UK.
Youth work organisations and youth workers developed innovative approaches and methods through developing professional competences of youth leaders and youth workers. This long-term project enabled to create opportunities for youth workers competence development and then to transfer their learning to practice during the follow-up activities locally. In this way increasing capacity of organisations and ultimately creating benefits to young people.
We achieved in several cases that youth work sector not only is relevant to young people and communities, but also is taking leadership in embracing and creating future to come. We want youth work organisations to have capacity to address urgent needs and emerging opportunities of current realities with a long-term vision in mind.
Objectives of the project
1. Explore and understand frameworks of skills and competence relevant today and necessary for future learning, careers and civic life
2. Learn how to research youth skills, needs and aspirations for future life and careers
3. Experience specific skills in action and reflect their relevance to current and future life of young people
4. Exchange and learn good practices of developing 21st century skills in diverse learning settings
5. Design digital learning pathways and embed innovative methods and approaches within youth work programmes in participating cities
Project set up
1st online seminar (21-25 February 2022), this mobility has been transformed to an online training with amendment though content wise stayed similar as in application:
-Identifying emerging trends and needs for competence development of young people to become future-ready
-explore innovative tools and ways to organise digital learning pathways
-practice and review digital tools, connected learning initiatives useful for the future oriented youth work
Number of participants: 47
The facilitators team delivered the training through interactive Zoom sessions. There were 2 sessions of 1,5 hours for 5 work days. We used the Miro board to organise learning content and activities, including extended links to further learning resources online.
Practise I (March and April 2022):
-implement wider research and needs analysis with young people: From 11-22 April 2022 participants carried out a mini-research with 3-4 young people about their future skills.
-support online collaboration through a Virtual Exchange online meeting at 14 April 2022
Number of participants: 14
2nd training (24th of April - 1st of May 2022, Lithuania)
-develop competences in designing digital learning pathways with young people to develop 21st century skills
-explore a range of resources which can be included when designing digital learning pathways
-prepare participants to run better quality youth work programmes in their organisations and communities
-explore how to validate and recognise the development of 21st century skills among the young people we work with
Number of participants: 27
Practice II (May and June 2022) locally partners and participants explored Sitra Mega trends, Research any strategic documents available from their city to learn what future vision they project, especially to support and achieve 21st-century skills development
- working further on developing and implementing digital learning pathways on specific 21st century skill/competence/theme
-support online collaboration through a Virtual Exchange on 17th of June 2022 and individually meeting participants online.
Number of participants: 11
3rd seminar (3-9th of July 2022, Slovenia)
-provide space to review and evaluate experiences after implementation of digital learning pathways
-inspire each other in developing more (flexible) learning opportunities linked to the future learning, civic and work
-prepare for the promotion work of learning offers and digital learning pathways
Number of participants: 20
Practice III (locally by participants and partners, July and August, 2022)
-promote 15 digital learning pathways through Cities of Learning platform
-create new digital learning pathways
-support online collaboration through Virtual meetings with participants and partners
Number of participants: 7
Explore some resources
Learning Playlist Future Makers
ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL PATHWAYS
In the Entrepreneurial skills project we focus on improving the competences, qualifications, and endorsement frameworks for disadvantaged adults with fewer opportunities. Our project is aimed at connecting existing entrepreneurial adult education programs by utilizing entrepreneurial frameworks that recognize, endorse, and acknowledge prior learning, on-the-job learning, and learning in educational programs using Open Badges digital technology.
We understand that many adults have developed specific hard skills and entrepreneurial knowledge but lack the right entrepreneurial skills to make an effective business or find the right job based on their competences. Our project aims to support these adults on a personal and professional level by improving and extending the supply of high-quality learning opportunities.
Our objectives are:
To develop the capacity of partner organizations to use Open Badges technology to assess, validate, and recognize entrepreneurial skills and attitudes of adult learners.
To develop endorsement schemes for adult education programs, especially for adult learners with fewer opportunities.
To create new adult learning opportunities by utilizing and developing digital technology solutions available on the Cities of Learning platform.
To promote new adult learning opportunities in participating countries and at the European level.
By developing endorsement schemes for adult education programmes and creating new adult learning opportunities through the use of digital technology solutions, this project is working to promote greater economic mobility and support personal and career growth for those who may have previously lacked the right entrepreneurial skills. Ultimately, this project is an important step towards making digital skills more accessible and recognisable for all, regardless of background or circumstance.
We provide learning playlist ideas and opportunities through our Entrepreneurial Resources Box. We also encourage the use of digital technology solutions available on the Cities of Learning platform, which has received the EntreComp Champion Award for implementing transformative practices and policies.
As we continue to witness digital transformation disrupting social and economic life on both sides of the Mediterranean, our project recognizes the need to make digital skills more accessible and recognizable, especially for young and underprivileged adults. Through our project, we hope to bridge this gap and promote new adult learning opportunities at both the national and European levels.
Explore some resources
Learning Playlist Ideas and Opportunities
Learning Playlist The Entrepreneurial Resources Box
Cities of Learning received the EntreComp Champion Award for implementing practice and policy that is transformative – creating change beyond our immediate work environment.
DIGITAL GENERATION YOUTH AT
CITIES OF LEARNING
In the Digital Generation Youth project, a cross-border initiative connecting South Africa, Nigeria, the Netherlands, and Lithuania is our mission to improve digital literacy education and provide solutions for recognizing non-formal skills.
In 2020-2021, our project partners conducted extensive research, designed new methodologies, and piloted programs to upskill young people with fewer opportunities. Our focus was on rethinking how digital transformation can drive this upskilling and create more equitable opportunities for all.
Our work is crucial because digital transformation has already disrupted social and economic life worldwide. The rise of digital technologies has created new jobs, promoted economic mobility, and improved access to public services. However, there is still much to be done in making digital skills more accessible and recognizable, especially for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
By connecting countries with different perspectives, experiences, and challenges, our project offers a unique opportunity to share best practices and develop innovative solutions. We believe that our work will have a lasting impact on the digital literacy landscape, helping young people access new opportunities, acquire new skills, and thrive in the digital age.
Project activities
Partners get a better understanding of local contexts during a dedicated study visit in South Africa and meetings with stakeholders from the public and private sectors. Based on these encounters, research on learning patterns of young people and methodologies developed, making sure changes are implemented in a sustainable manner, taking the local needs and ideas into account.
Let’s talk Cities of Learning Platform!
April 2020, hosted by Ready4life (Port Elizabeth, South Africa)
Our network partner from South Africa already has a number of learning opportunities offered by young people, organisations and other learning providers on the Eastern Cape Region of Learning! On the 29th of April, the managers of the platform in the region invited local organisations and educators and international partners from Lithuania and Netherlands for online consultation and presentation about Cities and Regions of Learning.
Read the blog post or watch the webinar recording:
Cities of Learning – Feeling a Part of a Digital Family
April 2020, hosted by Nectarus (Vilnius, Lithuania)
This webinar aimed at connecting and sharing developments and good practices among partners. This webinar focused on Life Cycle of Cities and Regions of Learning to pass the best practice of developing this innovative solution in partner cities.
Read the blog post and watch the webinar recording:
Study Visit ‘Digital literacies for youth with fewer opportunities’
January 2020, hosted by partners in Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Read impressions from our 1st study visit and discover activities of visit available on the platform of the Eastern-Cape Region of Learning.
The project Digital Generation Youth is funded by the European Union through the ERASMUS+ programme.
DIGITAL HABITS
YOUTH WORKERS
EFFECTIVE DIGITAL HABITS FOR YOUTH WORK
Growing curious, digitally agile youth workers with a portfolio of digital competences to realise digital youth work. Creating digitally proactive partner organisations through capacity building, giving young people the chance to be safe, resilient and able to learn in today’s world.
3 TRAININGS
‘Effective Digital Habits (EDH) for Youth Work’ was a long term project realised through three mobilities taking place over seven months during 2019. EDH was developed and led by Breakthrough (Netherlands), Think Forward (United Kingdom) and Nectarus (Lithuania) in cooperation with partners from eight other countries.
The project aimed to explore and enhance youth work competences to promote online good practices, create a better understanding of digital youth work, build confidence to embrace and engage the digital world that young people inhabit and give a platform for using digital opportunities to promote what we do and celebrating our successes, outcomes and impacts.
More than 60 people participated in the project having been selected by their organisation. These participants were leaders and decision makers, youth leaders, workers and volunteers working with young people. They included people who were working at foundation, intermediate, advanced and highly specialised levels of digital competence in relation to youth work.
DIGITAL COMPETENCES
More than 60 people participated in the project having been selected by their organisation. These participants were leaders and decision makers, youth leaders, workers and volunteers working with young people. They included people who were working at foundation, intermediate, advanced and highly specialised levels of digital competence in relation to youth work.
credit photos to Dainius Babilas
DIGITIAL GENERATION YOUTH
With this project we aim to contribute to the development of quality and recognition of youth work
provisions in South Africa, Nigeria, Lithuania an Netherlands by a) developing youth workers’ competences
to deliver non-formal education programmes on digital literacy for young people with fewer opportunities
and b) developing recognition systems based on digital open badges technology in cooperation with
stakeholders from private and public sectors.
The aim will be achieved through the following specific objectives of the project:
1. To increase partners’ shared knowledge and understanding how non-formal education programmes on
digital literacy and XXI century skills development are being implemented in regions of partners
organisations through thematic study visits in South Africa, Nigeria and Netherlands;
2. To adapt, develop and pilot methodologies for digital literacy and social skills development of young
people with fewer opportunities based on best practices and specific contexts where partner organisations
from South Africa, Netherlands and Lithuania are operating at;
3. To increase competences of youth workers to implement non-formal education programmes on digital
literacy and social skills development through guided direct youth work practice happening in between the
mobilities of youth workers
4. To develop and implement recognition systems based on digital open badges enabling youth workers
and young people from partners organisations to collect and share evidence of their learning experiences
and seek wider recognition in cooperation with key private and public stakeholders in Port Elizabeth, SA
and in Lagos, Nigeria. It will be achieved through training course in Lithuania and guided practice in
implementation of the recognition system.
5. To ensure wide reach and use of created methodologies and open badges system by making them
available as Learning playlists through regional versions of www.citiesoflearning.eu service and publishing
project practices through range of media channels across involved partner countries and beyond.
Through this aim and objectives, we are aiming to contribute to the wider goal of empowering young
people for successful transition to the 4th industrial revolution enabling their easier transition to the labour
market by developing their digital literacy and social competences so much demanded by economies both
in Africa and Europe as indicated by the World Economic Forum and The Digital Competence Framework
2.1. Youth workers ability to run digital literacy programmes is essential for closing digital skills gaps and
addressing the digital divide as partner organisations in South Africa and Nigeria are working with young
people with fewer opportunities, often from poor families and challenging social situations.
Our project aim is directly linked with the KA2 Capacity building action objectives aiming to “foster
cooperation and exchanges in the field of youth between Programme Partner Countries as well as to
increase quality and recognition of youth work.
CONNECTED SPACES
Project funded by Erasmus+ Youth
The Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership ‘Connected Spaces of Learning in Europe’ was initially aiming to create a sustainable and youth-oriented participatory solution for European cities and regions to map, deliver and recognise diverse opportunities for young people. In order do build this solution, the following objectives had been identified to implement:
map and connect spaces of non-formal and informal learning, which enables young people to better “navigate” through learning opportunities, based on needs, interests and passions.
build online mapping software adapted to the needs of partners’ represented territories and easily scalable.
develop capacities of local learning providers and build online software for creating learning playlists – a youth-friendly way to present and deliver diverse learning content online and offline with integrated recognition through open badges.
build a toolkit and documentation for online software, which enables regions, cities or consortiums to create their maps and playlists of learning anywhere.
engage young people in identifying learning opportunities and shaping the understanding of learning according to their needs, interests and passions.
The following partners participated in implementing ‘Connected Spaces of Learning in Europe’:
Nectarus and Open Youth Centre “Mes” representing Vilnius municipality, Lithuania
Breakthrough in Tilburg, The Netherlands
Cazalla Intercultural and Regional youth council in Lorca, Spain
GOEUROPE! at Red Cross (applicant) and Internationaler Bund in Saxony- Anhalt region, Germany
Centraider and Regional administration of Val de Loire region, France
Badgecraft Ireland
Below you will find described the outcomes of intellectual outputs, staff training activities, the multiplier event, communication and dissemination results. This project lasted 2017-2020 and created sustainable results that continue being used beyond the project scope.
VOOR MEER INFORMATIE OVER DE VERSCHILLENDE ONDERDELEN VAN HET PROJECT CONNECTED SPACES BEZOEK HTTPS://WWW.CITIESOFLEARNING.EU/PROJECT/
DC4JOBS
The DC4JOBS project comes to join the efforts of MS to promote the digital literacy among young people and fight skills mis-matches and young unemployment. It proposes to introduce a transparent, multi-regulated and multi-assessed process, based on an interactive and dynamic platform to be developed, for young people with fewer opportunities in order to up-grade, up-skill or re-skill their digital competences to meet the needs of labour market and bridge the gap related to skills mismatches between education and training and the world of work.
The consortium consists of partners, from 6 EU countries which cover a wide range of expertise. A geographical balanced representation, as well as representation from different types of organizations to meet the needs of the project, as shown in the distribution of tasks/roles (NGO, NPO, SME in ICT, VET Provider) is ensured. All organizations possess the skills and competences required complementing each other. The partners share a particular interest for professional development and for promoting the EU research in the field of youth.
PROJECT AIMS
Project Aims
– To promote digital literacy, while fighting skills mismatches and young unemployment through a multi-assessed e-tool, based on an interactive and dynamic platform to be developed, for young people with fewer opportunities in order to up-grade, up-skill or re-skill their digital competences to meet the needs of labour market.
– To support young people in their search for employment by equipping them with employability skills and by building bridges with the labour market through the creation of the on-line and in-house “DC4JOBS – One-Stop-Support-Centre’ which will offer services to be developed in the project: i.e. DC4JOBS SKILLS AUDIT, professional ICT training for re-skilling and up-skilling of digital skills and career guidance. In this way the equipment, infrastructure and personnel of each organization will be fully utilized.
– To set up the DC4JOBS network where various organisations, stakeholders, agencies, public services etc. will offer guidance and advice for future employment by signing a Memorandum of Commitment to support young people’s employability prospects.
TARGET GROUPS
– Direct target group: Young people 16-24 years with a specific focus on young people with fewer opportunities (including NEETs, young people at risk of marginalization and young people with a migrant background, including newly arrived immigrants and young refugees, early school leavers etc.) who will acquire or upgrade their digital skills related to employability.
– Indirect target group: The labour market, who will benefit from digitally literate young people through the provision of high quality non-formal learning, as well as the various organisations whose members will be educated and well equipped to fight unemployment.
PATHWAYS TO YOUTH WORK
Training voor jong volwassenen
Pathways to Youth Leadership is een langlopend trainingsproject dat een systematische benadering biedt voor het ontwikkelen van competenties voor jeugdleiderschap. Het project wilde de vraag beantwoorden en uitpakken: hoe word ik een jeugdleider? Het project werkt op verschillende niveaus, waaronder innovatie, theorie om te oefenen en ervaringsleren. Het volgt twee professionele persoonlijke ontwikkelingsmodellen voor jonge leiders en mensen die nieuw zijn in het jeugdwerk, die wegen en vooruitgang verkennen om een jeugdwerker te worden.
1-ON-1 WITH BREAKTHROUGH CEO
De Leiderschapstraining Pathways to youth leadership/youth work kan op diverse wijzen worden aangeboden en kunnen we op maat aanbieden voor jongeren en jongerenwerk organisaties.
