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14 organisations are looking for partners to join their European consortium on skills to apply for the upcoming Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic partnership and KA3 Policy reforms calls. Are you interested in being a partner in an innovative project on skills? Then apply to take part in the discussion around one of the project proposals selected for the Erasmus+ project development workshop. The project proposals all related to global competences and one or more of the subthemes: green, digital, intercultural, and lifelong learning skills. Deadline to apply is Thursday 5 November, 23:59 CEST. The selection of partners will be communicated in the week following the deadline. The discussions will be organised online on 24 November. Check out all the projects you can apply to! HOW TO APPLY AS A POTENTIAL PARTNER Step 1 Read the description of each project proposal by clicking on the link to down load the project concepts above. Step 2 Select one project proposal that you would like to apply for. Step 3 Apply to participate as a partner by filling in the form below by Thursday 5 November, 23.59 CEST . Please be well prepared to answer questions about your expertise, human and financial commitment to the project, time you need to obtain the formal “go” of your organisation, etc. Your participation in the project development workshop cannot guarantee a successful outcome for your project. However, it is an excellent opportunity for organisations to meet potential European partners, which might result in a fruitful and sustainable Erasmus+ or Horizon Europe project. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send an email to pdw@errin.eu

On September 30th, the European Commission unveiled its plans for three long-awaited strategic proposals: on the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027) , the European Research Area , and the European Education Area (to be achieved by 2025) . The press conference was led by the interventions of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, Vice-President Margaritis Schinas and Commissioner Mariya Gabriel.   Executive Vice-President Vestager announced that the new Digital Education Action Plan (DEAP) will be implemented bearing in mind the multiple hard lessons drawn from the COVID pandemic, and is set to support Member States in the national plans. The LLLPlatform has extensively contributed to the public consultation on the DEAP , and we were pleased to hear that most of our points were taken on board; for instance, the DEAP will place great attention to the reskilling and upskilling for European citizens , aiming to equip them with digital skills and competences through education and training. In LLLP’s views, a substantial investment in education and in materials for schools is pivotal to sustain the digital transition: we were happy to hear the intention to make resources available for school infrastructures, but we hope to see funds destined to non-formal education centres as well (VET centres, adult learning centres, etc). To this extent, LLLP urges European institutions as well as Member States to remember that digital tools remain, in fact, “tools”: it is education that needs investments . On this very note, Vice-President Vestager promised massive investment in teachers’ training , that we hold as a crucial brick to these aims. A final point, worthy of attention, is the idea to create a new certificate for digital competences at EU level : a welcome initiative, provided that it does not end up reinforcing the already-rampant tokenism of certifications and diplomas, which would eventually undermine the value of learning. If digitalising Europe is a necessity, making sure that social gaps are not widened by such digitalisation is a moral and political duty .   Vice-President Margaritis Schinas then announced that the European Education Area (EEA) was promoted for education to be seen not only as a means to get a diploma but rather as a vector for personal fulfillment and active citizenship : a vision that LLLP has long been promoting. The Communication on the EEA focuses on six dimensions: 1) Quality in education and training, 2) Inclusion and gender equality, 3) Green and digital transitions, 4) Teachers and trainers, 5) Higher education and 6) Geopolitical dimension. We were glad to hear that the new EEA will not only address formal education systems, but also support non-formal education. However, a more explicit reference to a lifelong learning perspective would have given a better blueprint to the strategy. Access to excellency should also be widened – as Commissioner Mariya Gabriel warned: to this extent, we would like to remind that excellency should not come at the detriment of inclusion and that the latter should be prioritised, especially in times where early school leaving figures remain high.   Last but not least, the Commission announced progress in the new European Research Area, and that research funds will be part of the recovery. An earmark of 5% of national schemes to be destined to joint action was announced. While this is undeniably a good aspect, it is important to reaffirm that research’s goal is to serve the society that produced it , not industrial interests as hinted in the presentation.   These three strategies will shape the future of education in Europe for the years to come. At the end of the day, it’s education stakeholders and practitioners that will implement the measures promoted by the Commission. This press conference has brought reassuring news and the certitude that the European Commission knows its priorities; the Lifelong Learning Platform will be standing in the first row to make sure that promises of inclusion, investment and innovation are kept, and to provide a more in-depth analysis of the needs and perspective of learning.

On September 25th, LLLP members gathered online from all corners of Europe to participate in the 2020 General Assembly of the Lifelong Learning Platform: a joyful occasion to discuss important issues within the LLLPlatform and to give a most sought-after input to LLLP daily work. Most of the membership was present, and the agenda made room for some important debates and consequent decisions, mainly on the COVID and post-COVID activities. The membership contributed to steering LLLP’s activities and helped craft a new pathway in these difficult times. Valuable inputs identified the main challenges for LLLP but also creative and efficient solutions for the months to come.   The GA was also a moment to recognise the importance of a full membership in LLLP. Because of this, we are happy to announce that the European Federation for Intercultural Learning (EFIL) is now a full member of the family! LLLP elected four new members to the Steering Committee ! The membership has confirmed Giuseppina Tucci ( OBESSU , reelected), Jonathan Harding ( EfVET ), Martina Darmanin ( ESU ) and Monica Verzola ( EVTA ). A warm and sincere thank you to all outgoing Steering Committee members – Luis Costa, outgoing President, but also Lucie Susova, Jean-Marie Dujardin and Joanna Pankowska – for their energy, their commitment and their enthusiasm in carrying out their duties!   With the mandate of Luis Costa coming to an end, LLLP was left in need for a new President: the membership approved Arja Krauchenberg ( EPA ) as the new LLLP President ! Serving in the Steering Committee for the past year, Arja has matured a consistent experience of LLLP highest body, and has shown great commitment to the LLLP cause. Arja has a long and varied experience in EU decision-making in the fields of education and training mostly in her capacity as European Parents’ Association representative, first as an elected President and now as Project Coordinator.   The afternoon session saw members debate the next years in LLLP’s advocacy. We discussed the next strategy, the engagement with decision-makers and the key priorities for the LLLPlatform. Stay tuned to learn more about LLLP priorities: from investment to education, to lifelong learning for all, to digital learning in the context of the pandemic and to inclusive education.   A new year opens up for the LLLPlatform, and we are proud to say that LLLP steps into it with a strong membership, a clear pathway and the usual ambition to shape the future of education in Europe.

The LEAD! – specific LEArning Disorders no more! project focuses on the learning difficulties of a small (but significant) group of students attending European schools of all levels. LEAD! is funded by the Erasmus+ programme and sees the participation of: ENFOR – Ente di Formazione e Ricerca di Policoro (Matera), Italy; Universidad de Valladolid, Spain; Inspectoratul scolar judetean Iasi, Romania; Lifelong Learning Platform, Brussels, Belgium; Istituto Comprensivo n.2 Giovanni Paolo II di Policoro, Italy. The acronym SLD (Specific Learning Disorders) defines a diagnostic category, related to Specific Developmental Learning Disorders belonging to Neurodevelopment Disorders, which concerns the following disorders of school skills: Dyslexia, Dysorthography, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia. LEAD! is an innovative project that aims to increase the social inclusion of students with SLD by encouraging them to acquire new skills to improve their school performance. The innovative aspect of the project consists in developing a learning path completed by a platform (developed from scratch, during the project) able to offer both offline and online learning paths (mixed learning) on compensatory tools for 9- to 14-year-old children with an SLD (Specific Learning Disorders) diagnosis. LEAD! supports inclusive education and intends to combat early school leaving through: 1) the development of training modules on compensatory tools and their use; 2) the creation of the platform hosting the training modules, a help desk and a community for families, schools and SLD pupils. The topics discussed in the training modules and training path are the following: Hardware and its basic functions; The functions of the operating systems; Software for the specific use of the components; Use of compensatory software; Use of calculation facilitators; Use of collaborative and laboratory learning and calculation tools.   Due to COVID, the project has so far only seen one face-to-face meeting (in Matera, January 2020); only online meetings have been carried out since then. This was an optimal solution to be able to proceed with the activities without ever suspending them completely. The next meeting will take place in Spring 2021.

The State of the Union (SOTEU) speech is a customary intervention where the President of the European Commission explains the vision for the year to come. President Von der Leyen addressed the European Parliament in her first-ever SOTEU since she took office in 2019.   Many of the European actions for the future are directed towards the recovery from the health and economic crisis. These actions can’t be carried out nationally – she explained – and the current situation reinforces the need for stronger European cooperation. To this extent, Europe shall continue to guide its Member States out of this dim scenario.   When it comes to education and training, her speech fell short of our expectations to root the recovery in education. In her 75-minute speech , the word “education” was mentioned only once, as a means to eradicate racism. But overlooking all other aspects leaves out millions of teachers and learners that faced the largest crisis in decades, affecting their profession, their learning processes, their wellbeing and their mental health . The lack of attention for education is even more astonishing considering that great emphasis was placed on Digital Europe and its modernisation process: no digital revolution can take place without proper investments in education and skills to sustain it. In the President’s eyes, the recovery of the economy should be based on the new European Skills Agenda . But even when it comes to skills, these are seen as an expendable currency, stretching their nature as to only fulfilling employability goals. And while skills are indeed essential for the new post-crisis job market, this vision risks undermining the very role of education in shaping future generations, sustainable societies and resilient democracies, not to mention its essential contribution to achieving wider EU priorities and strategies from the Green Deal to the European Democracy Action Plan. Modern problems require modern solutions: we hold that lifelong learning remains the preferred pathway to equip citizens with the tools needed to face 21st-century challenges. President Von der Layen failed to focus the Commission’s intended agenda around the need to ensure lifelong learning for everyone, to bridge the gap between learners and to provide support for teachers and educators. While the Commission rightfully framed its efforts around the recovery, we regret to learn that education is once again left out from European priorities.

In a vibrant online discussion, stakeholders from education, environment and development sectors gathered with European decision-makers to take stock of the role of education to build sustainable societies. The meeting, which was moderated by LLLP Secretary-General Giuseppina Tucci, focused on how education and lifelong learning can contribute to sustainable development not only from an economic, environment point of view but also social. Hosted by MEP Dace Melbārde, ViceChair of the CULT Committee of the European Parliament, this meeting of the Lifelong Learning Interest Group of the European Parliament saw considerable participation of stakeholders at large: civil society actors from local to EU levels, practitioners, representatives of European and international institutions.   Europe lends its ear to civil society The new European Skills Agenda sets ambitious goals for upskilling and reskilling, and it is clear that the sustainability dimension is engrained in its actions, and ways forward, said Ms Melbārde in her opening speech. At the same time, however, “innovation in education has been lagging behind” and while strategies and framework ask the right questions, their implementation often fails to provide the answer. Michael Teutsch, representative of DG EAC, pointed out the new Commission has given great emphasis on green transitions since its establishment: even the Green Deal communication makes clear reference to education and related skills development. The European Commission, especially DG EAC, wants to follow up on this by focusing on the broader role of education in the SDGs and what education can do to promote environmental sustainability.   For instance, said Ms Denise Chrcop (European Parliament Research Service) a study for the CULT Committee showed that a relevant number of projects and the budget of programmes are already addressing environmental issues but the budget allocated is still under the share of 25%. The author points out that Commission and project leaders can do more to improve awareness of environmental impact and role of participants as agents of change.   Sustainable education: what for? Tatjana Babrauskienė, Member of the EESC and trade unionist, pointed out that the Skills Agenda does not provide a target on participation in training aiming to develop green skills. The climate policy naturally impacts all sectors of learning and we cannot make progress only focusing on formal education, we must give equal importance to all sectors. To this extent, we are missing an EU-level comprehensive strategy on green skills for all ages and all learners that should be eventually translated into national strategies developed with social partners and other stakeholders. Economic, social and environmental aspects cannot be separated, which requires a great complexity of necessary skills. Of similar advice was Rilli Lappalainen, Bridge 47, who commented that the EU is inevitably seen as a trend-setter when it comes to innovation in education and pedagogies; building on previous comments, he emphasized the need to implement Target 4.7 of the SDGs, to truly fulfil the potential of what has now come in a simple wording: Education for Sustainable Development. The Envision 4.7 roadmap is an excellent starting point if we want “to jump a little higher”.   This tension between the need to have an overarching strategy at EU level and the complementary urge to start acting in local communities is at the core of what GAIA Education is doing. An education provider, as its representative May East pointed out, it proposes a “new epistemology that embraces this transformative learning and a shift from intended learning to emerging learning and understanding lifelong learning as nested with others in communities and ecosystems that empowers people”.   When we talk about Education for Sustainable Development, it’s not always clear what the aim is: are we trying to change people’s behaviour or are we trying to achieve through formal education to bring new skills for people to become scientists and innovators? Jérémy Apart, E-Graine, brought the question back to its starting point. How can we educate properly if we don’t have the overall picture of changing societies? We often focus on university science departments but when it comes to sustainable development if a school is not trying to change its practice (e.g. how often it serves meat, provision of recycling bins) then there is going to be an opposition between the lessons and what happens every day. Patterns of change are in experiential learning Interventions from the audience sparkled up the discussion. It was deemed necessary for education policy to move away from a school-based or university-based understanding: if we want to create systemic change (however large this system is), there need to be actions informed with non-formal education approaches or generally speaking with experiential learning. This is particularly true for an education that seeks to make sustainability a reality. To this extent, a lifelong learning approach is in dispensable.   In her closing remark, EAEA Secretary-General Gina Ebner pointed out that we have tools like technology, we have frameworks that we can already rely on and in Europe, we have the added value of the EU and we have education as a topic and opportunity to exchange. We see here the possibility for the future, through civil dialogue we can bring transformative change, starting from an efficient and targeted implementation.   By the same token, MEP Dace Melbārde claimed that “there is no lack of policy documents but we are lacking strategies for implementation”. In her closing remarks, she underlined that lifelong learning promotes a positive attitude towards the future.

On September 7th, and under the title “ Attention Fake! Strategies against populisms in Europe ”, experts discussed online disinformation in an event organized by the Lower Saxony State Representation. Sitting on the panel were Prof. Dr. Monika Oberle, Professor of Political Science and Political Education at the University of Göttingen, Brikena Xhomaqi, Director of the Lifelong Learning Platform and Dr. Florian Hartleb (Tallinn), consultant on digitization in Germany, lecturer and book author. The discussion was moderated by Holger Beckmann, radio correspondent at the ARD studio in Brussels. This experts’ round, the latest of a series initiated by the Lower Saxony representation , contextualises the current trends in Europe, including the strengthening of anti-European positions, the relapse into nationalist thinking and the growing demarcation or exclusion of those who think differently, foreigners and minorities. In her opening statement, Lower Saxony’s European Representative Birgit Honé professed certainty that the current influx of populist tendencies in Europe is not a natural law. Together we can put a stop to these developments, and actively help shape democracy in Europe. In addition, it will be necessary to raise everyone’s awareness of the concept of fake news and to provide suitable tools for the critical handling of news and information in general. In the discussion, Prof. Oberle also pointed out the important role of education in the context of disinformation. Those who know more about politics also have more trust. Ms. Xhomaqi concluded that: “We must use the current crisis as an opportunity to build a new Europe. A European response is needed. ”

The European Commission launched on July 1st the revised European Skills Agenda, a joint effort of DG EAC and DG EMPL with ambitious objectives for the education and training sector to be achieved by 2025. It will be completed in September with the Communication on the European Education Area. LLLP welcomes such an ambitious Agenda and its alignment with the European Pillar of Social Rights first principle on education, training and lifelong learning. This is a move in the right direction from the first Skills Agenda, released in 2016, which was heavily focused on skills development for employability. The Agenda still has a prominent focus on “skills for jobs” approach as the guiding principle for lifelong learning policies which is understandable in the current context to a certain extent. However, at LLLP we believe that a social inclusion approach should be at the forefront of these policies across the EU Read the full statement here

Why improving validation in the voluntary sector? Validation or the “validation of non-formal and informal learning” (VNFIL) is defined at EU level as the process of the identification, documentation, assessment and certification of competences. This definition has been widely shared and adopted since its mention in a Council Recommendation from 2012, which is the key policy document at EU level that recommended Member States to develop VNFIL provisions. During this last decade, EU institutions, national governments and stakeholders have worked together to put in place validation policies and strategies. As a result of this successful transnational cooperation, all EU Member States have now validation arrangements in place to diverse degrees. This allows EU citizens to make their skills visible. VNFIL is highly present in the education and training sector but it remains less developed in the labour market and in the third sector ( Study supporting the evaluation of the Council Recommendation on VNFIL , 2020, p.26). In 2018, 20 EU countries had validation arrangements in the third sector (civil society organisations, NGOs and others), where organisations hosting volunteers are largely represented. While this is encouraging, it remains insufficient and those initiatives are still very fragmented. Volunteering is a learning environment where competences, in particular, the so-called “transversal competences” (also “soft skills” or “transferable skills”) as opposed to “job-specific skills”, are developed and acquired by volunteers from all ages. Transversal competences contribute greatly to the lifelong employability and personal development of individuals. For organisations, validating the skills of volunteers help to improve the quality of their service provisions as well as recruitment and human resource management. In 2019, LLLP published a European State-of-play on validation in the voluntary sector , based on an extensive research including large scale surveys among volunteers and volunteering organisations, which highlighted the many benefits that validation brings to the voluntary sector. LLLP is therefore strongly supporting any initiatives that aim to improve validation in the voluntary sector, and to that end, our NGO has taken part in the Erasmus+ funded project “ ImproVal ”, which started in 2018. ImproVal’s goal: “let’s not reinvent the wheel”! There have been over 20 EU projects dealing with validation in volunteering and while all of them have some truly innovative dimensions, some also have similar planned activities where more synergies could be introduced. For instance, LLLP is a partner in the Job bridge project , which is a project that also covers validation in the voluntary sector, except that it has a specific focus on skills development in volunteering for the labour market. One of the activities foreseen in both Job Bridge and ImproVal was similar, it was about the launch of European surveys on validation tools. In this case, LLLP being involved in the two projects could ensure that the activities were not redundant but complementary instead, but this might not have been a possibility for other projects that were running at different timescales and involving different organisations. Peer learning and networking opportunities like the Validation Festival organised by the European Commission are great opportunities for building a European community around VNFIL, allowing practitioners to meet and exchange. However, those events are scattered in their occurrence in time and do not suffice for continuous and sustained mutual learning and synergies between initiatives. This justified even more ImproVal’s own moto, “not to reinvent the wheel” as partners were aware of the risk of duplicity between initiatives from EU funding, but also from existing initiatives at national and local levels. To that end, the project partners first worked on elaborating a list of validation tools that are known to be used in the EU. Organisations hosting volunteers can easily find on the project website the tools that are available in their language in order to get information on how it can be used in their context or get inspiration from it to develop their own without starting from scratch. Missing tools from our research can also be added in the list. The second activity of ImproVal consisted in a study on the use of those tools in which we collected answers from volunteers and organisations. The results were instructive in the sense that they give indications on what work best, especially when considering the main factors for implementing validation with volunteers: time and resources! Showcasing the importance of validation in the voluntary sector During the lifespan of the project, ImproVal partners organised four Webinars to highlight the need and relevance of validation in volunteering. The first webinar (2019), displayed examples of tools used in the voluntary sector from the Scouts, the Centre for European Volunteering, the Finnish Federation of Settlement Houses as well as the Croatian Volunteer Development Centre. You can watch it here . As the project is coming to its end, another serie of three webinars were organised by LLLP to present the results of the project as well as to invite stakeholders to discuss on the importance of valuing competences in the voluntary sector. The first two webinars took place on June 16th. In the first Webinar, volunteers and organisations hosting volunteers were invited to reflect on what they have learned through the COVID crisis; volunteers to share their story on the skills they have acquired through volunteering; and organisations on how they adapted to the challenging period. For the second Webinar, LLLP invited special guests from the EESC, and organisations involved in EU initiatives for the validation in volunteering. Among those, the projects Job Bridge and UpVal were presented. The aforementioned results from ImproVal were also presented by the project coordinator, Ok Sivis (Finland). During the third Webinar that took place on July 22nd, policy-makers and stakeholders were invited to comment on the ImproVal policy paper (see below). This was a good opportunity to discuss what can policy-makers do to improve validation in the voluntary sector. The recordings of all three Webinars and presentations can be found on this page . ImproVal is coming to an end, so what’s next? The project ImproVal is ending this year and while almost all activities have now been finalised, LLLP as well as the other partners are committed to continue advocating for more and better-quality validation in the voluntary sector. The current crisis shows the crying need for giving more value to the learning that happens in non-formal and informal learning environments as this is an inclusive and innovative solution for enhancing individuals’ personal development as much as for their integration into the labour market. The EDOS Foundation (partner in ImproVal), collaborated with LLLP for the writing of a policy paper on improving validation in the voluntary sector. We listed recommendations that policy-makers can follow to help recognising the sector’s social and economic impact in terms of learning and competences acquisition. LLLP will continue to monitor and promote the tools that are used in the voluntary sector and will follow-up with the EU institutions on the future of VNFIL in the EU. Besides, several other interesting activities are ongoing or will be launched in the coming months: Job Bridge EU Award competition (ongoing), Job Bridge final conference (early November 2020), and the preparation of a training course for volunteer facilitators (Autumn 2020). Register to our Validation mailing list for receiving occasional updates on validation! For more information on LLLP’s work in validation or on those projects, you can contact us at projects [at] lllplatform.eu

On Tuesday, July 21st, and after over four days of intense negotiations, European leaders finally reached an agreement over the next seven-year EU Budget and closely-related Recovery Fund.   To any external observer, it was clear that the EU own budget would have fallen victim to the economic needs of the Recovery Fund (called ‘Next Generation EU’), which prompted bitter disputes between Member States. The Multiannual Financial Framework for the next cycle (2021-2027) is 1.074 trillion euros, plus the extraordinary 750 billion euros that will feed the Next Generation EU: an impressive agreement per se , especially in consideration of the difficulties along the way.   In this context, the total budget for the next Erasmus+ programme is set at 21.208 billion euros , which is the same budget proposed by the Council itself in February before the COVID crisis. This amount openly defies the European Parliament’s concerns and leaves civil society’s cries unheard, including our Erasmus+ Coalition statement . Moreover, this figure represents a 5.2 billion cut (almost -20%) from the original European Commission proposal and a staggering 23.8 billion cut (-53%) from what the European Parliament deemed necessary .   Other programmes that transversally touch upon education and training such as Horizon+ (80.9 billion euros, with a total reduction of 13.5 billion euros from previous Commission’s proposals ) and Justice, Rights and Values (841 million euros, against the 1.83 billion euros demanded by CSOs and the European Parliament ) have suffered cuts in funding. Overall, it is surprising to realise that cuts mostly affect the Heading 7 of the budget, ‘Investing in People, Social Cohesion and Values’: this alone says a lot about the European Council’s priorities. Addressing the unprecedented consequences of the health crisis in education and training requires serious investments and political commitment. In this very particular moment, Europe cannot afford to leave behind vulnerable learners by failing to adequately inject much-needed investments into the social sphere. While the Next Generation EU rightfully focuses on the immediate recovery of the economy, European leaders do not seem to share the view that a democratic, sustainable and socially cohesive Union, in the long-term, cannot be built on industry and infrastructure alone but shall rise from values, solidarity and competences of its people. Ensuring employment and economic prosperity will not be enough to overcome the consequences of an ongoing traumatic experience for all citizens : this is a short-sighted action. Furthermore, the agreed budget falls short on Europe’s own ambitions. We can’t help but notice a profound disconnection between political declarations to invest in education, training, research and youth, and the outcomes of decision-making processes. President von der Leyen herself, at the beginning of her mandate, claimed to support the tripling of the Erasmus+ budget ; instead, for the next cycle, the Erasmus+ will see a mere +50% increase over the 2014-2020 budget. We regret to acknowledge that European leaders overlooked a great opportunity for upscaling education and training transversally in Europe. This envelope is not enough to deliver on the ambitious (and much-needed) goals of the future programme for learning mobility, cooperation between organisations and support for policy reform across all sectors, not to mention its sought contribution to implementing the European Education Area, EU Youth Strategy and the European Green Deal, among other priorities.   Make no mistakes: this agreement is a shaky message to European citizens and an earthquake to European ambitions in education and training and other sectors alike.

The Erasmus+ project ‘Devisus’ is short for “Development of an Ecosystem for Valuing Social Impact and Social Utility”. By exchanging practices, knowledge, experiences, skills and resources, Devisus created a common ground to evaluate social impact and social utility in the Social Solidarity Economy (SSE). In striving to construct a shared vision to the question of social scope evaluation, the project sheds light onto, and promotes the values of the social economy organisations and enterprises; and those working in the field. For many years now, the issue of social impact and utility assessment has been a key issue in the social economy. However, despite the emergence of projects and experiments on the subject, there is no real shared vision at the European level (beyond the more classic and quantified vision of impact assessment). Seven organisations, most of them members of RIPESS Europe (European network of solidarity economy), have decided to work on the co-construction of a shared vision on impact measurement, by pooling their experiences and lessons learned. This is how the DEVISUS project “Development of an Ecosystem for Valuing Social Impact and Social Utility” was born. The project is financed under the ERASMUS+ programme “Adult Education Small-scale Partnerships”. Through the exchanges of practices, knowledge, experiences, skills and resources, the project aimed to: build a shared culture between partners, in order to develop benchmarks and guidelines that can be disseminated throughout Europe improve the skills of coaches, teachers and trainers working in the field of SSE strengthen alliances within SSE between different networks to promote the expertise of SSE networks on the issue of social impact and utility. This collaborative work allowed, at the end of the project, to prefigure a follow-up project, on the elaboration and dissemination of training courses on social impact and utility assessment across Europe. Project planning The project ran from April 2022 to September 2023, and is built on 5 axes, leading to 5 meeting times between partners: April 2022 in Paris: overall organisation of the consortium and definition of the overall schedule, deliverables. September 2022 in Lille: work on a shared culture, sharing of experiences of the different partners, interventions of researchers. October 2022 in Rome: work on the skills and know-how needed to support organisations in their social impact assessment. February 2023 in Namur: development of a training framework for social impact coaches. June 2023 in Brussels: dissemination of results and closure of the project. This project gathers 7 partners: MES-Mouvement pour l’économie solidaire, lead coordinator [FR] MES Occitanie – Mouvement pour l’économie solidaire Occitanie [FR] Apes-Acteurs pour une économie solidaire [FR] RIES-Rete Italiana per l’Economia Solidale [IT] UNIPSO [BE] Concertes [BE] RIPESS Europe [EU] And 2 supporting organisations: Initiatives Europe Conseil, to accompany the monitoring of the project and the overall evaluation process [EU] Lifelong Learning Platform, to support the dissemination of project products, deliverables, results [EU].

Today the European Commission has unveiled its initiative: a European Skills Agenda for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience . It sets ambitious, quantitative objectives for upskilling (improving existing skills) and reskilling (training in new skills) to be achieved within the next 5 years. The Agenda is built around the five areas and twelve different actions that come together in what is supposed to update the 2016 Skills Agenda . Among the 12 actions, we find new initiatives such as Action 8 (Skills for life) that LLLP has called for in 2016. Additionally a few promising actions such as Action 9 ( Creating Individual Learning Accounts ) that are likely to boost professional training but most importantly to introduce universal training entitlements. The action 10 ( A European approach to Micro-Credentials ) is another novelty for European education and training offer but yet to be developed and defined. LLLP is part of the Consultation Expert Group set by the Commissioner in March this year. The Action 11 ( the Europass platform ) revision of the existing Europass platform it’s the result of 2-year hard work to improve learning and work mobility in Europe which LLLP has been proudly part of. This update is an ambitious and comprehensive effort, that mobilises most sectors of our society in a common aim to modernise Europe towards a sustainable and resilient future. The Lifelong Learning Platform welcomes this far-reaching plan, as a beneficial update of the 2016 Skills Agenda . It is commendable that its primary objective is “ to ensure the right to training and lifelong learning “, as we believe that this is precisely the direction that Europe should be heading to. Its goal to lay the foundation for green and digital transition is a particularly positive angle, as it addresses contemporary societal challenges from the education and training standpoint . The updated New European Skills Agenda has seized the opportunity to finally revive vocational education and training (VET) as the key element of lifelong learning systems . We are glad to acknowledge that the Commission is promoting VET as a rightful first-choice path, and that permeability between education, lifelong learning and VET sectors is duly emphasised: it is only through such a holistic approach that we will be able to overcome today’s unprecedented challenges. The same goes for Life Skills, a topic that LLLP had addressed in the recent past. The specific action on Life Skills tackles financial, health, and environmental literacy: while the effort to link them to sustainability is undeniably good news (as we have been asking), the accent on Life Skills should be stronger and most of all transversal to all sectors of learning. Many of the Skills Agenda new elements revolve around its targets for education , to be achieved by 2025. The choice of these key targets highlights a renewed attention to vulnerable groups and testifies of a massive effort in collecting, monitoring and reporting data. But this raises a number of questions. LLLP urges policy-makers that citizens, learners, educators, educational institutions and other stakeholders have a say in the implementation and the evaluation of the Agenda. It is not clear how relevant stakeholders will access the funding available, nor is their involvement in the decisions regarding the European Skills Agenda. LLLP wishes to warn against the danger of a top-down approach , as the education sector itself is loosely involved in the definition of the targets. Another important concerning element of ambitious policy reforms is the continuation of existing policies and evaluation of their implementation . Not to mention the link between different policies to ensure coherence that we hope the further development of the European Education Area will address. By the same token, we regret that the definition of lifelong learning rests on a narrow point of view: its function is not solely related to upskilling and reskilling processes, and it certainly cannot be reduced to a skills-for-jobs approach. Lifelong learning englobes and encompasses these concepts, with its guiding principles being ‘ inclusion ‘ and learning opportunities. Building on this, lifelong learning cannot remain confined to work environments, however important, but should be embedded in every citizen’s mindset since the earliest stages of their lives. The Skills Agenda truly has the potential to equip current and future generations with the necessary skills to face today’s many challenges. It made big steps towards an increased role of education and training in our world, but more cross-sector cooperation is needed to ensure that we make the final leap .