On September 2nd, the Skillman Alliance, in cooperation with the European Training Foundation, hosted the “Youth Policy Partnerships” webinar. This was the fifth webinar on EU funding opportunities that are being co-organized by AER within the Skillnet project framework (co-founded by the Eramus+ Programme) in order to gather experts and practitioners in the field of TVET to exchange experience, network, and establish fruitful partnerships to be applied to future project opportunities.
The webinar served as a great occasion to fuel discussions and exchange practices on how youth can be concretely “engaged, connected and empowered” as foreseen by the European Youth Strategy, as well as to lunch the newly established Skillman Youth Forum, a Basecamp platform where youth experts (TVET providers, academic staff, policy and decision-makers, representatives from youth organizations, other stakeholders, and especially youth themselves) can debate about youth-related challenges and co-design joint-solutions and joint-activities through knowledge sharing and peer learning.
The online event included inspiring contributions from a panel of experts in the field. In his introductory speech, Giovanni Crisonà, Skillman President, highlighted the major constraints that young people are facing starting from the unfavorable economic conjunction resulting from the financial crisis to the unknown and unpredictable post-covid era. Accordingly, the need and willingness are to establish transnational and horizontal (involving all the major actors concerned) partnerships to draw solutions and reforms through a holistic approach. As detailedly explained by Elena Romanini, Skillman Youth Forum Leader, the Skillman Youth Forum provides a space where these partnerships can be established and actions can be developed and evaluated. The platform is open to the contribution of all the interested individuals or organizations. To know more about the forum, visit the dedicated landing page on Skillman.eu.
The second part of the webinar focused on concrete examples of how transnational mobility can contribute to foster “engaged, connected and empowered” youth. First, Mano Andreadis, Senior Project Manager of Assetec and EYE Coordinator, presented the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs (EYE) programme. Through a transnational mobility scheme, EYE provides a mutual opportunity for aspiring young entrepreneurs and experienced entrepreneurs running or managing an SME in another country. While the former develops top-skills by assisting the experienced entrepreneur, the latter gains new and fresh inputs from the young trainees.
Lastly, Andrés Munos Rojo and Yasser El Koura, AER Youth Programmes Coordinator, and Eurodyssey trainee respectively, showed how interregional cooperation and fair mobility can support youth inclusion. Eurodyssey was presented as a good example in light of its focus on the promotion and delivery of fair mobility providing: A win-win for stakeholders; autonomy and flexibility to the regions to prioritize the field that they would like to strengthen through the trainee; an integral experience for youth (traineeship, language courses, and immersion in the hosting culture); and a wide variety of traineeship not targeted only to graduates. The benefits of this approach are confirmed by the statistics, pointing to both higher youth employability and inclusiveness after the Eurodyseey experience.
What’s next?
As mentioned, our work on youth policy partnerships does not stop here! We invite you all to join the Skillnet Youth Forum and contribute to the design of effective actions!
Upcoming webinars on EU funding opportunities are currently being organized; stay tuned and do not miss the opportunity to change the future of TVET!
Have a look at the previous articles published within the ‘Partnerships in Focus’ series:
1). Partnerships in Focus n1: Capacity Building in Higher Education
2). Partnerships in Focus n2: Skills and Education Guarantee Pilot
3). Partnerships in Focus n3: Knowledge Alliance in the Maritime Sector
Photo Credits: Skillman.eu
