Employability Competencies for Students Through implementation and Recognition of Activities

Background Our society has become more knowledge-intensive and interdependent, and the challenges we face need complex solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic caused massive disruptions in every corner of the planet, creating new challenges but also new opportunities. According to European Commission Recommendations on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, one of the core skills necessary to work and live in the 21st century is a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, which refers to an individual's ability to turn ideas into action. Automatisation and artificial intelligence change the landscape of future work, and cognitive, non-routine skills become the most important for YOUNG PEOPLE (VOLUNTEERS). Therefore, higher education institutions must support students in acquiring these skills. This is even more important as we notice signs of a cooling economy, and young people are more vulnerable at difficult times. However, universities struggle to solve these challenges independently, requiring joint efforts of various stakeholders, especially youth. Furthermore, it is important to equip YOUTH ORGANISATIONS with the necessary tools and know-how to work with young people and spin off the initiatives. Objectives The project‘s goal was to help students acquire crucial competencies (entrepreneurship, collaboration, complex problem solving, sustainability and social innovation) through volunteering activities (supported with training on different topics), which would involve solving real-life problems through social innovations. To achieve this, we had several tasks to fulfil: 1. Enabling communities to take the initiative and tackle challenges themselves (creating social initiative canvassing guidebook and template, training community managers); 2. Enabling students to lead initiatives with sustainable long-term impact (providing support for running initiatives, creating e-trainings for initiative coordinators and volunteers, preparing volunteer management guidebook); 3. Improving non-formal competencies recognition systems so it would benefit young people (make recommendations for non-formal competence recognition, create non-formal competence recognition auto-approval standards for initiatives and competence assessment task bank). Implementation Activities related to the IO1 Community empowerment toolbox: A1. Social initiative canvasing guidebook and canvas template were created; A2. The methodology (social initiative canvasing guidebook) and canvas template were tested in the social initiative canvasing events; A3. The partners collected feedback on the methodology and canvas template; A4. Training course on mentoring and community management was developed; A5. 5 e-modules (crash courses) were developed; A6. The Volunteer management guidebook was created; A7. Partners provided guidance to volunteers for piloting the initiatives; A8. Case studies from implemented initiatives were created and shared on the project’s website; Activities related to the IO2 Non-formal competence recognition framework: A1. The recommendations for non-formal competence recognition were made; A2. Recommendations were integrated in each university system; A3. Non-formal competence recognition auto-approval standards for initiatives were developed; A4. The partners gathered feedback; A5. Competence evaluation tasks were created and tested; A6. The competence assessment task bank was established. 3 Initiatives Success Symposiums were organised to present the project's results. Achievements Project outputs: - 2 fully developed intellectual products - Community empowerment toolbox (IO1) and Non-formal competence recognition framework (IO2); - Prepared and implemented Community Management Training in Granada (Training Course on Community Management); - Prepared and distributed 5 e.modules for students (volunteers); - 3 initiative success symposia were organized (one in each country); - The visual identity of the project, the project website was created; Project outcomes: - 8 initiatives were implemented (at least 2 in each country); - 12 mentors/community leaders were trained; - More than 500 volunteers viewed e.modules; - 3 initiatives/organizations used the auto-approval standard; - More than 50 young people have been recognized for competence training in an informal way (according to the developed methodology); - Published 10 articles and reached more than 100,000 people on social networks; - Project partners engaged at least 1,000 students during the project and laid the foundation for greater community engagement with the partner organization after the project. More about the ECSTRA project: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLluOGqXsMkcRw64s2w_Azhy7wzHwWE0Pc