The cooperation explored the potentials of a novel approach based on an innovative learning platform, a mobile APP and several open educational resources for academic tutorship programmes and career guidance services with the aim of decreasing academic dropout and increasing academic attainment across European countries.The intellectual outputs combined a set of tools and a new tutoring system aimed at reducing the academic dropout rates: students and tutors have an innovative and social platform to use every day to solve problems, learn from each other, share key information, decisions, study plans, and future career goals. Additionally, tutors can attend an online training course and can get a full set of information and practical tips for designing tutoring services. The projects created an innovative European digital system for Universities and HEIs, adapted for different contexts, based on a mobile application, that provides tools and devices for e-tutoring support to students during their academic career.The tailored web environment designed according to the learning of Career Management Skills (CMS) was implemented in order to develop some fundamental skills in students to improve their performance. Critical thinking and time management are key skills for any academic student. The ability to balance their free time and their studies in class and at home is fundamental to prevent incorrect conduct and not satisfactory results at university. The project results demonstrated also the capability of the tools to increase academic engagement and learning motivation. The Mobile app and the learning platform increased the opportunities for the academic communities, students, teachers and tutors, to work closely and in groups exploiting better and more effectively all the students' services. IO1 “CMS assessment of academic students” was designed to support a better understanding of the CMS required to manage the academic career. Peer reviews and participatory action research demonstrated the high relevance of the work for inspiring and guiding the tutoring services of the partner universities.IO2 represented the link between improving academic tutoring initiatives for students’ success and the need to increase the understanding on CMS. The collection of tutoring practices and their revision in the light of the CMS framework was done in an environment of co-creation among experts from each partner country.IO3 consists of the development of a methodological framework that constitutes the basis for the technical implementation of ICT tools, too.After the first three intellectual outputs, the project team moved on to design practical tools for tutors and students based on the knowledge acquired in the previous part of the project which was, instead, more focused on theoretical and empirical research addressing career guidance and tutoring services. The solid research foundations were pivotal for the E-Tutoring APP (IO4) that promoted a better understanding and development of those skills that are required to manage the academic career and the E-learning platform for online tutors (IO5).The pilot actions were planned to be the stress test of the APP, the platform, and the main actions for the exploitation of the project. In particular, the results of the experimentations were the core contents for seminars and conferences organized by the partner institutions in the second half of the project.The short training activities were carried out online through the project platform. Multiplier events, one per country, were held in July 2021, close to the project deadline when the pandemic restrictions became slack.In conclusion, the project promoted the active engagement of the Higher Education Institutions to bridge the gap between education and careers management. Academic Tutoring was the strategic addendum to the tool as it provides services and resources for developing academic students’ identities and tools to help them better cope with the difficulties of the academic career. The project impacted the academic experience of more than 9,000 students, 170 dummy users, 642 academics and students who responded to the questionnaires, 198 people who took part in the focus groups and more the 80 experts who were involved in the working groups, all coming from six nations in Europe.

<< Background >>One of the main missions of the modern Higher Education systems is to provide students with key skills to manage their life and career plans in a complex and challenging society. The levels of early leaving and failures of students still remain very high and the rate of youth disengagement is one of the social and economic risks in Europe. The pandemic crisis provided evidence of how high this risk is and showed the vulnerability of our communities and the need of re-shaping our priorities by also enhancing the set of crucial skills for future generations. Learning from real life is one of the challenges for Higher Education systems and enhancing the active role of each university in promoting civic engagement of all students and of the academic community locally and internationally becomes a priority. Student disengagement represents a human, social, cultural and economic cost for individuals and the whole society. Many countries are carrying out tutoring and peer learning programmes in order to prevent early leaving from Higher Education. Also career guidance is a more and more powerful strategy for preventing students' dropout rates, while widening career opportunities in different social groups, promoting lifelong learning and supporting students during transitions.According to the European lifelong guidance strategy (2008), the main aim of career guidance is, in fact, to equip the individual with transversal competences to better manage and develop his or her potential in education, work and life. “Career Management Skills” (CMS) represent the key concept of this strategy. They refer to a set of personal, reflective, social and digital skills needed for making and implementing career decisions and transitions. Consequently, the challenge for universities is to promote and enhance the quality of teaching, for which it is necessary to implement innovative student-centred teaching methodologies. These methodologies require the commitment of students to their studies, which is not always present. Misperceptions and misunderstandings of duties and commitments often play a role in the student's lifetime and adversely affect the study plan. This set of problems during academic life puts students at risk for problems such as exclusion, loss of confidence, dropout and unemployment. Furthermore, early academic leaving affects the academic system and undermines the performance of the HE system moving energies and potentials into the labor market. In this scenario the model of Community Service Learning (CSL) will become a great innovation in didactics because it promotes learning in real situations, involving students in civic initiatives and social programmes aimed to benefit local or international communities. A structured programme of CSL (integrated within the learning offer of the HEIs) helps students master important curriculum content by supporting them in making meaningful connections between topics they are studying and their many applications. Furthermore, it combines the needs for improving career guidance and tutoring services with the need to improve the quality of teaching.Service-learning offers a unique opportunity for students to get involved with their communities in a tangible way, by integrating service projects with didactic and learning. Studies indicate that “students evaluating their service-learning courses are more likely than students evaluating other courses to report that the courses promoted interpersonal, community and academic engagement, were academically challenging, and encouraged their continued study at the University.” (Gallini & Moely, 2003). Furthermore, a correlation seems to exist between Community Service Learning and increased personal awareness, increased social awareness, and improved student learning outcomes that are all rooted in learning conditions that ultimately engage and retain students in post-secondary institutions (Prentice & Robinson, 2010).<< Objectives >>From Student to Active Citizen is a key element of renewed and expanding HEIs commitment to both civic engagement education and more inclusive academic policies. After the Pandemic crisis, the education for civic engagement and a responsive academic governance is founding objectives of a renewed European spirit. These goals remain essential for the future as the European higher education system continue to seek productive ways to engage their community in the whole society. This need is combined with the priority to looking forward the academic learning system to be more student centred, be careful to improve students’ wellbeing and to increase their academic engagement to prevent drop out or poor performance. All the universities involved in the ENHANCE Project are looking to find smart solutions to increase the students’ performance and the academic social commitment in order to be more engaged in the society, to give answer to the emerging needs of the labour market and to address the research for social scopes.The ENHANCE project aims at design and develop an innovative Community Service Learning approach with related learning tools and digital resources. A modern CSL system will enhance students' self-knowledge, empathy, communication skills and cultural awareness. Its practices allow students to acquire social skills and attitudes that are implemented in everyday life. Meta-analyses also show the effect of Service Learning on the development of diverse competencies. Most papers present Service Learning as a valid pedagogical strategy for acquiring knowledge, attitudes and promoting civic engagement. For the ENHANCE partnership the Community Service Learning is also a fundament set of practices to implement career guidance and academic tutoring, because it helps students retain more information learned in class, achieve higher course grades, and have greater satisfaction with the course; these are aspects that irreversible impact on the future citizen, workers, and researchers. The ENHANCE consortium aims at finding smart solutions in design an innovative CSL system, also based on the partners experience to guaranteeing remote continuity of the teaching–learning process during the pandemic crisis.Equally, for this project, ICT is a crucial ally for a sound implementation of community service-learning into the academic services since it increases ease of access and relevance during the student's dynamic construction of a new career, training and educational pathway. New technology is an area of transformative social change (e- learning, virtual mobility, social media, etc.). ICT goes beyond conventional education and introduces a feedback loop that enables stakeholders and diverse target groups to contribute to the design of the system. Community service-learning will be provided at any stage of academic career, with the support of the tutoring and career services and within all learning environments. This innovative approach also implies an increasing need for a new set of digital tools and resources for empowering the tutoring and career services. The project achievements also include the implementation of a cooperative strategy for introducing and integrating Service-Learning in the tutoring and career service of the universities involved in the project. CSL will also improve the academic system of micro-credentials, related to several learning pathways. A micro-credential is a recognised proof of the learning outcomes that a learner has achieved following a short learning experience, according to transparent standards and requirements and upon assessment. Micro-credentials are owned by the learner, are shareable, portable and may be combined into larger credentials or qualifications. Through micro-credentials the new CSL system will be easily integrated in the formal learning offer of each HEIs.<< Implementation >>The main activities of the ENHANCE project includes: 1 - Participatory Action Research (PAR) - The consortium will collect best references, models and practices on Community Service Learning (CSL) through an international desk research and local and national focus groups with tutors, education staff and other associated stakeholders. PAR is a pedagogical approach based on the direct and active involvement of stakeholders and beneficiaries in the co-creation of the new CSL system, based on the related project outputs (IO1-IO2-IO3). The working groups will include tutors, career guidance practitioners, coordinators, trainers, students, experts and researchers. All participants play an active role as “researchers” and cooperate for building a new contextualised knowledge, developing innovative actions for solving common issues and for designing the new CSL model and to collect practices and models for implementing all tools and resources.The PAR will be the methodological base to design and to test all IOs (IO1 - IO3) through regional pilot actions with a wide and direct involvement of tutors and students in 5 Countries.2 - The European framework of Career Management Skills (CMS) will be the based to design the Virtual CSL platform, to build the learning offer and to define the micro-credential related to each pathways (in real situations or within virtual environments for e-learning). Each students involved in Community Service Learning will collect and upload learning evidences to gain micro-credential related to the CMS and other key skills. 3 - Pilot Actions: all regional teams in Spain, Italy, Romania, Greece and Turkey will set up the CSL system and test the model within the HEIs involved and through civic programmes and social initiatives in cooperation with the associated partners. The main achievements will be the validation of the products (IO1-IO2-IO3) and the implementation of the learning and tutoring resources.4 - International Training - In Spain a group of selected tutors from 5 countries will trained to use the CSL model and the related digital tools. Trained tutors will be appointed as ENHANCE Ambassador to lead dissemination and further exploitation activities and initiatives nationally and internationally. The training module for CSL Tutors (IO3) will be created and shared as MOOC by all HEIs involved in the project.The work plan shared and implemented by all partners will produce 3 relevant outputs (IO1 - IO3) designed and related as a coherent set of models and resources to providing tailored and effective CSL programmes for students' engagement and career education.<< Results >>Main project results will be:- Creation of a common international approach on Community Service Learning - CSL (IO1), as learning resource for enhancing the academic training offer and the tutorship services. It will be produced a comprehensive Handbook for tutors and educative staff, based on the best practices and learning resources. The main focus will be on the Career Management Skills framework, following the EU Resolutions, to support all students in the building of a lifelong career and learnig plan. This theoretical and methodological document will be used by all partners and associated partners to enhance and enlarge learning opportunites in real life and civic engagement for all students. It will be also a base model all HEIs in Europe for improving education policiesand build inclusive systems to validate informal learning through a micro-credential system. 2 - Development of an innovative web portal for supporting Virtual Commyunity Service Learning (IO2). This tool will have a potentially strong impact as it allows HEIs to provide community service learning on line and e-tutoring support to students and organisations involved. The platform will be multi-languages to foster an international use and widest exploitation.3 - E-learning platform and training module for CSL tutors and education staff of HEIs (IO3). This resource will be designed as MOOD to be used freely by all Universities and other HEIs for training and updating tutors, trainers and career practicioners.