In December 2012 a group of EDIW Youth carried out an analysis of social needs in Oviedo, Spain. Four were selected as top priorities: youth unemployment came top in their analysis. The second was high rates of school dropout felt as a decisive point for the future. They also identified lack of social commitment of youth and decided to act upon it, starting a project. Finally, they considered a critical moment for Europe and focalised the need of integration of migrants. In over two years, several steps were taken by the group. This project: “Roots and Wings” (R&W) addresses these four needs in a small, concrete and pilot form. The social commitment of youth is the articulating backbone. It is from this perspective that they look at the other three and search for answers.This attempt is backed by 2 Universities, one Intergovernmental Southeast Asian Centre, a Foundation, a European Association and an NGO incorporating the beginning of a SME. The countries involved are Belgium, Italy and Spain where the three social challenges are strongly felt: The three with high numbers of migrants, particularly in recent years, with very high percentages of school dropouts and of unemployment, particularly in the southern countries.The social commitment of the youth has begun with their group analysis of the situation and is followed by three lines of engagement. Besides analyzing unemployment and trying to develop the most required competences most of them were involved the integration of migrant families and youth or in the reinforcement of school children. A group of the latter, were involved in a youth workers mobility for two months in the Philippines, where they had the chance to experience a school for two hundred street children- a consolidated project, an emerging project to avoid dropouts from public schools in three run - down areas of Manila. This action had a very strong impact on the people on mobility and everyone around.This project works through circles: the 6 people who took part in the mobility were part of a group of youth workers trained in a number of competences through two intensive experiential training sessions to help in their social commitment and in their employability. This group was made of 32 youth workers two per each of the 16 groups in Europe and 2 in The Philippines, who followed the course, around 160 young people.They used a system of three steps: analysis of the problems, followed by project development and ending in political dialogue.They were encouraged by new methodologies developing and showing a significant level of success in the integration back in the class of children with difficulty. This was particularly evident with the maths one of the highest causes for failure and consequently of dropout.The project intended to improve the competences of the youth workers in intercultural communication and cultural understanding and in collaborative leadership as well as enhancing the lines of work they had selected.The project was a big success, the sessions were vibrant and full of participation and learning. They often conducted the collective workshops and worked in groups with a high level of participation and sharing. There were a large number of visits to Embassies, NGOs, IGOs and public bodies in their group research and debate.The use of the non-formal learning was a high novelty which was very welcomed in deed by them. It liked well with the experiential nature of the methodology used. At the end of each of the experiences (also in the country experiences carried out by the youth leaders), a certificate and a Youthpass were given as a documentation of the competences acquired. On the second Seminar, there was an intense session of the topic and a serious reflection on learning ending with the Youthpass.

<< Background >>Student dropout & lack of timely completion caused by difficulties experienced in their transition to higher education (HE) in is a well-known problem, but higher education institutions (HEIs) have not been able to resolve it so far. Students (SS) who gain access to HE but are not prepared enough & do not receive the necessary support from Academics (AA) who teach first-year courses are, so to speak, let down by the system. Unsupported SS (a) accumulate courses they will need to retake, which results in 3-year degrees completed in 4 or more years & in lower quality educational experience; (b) have to transfer to a different HE (after losing a year in time & much more in self-esteem) or (c) withdraw from HE completely. _This has serious societal & financial costs. In monetary terms, the costs are so high that governments in many countries decide that taxpayers can no longer bear such losses & introduce performance based funding – HEIs are only funded for SS who graduate & on time. Societal costs are those of exclusion. SS are excluded because the system does not support them in their transition to HE & lets them down, or SS are excluded because HEIs decide to accept only those SS who have proven to be able to succeed without any support (& who do not dropout & do not cause financial losses to HEIs). Diverse SS – first-generation, international or older SS, as well as any SS coming from underrepresented socio-economic groups or accessing HE through non-traditional paths – are the first to suffer such exclusion. _In numerical terms, OECD Education at a glance 2019 report included HE completion rates-related indicators for the first time, followed by many other national institutions. As a result, we can see that: - in the Netherlands 12% dropout within Year 1 and only 28% complete on time; - in Spain approx. one out of 5 students dropout, with highest dropout rates in public HEIs for engineering & science, & the cost of 1st-year drop-outs come to 395 million euros; - in Slovenia 20% of students are not enrolled in tertiary education by the beginning of the Year 2; in France 59% fails to complete Bachelors programme, with the highest dropout rates in Year 1; & in Ireland, 63% complete degrees within their theoretical duration, but in computing and engineering courses dropout is between 60 & 80%. _Research shows that what HEIs can do to reverse situation is to make inclusive excellence their goal – aiming not only to admit diverse SS, but to equip those who teach first-year SS with competences required from AA to promote student retention & to set ALL SS for success, especially less prepared SS who need support to succeed in their transition to HE [Crosling et al, 2008; Dynarski et al, 2008; Vogel et al, 2018; Alhadabi & Karpinski, 2020; Islam & Stamp, 2020; Murugan & Badawi, 2020; Olaya et al, 2020]. _START addresses several interconnected needs:- we need inclusive HE – HE that will no longer let diverse SS down & thus effectively excluding them through lack of support; - ALL SS need those who teach first-year courses to be aware of how & why transition to HE is different & to learn how to promote student retention & set ALL SS for success; - all those working at HEIs need to be equipped with competences to be able to support diverse SS through transition to HE; AA who teach 1st-year courses have the biggest (positive or negative) impact on SS’ chances to succeed or dropout, & AA need to accept supporting SS through transition to HE as part of their role; - AA need support – professional development – to learn how to support SS in their transition to HE – how to promote student retention & set ALL SS for success; - AA need HEIs to support them in their efforts; - HEIs need to put together their know-how & make the necessary professional development tools & materials available as OER; - actors of pre-university HE need to be informed of how to best prepare SS who want to access HE for this next life & learning phase<< Objectives >>START will work to promote inclusive excellence in HE teaching. Inclusive excellence can only be achieved if Academics who work with 1st-year students are capable and willing to support ALL students through their transition to HE. Especially 'non-traditional students': first-generation, international or older students, as well as students coming from less represented socio-economic backgrounds and reaching HE through non-traditional routes. START wants to produce Professional Development tools, resources & activities that can support Academics in this task of promoting student retention and setting all students for success. Especially Academics who work with students in Engineering & Sciences, but also more broadly - Students in programmes with highest dropout rates in partner HEIs. Academics who have been able to promote retention will engage in peer learning with those who are still struggling with making inclusive excellence reality. __ START wants to achieve the situation where supporting students through their transition to HE is no longer 'outsourced' to special services, while Academics focus on 'their subjects/courses'. START wants every Academic to see supporting Students in transition to HE as part of what working with 1st-year students and teaching 1st-year courses is about. __ START also wants to promote recognition of inclusive excellence in HE teaching & contribute to bridging communication gap between HE and pre-university education - all with the aim of making a decisive contribution to tackling the long-known & well-documented but till now unresolved issue of excessive drop-out, huge delays in completion or damaging transfers in the first year of undergraduate programmes. ____ START 4 objectives are as follows: ___ Objective 1: Make those teaching 1st-year courses aware of the difficulties students face when entering HE, on the one hand, & of the special role those teaching 1st-year students have in making HE inclusive, accessible & engaging, on the other.___ Objective 2: Introduce HE academics to tools & activities they can use in order to set ALL students for success through (1) helping students learn how to learn in HE & (2) revising assessment, learning & teaching activities to help students successfully adapt to learning in this new environment. Key here is to find the most effective combination of diagnostic, formative & summative assessments.___ Objective 3: Agree on indicators of excellence and create tools that can guide professional development efforts & recognition for those who teach 1st-year students and are keen to promote inclusive excellence (student retention & success) through core curriculum activities.___ Objective 4: Facilitate dialogue with key actors of pre-university education sector, so as to increase the number of diverse students who access HE better PREPARED to learn & succeed in HE environment.<< Implementation >>START will have 3 key types of activities: __ (1) work on the 4 Results the project will produce; __ (2) international learning & teaching activities – 5 in total; __ (3) Multiplier Events – 19 in total.(1) Each Partner will lead/co-lead the work on one of the Results (UPM leading work on Result 1, UP & UL – on Result 2, RUG & UCD – on Result 3, & EDIW – on Result 4). All HEIs – RUG, UPM, UP, UL & UCD – will equally contribute to all the Results. EDIW, an international youth NGO focusing on bridging inter-sectorial communication gap, will focus on Result 4, while also contributing considerably to Results 1 & 3. ___ All project Results will be open access and made available on a variety of platforms by the end of, and well beyond, the project lifetime. ____ (2) International Learning & Teaching Activities (LTTAs) will be held in each of the project HEIs during the project lifetime with a double aim. Firstly, to offer Professional Development activities to Academics working with 1st-year students and to local faculty developers who can later reach more local Academics. Secondly, to pilot project Results, obtain feedback on the materials to be included and collect more elements that can be included into the final products. ___The 5 LTTAs are as follows:__ 1. What does student transition to HE imply and why does it matter?__ 2. Becoming aware of the students YOU have: what do you need to know about your students and how can you get to know this?__ 3. Setting students for success: Making your expectations clear [being clear about your expectations yourself; making sure your students know and understand your expectations; informing pre-HE education actors].__ 4. Ensuring students can succeed: Helping students become the learners YOU want to have & THEY need to be.__ 5. Becoming the HE Teacher who can support student transition [focus on Continuous Professional Development). ____ (3) Multiplier Events will promote dissemination & sustainable exploitation of all the project Results, at local, national & European level. They will be held by each START Partner at the end of each project Year (6 events at the end of project Year 1, 6 at the end of project Year 2, and 6 closer to the end of project Year 3), and jointly by all partners at the end of the project:__ 1. Multiplier Events focusing on Result 1: “Why do those teaching first-year students have a special role to play? What challenges first-year students face in their transition to HE & why it matters.” (end of Year 1; 5 MEs, online, one by each START HEI). _____ 2. Multiplier Events focusing on Results 2 & 3: “Teaching first-year courses? Find out how good you are at supporting student transition to HE & how you can get even better at it.” (end of Year 2; 5 MEs, online, one by each START HEI). _____ 3. Multiplier Events focusing on Result 4: “Bridging the inter-sectoral communication gap to achieve inclusive excellence in Higher Education” (on at the end of each project year, 3 in total, online, by EDIW). _____ 4. Final Multiplier Events (focusing on Results 1-4): “Striving for inclusive excellence in higher education: what can be learnt from the START project” (closer to end of Year 3; 5 MEs, F2F, one by each START HEI) & “Supporting Teachers who Support Student Transition: Why, What, & How. Striving for inclusive excellence in higher education: what can be learnt from the START project” (end of Year 3, online, by all START partners, for HE authorities, representatives of university networks & E+ national agencies). ___ Finally, Transnational Project Meetings (online & F2F) will help to ensure timely and well-coordinated project implementation.<< Results >>START will produce 4 RESULTS: __ (1) “Addressing the Why: Why do those teaching first-year students have a special role to play?” Toolkit for promoting awareness of the special role of those teaching first-year students in making HE inclusive and accessible; __ (2) “How can I help my first-year students engage, persist & succeed?” Handbook featuring a collection of concrete activities and approaches to (i) help first-year students build their learning power (learn to learn in ways required in HE) & (Iii) guide those teaching first-year students in revising their own approaches to assessment, learning & teaching to make these more inclusive and set diverse students for success in HE; __ (3) “How good am I at supporting student transition?” A self-assessment tool based on a competence profile of a HE teacher ready to support diverse students in their transition to HE; __ (4) “Bridging the inter-sectoral communication gap: What is required to succeed in HE & How to let prospective students know?” A message to pre-HE actors on how to better prepare future university students & to HEIs on how best to engage with pre-university education actors to better support university teachers who support student transition. __OTHER PROJECT OUTCOMES INCLUDE: ____ (1) strong institutional and EU-level communities of HE professionals engaged in promoting inclusive excellence in HE teaching & equipped to do so successfully [these will have grown from the 24 persons involved in the proposal development to include 450+ new members: 250+ completely new members reached through START professional development activities, 25 new persons engaged in supporting Academics in their professional development & further 175+ reached through Multiplier Events]; ____ (2) motivation to continue building inclusive HE & striving for excellence in HE teaching increased, created & sustained thanks to building institutional and transnational communities of practitioners; ____ (3) making isolated best practices in supporting teachers who support student transition known at international level through interinstitutional peer-learning; ____ (4) giving institutional, national & international visibility to champions of promoting inclusive excellence in HE teaching through supporting diverse students & through supporting Academics working with 1st-year students; ____ (5) diverse students [1st-generation students, international students, older students, as well as other students coming from less/under-represented socio-economic groups & joining universities through non-traditional routes] being better supported in their transition(s) to HE & set for success (negative dropout & other threats to students success are addressed/prevented); ____ (6) the 5 START HEIs becoming more inclusive & making a significant step towards installing an institution-wide culture of recognising, rewarding & consistently & competently promoting inclusive excellence in HE teaching; ____ (7) EDIW becoming a champion of inter-sectoral communication crucial for supporting SS of increasingly diverse backgrounds in accessing HE & succeeding in such personal development paths.

"InterAct is a project to promote and validate the development of Intercultural Action Competences (IAC) for participants in international youth projects. It spans the entire length of international projects, including the initial project design, web tools to practice and deepen the learning result and digital group work to integrate the learning into the daily life. To react to the Corona pandemy, InterAct will also include virtual encounters such virtual volunteering or online workcamps.What is IAC?IAC is the competence to adeptly navigate complex environments marked by a growing diversity of people, cultures and lifestyles, in other terms, abilities to perform “effectively and appropriately when interacting with others who are linguistically and culturally different from oneself ” (Fantini & Tirmizi, 2006). According to the UN universal declaration on cultural diversity (2001), intercultural competences complement human rights as a catalyst for promoting a culture of peaceful and harmonious coexistence. In that sense, they play an important role in achieving the goals of international youth work both on a global and European level. The competences that will be acquired not only contribute to the successful cooperation in international youth work, but also contribute to the role of intercultural dialogue as a positive narrative (report 2015/2139(INI)) as necessary facilitator for the integration of third country migrants. ""There is a real urgency – in many aspects of our lives – for education, which can help citizens live together in our diverse societies. For this reason we all need to develop intercultural competence. The ability to understand each other across all types of cultural barriers is a fundamental prerequisite for making our diverse democratic societies work."" (https://book.coe.int/en/root/4943-intercultural-competence-for-all-preparation-for-living-in-a-heterogeneous-world-pestalozzi-series-n2.html)What is InterAct?InterAct is a very ambitious project that will develop a complete collection of tools organised around a web based app, that offers an approach to IAC, that is both well researched and fun to use. It will allow• the young participant to dive deeper into the world of interculturality, to monitor, practice and validate their own learning progress (IO1),• the youth worker to easily integrate practical exercises, games and reflective elements into the creation of international projects, such as Erasmus mobilities (IO2),• include a policy paper to be used by decision makers to help promote and support funding of IAC and mobility projects (IO3)Why InterAct?InterAct makes intercultural action competence (IAC)• Understandable, • Measurable and• Validable.The main goal of InterAct is to transform the concept of IAC from theory to practice, to make it easily understandable for youth workers and participants alike and to make it fun to work with. ""In multicultural societies one of the central aspects of education for democratic citizenship with its emphasis on “learning and living together democratically” must be education for intercultural competence if our vision of sustainable democratic societies is to come true."" (Josef Huber, CoE 2012). The A in IAC stands for the attitudinal and behavioural component of the learning process and is crucial for the practical relevance of intercultural experiences in societies. It'sOn an individual level, it will increase the effect of mobillity participation on perceived self-efficacy, employability, self-esteem and openness to diversity. The combination of the encounter with our learning tool will deepen the learning effect on the cognitive, attitudinal and behavioral dimension.On a societal level, the dissemination of IAC will lead to an improved level of international cooperation, which is a key element for the future of the European Union and the Sustainable Development Goals. It makes our society more resilient against xenophobia and chauvinism and increases our capacity to integrate migrants.Who will use InterAct?IAC is a key competence that is required for and practiced in every international youth encounter. It contributes largely to the Competence in Cultural Awareness, but also to many other key competences. Although IAC is central to youth mobility, it is often not sufficiently understood, and learning progress in this field cognition-focussed andnot properly evaluated and recognized. Gender mainstreamingInterAct is a project that promotes equal opportunities for all. In the context of IAC, gender issues are particularly important as they help to understand, analyse and deconstruct genderrelated cultural stereotypes, that frequently get in the way of intercultural mobilities with participants of diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. As InterAct starts with amodule to integrate IAC in the project development, it will make sure that these aspects are part of the project design from the very beginning."

Developing All Round Education (DARE+) is an innovative Project in the context of the European Higher Education Area and student-centred competence based learning. The project has brought together a prestigious and complementary group of partners, including leading world expects in the fields covered. The Consortium included seven universities (Trinity College Dublin, University of Deusto, University of Granada, University of Groningen, University of Padova and Uppsala University), an international non-profit association (Education for an interdependent World, EDiW) and the Coimbra Group of Universities.During two years (2014-2016) the DARE+ partnership has evaluated how university students could improve the DARE+ generic competences (ie. Teamwork, Leadership, Project Development and Management, Social Entrepreneurship, Communication, Intercultural Competence and Conflict Transformation) through the combination of formal learning with structured competence acquisition experiences outside the classroom. As stated in the project proposal document, the DARE+ project sought to “rethink in terms of opportunities of developing generic competences – various activities and initiatives that university students can get involved in during their free time.” The identification and analysis of the aspects of the generic competences which can be developed in non-formal and informal environments would lead to a better recognition and further development of learning in non-formal and informal contexts, as well as raising awareness about the development of the above-mentioned competences in such contexts both among students and educators.The main activities undertaken by DARE+ can be summarised in the production of intellectual outputs, the design and implementation of mobility and local activities and the dissemination of results through the DARE+ multiplier event. Along with the DARE+ publication, intended to be a reference tool for students to develop any or all the generic competences, the DARE+ project designed and developed a rubric for assessing each of the competences (DARE+ Rubric), a series of materials for dissemination purposes, a methodological and pedagogical model for the design and implementation of Intensive Summer Programmes, an evaluation system in relation to levels of competences (DARE+ Portfolio) and a strategy for the adaptation of methodology for recognition of prior learning (DARE+ Recommendations). Regarding the mobility and local activities, they have served as the testing ground for a sample segment of the targeted audiences of the project: students and trainers. Two Summer Intensive Programmes and three Train the Trainer Workshops were carried out focusing on each targeted audiences, respectively. Finally, the DARE+ multiplier event allowed for presenting the results of the project as well as raising interest in the assessment and accreditation systems developed, which, ideally, will lead to an impact at a regional and national level.The implementation of DARE+ has resulted in the design of innovative materials, piloted in real-life learning situations which constituted rich learning experiences to students and tutors involved directly in the project. The impact of DARE+ includes the establishment of a close-knit international network of partners committed not only to facilitating and recognising non-formal and informal learning, but also to highlighting the importance of the acquisition of generic competences. Additionally, DARE+ has led to the publication of materials in open format, which will remain available even when the project is formally over, as well as recommendations to universities, networks, associations and authorities at all levels regarding the need to advance in the recognition of the learning taking place in non-formal and informal environments.The partnership of DARE+ believes that the project has made a significant contribution, setting the basis and developing the tools to further work on the evaluation, assessment and recognition of generic competences in non-formal and informal contexts. Along with the materials designed, tested and made available by the consortium, DARE+ has engaged in the incorporation of the assessment and learning tools, and in the recognition of the above-mentioned competences in non-formal and informal environment. In this sense, policy recommendations have been designed in order to support decision-making at a national and local level.

Integration Without Borders is a project which brings more light in the relations between minorities and majorities in Europe. The social work is of crucial importance in the field of integration of minorities, in the field of reconciliation in society. Only competent social worker can be able to reach good results. Competence is the key word of this project which aims to define competencies of social worker and train young social workers in new actual competencies.The main competencies of the project, which were selected on the pre­analysis are: intercultural understanding, management of diversities, social entrepreneurship and project development. In the cooperation of 9 partners from 8 countries who has long time experience with work with migrants and minorities in Europe we analyzed, compared, evaluated, mapped the situation, exchanged good practice from the field and organized two pilots trainings.As a final product of the project we are offering training material (a book) which describes the way how to reach these competencies. The book is including description of the situation in 8 European countries and training material to improve each competence. The book could help social workers, volunteer in social work, teachers of social work or also universities that have social work programs to implement these competences in life in their masters curricula.