DEEM is an Erasmus + funded strategic partnership “network to network” project aiming to adapt and transfer to the partner nations an enterprise and employability curriculum that can be used during mobilities to enhance the entrepreneurial skills of beneficiaries of such schemes and lead to sustainable employment.

The Partnership is composed of 10 partners representing 5 EU countries:

• Gecko Programmes (United Kingdom)
• South & City College Birmingham (United Kingdom)
• Globtrain (Germany)
• CPA (Italy)
• CENTRO DIFFUSIONE IMPRENDITORIALE DELLA TOSCANA SCARL – CEDIT (Italy)
• Istituto per la Formazione, l’Occupazione e la Mobilità – IFOM (Italy)
• Reattiva – Regione Europa Attiva (Italy)
• Asociatia European Academy (Romania)
• International Consulting and Mobility Agency – INCOMA (Spain)
• Integra Consultoria Coruña (Spain)

The Partnership seeks to enhance the “boost to employability” through an employability/enterprise curriculum that is offered during the mobility and by improving the materials of the Enterprise and Employability programme and standardise it. We want to design the most appropriate curriculum and pedagogy, using the knowledge of all the partners. We acknowledge the different pedagogical approaches of partners/nations, yet also seek to be uniform in our approach.
The overall project activities have been broken down into three stage plans representing the collection of collaborative work actions necessary to create the projected results and outcomes:

Stage 1: Preparation and creation of templates, review existing materials

The partnership will review the quality assurance and evaluation tools and templates for case studies/better practice/ improvement of the enterprise and employability programme and set an evaluation and reporting framework. This will provide a basis for discussions and exchange of opinions within Partnership.

Stage 2: Improvement phase

This phase concentrates a lot of work and will entail close cooperation between partners to identify existing gaps and address the main issues of Enterprise and Employability programme.

Stage 3: Production of tutor notes together with exploration of routes to ECVET certification

The third stage will be focused on reviewing the improvements brought by each partner and planning delivery of A8-A10. The final version of the Enterprise and Employability programme will be presented and discussed, and Partners will start sharing the project findings with their networks and on their websites/platforms.

Impact

The project will impact all 10 participating organisations by equipping them to deliver a training course that supports EU’s policies by:
– embedding work based learning into their curriculum and engaging their network of host partners, in line with European Councils’ recommendations concerning high quality vocational education and training (VET) systems, in which the active participation of employers and a strong element of work-based learning facilitate young people’s transition to work by providing the knowledge, skills and competences which they need for a successful first step into the labour market (Work Based Learning in Europe. Practices and Policy Pointers, European Commission, June 2013)

– aligning their activities with the Bruges Communiqué: develop a vademecum/study on successful work-based learning models

– contributing to the “Agenda for new skills and jobs” by helping VET students penetrate the labour market after having completed the Enterprise and Employability programme
– aiming to integrate ECVET into their existing mobility practice.