How can VET and labour market actors contribute to a sustainable, “green” economy driven by the need to better preserve and protect both the social-economic well-being of our societies and the natural resources of our planet? This was the big question that prompted 10 partners from 9 EU countries – the ACROSS strategic partnership – to deal with these changes from the perspective of VET providers and labour market actors, to provide solutions to workers, students and companies and to equip them with the necessary skills and capacities to undergo greening processes.
WEBSITE: ACROSS
FACEBOOK: ACROSS
LEAFLET: ACROSS Leaflet can be found here!
PRODUCTS: ACROSS online tool
PARTNERS
FR: Tandem Plus Network – PT: Anjaf – NL – BLANKCON – HR: Crafts College – FI: Winnova – DK: Tietgen – IT: Forcoop – Cora – DE: ACLI- IT: IFOA
PROJECT STATUS: Finished September 2017
THE CONTEXT
While some European countries are still struggling to recover from the economic downturn, one thing is clear: our economies face structural changes due to many factors, one of them is the sustainability of productive processes vis à vis scarce resources and environmental protection, triggered by climate change and globalization. Such changes reflect a process that has started well before the crisis, and will continue to evolve quickly in the future. Technology advancements have also changed and “greened” the productive processes, employment has become more fluid, and skills required to enter and remain active in the labour market have dramatically changed in the post-industrial era.
Rather than a sector per se, ACROSS looks at the transformation of jobs into “green jobs” as a cross-sectorial overhaul of traditional jobs in transforming/ restructuring sectors and the development of innovative, technology- and efficiency-driven new jobs also in traditional sectors.
We focus on two main tenets: sustainable development in the so-called green economies and the appraising of transversal skills as portable skills in times of high unemployment and restructuring.
ACTIVITES AND PRODUCTS
The partners’ alliance has devised a three-step action that consists in:
- identifying policy and practice that can inspire actions and approaches to sustainable economy and that can provide a EU-wide reference for the definition of an innovative ACROSS methodological framework linking transversal skills to greening economies;
- the consolidation of three operational tools, built for VET and labour market professionals, workers and companies (especially SMEs) to assess transversal “green” skills , to increase employability with the appraisal of such skills in greening jobs and to support companies in defining and anticipate green skills needs;
- The test and evaluation of the framework solidity and the effectiveness of the tools developed. Networking and sharing at local, national and EU level is our strategy for buy-in at different levels, by convening and sharing the results of the project and promoting its approach to key stakeholders.
PRODUCTS: ACROSS online tool
WE WANT YOU IN!
While ACROSS is an international effort, it also assigns a central role to local stakeholders in the countries where it is implemented.
To be effective, the EU approach has to be built starting from the local dimension, cultures, contexts, including common needs and recognizing diversity as an added value.
For this reason, we are giving voice to people and institutions active at local level in the field of VET, labour market, research, economy and sustainability, to help create a meaningful path to a more sustainable and greener economy where people can work and thrive. By getting aboard ACROSS you become an essential player in the exchange of knowledge and in the development of the project. Not only will you be able to contribute to the quality of the outcomes, but will also be recognized as a co-designer at international level and will be more than welcome to use and adapt the tools and solutions to the challenging issues you deal with in your everyday work and life.
BLANKCON AND ACROSS
BLANKCON is a partner in ACROSS and responsible for the description of good Dutch practises and the dissemination and training of the ACROSS products and instruments within the Netherlands.