Euro-ARCO in Rome: Young people, transferable skills and the arts
On September 24th
and 25th the final
meeting of the Euro Arco project took place in Rome, hosted by
Italian partner Mulab. The Euro-Arco Transfer of Innovation
Project aims to transfer and adapt innovative vocational
practice in the teaching of transferable skills for
employment. Euro-arco is a partnership collaboration involving
organisations in the UK (WAC Arts and Rinova), Spain, Italy, the
Netherlands, Cyprus and Portugal.
The project shared and tested the
'Transferable Skills Toolkit for Trainers' that was developed by
Rinova and WAC Arts and originally funded by the Learning and
Skills Improvement Service. The approach involves
supporting tutors to identify and capture the key skills for
employability that young people, particularly those not in
education, employment or trainig, develop through creative and
artistic practice.
During this final meeting Dissemination was the key focus
with Trainers from each of the Partner countries coming together to
host a 'Masterclass' for practitioners from formal and non formal
training institutions in Rome. This workshop was a great success
and participants picked up quickly on the energy and enthusiasm of
all those trainers involved in testing and honing the Toolkit, an
energy which has been infectious throughout the project.
Pictured left: Partners working together at the final
meeting of the Euro-Arco partnership in Rome.
A public event on the second day for key stakeholders from
the City of Rome, and the provice of Lazio was well attended
despite the unfortunate weather. Speakers were interesting and
the variety of styles and content kept the presentations as
fresh and interesting as the project itself. The feedback
received as a result was been excellent and bodes well for the
future in terms of follow-up in Italy. You can view a video
presentation of the final event here. A video presentation from the
external evaluation of the project, which was conducted by the
consultancy Perfect Moment, is available here.
On the first day of the meeting, Rinova hosted a session
looking into the legacy of Euro Arco and possibly to it's future
development. WAC and some of the other partners are able
to claim a 15 year history of working together on non-formal
learning in the creative industries and on fostering social
inclusion for young people through the arts.
With youth unemployment levels across Europe remaining
stubbornly high, there was a strong sense amongst
the partners that the issues addressed by the project remain
as important as ever, as they reviewed what they can achieve
next. Although it was the last meeting for Euro-Arco, we left the
meeting with a very real sense that there is definitely more to
come.
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the
author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use
which may be made of the information contained therein.
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