Senior Experts Nurturing Talent (SENT 2023-2025)
The Senior Experts Nurturing Talent (SENT) framework programme, spanning from 2023 to 2025, is a pioneering initiative aimed at elevating European educational policies and practices in relation to senior volunteering. At its core, SENT promotes the role of experienced senior experts and their invaluable contributions to the European Education Area (EEA) as volunteers.
The mission of the programme is to foster stakeholder commitment and collaboration with public authorities, thereby catalysing the effective implementation of educational policies and reforms within the EEA. It prioritises active senior experts, aiming to maximise benefits for young learners in formal and non-formal education, budding professionals in their initial training phases, as well as key players in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurial ventures.
Aligned with the EEA objectives and attuned to country-specific recommendations outlined in the European Semester framework, SENT focuses on policy implementation in key areas. Using digital communication, it aspires to expand CESES' reach and enhance engagement from civil society and various stakeholders, facilitating the widespread dissemination of educational policies and programme actions, while showcasing impactful results and best practices.
Throughout the programme’s duration, our goals include engaging 3,000 senior expert volunteers, training 300 senior expert volunteers, enhancing the capacity of 18 senior expert organisations across 13 countries, and adding 6 new network members. We aim to benefit 600 SMEs, reaching 1,800 individuals with improved digital competency, energy efficiency, and diversified leadership. Additionally, we aim to impact 4,200 young people in formal education and young professionals undergoing initial in-service training, aiming to decouple educational attainment from socio-economic background. Our final objective is to engage 1,100 stakeholders in policy dialogues and recognize 15 recipients with the SENT Awards, highlighting the best practices from among our membership.
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Mentoring Across Borders (MAB)
With the kickoff meeting held in Brussels from January 25 to 27, the intergenerational, cross-border Mentoring Across Borders Project, financed by the European Union Erasmus+ program, was officially launched.
The MAB Project aims to develop mentoring hubs in Eastern and South-Eastern European countries, which will organize and train accomplished professional senior adults as mentors, to volunteer their time to help young people, aged 18-30, including those at risk of marginalization, so that the latter can develop their professional skills and enter the labor markets.
The MAB Project builds on the successful results of the Erasmus+ EvolYou program, reinforcing its best practices and transferring its innovation to a pan-European level. EvolYou, in 28 months, mobilized 90 experienced senior people as mentors, from 6 countries, who helped 187 disadvantaged young people to access labor markets or the vocational educational training paths with the help and experience of their mentors.
Within MAB, 13 partner organizations from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania, Cyprus and Greece are involved in setting up the mentoring hubs. The MAB Project is coordinated by CESES, a European Confederation of Senior Expert Services, which provide support from experts in their countries and abroad.
The project partners are 50plus Hellas, Greece AGE Platform Europe Belgium, Auleda Local Economic Development Agency Vlore Albania, Center of European Volunteering Belgium, Cyprus Third Age Observatory, Druzhestvo Znanie Bulgaria, Senior Experten Services Germany, Seniores Italia Lazio, Onkentes Kozpont Alapitvany Hungary, Stowarzyszenie Centrum Wolontariatu Poland, Volontariato Torino Italy and Volontari Senior Professionali, Italy.
The project will last for two years and focuses on three main activities, the shaping of a mentoring methodology towards the needs of the Eastern and South-Eastern countries, the development and implementation of an online platform to help match mentors and mentees across the border and the testing of this matchmaking tool for 120 registered mentors and 120 mentees in Eastern and South-Eastern European countries. The platform will be open to people over 50 years of age who wish to offer their knowledge and experience, as well as to young people who need mentoring or coaching in their area of interest. In order to disseminate the project among stakeholders, workshops and public awareness campaigns will be organized. The project also will include dissemination, quality control, and risk management activities in order to achieve the best possible results.
By bringing together Western, Eastern, and Southern European organizations, the project provides an excellent opportunity for the participating organizations to exchange experiences and best practices with their peers.
More details will be made public as the project develops...
Team IV
TEAM IV is a project dedicated to making meaningful contributions towards the social inclusion of individuals with disabilities. Our primary objective is to train 250 mentors who specialize in providing support to people with disabilities, particularly those who are volunteers or aspire to become volunteers. This initiative is not only about training mentors but also about creating a platform that facilitates mentor-mentee matching and offers training materials in various languages for accessibility and inclusivity.
The project will achieve this through the creation of an online training course aimed at enhancing the capabilities of individuals to serve as volunteer mentors through a European mentoring program designed for volunteers with disabilities. We leverage online non-formal learning methodologies to ensure widespread accessibility and engagement.
By doing so, TEAM IV is poised to refine and formalize mentoring methodologies specifically tailored to support both online and offline volunteering activities undertaken by individuals with disabilities. Our goal is to empower these individuals, enabling their active participation in democratic and civic life, as well as to advocate for an inclusive approach to policymakers and stakeholders throughout Europe, emphasising the vital contributions people with disabilities can make to their communities, and society more widely, if offered an inclusive and accessible opportunity to do so. Through these efforts, we strive to create a more inclusive and equitable society for everyone.
EvolYou
CESES was a partner in the EvolYou project, which contributed to improving the level of key competences and skills, with particular regard to their relevance to the labour market and their contribution to a cohesive society, especially through strengthened cooperation between the world of education and training and the world of work.
Specifically, it aimed to intervene on the marginalisation and social exclusion phenomena, favoring active inclusion of disadvantaged young people aged 15-30 into the labour market and, consequently, in society. This objective was achieved through a training path of participated involvement of senior expert volunteers in an intergenerational mentoring environment.
Although the project ended in June 2021, its legacy is carried on through the MAB project mentioned above.