We will develop and implement a new toolkit to enable national, regional and local labor market forecasters to ensure that they are able to support the alignment of VET policy and economic development strategy, in line with the priorities of the European Commission. This will be transferred through an existing network of labor market observatories operating throughout Europe. The ERASMUS+ Program recognizes the critical importance of reinforcing links between education, training with the world of work and this project seeks to achieve this directly through better aligning VET policy (education/training) with economic development strategies (work). Furthermore it looks at the pivotal role that differing types of labor market forecasting play in driving VET policies and economic development strategies. The project will develop and implement an innovative new toolkit which will enable the many organizations providing labor market intelligence and forecasting in Europe to ensure their ‘offer’ is both capable of supporting a more aligned system and indeed helps to progress the process of alignment. Better aligning VET policy and economic development strategy will enhance the quality and relevance of the learning and training offer, particularly when combined with state of the art labor market forecasting. Innovative practices already exist in a number of European countries and examples of these have already been identified by the project as being: the open data access approach taken by LMI for all and Working Futures (UK), the sectoral work of the Observatoire régional emploi-formation (OREF) de la région Provence - Alpes - Côte d’Azur (ORM-PACA) (France), the systematic market/demand process for evaluating VET needs in Yrkeshögskolan (Sweden), the Hessian care Monitor (Germany, the Careers Guidance website ‘Careers-Wales’ (UK) and the work of Skills Development Scotland (UK). The partners have identified through previous work together and through the network’s ongoing activities, a Labor Market Intelligence (LMI) Life-cycle that will be reflected within the Toolkit and Good Practice activities: 1. Identification of needs 2. Identification of LMI (re)sources 3. Selection or development of tools 4. Selection/development of LMI presentation 5. Active participation of user groups. 6. Effective implementation. 7. Evaluation, assessment and improvement. Effective labor market and skills forecasting underpins both economic development strategy and VET policymaking. It is the foundation upon which both must be built. Understanding our changing labor markets and the demand for skills from our employers is pivotal to designing educational policy and to Europe’s future. From our knowledge of the needs of the sector, contents of the final toolkit are likely to include: - Scenario planning - Innovative forecasting techniques - Innovative dissemination and mainstreaming approaches tailored to various audiences - Good practices and case studies from WPs 2,3 and 4 - Guide to informing economic strategy - Guide to informing VET policy - Techniques to understand user needs - Best practice employer surveys/perspectives surveys, historic trend mapping - Useful approaches to smart specialization strategies - Sectoral approaches and forecasting Our project seeks to identify the very best examples of effective VET Policy and Economic Development Planning and to understand the differing ways that labor market and skills forecasting has been used. It will then use this understanding to nuance practical methods and approaches that other regions and countries could adopt to help improve their labor market and skills forecasting – with a view to better linking VET policy to economic development strategy. These practical approaches will take the form of an innovative toolkit which will be implemented in selected partner countries before being made available (open access) via the existing European Network on Regional Labor Market Monitoring. The partners have been chosen as they encompass the very best examples of labor market forecasting organizations/experts from across Europe, including local, regional and national examples. All partners are key players in the European Network of Regional Labor Market Monitoring, which is Europe’s network of regional observatories and this network will be used to drive dissemination and to help gather good practices and case studies. Our partnership and methodology is built upon our very successful ARLI (The EU Skills Panorama - Achieving Regional and Local Impact) project funded by the EU Progress Program which has improved regional skills forecasting and has worked alongside the Commission to help inform the future shape of the EU-Skills Panorama into the landscape of regional and local labor market and skills monitoring.