All over Europe, unemployment figures for young adults (16-25) have become alarmingly high, with recent forecasts not being positive. National and regional policy initiatives are trying to respond to this. Respective measures are demanding solutions from training providers to make up for the fact that formal VET provision and secondary school programmes have not produced sufficient results for young people's use of competences in “real work life”. Adult education and VET providers need to react in an innovative way. By introducing a new (outdoor) learning environment and applying a holistic approach, the GARDEN project will exploit the overall concept, thematic world, metaphoric value, location and “lesson” of nature/of gardens, as well as horticultural aspects and activities, in order to provide for a new didactic concept and set of pedagogic tools. Outputs: • ‘GARDEN Didactic Manual’ for teachers/ trainers, as well as non-educational facilitators of informal learning environments. • ‘GARDEN Toolkit’ showing practical learning activities/exercises to teachers how to empower young learners by improving their skills (basic skills, communication and social skills, personal competences). • ‘‘GARDEN Platform’ with web 2.0 apps for providing networking opportunities for learners, and containing the “GARDEN Learning Parcours”, which documents what learners have experienced and “gone through” in reality context (garden, park, forest) in each partner country. Products will be available in all partner languages (AT/DE, ES, IS, LV, EN) and will have an impact on adult education and VET provision in the partner countries and beyond. By employing innovative methods in a new learning environment, educators will be better able to reach young, low level educated learners. These, as the final beneficiaries of the project, will be engaged in experiential training of basic skills, key skills and personal competences for work.