The current economic and employment crisis in many European countries has increased the unemployment rate to unacceptable levels, especially in Southern Europe. At the same time, employers keep complaining about skills and competences shortages, concretely of transversal competences such as communication in foreign language, creativity, teamwork, leadership, communication. But not only: the current highly competitive EU work scenario requires competences that go beyond those required by companies and increasingly important in view of evolving labour market and societal needs. The need to improve the quality and relevance of the skills and competences with which young Europeans leave school has been recognised at EU and national level and the urgency of addressing this issue is further underlined by the current situation in which Europe has high youth unemployment and, in some cases, serious skills mismatches. (EC/EACEA/Eurydice, 2012). In recent years, the concept of “key competences” or “transversal competences critical for employability and employment skills” has gained prominence in EU Education systems. Most EU countries have made significant progress in incorporating key competences into national curricula, in defining specific learning outcomes and developing a range of assessment tools to support the learning process. But it is not only important to incorporate these into the different curricula through the many existent methodologies but also to work on VET learners’ awareness on the importance of transversal competences for up-skilling and employability. Often, as evidence shows (Pisa Report, 2010) learners themselves are not aware enough what transversal competences are and how they can be acquired having serious difficulties in facing new problems and unforeseen situations in any context. Which competences they already possess and which need to be improved in order to increase their employability potential. The aim of KeySTART2Work is to design a model of support service in which young and adult learners will be able, as a starting point, to gain awareness of what transversal competences are and what their potential is, assess and manage their competences with the help of self-assessment tools as a basis to create a counselling service of experts in the field of transversal competences who will be able to customize their needs to up-skill through training where needed and thus, increase participation in learning and employability by developing quality counselling and support services. The model and tools will be designed in a first phase of the project and will be tested and transferred into an experimental service at the Chamber of Commerce, in the second. All 6-partner countries participating in this project are active in training and employment and highly interested in the development of assessment processes of transversal competences. An important finding of the analysis actions conducted by the consortium for the preparation of this proposal is that transversal competences are not deeply known and understood by learners and their attitudinal and behavioural dimensions require a combined assessment methods, which is yet not frequently implemented. The project will benefit directly VET learners but also VET providers and career services working on TC assessment. The learners will have the opportunity to reflect on the importance of these competences and their impact on pers. and prof. development. Moreover, learners will be able to undergo an assessment process, which will empower not only learners but will provide the guidance services with new methodological and assessment tools. In addition, guidance services will obtain the necessary know how for offering new tools and training programmes fostering TC relevant for the EU Labour market. Ultimately, also other agents such as companies and stakeholders will benefit from workers that up-skill their competences, lowering the existent mismatch between what companies require and what today workers can offer. Key outcomes of the project: O1: European Synthesis Report on Good Practices and Assessment Tools O2: Catalogue of TC Key for Employability O3: Design and Implementation of an ICT Assessment Tool O4: Transferability Guidelines and Recommendations for a Support Service Creation O5: Impact, Quality and Evaluation O6: Branding for Dissemination and Sustainability The expected results will be: • To design a model of support service in which young and adult learners will be able to gain awareness and improve their knowledge and understanding of Key Competences for Employability and up-skill • To assess and manage their competences with the help of combined assessment methods as a basis to create a counselling service of experts in the field of Key TC for Employability • To increase participation in learning and employability by designing and developing quality counselling&support services.