ToGetPro

ToGetPro is a legally established consortium, with its seats in Bergamo, Milan, Rome and Bologna (Italy). Its main activities are the design, the management and the implementation of European, national and regional projects, working in a holistic manner on the following topics: new technologies in didactics, training and counselling, e-learning, inclusive education, inclusive innovation, and innovation management.

ToGetPro consortium consists of 5 Foundations (Fondazioni): Fondazione Et Labora, Fondazione Ikaros, Fondazione Ecosistemi, Fondazione ITS, Fondazione Pegaso.

Fondazione Et Labora incorporates the first Italian school totally dedicated to apprenticeship, it targets students that do not fit into the traditional educational paths and provides an active, work-oriented education. At the same time it acts as a not-for-profit employment agency accredited by the Region Lombardia to foster the integration of persons into the labour market and to offer services to public and private enterprises. Et Labora is also authorised at regional level for recruitment and selection services and outplacement support. Fondazione Ikaros is a certified Vocational Education and Training Center and a Job Services Provider, operating in the field of lifelong learning. It received an Excellence Label from Lombardy Region in 2010. It is active in the provision of a wide range of training activities, from education and training courses targeted at specific groups ( early school leavers, disadvantaged groups, NEET…) to continuing and tertiary training, as well as in providing labor market services, research end innovation activities, international cooperation. Fondazione JobsACademy (former ITS) was established in 2010 to bring together young adults and more than 250 partner companies in a win-win match between supply and demand. Fondazione JAC proposes Higher Education courses forming high-profile specialist figures with the work-based learning method. Fondazione Ecosistemi has  over  fifteen  years  of  experience  in  consultancy  and training for sustainable  development,  including  the  implementation  of  tools  for  sustainable  consumption  and production and the elaboration of local development plans. Fondazione Pegaso deals with the Administration and Accountability service of the consortium.

Main activities of the Consortium: Professional training for secondary school students; Integrated services for professional counselling, training and mediation on labour market for vulnerable groups (unemployed, NEETs, people with disabilities); Training services for increasing autonomy of minors; Combating school dropout and achieving excellence in training; Strategies, programs and instruments for sustainable development together with societies and public administration in  rdert o improve quality of environment and social responsability; Technical assistance for developing, managing and implementing European projects in Italy and Romania; Providing programs for Superior Technical Training and programs for professional conversion and reconversion.

ToGetPro developed its projects joining and developing European networks for training and work, keeping up to date on important topics like  innovation in didactics, ICT, mobility, labor market, equal opportunities, skills certification.

It has established a network of professionals with business experience and a network of partnerships with Enterprises, Institutions, Professional Associations, Universities and Research institutions. It has a high-profile staff with experience in the direction, coordination, organization, and implementation of projects and in the administrative area. It has obtained a relevant experience in education and training, in tutoring, in teaching, in the management of group and personal dynamics with adolescents and in the supporting of disabled. It has also has developed an important expertise in the field of formal and informal skills and competences certifications through ECVET system and other types of certification.

Activities/Experiences:

ERASMUS+ KA1 YOUTH EXCHANGES

KA1 SHARE CULTURE 2017: The aim of the ”SHARE CULTURE” project was to gather 30 young people, age 18 to 25 years old and 6 group leaders coming from 6 different countries in a 9 days intercultural YE to promote intercultural dialogue, intercultural awareness and solidarity through non-formal activities dealing with food, culinary traditions and healthy nutrition. Bringing together these youth, helping them to learn and live together, share rooms and meals, was an ideal and natural setting for

intercultural learning to take place. The Partners involved in this project were introduced to the culture

and tradition of different European countries exploring cultures and traditions through food and traditional meals, got to know better other EU countries traditions involved in the project and explored differences in behaviors, traditions, cultures and norms.

KA1 LEAVE A SIGN 2017: a 7 day bilateral youth exchange aimed at building a bridge of cultural understanding and communication between 12 Romanian and 12 Italian participants (among which 12 with hearing impairment) taking place in Bucharest, Romania on 15-23 January 2017. The main objective of the project was to promote equity, inclusion and solidarity by creating an opportunity for

the participants to experiment cultural diversity, particularities of having and not having a disability as well as particularities of Romanian and Italian Sign Languages (SL).

STUDENT MOBILITIES (LLP, Erasmus+)

Thanks to the participation in the European mobility projects and other local proposals related to professional mobility of students and workers, togetpro, namely through Ikaros, has developed an important expertise in the field of student mobility. As follows a list of the major initiatives in the last years:

-MEET ITALY- (Erasmus + KA1) Vet learner mobility project developed in collaboration with the Hotel and Tourism Institute Zadar from Croatia to host in Italy Croatian VET learners graduating from the Hotel and Tourism Technicians course: 60 students for a 3-week long work-based training experience in modern tourism structures, namely hotels and travel agencies.

-ABROAD – Train Global, Employ Local (Erasmus + KA1) VET learner mobility project in UK and Ireland for young learners in hairdressing and IT: 80 students to a 7-week long work- based training experience in modern Hair and Beauty salons and IT companies.

-KCKH – Keep Calm and Keep on Hairdressing (Erasmus + KA1) VET learner mobility project hosted in Italy for young learners in hairdressing: 60 students to a 2-week long work-based training experience in modern Hair and Beauty salons.

- HAIRSTYLE - HAIRdressing STage for Young Learners (LLP Mobility Leonardo da Vinci IVET): the project was the natural prosecution of HAIR, involving 100 students to a 4-week long work-based training experience in Doncaster UK through Oracle Training Consultant Ltd.

HAIR - Work based training in UK for young learners in hairdressing (LLP Mobility Leonardo da Vinci IVET): 100 students to a 4-week long work-based training experience in Doncaster UK through Oracle Training Consultant Ltd.

- Regional Project “Fourth year abroad. More than one year of study”: IKAROS has sent

22 learners enrolled in the 4th year of the training programme for certified IT Technicians to a work-based training experience of a 4 months duration in Dublin, Ireland, hosted by Emerald Cultural Institute. The learners are carrying on their mobility activities at this very moment and they are meeting the best IT company situated in Dublin in order to develop their vocational skills.

- Regional projects “Learning Weeks”: IKAROS has organized over 90 learning week paths involving over 2300 students abroad and in Italy in the last three years. The learning weeks are informal paths developed out of the normal school activities, involving the students in a different way of learning, often strongly connected with the labour market and a on-the-job training experiences.

VET FIELD

Fondazione Ikaros is one of the biggest VET provider in Lombardy Region, having around 1600 students and being one of the more active and proactive Institutions in the field.

According with the European polices about VET, Ikaros is working for improve the quality of training (initial education, continuing development); improve the quality of teachers, trainers and other professionals in the sector; make courses more relevant to the labour market.

For instance, Ikaros has organized over 90 Learning Week paths involving over 2300 students abroad and in Italy in the last three years. The learning weeks are informal paths developed out of the normal school activities, involving the students in a different way of learning, often strongly connected with the labour market, entrepreneurs, and a on-the-job training experiences.

-DROP@PP (Erasmus+ KA2/2016) Aiming at reducing the dropout rates at vocational education by collecting and disseminating the best practices among European VET providers. Approximately half of the drop outs occur during the first year of apprenticeship training. Target group of Dropout Reduction in Apprenticeship Training Project (DROP@PP) will be who are at risk of dropping out from apprenticeship schools aged 14+year. The project covers a variety of topics which link to: Work based learning (WBL), web based learning, dropout prevention, labour market issues incl. career counselling, unemployment, and entrepreneurial learning. Five jobshadowing activities will be implemented during the project.

Project website: ;

DEVELOPING AND TESTING E-LEARNING PLATFORM

-ECITY - VIRTUAL CITY ENVIRONMENT FOR ENGINEERING PROBLEM BASED LEARNING. The main objective of the eCITY project was to design, develop and validate a pedagogical methodology, supported by an online, collaborative, city-development simulation engine (Simcity like) that stimulates the integration and continuous exploitation of Problem Based Learning in engineering schools and at the same time fostering the interest in Engineering in secondary school students. Problems or challenges can be fed into the platform as homework, teamwork, curricular activities, extra-curricular competitions, big or small projects, etc. PBL can be incorporated within existing structures with little disruption as it can be implemented in a variety of forms. The platform was developed in collaboration with 6 international partners from Portugal, Greece, Spain and Turkey, within the LLP Programme, Development of innovative ICT-based content, services, pedagogies and practice for lifelong learning, KA3; from year 2013 to 2015.

The project is present in the Scientix European Portal and won the Scientix resources Awards Competition in the STEM category. It became the an official educational software for Greece and ;

The project website:   

-OPEN e-learning platform – OPEN e-learning platform is an e-learning educational package for learning the English language in combination with 6 sign languages/systems: International Sign, Italian Sign Language, Polish Sign Language, Greek Sign Language, Swedish Sign Language and Spanish Sign Language. The platform consists of videos subtitled and structured in units where different everyday life situations are reproduced in order to provide access to the most useful words and expressions. All units are divided by level of proficiency according to the CEFR (A1-C2) which has been recently adopted by most of EU sign languages as well. Pilot sessions took place in 2015 in all of the partner countries: Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Poland and Sweden.

Project website:   

E-learning platform:

INNOVATIVE DIDACTICS WITH ICT

Ikaros has matured a large experience in teaching with ICT, participating in the projects ICT WAYS, TIC, Innovative Competences for teaching, Innovative Training, Web Generation. In addition to having implemented full ICT didactic approach in the classrooms Ikaros gave life to the ICTWays Community of Practice (COP), a free online network for teaching and support in Primary and Secondary Schools, helping to build a community for creating, sharing and reusing teaching and learning materials and methodologies. This COP was created as a development of the ICTWays project, and provides an inventory of existing ICT in Primary and Secondary and Vocational schools in Europe and the existing gaps in software and hardware, specifically for teaching and learning Sciences.

Website: ; 

-GW – Generazione Web project (Web generation) - ICT Innovative Competences for Teaching – a regional project aimed at disseminating and enhancing the skills of primary and high school teacher for the optimal use of new forms of teaching in digital mode.

CERTIFICATION AND RECOGNITION OF SKILLS

Ikaros has developed important projects that facilitated international mobility. Thanks to the participation in these projects Ikaros has obtained an important expertise in the field of formal and informal skills and competences certifications through ECVET system and other types of certification.

-Ikaros is a partner in the KA2 Strategic partnership project “care4mobility: Promoting the Efficiency of VET Learner Mobilities in health and social care professions by implementing ECVET”, that aims at promoting student and staff mobilities to increase their intercultural and linguistic competences as well as their access to the European labour market. The project will facilitate the multilateral recognition of learning outcomes (acquired during a mobility period) between the participating institutions by implementing ECVET instruments.

-I-CARE project: it has been one of the ECVET Pilot Projects (2nd generation) funded by the European Commission and represented an experimental application of the ECVET system. It was dedicated to “Improving Mobility and Career Paths for Personal Care and Social Workers” and its objective was to support the full labour market integration and human capital development in Personal Care and Social Work by increasing interoperability among different countries and learning contexts. Partners analyzed existing qualification systems in the field of personal care and social work in their respective countries with the objective to develop a recognition model, thus encouraging mutual recognition of training and qualifications. The project targeted those interested in the development of flexible training solutions, in facilitating mobility and access to work and in addressing the need for qualified professionals in the care sector (VET providers, labour market services and organizations in the field, social partners and authorities).

- CareVET is Erasmus+ KA2 strategic partnership in VET sector. The main objective of the project is to extend the offer of high quality learning opportunities, delivering an up-to-date pioneer curriculum in the field of Supported/Assisted Living. The curriculum is going to address the latest’s technological advancements in the assisted living domain, as well as role playing, social networks building around people with disabilities, and self advocacy skills that can be utilized by the supportive living operators(SLOs) to improve the beneficiaries’ well being. CareVET promotes work-based learning (WBL) and involves the trainees working in supported living residencies being supervised by an experienced SLO of the hosting organization. The e-learning platform will also offer features for self-learning and personalization tools and wizards for role playing scenarios design, application, as well as evaluation of the beneficiaries. The project is intended to be an attractive curriculum that will combine social care, ICT and wellness competencies.

- “Recognition of skills” Pilot project: it has been developed with the Polytechnic of Milan which is one of the main authorities in the field of innovative project for supporting public body in order to develop political and technical approach of certification and recognition. The project has been about recognition of informal and non-formal skills in respect of QRSP (frameworks of regional training standard); Ikaros has researched about the administrative, secretarial and health sector skills). The project results have been presented to Lombardy Region in order to improve the regional system of recognition of competences.

ADULT EDUCATION

Ikaros organizes adult education courses in areas ranging from ICT to Marketing and Public Relations, to Foreign languages, Healthcare, Administration and Human resources.

In the training year 2014/2015 it has trained a total of persons, organized 165 courses and provided hours of training.

EMPLOYMENT SUPPORT

Et Labora, ad an entity accredited for the employment services in the Lombardy Region, has for years been dedicated to supporting youth employment, providing services for the unemployed and youth at risk of social exclusion, in order to foster an individualized approach through the placement into employment, offering services of:

Information, career guidance, counseling services and skills assessment

Support the implementation of training programs for requalification and upgrading of qualifications

Meeting the supply and demand in the labor market with selection services and active job search.

YOUTH GUIDANCE

Ikaros has carried out a number of projects aimed at combating early school leaving and facilitating educational success, introducing and testing news method of education and learning in the guidance and orientation of young people.

Ikaros has gained a more than 5 years experience in organizing Learning Weeks - courses based on non-formal learning and acquisition of experiences in a full immersion manner, aimed at students attending high schools / Institutes of Higher Secondary Education and students attending the 3rd and the 4th year of Vocational education and training. Learning Week courses are based on experiential learning in a non-formal context and follow the learning model based on “learning by doing”, as opposed to the traditional “learn the theory first and apply it later”. The youngsters take part in practical assignments, simulations, coaching and short internships. So far 92 Learning Week projects have been submitted and approved, attended by more than 2,300 students, and involved 25 different educational institutes and many other different subjects in the area (companies, universities, ..).

INCLUSION AND REMEDIAL EDUCATION

Fondazione Et Labora has activated a counseling service for teenagers at risk of social exclusion at its headquarters in Bergamo in 2006, that is active still today. The counseling is open to both students, their families and the teaching staff, since unfavourable situation of adolescents affects also their academic path, and especially with the aim to identify educational strategies that may foster academic success. Interventions are structured during school hours by psychologists experts in management of relational dynamics.

In 2010 Ikaros Foundation had initiated a project for the implementation of Training Services for Autonomy of Minors aimed at adolescents in situations of social disadvantage. The project aims to provide systematic re-motivation of adolescents for the reconstruction of the experience factors, such as the context in which the youngsters live that prevented, slowed down or distorted their successful development. Throughout the educational program the minor is supported by a tutor, the educational reference figure of the project. The interviews are conducted by professionals with experience of at least three years in educational services for adolescents. After a careful analysis of the needs of the adolescent and of the objectives of the intervention done by the tutor and the coordinator of the service, the activities responsive to the needs of the individual and a personalized educational plan is drawn up. The project was born as a pilot project that found its realization and self-sustainability in the Municipalities of Bergamo that still use this service on a fee basis.

"NEET Work" project is aimed at NEET, that is young people aged from 16 to 19, who neither study nor work as they have abandoned school or are at risk of dropping out of their studies. The project aims at offering them a short and professionalizing training finalized at providing employment (to 18- 19 year-olds) or to bring them closer to the training already undertaken by increasing their chances of academic success. The following activities have been implemented: career guidance interviews and analysis of their attitudes and propensities, professional courses lasting an average of 80 hours, traineeships, guidance and active job search workshops, study groups led by tutors that supported the young in recovery of school subjects.