There is general agreement that Education and training have a crucial role to play in meeting the many socio-economic, demographic, environmental and technological challenges facing Europe and its citizens today and in the years ahead. Efficient investment in human capital through all types of learning systems is an essential component of Europe’s strategy to deliver the high levels of sustainable, knowledge-based growth and jobs that lie at the heart of the Lisbon strategy, at the same time as promoting personal fulfillment, social cohesion, and active citizenship.
Socially disadvantaged groups with less or poor education are particularly vulnerable. Traditional formal Education and training systems are poorly suited to meet the needs of disadvantaged groups, as witnessed by a large number of children leaving school too early. Furthermore, many education and training systems do not provide young people with the basic skills needed to escape poverty and unemployment, even when they continue to receive a formal education.
The last years, mobility is a vital social phenomenon that appears with intensity in Europe. In specific, the significant increase in migrating populations can primarily be attributed to the rapid increase of refugees due to geopolitical upheavals. The massive flow of refugee populations to Europe brings to the foreground the complex and intricate issue of inclusion, and consequently the crucial issue of addressing the growing social phenomena of violent radicalization and racism. In this context, education is one of the main tools of including moving populations and managing the increasing radicalism.
In the context of a social inclusion agenda, a minimal interpretation has been that it is sufficient for these groups to receive some basic education, enabling them to participate in social, economic and political affairs. Moreover, in an inclusion and diversity agenda, it is vital to equip young people and youth workers with the necessary competences to successfully manage and support diversity.
In addition, the role of local communities and Authorities as Knowledge-building environments is crucial as supportive contexts for emergence and further development of new ideas–knowledge creation, with focus on features that favour emergence of new skills.
Effective implementation of inclusion and diversity of displaced populations should, in our view, be based on models that stand on the values of mutual acceptance and understanding, intercultural sensitivity, solidarity, cooperativeness, and on the right to cultural and linguistic diversity. All these values and rights coalesce with the principles of intercultural education, as well as with the modern approach of the “new commons of education and knowledge”, and also the contemporary YOUTH studies, in an informal and non-formal learning.
This project aims to provide through youth and community-based organizations, non-formal and informal learning, facilitating the learning of life-relevant knowledge and skills, especially for disadvantaged and marginalized groups. Τhis process will be realised in spaces where learners interact with one another in a social, different than traditional classrooms, way and context to develop learning and skills opportunities that are relevant to the context in which young people live and seek their livelihoods.
The main objective of the project is to develop, implement and evaluate a Sociocultural model on non-formal and informal Learning in Youth of Mobile Societies, namely SLYMS further on, in multilingual education in Europe. It is expected to systematize the learning process through social multicultural events and transform them to learning possibilities for youth workers and people with fewer opportunities namely young people with cultural differences and social obstacles.
To ensure the high visibility and impact and thus social acceptance the establishment of a European collaboration between municipalities, communities and other operators with social action, it is a high priority.
The specific objectives of the project are the following:
• To create learning pathways through social multicultural events.
• To blend learning pathways with the emerging competencies.
• To establish an effective link between social multicultural events and employability.
• To provide with an evaluation and accreditation plan as learning processes of such social multicultural events.
• To create a European network of national partnerships between universities, local authorities, such as municipalities, teachers and other social partners focused on the promotion of intercultural education and multilingual non-formal and informal learning.
Being carried out transnationally, the project will provide an alternative and more effective informal learning environment based on social events and establish links between municipalities for the transnational organization of an innovate model of Feasts named Feasts of Plurilingualism.