About BOOST
In the increasingly complex reality nowadays, the development of a set of basic and transversal skills is with high priority to satisfy the requirements of employers and the imperatives of a concrete exercise of citizenship, as advanced by the EC in "New Skills Agenda for Europe" (2016). Rapidly changing society and World’s transformation observed in the last decade are providing new educational trends, increased demands of the labour market and adaptivity of educational opportunities, especially during biosecurity emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The new reality requires skills and knowledge that goes beyond a specific profession itself and leads to the emerging need of high level of possession of transversal skills, including young people. “Transversal skills are those typically considered as not specifically related to a particular job, task, academic discipline or area of knowledge but as skills that can be used in a wide variety of situations and work settings” (IBE 2013). “These skills are increasingly in high demand for learners to successfully adapt to changes and to lead meaningful and productive lives” (UNESCO UNEVOC). Specific problem, managed by BOOST is the development of transversal skills through specifically designed tools underlining the importance of transversal skills, critical to the effective and goal-oriented personal and professional development of young people in the EU. BOOST is an approach of transnational cooperation involving organizations with outreach to the project target groups and the consortium comprises NGOs and youth associations with huge experience and recognized quality in the youth policies.
BOOST proposal is fully aligned with Erasmus+ objectives to:
• Boost skills and employability;
• Modernise education, training and youth work;
• Focus on young people.
Main needs that BOOST will supply:
• Empower young people and youth workers through all BOOST activities and outputs;
• Practical, youth friendly e-learning MOOC for transversal skills development of young people;
• User-friendly BOOST handbook for youth workers.
BOOST project will reach two main target groups:
• Young people from the partner countries - at least 50 learners per country will use the platform during the BOOST lifetime (200 in total) (unlimited users after the end of the project);
• Youth workers from the partner countries will be able to posses with innovative Handbook that ensures development of transversal skills in young people they work with - at least 200 downloads of the e-version of the Handbook and at least 50 copies per country to be distributed on hard (paper) copy to youth workers and youth organizations.
Expected results:
- Implementation of quality educational and research activities, focussed on transversal skills development of young people;
- Development, testing and launching of fully functional BOOST e-learning MOOC aiming to develop transversal skills set in young people. The e-learning platform will be a transversal skills online hub that will include various youth-friendly resources;
- Development of practical BOOST Handbook for youth workers that aims to empower them to develop transversal skills in the young people they work with;
- 4 transnational project meetings – management and content development activities and 2 dissemination events/country;
- Ensured sustainability of project results due to actual topic, sustainable outputs for youth development and wide dissemination of its usability and importance in the partner countries and all over EU.
Through the mentioned outputs and activities BOOST project will strongly contribute to the youth sector development and in the present challenging situation will ensure development of transversal skills for young people. Through the interactive tools will be prepared content that allows young people to tackle their level of development and to get tips & tricks how they can further develop transversal skills: Critical thinking, Innovative thinking, Presentation skills, Communication skills, Organizational skills, Teamwork abilities, Self-discipline, Enthusiasm, Perseverance, Self-motivation, Tolerance, Openness, Respect for diversity, Intercultural understanding, Media literacy, Information literacy, Ability to locate and access information, Ability to analyse and evaluate media content, Physical health, Religious values (UN definition) that in the high competence on the labour market will be highly needed for their proper professional and personal development.
Long-term benefit is ensured by the sustainability of BOOST results focused on highly important topic of transversal skills development, that will be even more actual in the post pandemic recovery, through the usability of both BOOST e-learning MOOC and Handbook also after the end of the project.
Project consortium:
• Coordinator: Bulgarian sports development association (Bulgaria), - www.bulsport.bg
Partners:
• Bosnian Representative Association for Valuable Opportunities (Bosnia and Herzegovina), - www.bravo-bih.com
• Vere Montis (Croatia), - www.veremontis.hr
• L'ORMA (Italy), - www.ormasite.it/en
"BOOST-Boosting Outstanding Omnicompetent Successful Talents" (BOOST) is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, managed in Bulgaria through the Erasmus+ National agency – Human resources development centre.
