On February 10th, the eight partners of the Net-Works project (ENSIE, ISEN, AFF, CDI Macedonia, IDC Serbia, ASSE, Galileo Progetti and A3S) gathered online for the Kick-off meeting. It started by a welcome word from Patrizia Bussi and Martina Paterniti from ENSIE, the project leaders, each partner then presented itself. This meeting was an opportunity to present the activities that will take place during the project and agree on them.

The goal of the Net-Works project is to support and develop work based adult education providers networks in the countries of the partnership and, in particular, to structure such networks in Hungary, North Macedonia, Portugal, Serbia and Slovakia, where they are still at the beginning.

 To reach this goal, the Net-Works will focus on three core actions (three work packages):

Networks capacity-building, led by AFF.  The first goal of this activity is to identify the work-based adult education providers at national and European level to better understand the context and the key stakeholders. The second goal of this activity is to organise peer to peer sessions between partners to learn from each others on various subjects: the core drivers of a network, advocacy and communication, the perks of adhering to a network, best practices and representation and leadership. This will lead to the creation of a MOOC on work based adult education providers capacity building.

Pedagogical approach promotion, led by Galileo Progetti. This activity aims to foster methodologies sharing through roundtables on work-based adult education methodologies, to create an inventory of successful methodologies in regards to work-based adult education. In the framework of this action, one-to-one study visits of a new network to an experienced one will be organized. The partners will also work on external communication capacity building through the preparation of a Guidebook on external communication for work-based education providers and initiate communication and dissemination initiatives from networks.

Cooperation and financial sustainability, led by ISEN. This activity aims to create a repertoire of financial sustainability good practices, to keep track of the existing practices shared by project partners and disseminates beyond. During this activity, the partners will also create a sustainability roadmap with policy recommendations, with the goal to enshrine the project into a long-term perspective, allowing for partners and stakeholders to commit and for the impact to last. Finally the activity envision meeting with some experts as well as the creation of a long-term action plan for network partners.

This project is very important for ENSIE as supporting its members in the creation and the reinforcement of their national, regional and local networks is one of its core mission. Strong networks at every level are crucial to reinforce the work integration social enterprises sector, as it allows them to be better acknowledged by public authorities and other stakeholders. At the centre of the project are best practices exchanges as all the partners and their members can learn something from each other and improve!