From Eu to YOU: Local Action Groups boost quality jobs in rural areas

"<< Background >>Local action groups work in European rural areas. These territories are affected by depopulation, particularly of young people, because young people are forced to leave their territories to find skilled jobs even though most would prefer to stay and live where they grew up. At the same time, LAGs struggle to find professionals capable of supporting them in implementing their Local Development Strategies and potential beneficiaries of calls for proposals.In this situation, the need to provide professional opportunities for young people who wish to remain in rural areas becomes a priority for those, like LAGs, working on rural development.<< Objectives >>Through the FromEUtoYOU project, the partners intended to support young people and the territory by increasing qualified job opportunities for young graduates, implementing a direct knowledge transfer process. In particular, the project intended to focus on the relationship between the European Union and the territory, through the local animation and community involvement in activities carried out by the LAGs, and centred on the LEADER local development approach. The priority ""Common values and Civic engagement"" was intercepted. This 'practical' knowledge, in addition to the knowledge acquired during their university studies, will enable young people to work in their local area and use their skills and expertise in specific sectors: - Consultants/collaborators for LAGs - Consultants for beneficiaries of calls for proposals - Become a beneficiary of the calls themselves, if their professional activity includes this route. Through the development of this experimental but highly specific, highly qualified, work-based learning approach, the aim was to increase the attractiveness of vocational and continuing training, presenting the possibility of adding qualified learning after University.<< Implementation >>The project was structured in 6 consecutive activities. The first activity, the Getting Started Lab, which involved the two partners, mainly concerned the preparation of the activities and the selection of participants. The following activities involved the 10 participants in professionalisation activities on LAG work. The Animation Lab, which took place in Italy, served to familiarise the participants with each other and to understand how territorial animation is carried out, and to lay the groundwork for subsequent workshops. The LDS Lab and Implementation Lab, which took place at the same time in the two groups of participants, allowed them to try their hand at analysing and producing papers, in particular preparing specific local development strategies and working on LAG calls for proposals. The Professional Lab saw the two groups meet again in Spain to compare their work. In both joint labs, the participants got to know the most representative realities of the host territories. The last laboratory, the Follow Up Lab, allowed the partnership to summarise the activities carried out and to disseminate the results. << Results >>The most important result is the active participation of the 10 young people in the course from beginning to end, resulting in the acquisition of skills. Participants, at the same time, will be ambassadors for local development in rural areas. This course also enabled the LAGs to get to know better the needs of young people who live and want to live in their areas and will guide their actions regarding the involvement of young people and professionals. It should be noted that during the project: 2 participants wrote university dissertations directly or indirectly related to the work of the LAGs. 1 participant began studying local development. 1 participant moved to live/study from an urban area to a rural area. 2 participants strengthened their entrepreneurial activities in their rural area. A great result was the dissemination to rural development coordinating bodies that were involved in the project in different ways and responded with interest to the project. We can mention the ENRD, ARCA (LAGs association in Catalunya), RRN (LAGs Italian association). Concerning outputs, there are all the training materials of the two LAGs and the two LDS documents. Usefull materials both for the LAGs and other projects."