Project Sustainability - What's the problem?

Your projects are not made of deliverables.  They are made of sweat and blood and tears, of tight deadlines, late nights, sleepless nights – no nights – of budget air-travel, unwashed taxi-drivers and bad hotel breakfasts, a pantomime on the European stage, monitored and observed by a critical audience of unqualified critics.

If it’s not for the deliverables, then what is it for?

Think about this.  Think about how much of your working life you waste working on projects with no lasting results.  How many hours have you spent slogging away on project deliverables that are never going to reach their target audience once that final cheque has cashed?  How many minutes each day could be better spent making a real difference in your sector, that you are dwindling away appeasing European bureaucrats?

This is not the land of efficient goal-focused project-management, this is a cyclical race track of time and money, a rabid dog chasing its tail all the way to Brussels, leaving a carbon footprint in its tracks.

Sustainability.  The great word.  

Yes, we need to write something here.  We need to have a plan.  Maybe they like the sound of this.  Then we can look proudly over our ceremonially-stamped intellectual property-rights agreements, feeling smug as we bang the last nail into the cash register.

This, I believe is not what you want to have in mind when you cast your mind back over your professional career.  All those great things you left unaccomplished.  All those lives you never changed.  All the dust you gathered on the fruits of your labour, those fruits that so very easily could have been something else, something spectacular, something almost meaningful.

We believe in sustainability.  

We believe in long-term impacts.  We believe in value for the European tax payer.  Not just value for today, but for tomorrow and the days that follow.  We want to help you to discover sustainability and find ways to make the impact of your work go further and last longer.

Be part of the sustainability revolution 

– these are the fruits of your labour – let’s make them count.

You want to talk more about the sustainability of your projects then conctact Paul Talbot from die Berater® p.talbot@dieberater.com 

Open Registration for Conference on Youth Unemployment in London, September 11th

Registration is now open for the conference 'Bridging the Culture Clash between Employers, Youth People and Local Cultures' on the 11th September at the Osmani Centre in Whitechapel, London, which is free and open to anyone (subject to numbers) with an interest in this area.

The conference is the final event of 'Big Bang', an international project funded by the European Union's Lifelong Learning programme, which has been exploring the extent to which mismatches between the 'culture clash' of work, school and 'local or street' culture is one factor amongst many that are contributing to long-term youth unemployment across Europe.
To register click here.

The conference will start with an informal lunch and networking, and will hear from examples of relevant work in the UK, the Netherlands, Austria and Iceland. Presentations will include those from:
- Illias El Hadioui of Erasmus University, whose work was one of the original inspirations behind the project, is a published author from the Netherlands . He has written and spoken extensively on the relationship - and the mismatch - between the 'street culture' of young people and the norms of school and college culture. He will present a theoretical framework that he has developed  to describe this manifestation and highlight the experience of urban youth in large multi-ethnic urban conurbations in the Netherlands.

- Steve Rawlings of Building Lives Training Academies in East London has developed a number of successful apprenticeships in the construction industry, which have been featured in the Evening Standard. He will present a number of case studies and talk about working to bring young people and employers together.



Young people from Big Bang partner 15billion at one of their recent employability workshops.

The conference will consider the challenges of a 'lost generation' which has emerged since the Financial Crisis of 2008 in that whilst unemployment in general has increased internationally, these increases have been disproportionately high amongst young people.  This is a global phenomenon and has been the subject of much discussion as to the causes and solutions - such as that in a recent commentary published by Demos.

Are you interested in organising high quality Erasmus+ KA1 training for adult education staff?

The team of GINCO Tools & Training organises a

 

Second Pilot Course and a Conference

on competence development for international course or¬ganisers and trainers on 9th  – 12th of September 2014 in Alden Biesen + Leuven (BE).

The course will be led by the question: Which competences are needed to organise high quality European trainings for adult education staff?

During the course you will

• receive answers on your burning questions regarding the new European education programme Erasmus+ and it affects the organisation of European IST courses and
• go through the process of organising European in-service-training (IST) courses and develop vital competences to reach a high level of quality.

Thematic focus will be on validation of learning outcomes, evaluation and quality, PR, marketing and outreach as well as management and organisation.


Since the GINCO T&T team assesses competence-based teaching and learning as a key element, it will reduce theoretical inputs and presentations by trainers to a minimum. Instead you will be learning in an applied competence-based methodology and setting.


As a part of course the GINCO T&T conference, where the audience will be enriched by additional stakeholders, will take place in Leuven.

Course venue: 9 – 11 Sept.: Landcommanderij ALDEN BIESEN, Kasteel¬straat 6, B 3740 Bilzen, Belgium, Web page: www.Alden-Biesen.be

Conference venue: 11 – 12 Sept.: Park Inn hotel, Leuven (Louvain) , Belgium.
(http://www.parkinn.com/hotel-leuven). The hotel is situated next to the railway station with a direct connection to Brussels international airport (15 minutes).

The GINCO T&T team is looking forward to your application (download form:
www.ginconet.eu/pilot2candidate.doc) which will be received by the coordinator guy.tilkin@alden-biesen.be.

Innovative learning & sharing of experiences - Presentation of PACE Platform at the FoE Conference, Florence

How to implement and set up a learning platform for knowledge exchange in European project management? The main challenge is to collect useful and interesting resources and to make them accessible on a collaborative plattform.

Maren Satke, bridges to europe project manager at die Berater® used the opportunity to promote the project PACE (Project Actors community in Europe) at the international conference “The Future of Education”. The 4th International conference “The Future of Education“ which took place in Florence (June 12-13) aimed at sharing good practices in the field of innovation for Education.

 

Maren Satke during her presentation on PACE

Using social media and learning management systems (LMS) for the exchange of knowledge, for learning and communicating in an educational context were the topics of a wide range of presentations dealing with innovative teaching and learning methodologies. PACE creates a Project Actors Community in Europe and demonstrates how learning can happen in the setting of the management of EU-funded projects. A common learning and communication platform on EU Project management tools is established in the project. The platform will serve not only as a library for supporting project management tools but also as a market place to discuss and exchange experiences on EU project management practices. The main aim of the project is to unite the practice of different projects in order to provide the best tools & resources for future projects.

JOIN THE PACE PLATFORM NOW!

Apart from the virtual exchange, PACE will offer additional opportunities for networking and exchanging best practices in EU-project management: Save the date for the 1^st PACE BarCamp, November 14-15 2014 , Florence, Italy!

 

Girls in ICT Day 2014!

The International Girls in ICT Day is an opportunity for girls and young women to get inspired about ICT sector by getting a first-hand look into the ICT institutions and listening to women role models.

Within the EU Project ICT Go Girls we are now organising a big event for the international Girls in ICT Day on April 24th in Spain!

It is an honor for us to have these wonderful speakers in this event

• Alba Souto, co-funder of BAMPIFU (http://bampifu.com/) and Pica y Wafu (http://pikaywafu.com/)
• Ángeles Pariente, founder of A2, Laboratory of Ideas  (http://www.a2laboratoriodeideas.com/)
• Cristina Gamallo, Founder Member of SITUM (http://www.situm.es/)
• Susana Ladra, V Associate Dean of Academic Organization, Computer Science Faculty, UDC (http://www.fic.udc.es) and researcher. Ada Byron Award, CPEIG 2013.

We will keep you informed about the organization of the event, you can follow us on:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ICTGoGirls
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ICTGoGirls
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaYnwE2ZurwETyjAShB6_XNmWYnHQycAf

And we still encourage you to send us your video message for the international Girls in ICT Day on April 24th!

Check our idea: Video Message Request.