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The Erasmus+ funded scheme ‘EuroApprentices’ is seeking apprentices who have participated in an Erasmus+ mobility to represent the UK at the EuroApprentice Network Meeting in Poland (2020) and at national UK events

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This is a wonderful opportunity for apprentices to gain valuable skills, share their experiences, motivate other apprentices and attend events. Costs are 100% covered by the UK National Agency.

Here you can find the Information Sheet for 2020 with more information about the role of an EuroApprentice. Find also attached here the Guide for applicants with the links to the application process, eligibility criteria and the costs funded by the programme.

If your organisation is interested in encouraging and supporting Apprentices to participate in this opportunity, please fill the registration forms as indicated in the Guide for applicants document.

You can also send this opportunity to other organisations you work with.

The deadline to apply is 2nd December 2019 at 5pm.​

If you have any questions or require more information, please email the UK National Agency at erasmusplus@ecorys.com, with the subject ‘EuroApprentices’.

We are eager to share information from the Future Generations Commissioner’s office, including how you can get involved in their work:

1) Our Future Wales National Conversation
They are currently conducting a national conversation to help inform the Commissioner’s 2020 Future Generations Report to be published in the spring.   

Since they launched the national conversation they have learnt a great deal from the many personal stories, experiences and interesting suggestions they heard at the five workshops across Wales.  But this information-gathering  doesn’t stop here.  They would like you to hold conversations with your networks and stakeholders in your area which will help us gather innovative ideas and solutions to some of the issues discussed.  You can do this in the following ways:

2) Big Ideas

The ‘Big Ideas’ campaign is your space to suggest your big ideas. These big ideas could be things you’ve seen whilst abroad, something you’ve thought of yourself or simply something innovative in your own community. They want to ensure Wales is continually learning and that they are capturing these ‘Big Ideas’ .

3) People’s Platform

They are continuing to collect stories, experiences and views electronically (as many times as you like) via the People’s Platform and you can complete the online survey. If you would like to be more involved in this project and help to collect stories and ideas please complete the Expression of Interest form. The Future Generations Commissioner wants to involve as many organisations and people as possible who can help extend their reach especially to those within our communities who are seldom heard.  

4) Organise your own events

They would love you to hold your own events, to help you do this the Commissioner has prepared a ‘toolkit’ and resources that you can use in your own events or usual meetings and conversations to feed back to us to inform the 2020 Future Generations Report.  

Please share this information with your networks, colleagues and friends.

The EU Youth Strategy (2019-2027) encourages evidence-based youth policies both at national and European level.

To this end, the European Commission has put in place an expert group on youth indicators with two main objectives:

• propose a dashboard of indicators in the areas of education, employment, social inclusion and health,
• provide an overview of possible new indicators in “core” youth policy areas where they do not exist yet.

In order to revise the indicators, the group is launching a consultation on the current and potential new indicators.

Established in 2011, the current Dashboard of EU Youth indicators includes data from several sources and covers the following topics:

• Education and training
• Employment and entrepreneurship
• Health and well-being
• Social inclusion
• Culture and creativity
• Youth participation
• Volunteering
• Youth and the world

Indicators related to “participation” are about the use of the Internet for interaction with public authorities; there is no specific indicator on “youth information”. A number of possible indicators such as the number of young people involved in participatory processes at different levels and the number of users of the European Youth Portal are on the table.

The Council of Europe has been working on the development of such indicators with a similar expert group (check the final report). Could we measure young people’s access to media literacy education? The number of young people using youth information services/information points/information portals? Young people’s capacity to retrieve relevant information? Some of these key issues could be reflected in the future Dashboard.

If you think this should be covered in the dashboard, if you have ideas for the other areas covered by the dashboard, please share your views in the framework of this survey.

*Survey link*

 Deadline: 7 November 

Thank you to our European friends at Eurodesk and ERYICA for sharing this with us.

We would love to share with you an opportunity to join a fully funded training seminar in Palma de Mallorca (Spain).

The training is called Ensuring Youth Information Services and Outreach Promotion and it is a collaboration between our friends Eurodesk, the European Youth Information and Counselling Agency (ERYICA) and the European Youth Card Association (EYCA).

It is set to take place at the Hotel Amic Horizonte, Carrer de Vista Alegre, from the 25th to the 29th of November 2019.

CWVYS members ProMo Cymru will be present to host a workshop on Digital Storytelling which will doubtless be worth the flight! We imagine that the other contributions will also meet their amazing standards within Youth Information and you stand to learn a lot during the week. 

For more information on the day to day activities, please see the agenda *attached here* and if you are interested in attending, contact safi.sabuni@eurodesk.eu.

Places are allocated on a first come first served basis, so there are no guarantees on your participation, but you don’t stand to lose anything by emailing to find out.

We understand accommodation and transport to be at least partly reimbursable, again, please contact Safi for more info.

ERS Cymru is seeking views on a series of recommendations to improve civil society in Wales.

The recommendations were developed at an event run in partnership with the Bevan Foundation, where delegates co-produced and voted on ways to strengthen Welsh civil society.

The event focused on the role of civil society in Wales over the last 20 years and the challenges it has faced in terms of funding, representation and the ability for people working across Wales to directly influence Welsh Government.

The recommendations are open for comment currently and ERS Cymru is very keen to ensure that they are consulted on throughout the youth sector.

To add your views either add a comment on to the *document* directly, or email Jess Blair on Jessica.blair@electoral-reform.org.uk

1. Black History Month Wales 2019 South Wales Launch

| Movers, Shakers & Legacy Makers Youth Awards

Cardiff Bay | Pierhead Building| National Assembly for Wales sponsored by First Minister Mark Drakeford AM Friday 27 September 2019

| 12pm to 3pm The Black History Cymru 365 programme for 2019-20 launched at this event will be: Wales wide Creative skills programme including new writing.

2. Black History Month Wales 2019 North Wales Launch

| Movers, Shakers & Legacy Makers Family Event

Bangor | Bangor Town Hall Saturday 28 September 2019

| 12pm – 4pm The Black History Cymru 365 programme for 2019-20 launched at this event will be: Performance Design and production skills development.

3. Black History Month Wales 2019 Cardiff

| Movers, Shakers & Legacy Makers Creative Arts Launch Cardiff

| St Fagans National Museum of History | Atrium Saturday 28 September 2019 | 12pm to 4pm

4. Black History Month Wales 2019 Wrexham

| Movers, Shakers & Legacy Makers Family Launch Event Wrexham

| Ty Pawb Saturday 5 October 2019 | 12pm til late The Black History Cymru 365 programme for 2019-20 launched at this event will be: Youth Dance Development.

5. Black History Month Wales 2019 West Wales Launch

| Movers, Shakers & Legacy Makers Aberystwyth

| Arts Centre Aberystwyth | Studio Thursday 10 October 2019 | 7pm – 10pm The Black History Cymru 365 programme for 2019-20 launched at this event will be: Series of presentations and creative skills development.

6. Black History Month Wales 2019 Youth Music Launch

| Movers, Shakers & Legacy Makers Cardiff Bay

| Wales Millennium Centre | Glanfa Stage Saturday 12 October 2019 | 12pm – 4pm

7. Black History Month Wales 2019 Swansea Launch

| Movers, Shakers & Legacy Makers Swansea

| Swansea Grand Theatre Arts Wing | Depot theatre Saturday 19 October 2019 | 2pm to 6pm The Black History Cymru 365 programme for 2019-20 launched at this event will be: Youth Music development.

The European Solidarity Corps is a European Union initiative, managed in the UK by the Erasmus+ National Agency. It funds projects open to the participation of young people between 18 and 30 years old that make a difference to society.

The UK National Agency for the Erasmus+ Programme have just launched the tender for a European Solidarity Corps training provider on their website: https://www.eusolidaritycorps.org.uk/tenders-invited-european-solidarity-corps-training-contract.

If you’re considering making an application, please contact the dedicated enquiry e-mail address at esctraining@ecorys.com for any questions by the 9th October.

The deadline for receipt of applications is Monday, 14 October 2019.

Last week on the the first day of the Global Climate Strike we published an article on the European Youth Portal on some of the ways you can get involved in your communities and the wider world.

It mentioned Eurodesk’s Time to Move campaign which takes place every October, and once again during Time To Move CWVYS will spend the 9^th and 10^th of October supporting it. Our Development Officer Kath will be alongside colleagues from Euroguidance and Europass at the Skills Cymru event in Cardiff!

In a magical feat, being in two places at once, we will also be at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Youth and Community Work Placement Fair on the 10^th of October. If you’re near the Cyncoed Campus that day, drop by and say hello to Projects and Membership Officer Helen.

If you can’t get to any of these events, you can always visit the Eurodesk UK website, the Eurodesk UK Opportunity Finder is a great resource to find out about trainings, volunteering, internships, competitions and more.

In the meantime, if you’re considering starting a project but aren’t ready to leave your community just yet, have you considered applying for a Solidarity Project with the European Solidarity Corps?

There’s still time to put in an application for funding in Round 3 of the Erasmus+ Programme, contact your National Agency Website if you need more information about the process, the UK National Agency Website is really easy to use.

For ideas on what a solidarity project could look like you can visit; https://www.eusolidaritycorps.org.uk/what-does-solidarity-project-look

If you have any queries message eusolidaritycorps@ecorys.com

Empower young people to start their own social action project.

Do you work with groups of young people or individuals who are looking to take part in social action to improve their community?

Introduce them to Solidarity Projects so they can make a difference and have their voices heard!

A Solidarity Project is a youth-led activity under the European Solidarity Corps, where informal groups of at least five young people (aged 18-30) can get funding to run a project in the UK, lasting between two and 12 months. The next deadline for funding applications is 1 October 2019 (11am UK time).

Why get involved? 
The European Solidarity Corps offers learning experiences to both your organisation and young people.

Your organisation can empower young people by giving them an opportunity to develop new skills while addressing a need in the community or society. For young people, it is a chance to take action on a cause that matters to them and gain valuable experience and skills to enhance their future employment prospects.

Applying for Solidarity Projects funding is a straightforward process – no need for partners abroad or prior accreditation – and projects can be part-time. Costs of project management, coaching and support to participants with fewer opportunities are supported in this activity.

Spread the word today! 
We would be grateful if you would help us to spread the word and encourage more young people to get involved in Solidarity Projects.

You can find more info on the Erasmus+ UK website, and feel free to contact us or Eurodesk UK if you have any questions.

ASH Wales has urged Welsh Government to follow in England’s footsteps after proposals to end smoking by 2030 were announced.

Under the plan contained in the Government’s Prevention Green Paper, every smoker being admitted to hospital would be offered help to quit. The paper proposes raising revenue to support smoking cessation services which would be focused on those groups most in need. It highlights the role that technology can play in delivering focussed, personalised support.

The paper also proposes setting an ultimatum for the tobacco industry to make smoked tobacco obsolete by 2030 so that smokers would quit or move to less risky products like e-cigarettes instead.

ASH Wales supports these proposals and believes there would be strong support for similar action in Wales. According to its latest YouGov survey into attitudes towards tobacco control in Wales, 68% of Welsh adults would support new government action to reduce smoking rates to less than 5% by 2035. Meanwhile 47% of Welsh adults feel the government is not doing enough to reduce smoking prevalence in Wales.

The Welsh Government target is to reduce smoking to 16% of the population by 2020 as part of its Tobacco Control Action Plan.

Suzanne Cass, CEO of ASH Wales, said:

“We whole heartedly support this ambitious target to eliminate smoking in England in 2030 and believe we should strive for the same goal here in Wales.
“Tackling smoking has become a key priority for the UK government and there is a new sense of urgency around the issue which we hope will create opportunities to provide innovative solutions to reduce smoking.

“Here in Wales smoking kills around 5,388 adults every year and costs the Welsh NHS £302 million a year. It is the cause of stark health inequalities across the country, hitting our most deprived communities the hardest.

“We know how challenging it is to reach smokers, with 17% of all adults in Wales continuing to smoke, despite free smoking cessation support being widely available from Help Me Quit. And, despite concerted efforts to raise awareness of the harms of smoking among young people, 9% of 11-to-18-year olds in Wales continue to smoke at least weekly.

“Wales will only become a smoke free nation if innovative and targeted smoking cessation support is provided for those adults and young people who need it most, such as social renters, people experiencing mental health problems and those living in our poorest communities.”

She went on to say that any plan to tackle smoking prevalence must be accompanied by efforts to tackle illegal tobacco, which is sold at pocket money prices across Wales, undermining tobacco control policy and allowing smokers in deprived communities to continue to smoke.

“A big challenge we face here in Wales is illegal tobacco which accounts for 15% of all tobacco sales in the country currently. Any efforts to stamp out smoking must be accompanied by robust enforcement action to prevent illegal tobacco from undermining the government’s tobacco control measures.”

The Youth Work National Occupational Standards are now live on the NOS Database: https://www.ukstandards.org.uk/EN

A PDF of the whole suite and the final Functional Map are available on the CLD Standards Council website: http://cldstandardscouncil.org.uk/resources/standards-and-benchmarks/national-occupational-standards/