The launch of the European project COOPSKILLS was successfully held on 2-4 June 2025 in the Municipality of Thermi, in Thessaloniki. Partners from Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Lithuania, and Poland met for the official kick-off meeting of the project, which marked the beginning of the partnership cooperation to strengthen reskilling and upskilling at the local and municipal level, through the creation of “Reskilling Labs”.

The project aims at a public-private partnership to support unemployed people and workers in transitional employment phases, with a special focus on the green and digital economy. COOPSKILLS aims to implement the principles of UNESCO’s “Learning Cities” and the creation of “Learning Enterprises” that effectively use their resources to promote lifelong learning. The consortium consists of private and public organisations, municipalities (within the UNESCO Learning Cities Network), chambers of commerce and their companies, VET organisations and other citizens active in the field of education and training. It will establish “Skills Upgrading Labs” (Reskilling Labs) at the municipal level, under the supervision and management of key actors such as municipalities, local Chambers and VET providers.

Main target groups:

• Workers in transition, unemployed or inactive
• People from declining sectors who need re-skilling for the green and digital economy
• Particular attention to low-skilled and vulnerable groups who are reluctant to participate in adult learning

Expected project outputs:

• Report on best practices for activation.
• Manual for the organisation and operation of the skills upgrading workshops.
• Interim and final synthesis reports on the operation of the workshops.
• Report on pilot countries’ decisions on sectors, learning needs and skills

During the meeting, we presented the structure and objectives of the design and development of the content for the skills assessment and the improvement of professional mentoring for which it has the coordinating responsibility for. More specifically, it will focus on the design of educational content, career guidance and mentoring, and the development of assessment tools through gamification.

Specifically, we presented the timeline and key deliverables to follow, which will include:

• 4 structured training programs focusing on green, digital and soft skills.
• Trainer’s manual with methodological guidelines and participant activation strategies.
• Skills assessment and counselling model.
• 4 digital training games for use in training and evaluation.

The content is based on current learning trends such as microlearning, cross-industry learning and multimodal learning, and builds on local labour market needs to be identified by Reskilling Labs.

The presentation was very well received by the partners and triggered a substantial discussion on the local adaptation of tools and methodologies.

Our participation in COOPSKILLS is a continuation of our strategic commitment to support lifelong learning and empowerment of adult learners. With our contribution to WP4, we offer an innovative, integrated approach to skills upgrading, strengthening the link between education and the labour market.

Reskill. rethink. rebuild.

This is our motto. And with it we continue dynamically!