Stronger Youth: Training and pilot phase to foster young people’s social skills across Europe

Since March 2025, the Erasmus+ KA220-YOU project “Stronger Youth – Empowering Young People Social Competences and Soft skills through peer mentoring” (project no. 2023-1-IT03-KA220-YOU-000159325) has officially entered its active phase, involving partners from Italy, Spain, Romania, Czech Republic, Portugal, and Poland.

On March 25–26, PRISM Impresa Sociale hosted the project’s first international event in Palermo: the Train the Trainer Event. Educators and young peer mentors from all partner countries gathered for two intensive days of training on the tools designed to develop social competences through peer mentoring, under the guidance of professional educators.

During the training, participants explored and tested three main tools:

• The OSAT platform (Online Skill Assessment Tool), a digital support tool that helps educators identify potential mentors among their students.
• The Educators’ Guide, offering detailed guidelines for implementing activities, supervising mentor-mentee pairs, and using the OSAT platform;
• The Set of Tools, a comprehensive collection of activties, each targeting specific social skills;

Participants had the opportunity to try out the tools and the OSAT platform directly, providing valuable feedback for further refinement. At the end of the event, all training materials were shared with the participants in preparation for the next stage: the national pilot testing.
Additionally, each participant was awarded a Youthpass certificate, the European recognition tool that validates and certifies competences acquired through non-formal learning experiences within Erasmus+ projects.

From late March until the end of August 2025, each partner organisation is implementing and testing the activities in broader educational contexts—particularly schools—engaging at least 6 mentor-mentee pairs and 3 supervising educators to test at least 30 activities in each country.

In Italy, between Palermo and Caltanissetta, the pilot activities have already achieved remarkable success, with enthusiastic participation from students and educators alike, who expressed strong interest in the project and its content.

The “Stronger Youth” project thus continues its journey toward inclusive, peer-driven education, with the goal of strengthening social competences among young people across Europe.