From 16 to 18 July 2026, the partners of the ENNEPlus project met in Cascia, Umbria, for a Transnational Partner Meeting held alongside Social Hackathon Umbria (SHU) 2026, the closing event of this year’s edition of the project’s Eco-Digithon competition. EfVET took part as a member of the consortium.
ENNEPlus – Enhancing VET National Networks through Eco-Innovation – is an Erasmus+ funded project bringing together vocational education and training organisations, public authorities and business support entities from Italy, Spain, Portugal and Austria, together with the European networks EfVET and All Digital. The project supports TVET institutions in integrating eco-innovation, digital transformation and entrepreneurship into their teaching practice, through tools including the Eco-Digithon methodology, a Community of Practice platform, a social incubation model and dedicated proposal-writing training.
International Round Table
The meeting opened with an International Round Table, organised as part of the European Skills & VET Week 2026. This European Commission initiative brings together Member States’ representatives, policymakers, social partners, public authorities, TVET providers and the wider VET community to exchange ideas, showcase initiatives and strengthen cooperation around skills and learning, at a time when evolving labour markets, technologies and workforce needs are placing adult learning and vocational education and training at the centre of Europe’s competitiveness and innovation agenda.
Within this framework, the ENNEPlus Round Table brought together representatives of VET providers, public authorities, companies, NGOs, business support organisations and teachers from the winning Eco-Digithon teams. Using a World Café format, participants rotated through four discussion tables, each focused on one of the project’s main outputs: the Social Incubation model, the Community of Practice platform, the Eco-Digithon methodology and the proposal-writing experience developed within the project.
The discussions produced a set of concrete recommendations for the long-term sustainability and institutional integration of these outputs. Common priorities emerged across all four tables, including the need to strengthen permanent partnerships between VET institutions and external stakeholders, to recognise teachers as key drivers of continuity beyond the project’s lifetime, and to embed the project’s methodologies into regular curricula and institutional planning rather than treating them as one-off activities. These conclusions will directly inform the ENNEPlus Long-Term Action Plans, currently under development by the consortium.
Social Hackathon Umbria 2026
The Round Table took place within the framework of SHU 2026, which brought together the winning teams of the National Eco-Digithons organised in Spain, Italy, Portugal and Austria, as well as an international online edition. Students presented their projects to an expert jury, closing several months of work built around sustainability, digital innovation and social entrepreneurship. The event also marked the official launch of SHU 2026 at Sala della Pace in Cascia, followed by an awards ceremony recognising the achievements of the participating teams.
Partner Meeting
Over the following days, the consortium reviewed progress against the project’s key performance indicators, discussed the activities planned for the remainder of the project and prepared the groundwork for the upcoming Interim Report. Partners also worked in national groups to draft the initial framework for their respective Long-term Action Plans, building directly on the recommendations gathered during the Round Table.
Further sessions addressed the next steps for each of the project’s main work packages, including updates on the Community of Practice platform, the ENNEPlus Toolkit and Piloting Report, and the second edition of the project’s jobshadowing activities.
EfVET’s Role
As one of the two European networks in the consortium, EfVET contributes to the ENNEPlus project through the development and promotion of the Community of Practice platform, alongside its wider role in connecting VET providers across Europe. The Round Table discussions on this output reinforced the platform’s value as a shared space for collaboration, resource-sharing and networking among VET institutions, companies, public authorities and civil society organisations, and identified concrete steps to expand its reach and ensure its continued relevance after the project ends.
EfVET leads the project’s communication and dissemination activities, coordinating how ENNEPlus results and outputs are shared with VET providers, policymakers and the wider community across Europe. This work will take on particular importance in the project’s final phase, as the consortium moves to ensure the Eco-Digithon, the Community of Practice and the project’s other outputs continue to reach and support TVET institutions beyond ENNEPlus’s lifetime.
EfVET will continue working with its ENNEPlus partners over the coming months to finalise the Long-Term Action Plans and support the project’s remaining activities, ahead of its conclusion.
For more information about the ENNEPlus project, visit https://cop.enneplusproject.eu/.