The UPPEAL project (“Upskill and update e-mentoring through innovative tools to prevent NEET and disadvantaged young people”) is an Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership in the Youth sector (2023–2025). It targets NEETs—young people not in education, employment, or training—and other socially or economically disadvantaged youth at risk of exclusion. The project responds to the growing need for digital and inclusive mentoring practices that empower these young people to re-engage with education, training, or the labour market.
The central aim of UPPEAL is to modernize and digitalize mentoring by training youth workers, educators, and mentors to use innovative online tools and methods. It promotes e-mentoring as a bridge between traditional support systems and the digital realities of young people’s lives. The project fosters new competencies in digital communication, motivation strategies, and online engagement, ensuring mentors can build meaningful, sustainable relationships with vulnerable youth through hybrid (online/offline) mentoring.
Expected outcomes include the creation of open educational resources (OERs)—such as training materials, toolkits, and e-learning modules—freely accessible under open licenses. These resources will support the wider community of youth professionals in adopting inclusive, tech-based mentoring approaches. Additionally, UPPEAL will deliver guidelines for best practices, capacity-building workshops, and a network of European organizations committed to reducing youth disengagement through innovation and collaboration.
IDL contributes with the creation of the project’s e-learning platform as well as interactive learning modules.