Identifying projects and funding

Using current networks might enable new projects and initiatives to be identified, but active searches are also to be encouraged. This entails seeking through relevant databases and websites (see contacts directory for some starting points). A good place to begin is where the money is! For example, in the U.K., the Learning & Skills Councils (LSCs) have been given funding relating to young people, including for activities involving research and development. A check through the website will enable you to identify national and regional priorities, current and planned projects, and instructions regarding the making of formal expressions of interest, bids or tenders. Read carefully through their assessment criteria to avoid wasting time putting together a bid where your likelihood of success is low.

Access to funding for European projects for professionals involved with young people is available from Eurodesk (www.eurodesk.org/new), which has a specific web link for ‘search for funding’.

Newspapers are further sources of information regarding planned projects, with the Guardian on Tuesdays, for example, including advertisements for tenders on projects relating to education and training. The Wednesday edition of the Guardian includes general Public Sector notices.

Professional bodies (again, see directory) and associations can highlight potential projects where funding is available.

Finding new partners

In the UK (e.g. Learning & Skills Council funding) and increasingly across the world (e.g. European Union funding), large-scale funding for new initiatives requires evidence of working with partners. Initially, the advice above on building and extending networks might well create new working partnerships, as communications develop and areas of mutual interest are discovered.

For organisations in Britain, the British Council (www.britishcouncil.org) acts as a partner-building broker across the globe. Through checking their website, and the link ‘Vocational Training Links – help with partner finding’ - the user can locate any specific projects of potential interest and a contact is given for any queries. In addition, there are clear linkages to European funding and partnerships through the Leonardo, Socrates and CEDEFOP initiatives (see directory for web details). For example, using access to European funds, the British Council is currently (March 2004) promoting study visits across Europe relating to training and educational issues. Such study visits develop individual networking skills, broaden knowledge and experience of others’ working practices and provide new networks, through contacts with others on the visit and people in the places visited.

Local councils usually have overseas links through twinning. Named contacts in sister organisations in twinned towns is usually readily accessible. The World Bank, OECD, United Nations, UNESCO and European Union are examples of trans-national organisations which help to develop links across countries. The Leonardo project website of the European Union (http://leonardo.cec.eu.int) has created a partner search database for those wishing to search for partners for specific projects. Within EU links, an Estonian database (http://www.sekr.ee/z/PPS/docViewPartnerList) shows countries/ organisations/ organisational type and details of partners sought across Europe. Guidenet (http://www.guidenet.org) identifies key themes for guidance to November 2004, including Developing Guidance Networks (as advanced by The Czech Republic, France and Slovak Republic). Careers Europe (http://www.careerseurope.co.uk) acts as a contact point.

Texts and paper directories on international organisations (e.g., ‘Networking in Europe; a guide to European voluntary organisations’ by Brian Harvey) can be useful, but tend to become out of date quite quickly in a rapidly changing global environment.