NILO: Non-Formal / Informal Learning Opportunities

NILO stands for Non-formal / Informal Learning Opportunities, and it’s intended as a way to help staff and actors to understand the complex of skills, competencies,  which can be achieved in the  Places of third kind.

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Learning outcomes / audience

NILO stands for Non-formal / Informal Learning Opportunities, and it’s intended as a way to help staff and actors to understand the complex of skills, competencies,  which can be achieved in the  Places of third kind.

Authors

Andrea Ascari, Camilla Carra, Giulia Notari

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The PLACES-3T project

Economic, social and environmental structures, employment, education, training insertion, guidance in a universe in constant and incredibly fast change lead to imagine new routes for everyone to create their own place in this ecosystem.

Work, what it represents, the way it happens, put in action a set of values, codes, attitudes, knowledge, abilities which are dependent of the context and, at the same time, constitute a platform for the person to position themselves in the society. Some are well prepared to that, well adapted, feel at ease and are able to flourish day after day. Some, for many diverse reasons, have greater difficulties. It may come from a discrepancy due to language, education, culture, competences, or to a drastic change of context (e.g. migration); but it may also result from a desire to change their own codes, to contribute more collectively, to be more creative and more opened.


What is happening in working situations is more and more a complex mix of knowledge, know-hows, attitudes, behaviours, emotions, cultural components and technical job skills. Everybody possesses some of these fusion skills, but it is sometimes difficult to evidence, valorise, enhance them in the classical training and qualification systems.
Beyond institutional systems, Education, Enterprise, actors of inclusion and guidance, plenty of experiments have evidence both the desire and the possibility to develop places that enable people to find themselves and meet with others, to define their own journeys, their own values, together with others, though cooperation, co-creation, co-learning. This may even lead to the creation of common working structures as entrepreneurial cooperatives. Scattered examples already exist. It is particularly interesting to understand what the key strong points of these ecosystems are and how to develop them in a more systematic way.

The territorial dimension plays a key role in the notion of “Places-3T places”. The ecosystem at stake here is before all a local environment, be it in a urban, semi-urban or rural area. But these ecosystems are not meant to be isolated microcosms. Linking them into networks would allow them to benefit from a European dimension, accordingly to different recommendations of the European Institutions. The span of the consortium is a first key success factor in this sense.

What does the project produce?

The PLACES-3T project aims at:

  • reflecting upon, studying, valorising, sustaining, …collaborative “laces-3T places that enable social, cultural and entrepreneurial innovation through support spaces, outside of institutional structures, where people may create new kinds of work ecosystems;
  • imagining business models applicable to such places, with enough flexibility and sustainability, where everyone can contribute without constraints on resources, but in a supportive way;
  • compiling and defining the key elements that support these implementations with reasonable chances of success;
  • putting in place models, processes, tools to accompany the creators of PLACES-3T places throughout their life cycle, their evolution, their survival, in a continuous way.

reflecting upon, studying, valorising, sustaining, …collaborative “Places-3T places that enable social, cultural and entrepreneurial innovation through support spaces, outside of institutional structures, where people may create new kinds of work ecosystems;
imagining business models applicable to such places, with enough flexibility and sustainability, where everyone can contribute without constraints on resources, but in a supportive way;
compiling and defining the key elements that support these implementations with reasonable chances of success;
putting in place models, processes, tools to accompany the creators of PLACES-3T places throughout their life cycle, their evolution, their survival, in a continuous way.

The question here is not to promote a typical model, but to support different groups of actors in starting their own project with “tooling pieces” that ensure a possible positive evolution, with other references and examples, with the possibility to tie networks, and find inspiration.
The project does not intend to train specialized consultants, but to give the means and opportunities to the collective groups to invent their own modes of functioning, relying on their own aspirations, to create their own univers(es) and embark on the journeys thay will have chosen for themselves.

Places-3T meeting in Leiderdorp – Netherlands

POUR LA SOLIDARITÉ-PLS and its partners in the Place-3T project met on 28 and 29 April 2022 at Area071 (Leiderdorp, The Netherlands) to review the project’s activities and to set the next steps. Mark your calendars for upcoming public events!

Area071 – the place where the Dutch partners of the Places-3T project hosted this meeting – covers 800m2 in a former industrial building that has been refurbished according to the needs and tastes of the current occupants. A place of the third type, Area071 welcomes both entrepreneurs in their start-up activities, more regular members looking for flexible spaces and also projects, notably in collaboration with the University of Leiden.

During this transnational meeting, the partners each presented the scenarios they are working on to design future educational capsules called “mini-COOLs”. The partners then stressed the need to focus on the social impact of third places through recruitment policy, environmental impact considerations, culture as a tool to prevent exclusion and sharing experiences with other places and networks. Also, it emerged that third places must be efficient and attractive and entrepreneurship is both a requirement and an outcome of these places. Once completed, the “mini-COOL” capsules will constitute the methodology for the support of the creation, animation and sustainability of places of the third type. Then, the “pilot actions” of the project (currently under consideration) will be the opportunity to implement the methodology and the tools for supporting the actors in a “real” experience.

The Places-3T partnership invites any third type structure across Europe to take a moment to talk about their place, and to become part of a network of spaces for the exchange of knowledge, practices and ideas. To do so, simply complete the short form available on the project’s website.

Finally, SAVE THE DATE(S)! Two public meetings are to be noted in your diary to learn more about third places and the Places-3T project.

The first event will be organised by FREREF and will take place in Lyon on 20 and 21 September 2022, at the same time as the opening of the third place Manu’Village.

A second event, dedicated more broadly to the challenges of third places, will be organised by POUR LA SOLIDARITÉ-PLS in Brussels on Tuesday 22 November 2022 in the premises of PLS/Smart (KOP Room, Rue Coenraets 72).

To pre-book your place from now on, contact PLS!

Please, tell us something about your place3t

By filling this short questionnaire, you can join our network of places, be informed about your new initiatives and take advantage of all the products and opportunities deveolped within our partnership

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The Spring School workshop of the Réseau International Cité des Métiers

Third-type spaces to jointly create a more desirable future – June 2021

The team for our Places-3T project participated in Sping School 2021 (online) of the Réseau International Cité des Métiers on July 4, 2021, in a workshop dedicated to “third-type spaces”, like third places, spaces built outside the private sphere without being exclusively part of the professional one, hybrid places for exchanges between multiple actors and interests.

Three members of the project hosted the workshop, Pierre Pevée from Smart, Sanjin Plakalo from POUR LA SOLIDARITÉ (PLS) and Liliane Esnault from FREREF. They introduced the project and the LaVallée space, the third place hosted by SMART, and one of the activities of the 100% young system which takes place there, hosted by PLS.

Third-type spaces make it possible to develop new ways to learn, create, build values, taking into account the new success criteria: development of trust in oneself and others, in the future; respect for people and the planet; valuing skills acquired previously and those developed in cooperation and collaboration; valuing flip thinking, etc. These are spaces to express the will to make lasting changes in the relationship with the future, support more optimistic, inclusive and egalitarian societal visions.

Innovation lies in the way relationships between people are created and work, as well as the mix of their concerns: no separation between work, learning, creation, personal and collective, content and method, but rather a permanent complementarity.

  • To study, enhance and make sustainable these so-called “third type” collaborative spaces;
  • To identify the key factors for success;
  • To set models, approaches, and tools to support creators of third-type spaces and allow them to self-assess or peer-assess;
  • To make hybrid acquaintances and mix cultures from different spaces that meet along the project;
  • To appreciate, recognise and value the complex competences.

To properly carry out the project, the team already has on hand some third places hosted by the project partners, such as the LaVallée space, hosted by SMART, which includes residences for artists, and hosts artistic and cultural events like concerts and festivals. The place also has a coworking room, workshops, and accommodation for artisans and artists who make the local economy flow. The dynamics of the place create a network of support and acquaintances between the different actors from of third place, and between the different professions that meet there. LaVallée acts as a place that facilitates activity, which offers stability to independent entrepreneurs and artisans who just started their business.

LaVallée hosts social activities as well, such as the 100% young program dedicated to young “NEETS”, not in education, employment, or training, for whom access to employment is particularly difficult. This six-month individual and collective support system is free and open to all NEETS from Brussels aged between 18 and 28. Coordinated by Pour La Solidarité, independent think and do tanks from Brussels have committed to a lasting and solidary Europe. Its development is followed by a team of multidisciplinary actors who put their collective intelligence at the service of each youngster.

A quick brainstorming then allowed participants to help describe what the ideal third-type space would be for them. The next drawing shows the ideal third place according to the participants:

A town and its Places3T