WHAT IS CHARTER ABOUT?
CHARTER has been selected by the European Commission in the frame of the Erasmus + Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills - one of the key initiatives of the 2016 Skills Agenda for Europe. Under the blueprint, stakeholders work together in sector-specific partnerships, called alliances for sectoral cooperation for skills, which develop and implement strategies to address skills gaps in these sectors. Within the Pact for Skills of the Updated Skills Agenda 2020, Blueprints were expanded and opened to more sectors - such as Cultural Heritage.
CHARTER is the Cultural Heritage sector-specific partnership: this alliance will develop and implement European sector-wide strategies and vocational training solutions to address skills gaps in the field. Although there is broad consent on cultural heritage being intrinsically related to personal wellbeing and human identity, it remains a rich yet underrated and under-resources social and economical good.
The CHARTER project will create a lasting, comprehensive sectoral skills strategy to ensure Europe has the necessary cultural heritage skills to support sustainable societies and economies.
The project will use strategic collaboration and innovative methodologies to bridge the gaps between educational and occupational systems and employer needs, to reduce skills shortages, gaps and mismatches, and overcome the paucity of cultural heritage statistical data. The project will collect srategic data on five knowledge areas to identify core and transversal competences, including digital, technological, and green adaptation skills.

ERRIN's role
The regional roll-out of the Sectoral Skills Strategy is a key objective of the Blueprint projects: for this reason, CHARTER will place cultural heritage in its larger territorial context. A specific work package will use regional case studies, think tanks, and focus groups, implemented in EU regions: it will be coordinated by ERRIN, together with the University of Gotheburg.
Leveraging the interest of its Tourism & Cultural Heritage Working Group, ERRIN mobilised the following EU Regions who will be at the heart of the regional roll-out: Alentejo, Basque Country, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (co-leader of the Tourism and Cultural Heritage Working Group, as well as the Science and Education for Society - both of great relevance to the project), Tuscany (co-leader of the Tourism and Cultural Hertiage Working Group), Vastra Gotaland. Moreover, Sibiu (RO) and Milan (IT) will also host regional workshops. ERRIN will be responsible for the overall coordination of the workshops, and contribute to the "Report from the regional case studies".
More information on the regional roll-out can be found in the Blueprint Seminar Report 2019 published by the European Commission.
In parallel, ERRIN will co-lead the work on "Alliances, Sustainable Strategies and Policy Recommendations" together with the Romanian National Institute of Heritage.