EU countries are facing the problem of practical skills for sustainable implementation of Waste Management as well as lack of knowledge on how to implement the requirements of the established legislation. Among the problems thatmunicipalities face is the lack of sufficient education of its staff, in order to understand the economic, social and environmental benefits of reuse and recycling and the existing solutions. Moreover, the pandemic has significantly affected society, the economy and millions of people around the globe. International consortium composed of EU-VETorganizations from Cyprus, Greece, N.Macedonia, Poland and Slovenia will develop, within the ENCOURAGE project, the Courses for Sustainable Waste Management for Municipalities as well as for VET education.

The implementation of developed courses for sustainable waste management will provide recognition of knowledge and skills for appropriate handling with all waste types by the participants. Additionally, the developed courses will be transparent and the analyzes that will be carried out within the project will contribute to the development of required qualifications for sustainable waste management. Therefore, in the frame of the project is planned and will be developed Qualification profile for Waste Managemant specialist with the use of NQF/EQF levels. Therefore, the development of such VET educational programs would be essential in order to improve the capacities of employees within the environmental or waste sector within the pilot municipalities as a target group and to contribute to their better performance consequently for higher environmental protection and residents they work for. Moreover, the project output will possess the elements of innovation like the development of Curriculum and syllabus for Courses for Sustainable WM with the elements of validation and certification based on concrete competence requirements, which serve as clearly defined and agreed reference points for building curricula for trainers and for assessing the competences gained at work.

The project objectives are:

- To develop and implement new and innovative professional courses for the waste sector in line with EU Waste Framework Directive. - To improve the level of competencies and skills at municipality level in the field of sustainable WM.

- To close the gap between the needs for new knowledge, lack of educational programs and challenges of target groups in sustainable waste management. The aim is the education of the target groups: representatives from waste or environmental department within municipalities, VET schools/teachers/trainees and decision makers, for sustainable WM in line with the national and EU policies, and in long-term contributing to the development and management of waste resources on both a local and global scale.