The WELCOME project “Work-basEd Learning experiences for smart COmpetencies in the social services MarkEt” is targeted to students attending the 3rd and the 4th year of secondary VET Institutes, located in the Province of Ancona, in order to give them the opportunity to make a 4 weeks professional training experience in European companies working in the market of the social services. This sector is proposed according to the guidelines of the “Smart Specialization strategy” promoted by the Marche Regional Authority that seeks to promote new markets (i.e. social services) for regional companies and SMEs by supporting links and synergies between productive fabric, health and well-being organisations and research bodies. Thanks to the project 100 students will have the opportunity to make a work-based learning experience as assistive-living technicians, as socio-cultural educators or as chemical- pharmaceutical technicians. The training experiences will last four weeks (mobility will take place between May and October 2017) and will be carried out with “training on the job” method and through the assignment of direct tasks related to relevant job profiles. The companies hosting the participants are located in France, Germany, Ireland, United Kingdom, Slovenia, Spain and Bulgaria.The WELCOME national consortium is promoted by the Liceo Classico “Vittorio Emanuele II” of Jesi and it is composed by other local VET Institutions, by private companies leaders in their professional fields and by other partners belonging to the labour and social sectors. All the consortium members recognise and valorise the importance of the students’ mobility in the view of the upcoming internationalisation characterising the education system and the labour market; they also seek the achievement of the strategic objectives of the Copenhagen process (stated in the 2010 Bruges Declaration and in the 2015 Riga Declaration) to foster the European VET cooperation in the framework of the 2020 European Strategy for growth and job.WELCOME concretely addresses the need for smart and competitive training-on-the-job expressed by students of the target territory. These students want to test their skills and to acquire new competences (technic and language) matching the demand of the local labour market where smart, flexible and multilingual human resources are becoming ever more and more strategic in order to ensure an effective involvement of local companies in the new and changing global markets. The mobility experience abroad will be carefully prepared and preceded by linguistic, cultural, educational and sectorial training. This will be carried out through an online language course (to be held on the Erasmus + platform O.L.S.), as well as through a training module on health and safety in the workplace, three specific preparatory seminars for departure, and the participation in visits/thematic events.The quality management of project activities aims at consolidating the cooperation between the national consortium and the European partners, promoting the adjustment of the local system to better incorporate the process of transparency, recognition, certification and validation of skills and competences through the use of ECVET tools. The expected results, in line with the needs and objectives identified, include:-The enhancement of technical and professional skills of the participants and the improvement of their professional curriculum through a certified, recognized and validated path;-The development of specific competences related to communicative and language aspects of project areas;-The implementation of high quality mobility experiences, that can be valuable in the social, cultural and professional context;-An increase in competitiveness for the participants, necessary to tackle the emerging fields of innovative jobs born to address social challenges.Finally, WELCOME promotes an innovative approach in the way we think, describe and certify work-based learning, through the creation of a stable network for the implementation of future successful projects, characterized by greater collaboration between schools, companies and social partners, using the ECVET tools. All these factors want to contribute positively to the development of a culture of quality, to the enhancement of mobility experiences and to the promotion of the knowledge of Europass and ECVET tools among potential employers, social partners and public bodies, as well as in building a solid baseline for a more cooperative, transparent and internationalized European education and production system.