About

What is I-STEP?

Most of today’s social challenges do not fit neatly into one sector, one profession or one organisation. Questions about inclusion, learning, employability and participation are deeply connected, yet organisations often address them separately.

I-STEP exists to bring those perspectives together. Members collaborate to exchange experience, develop practical methods, strengthen each other’s work and create resources that remain useful beyond individual projects.

Today the network connects organisations working across Europe and beyond, with its coordination based in Alicante, Spain. As the network grows, new members expand not only its geographical presence but also the diversity of expertise available to the community.

Why the I comes first

The name describes a way of working rather than a collection of topics.

The I stands for Inclusive, shaping everything that follows: Inclusive Skills, Inclusive Training, Inclusive Employability and Inclusive Participation.

Inclusion is not treated as an additional workstream or a separate objective. It is the perspective applied across every collaboration, every resource and every activity developed within the network. In practice that means asking the same questions for every activity, resource and partnership: who can take part, whose experience shapes the work, what barriers remain, and whether the outcome is useful to communities that are usually designed around rather than designed with.

Placing the I first means considering inclusion from the moment ideas are designed, partnerships are formed and decisions are made, rather than checking for it once the work is complete.

Four core areas

The network organises collaboration through four complementary core areas. Each offers a different perspective, yet members frequently work across several at the same time.

Inclusive Skills develops inclusive competences for personal, civic and professional growth, together with practical ways to recognise, communicate and apply them — including the learning that happens outside classrooms and certificates.

Inclusive Training develops inclusive learning processes, capacity building for educators and practitioners, and the resources that make good practice transferable.

Inclusive Employability develops inclusive connections between learning and work: mentoring, guidance, competence validation and the routes that turn capability into opportunity.

Inclusive Participation develops inclusive involvement of people, communities and organisations in shaping the decisions and services that affect them.

The four areas complement one another rather than operate independently. A single project often works across three of them at once. Members combine them according to the objectives, the people and the communities involved.

What unites our members

Members differ widely in size, legal structure and areas of expertise. Some work directly with communities every day. Others develop methods, research or learning resources that support organisations and people across multiple countries. Diversity is one of the network’s greatest strengths. Browse our current members in the Member Directory.

What they share is a way of working:

• Inclusion is designed into the work from the beginning.
• Collaboration creates value beyond individual organisations.
• Methods are developed to be shared, adapted and improved.
• Local practice and international collaboration strengthen one another.
• Organisations remain responsible for the quality and accuracy of the information they contribute.

How the network works

Cooperation happens inside the four core areas. Organisations bring a question or a method, find others working on the same ground, and develop something that outlives the exchange: a framework, a toolkit, a training design, a validation approach.

Some of this collaboration takes place within European projects, and some of it develops independently. The network is not a project. Projects begin and end, but collaboration continues.

Each member manages its own public profile through the I-STEP Toolkit and remains responsible for the information and organisational data it chooses to publish.

Governance and membership

Membership is reviewed and approved by the I-STEP Board. There are no membership fees or financial obligations.

Organisations apply through the public membership form, providing information about their work, expertise and annual activity. The Board reviews the application against the membership conditions. Approved organisations receive a membership certificate and access to the member Toolkit.

Approval concerns the organisation, not an audit of its figures. Members report their own data and remain accountable for it.

Our growing international presence

I-STEP brings together organisations working across Europe and beyond. Each new member expands the network not only geographically, but also through new expertise, perspectives and opportunities for collaboration.

The number of organisations, countries represented and the combined organisational capacity of the network evolve as new members join. These figures are updated automatically from member data and published on the Impact page.