Erasmus Project + LATWORK “Developing Research and Innovation capacities of Latin-American HEI for the analysis of informal labour market”, cofounded by the European Commission, is finalizing its first year of execution with excellent results. The consortium is conformed by twelve prestigious universities from Europe and Latin America. From Chile, the coordinating institution, Universidad Viña del Mar, as well as Universidad de Magallanes and Universidad San Sebastián. From Argentina, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Universidad Nacional del Litoral and Universidad de Buenos Aires. From Brazil, Universidade Federal da Paraiba, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande and UniversidadeEstadual de Campinas. Also, in representation of European universities are participating Universidad de Alicante, from Spain, Universidade de Coimbra, from Portugal, and, finally, The University of Aberdeen, from the UK.

Between December 11^th and 13^th, the first Training of Trainers has been developing, under the topic: “Categories and methodologies on informal jobs and informal economy analysis”.From the hosting institution, Dr. Dari Krein, the project´s responsible, and other authorities as well as researchers gave beginning to the training. In charge of it were Prof. IoannisThedossiou, an academic from The University of Aberdeen (UK) – in the morning – and Dr.ElísioEstanque, from Universidade de Coimbra (Portugal) – during the afternoon-. To give closure to the workday, different dimensions of informal labour impact, such as etnia, gendre and social class, were discussed in working groups including all participants.

The second workday was in charge of Prof. Paulo Balter, from UniversidadeEstadual de Campinas, who explained informality´s theoretical and historical basis in the Latin American context. In representation of the same institution, professors Marcelo Manzano and Ludmila Abilio focussed on the presentation of the main obstacles and challenges in our context, as a grounding on the future debate about informal economy. Also, during the same day, European partners represented by Dr. Paulo Peixoto from Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal, and Dr.IoannisTheodossiou, from The University of Aberdeen, gave European perspective about the subject.

Finally, the Training of Trainers third and last workday, in charge of European partners, will centre on the study and analysis of different methodologies – qualitative and quantitative – to measure informality in labourmarkets´context.

This theoretical basis and great work done by all participants will represent the background and grounding to replicate in the different Latin American partner institutions, in order to widen the scope of these debates and contribute to the public policy-making in Chile, Argentina and Brazil. The second Training of Trainers will take place in Universidad Nacional de Rosario, in Argentina, next April 2020.

To more information, we invite you to follow our Facebook Fan Page @latworkproject or through our websitehttp://www.latwork-project.eu,available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.