The FIT2COMFORT overall objective is to create, pilot and certify a new occupation and qualification profile on “Expert in Comfort & Healthy footwear manufacturing” and the correspondent flexible innovative training combining ICT based contents and work base learning, to respond to the identified skills/competences gap, improving the knowledge in this field, allowing SME and large enterprises to embrace the opportunity of growth offered by this segment of differentiation and strengthen the positioning of the footwear companies. FIT2COMFORT reached all its objectives with important impacts for the further developments in the frame of the overall goal mentioned above. The implemented activities and correspondente achieved objectives are the following:i)the evidence based research on training needs and training opportunities on the field of Comfort and Healthy Footwear with important inputs for the further stages. In addition, an evidence based research toward consumers on the field of Comfort was also put in place at European level with a range of almost 700 responses. This additional research had a double purpose of surveying the relevance of Comfort in footwear among the consumers and to obtain data to reinforce the need of dealing with comfort and healthy and domaining related matters near the footwear companies.ii)a STEM based Profile on Expert in Comfort & Healthy Footwear manufacturing, level 5 EQF with a set of 16 professional competences, 7 personal competences and 4 social competences;iii)a STEM training programme, with 10 units of learning outcomes defined and conceived in terms of Learning Outcomes, bridging the ECVET principals, capable of covering all training/competences needs pointed by the evidence-based research, and responding to the identified skills’ gapiv)A wide portfolio of contents mainly consituted by 123 content-wise presentation (covering 139 lessons)with voice over and transformed in videos responsive enough to be able to be used in any platform, mobile, table, PC, 10 units of learning outcomes concepts, correspondent assessments, glosarries, bibliography, practical activities, additional videos and didatic material”;v)A b-learning platform which makes possible the implementation of combined innovative and motivating trainin. Accessible on https://www.fit2comfort.eu/course/ vi)A Manual for trainers and coaches to be able to implement and deliver in the most effective way all the contents produced by the project, as well as a pilot training of trainer’s mobility activity and the protfolio of presentations, which involved 18 trainers from 8 of the partners.vii)A piloting report describing the experience of the piloting delivering of the b-learning course and strong feed-back from the participantsviii)Prototypes of shoes incorporating all features of comfort and health proposed by the b-learning course, proving the added value and differentiating level of the final products. This has allied a wide set of concepts coming from the piloting in all countries.ix)A strong corporative communication, based on an impacting image and logo, responsive project website, social media (facebook), multilingual communication tools, events at ountry level and european level;x)A continue presence/participation in events related to footwear.xi)A set of diligencies initiated for the certification / acreditation of the new profile, training curriculum ans contents, to be incorporatied in the national catalogues qualification catalogues of the countries involved.x) a sustainable agreement among all partners for the future continuation of the project results and partnership/alliance.xi) Qulity Assurance Plan and a constant consultation of the target groups including stakeholdeers, ntegrating the conclusion with an evaluation Plan, produced 3 different reports on evaluation.

"AI4Ed aims at questioning current teaching-learning processes and will incorporate and experiment with novel technologies (AI) and pedagogies, to develop tools, methodologies, and evaluation systems that respond to the new reality. ""An educational system, being redefined from a lifelong learning perspective, that will stimulate economic growth, social cohesion and the improvement of the quality and quantity of employment.” The project will develop a toolkit for the implementation of the strategy/methodology for an AI based training process, with problem-based and project-based learning at its core and which focuses on collaborative learning taking into account the promotion of multilingualism and cultural diversity. In such an innovative system the leading role will be played by the students, who will be accompanied and tutored by both teaching staff and company mentors when required. This toolkit will describe the steps an education institution needs to take in order to deploy an AI-based training process, from data flow and data format to AI ethics and transparency, and to pedagogically defined KPIs on personalised tutoring, active learning, and dropout prevention. Due to the gap in AI competencies, a trainning programme framework will be developed whereby students, teachers, and organisation managers will be able to learn about the implementation of AI in their processes. During the implementation of AI4Ed 5 use cases will be run in 4 member states (ES, PT, SI, DE) by 2 universities and 3 VET institutions. and at least 120 students will take part. AI4Ed toolkit and implementation guidelines will be available in the EDEHub, SELFIE for Schools platforms, and AI4Ed platform. By collaborating with EDEHub and initiatives such as SELFIE for Schools the consortium guarantees not only the long-term impact of the results."

In many countries like Romania (RO) and Portugal (PT) Vocational Education and Training (VET) is considered as second choice; as an educational pathway for those who failed in reaching Higher Education (HE). One of the main reasons of this rather poor image of VET is that it often must be considered as a “dead-end” educational pathway; once you started a “blue collar” job; no or only few options of career opportunities in terms of Continuous Vocational Education and Training (CVET) exist. Thus, more challenging occupations like working for the Quality Assurance (QA), Design or Production Planning departments are reserved for colleagues with an educational background from HE.But even in countries with established CVET-programmes like Germany (DE), where the qualifications of an industrial or handicraft foreman or technician are country-wide acknowledged and have a very good image, the academic drift is obvious. For our sector (industrial shoe production) a worrying indicator is: In the last two years, when the only industrial foreman course for this occupation was offered, not enough participants (countrywide only six needed) applied – and the courses had to be withdrawn.Thus, strengthening CVET is a crucial element of increasing attractiveness of VET and assuring its high quality. Target groups are colleagues, having been qualified via Initial Vocational Education and Training (IVET) in the sector of industrial shoe production. For this purpose, partners of project “Developing Innovative and Attractive CVET programmes in industrial shoe production” (DIA-CVET) have chosen 10 spheres of activities of industrial shoe production like “operational organisation” or “materials for shoe production” where autonomous work is beyond competences of skilled workers (considering skilled work on European Qualification Framework (EQF) level 3 or 4). We aim at developing, piloting and implementing comprehensive courses for each of these spheres on European level; available in English (EN) as well as in DE, RO and PT. We do not aim at developing a unified European CVET (like an “EU industrial foreman”) profile, as we respect the principle of subsidiarity in educational subjects and are aware of the different preconditions and needs regarding qualifications in our three countries. Piloting of our courses is foreseen as a “feasibility study”, direct beneficiaries will be 10 skilled workers from shoe industry. Via accompanying measures like an “Advisory Board” (AB), workshops and others we aim at reaching and involving delegates from all relevant stakeholders (companies, trade unions, chambers, competent bodies, training centres, networks) from the sector in our three countries. But project has additionally a broader scope; it aims at transparency at CVET levels within shoe sector for all stakeholders, especially social partners, companies, and authorities. To accept Learning Outcomes (LO) from another learning venue, to hire a skilled foreman from another country, or to trust national qualifications from another country is an ongoing challenge. Project consortium developed successfully a Sector Qualification Framework for footwear sector for level 2-4 in the previous project ICSAS (cp. http://icsas-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/06_SQF-Table_EN.pdf). Consequently the development of (and the referencing of existing or developed national CVET qualifications in DE, RO, and PT to a sector qualification framework for levels 5-7 will be another important objective of proposed project DIA-CVET and available for future levelling of new CVET-profiles or profiles of other countries after the project’s lifetime.Regarding long-term impact or sustainability, we aim additionally at implementing dual CVET-courses for industrial shoemakers in the Romanian and Portuguese VET-systems (as happened successfully with dual IVET-courses during ICSAS) – and to support the reinvigorating of the industrial foreman course in Germany.

"The six institutions in this application are all members of the ""European CNC-Network"" made up of approx 30 schools. The first project undertaken by the Network was ""Train for Europe"" which won the Charlemange Youth Prize in 2010. Another project called ""Train for Europe - RELOADED"" was a star project in 2013. All signed agreements to prolong and progress their association through further cooperation and project work. These were carried out under Comenius.Under the new format of Erasmus+ it is no longer possible to run with 20+ institutions and the CNC-Network has therefore decided to run smaller projects under KA229. At a preparatory meeting in Dublin in December 2018 it was decided to propose a number of technical projects and invite the members of the CNC-Network to vote for their choice of project. Furthermore, it was open to the participants to coordinate whichever project they chose. See Annex 1One of these was the Magical Moving Machine for Europe (3M4EU). This was originally discussed in Dublin in 2015 but not progressed at the time. It was the favoured project of the Irish school, Newpark Comprehensive, hence our willingness to coordinate it. The resolution has subsequently been updated to take account of changing application circumstances and technological developments. See Annex 2The basic idea of 3M4EU is to research, design, develop and manufacture a set of individual but complimentary ""Moving Machines"" which will be interconnected to form the final ""Magical Moving Machine for Europe"". Because we are a group of institutions with technological subjects/departments as well as academic areas, it is envisaged that the project will be multi-disciplinary. The final artifacts will be manufactured predominately by Computer Numerical Control technology. CNC Technology, however, has advanced outside the realm of Turning and Milling to the newer technologies of 3D Printing and Laser Cutting. It is therefore envisaged that the proposed project will take advantage of these developments and exploit them in the design, manufacture and operation of the Magical Moving Machine.Technological education is the common denominator for the proposed participants, however, each institution brings its own unique set of strengths and competences to the project. It is this unique set of skills and abilities that makes the project a diverse teaching and learning tool. Each institution will have the opportunity to learn from the other partners and the overall success will depend on the cooperation of all the participants working collectively to produce the final product.At this stage it is not possible, nor is it desirable, to define the final product too closely. Part of the overall plan is to develop the physical machines with the input of the students and the guidance of the teachers. However, for purposes of clarity, it can be thought of as a type of ""Marble Run"" mechanism where the initial motion is triggered by an external source and the final action in turn triggers the next machine and so on. The external power to activate and/or sustain the movement within the machines will be derived from renewable sources, thereby encouraging an awareness of sustainability among the students. The overall size of the individual machines will be limited to 500mm x 500mm x 500mm for reasons of cost and transportation.The activities that will be carried out during the transnational meetings are well defined in the resolution (Annex 2) but will also be developed and redefined as the project progresses. Initially, there will be a brainstorming activity based on the resolution. International workgroups will be set up to progress the design of the common components of the machines. These workgroups will maintain contact between the transnational meetings via eTwinning, email and through the project website. Other social media eg WhatsApp will be used for rapid/less formal contact. Separately, each institution will develop the design of their own unique Moving Machine while liaising with the members of each workgroup to ensure compatibility of design and inter-connectivity of machines.The methodology used in carrying out the project activities will be closely based on those developed by the CNC-Network in previous projects that have proved to be extremely effective. As previously mentioned, international workgroups for the various worklines (CAD, Prototyping, Mechanics, Electronics, Machining, Connectivity, etc) will be established and will work closely during and between the meetings.The resulting products, methodologies and impact of the project will form a permanent feature of the institutions involved. These results and methods will not only benefit the teachers and students directly involved but will be disseminated within the institutions and reported nationally and internationally through local and national publications, the project website, the eTwinning platform and the Erasmus+ Projects Results Platform (EPRP)."

MICA- Mechanical Industrial Collaborative Assignments is a project (2015-2018) focusing on the effective short term student workshops with close relation to local companies in Finland, Germany, Spain (Catalanya), Portugal, Poland and the Czech republic. During the project participating VET organisations design a common workshop curricula model and implement it through country-based curriculum and guidebook focused on sharing the practices with VET teachers and trainers. Local industrial workshop curriculum will be constructed according to the company needs, focus on future technical and lifelong learning skills. Curricula testing is done during country-based international workshops (14 days) and assessment is done with local companies, participating students and monitoring international teachers. There will be six workshops realized during the project and totally 60 technical VET students (with 12 hosting countries' students) will participate in the workshops. These students are selected mainly in the advanced level of studies and are able to manage demanding workshop tasks in the company environments. During the project totally 30 international technical VET teachers participate on monitoring/teaching, evaluation and peer-learning during workshop realizations (5 days). The aim of the project is to create a sustainable technical workshop model with curriculum and local recommendations within the network and also spread this curriculum and working model to other VET sectors. Modern technical VET elements, knowledge and information sharing is essential for the sustainable industrial development and constant modernisation of curricula. MICA is planned according to the process-testing in Leonardo partnership project IPAN - International Production Automation Network (2012-2014) where the process model was created and tested in 4 international workshops. Close company cooperation and use of modern machinery, new technologies and sharing of innovation is on the main focus of the project. Project aims to promote European industry's knowledge-intensive role in the world and increase the skills and competence of future industrial workers.MICA reached the goals and partners decided to provide similar international 2 weeks workshops also in the future. These workshops are coordinated by participating schools and they are open to other international partners. Next MICA workshop is 5/2019 in Finland.