Before the COVID-19 pandemic there was as increasing use of digital media and technologies for learning in HE. Almost all staff engaged in teaching and learning in HE used some form of digital technology. Some of these technologies such as PowerPoint and online learning platforms including Moodle were used extensively, with HE Staff feeling they had a high level of competence. However, the range of digital technologies used was very narrow. Since the pandemic, HE staff have been required to use a much broader range of technologies as they have continued their teaching through blended or online approaches. Now almost all HEI staff are required to use video conference-based classrooms and most will produce voiceovers or video presentations. These changes have been made in an ad-hoc way with limited training and thought about the design and pedagogic implications of the way technology is introduced. In addition, there is pressure to use technologies in ways that were not anticipated by HEIs, with concurrent (e.g. in class teaching that is at the same time streamed to students at home and recorded for others) rather than blended use of approaches being used in prototype forms, as HEIs innovate to meet students’ changing and differing needs. There is a need to expand HE Staff competence in using a wider range of digital media and technologies and the ability to embed them in the design of their programmes so that they have the greatest impact. The PRUDMET project will address the need to support HE Staff in becoming competent in a wider range of digital media and technologies, and to embed them in their teaching and learning programmes. Building on the work of other projects that address digital media competence and using workshops, mentoring, and online video guides, it will develop interventions that support HE Staff. The objectives of the project are to: develop a competency matrix for Digital Media for HE Staff; produce workshops and handbooks for Trainers of HE Staff to support them in training; develop and implement a series of workshops, mentoring, and video guides to train HE Staff on digital media and technologies.Led by the University of Gloucestershire (UK), the project will involve three further Partners from three countries: ISSBS (Slovenia), University of Alicante, (Spain); Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania). The PRUDMET Consortium brings together Higher Education Institutions with expertise in the development of workshops on digital media and technologies, mentoring, and course design for HE. The Partners have experience of creating positive outcomes for individuals through building their skills in a range of sectors.Together, they are experts in the development of HEI diagnosis tools, learning materials, and leading learning interventions that facilitate growth, and the project will use workshops, supplemented by mentoring, and video guides.The outputs of the project will have a positive impact on the skills for digital media and technologies held by HE Staff, and will increase the performance of HE Staff and their impact on students, by embedding the outcomes in the day-to-day activities of HEIs.The project adopts a practical approach that will result in HEIs adopting and embedding workshops and outputs in a way that will ensure their impact is sustained. In the long term, the project results will remain available through a publicly accessible website. The project Partners also expect the materials to be reused and modified by HEIs, providing the platform for long term development of digital media and technology competence across HEIs.

<< Background >>During implementation of one of our national projects addressed to seniors (Senior in Action), we had the opportunity to establish contact with a fairly large group of seniors. During the talks with them, it turned out that in Poland there is quite a big problem with professionalism among people who care for seniors, both privately and in nursing homes. By professionalism, we understand soft skills, not specific hard skills. Seniors often emphasized that caregivers lack the appropriate approach, commitment, empathy, and the ability to communicate with an older person.We have consulted this topic with partners with whom we implement other projects. It turned out that the situation is also similar in many other countries.Many EU countries are aging and the process is progressing fairly quickly. This process goes hand in hand with the weakening of family ties, which unfortunately results in the younger generations being reluctant to take care of seniors.The demand for paid care for the elderly will therefore increase in importance in the coming years. Along with this demand, the requirements for people working as carers of seniors will also increase. Today's generations of seniors pay more and more attention to the way they are cared for and to the soft skills possessed by caregivers.We want our project to meet these issues.On the one hand, we want to make all interested parties aware of the importance of having appropriate soft skills for people who care for seniors. In our publication, we want to emphasize the importance of having appropriate soft skills on the professionalism of caregivers. On the other hand, we want to enable the caregivers and the people who train them to develop these competences, which are undoubtedly the most important in the carer's work.One of our results will also be a knowledge base containing basic information on the formal requirements and working conditions of senior caregivers in different countries. The database will be a response to another noticed problem - the lack of sufficient information for people who would like to work as a carer for seniors abroad. Our database will make it easier for them to obtain the information they need to choose the country in which these people would like to work.We hope that our project will contribute to the improvement of the situation on the market of care services for seniors<< Objectives >>The main goal of the project is to increase the knowledge and skills necessary to perform the profession of caregiver for seniors, as well as to increase the interest of young people in this profession, by developing a number of training and information materials targeted at young people in various EU countries.Detailed objectives:•Providing young people who want to work as a caregiver for seniors or who work in this profession with tools enabling them to improve skills useful at work as a carer for seniors•increasing the efficiency and attractiveness of educating caregivers of seniors by indicating good practices in the field of non-standard methods of education and training of carers of seniors•increasing the awareness of young people about the education path and formal requirements regarding work for a caregiver of seniors in various EU countries<< Implementation >>All our activities will be focused on the preparation of planned results. Of course, at the same time, we will carry out all activities related to project management, ensuring the appropriate quality of project activities and the developed results, as well as disseminating information about our work and materials that we will develop.Activities that we plan as part of the preparation of individual results:O1 –Publication. At the beginning of activities aimed at developing this result, the partners will jointly decide on the exact division of responsibilities - i.e. which expert will be responsible for the preparation of specific content. Each of the partners will appoint an expert who will be responsible for the work on a selected part of the publication (as well as for conducting research aimed at preparing the content), evaluating the content prepared by other experts, and translating the finished publication into their native language. At a later date, each partner will also be responsible for disseminating the publication to their respective target groups in their country.O 2 – online courses. The first step will be for the partners to develop a list of questions that will be included in the tests measuring the level of skills before and after the completion of the prepared courses. The package leader will, of course, supervise the work of the experts, however, it is important that all experts actively participate in the preparation of the tests. The lead expert will prepare the final version of the questions and a description of the results and feedback for the people who will use the tests.In the next step, the package leader will present the other experts with the template for the webinar scenario and the sample text for the course. Of course, other experts will also be actively involved in this stage.The partners will also divide the materials to be prepared. Each of the experts will develop the selected part, and the lead expert will be responsible for ensuring that the final shape of the materials is uniform and consistent.In the last step, each of the partners will organize a short testing of selected elements of materials (those prepared by their experts) among a selected group of 10 people. Based on this testing, the final version of the materials will be developed, which each partner will translate into their own language.O3 – Database. At the beginning of the activities leading to the development of materials under O2, the partners share the responsibilities so that each of them will be responsible for analyzing the situation in several countries and preparing some of the materials. After the first version of the materials has been developed, each of the partners will organize a short testing - send a link to the test version of the materials to friendly institutions and experts for evaluation of the prepared content. It is important that people outside the project team can make an independent assessment of the suitability, reliability, attractiveness and understandability of the materials that will be widely available.<< Results >>As part of the project activities, it is planned to develop 3 main intellectual outputs:•O1 – publication/report containing 3 main chapters. 1st one containing information about what soft skills a caregiver of seniors should have and why they are so important. 2nd chapter containing a specific list of soft skills that are most desirable in senior caregivers. 3rd chapter containing a set of good practices in the use of non-standard tools for the development of soft skills among people participating in courses preparing for the profession of caregiver for seniors. •O2 A set of training materials supporting the development of soft skills of people who want to work or work as carers of the elderly. The materials will consist of a series of thematic webinars on individual competences, as well as tests to check the knowledge of people participating in webinars (in the form of pre-tests and post-tests, both to be done by individual people, and to be carried out by training institution)•O3 - materials containing information on the path of education of carers of elderly people in various EU countries, as well as a list of formal requirements in individual EU countries that should be met by people who want to work as carers of the elderly peopleApart from the quantifiable results, we hope that the project will also contribute to:•Change attitudes both training institutions offering training for seniors’ caregivers as well as seniors’ caregivers themselves about importance of having high level of soft skills while working with seniors•increasing professionalism in the performance of professional duties by caregivers of seniors thanks to the possibility of improving their soft skills•increasing the professional mobility of caregivers of seniors by gaining access to information on the formal requirements and working conditions of a caregiver of seniors in various EU countries•increasing the standards of care for seniors thanks to the greater soft skills of the caregivers•making the training offer for carers of seniors more attractive was preceded by adding elements shaping soft competences

<< Objectives >>Many companies have been challenged during the pandemic to attract and retain talent. Not surprisingly, smaller companies have had the most difficulty. They simply don't have the resources, know-how and capacity that larger organisations have.RE-CREW intends to support the sustainable growth of EU small businesses, making them informed, prepared, aware, equipped with innovative tools and skills to effectively perform recruiting and hiring. In other words: finally ready-to-labor-market<< Implementation >>Starting from the investigation of the current state of EU small businesses, with focus on their ability to execute recruiting/hiring in the pandemic era and future trends, RE-CREW will deliver: an innovative training curriculum for EU small businesses to effectively carry out recruitment and hiring; a performing digital tool to check the actual recruiting/hiring capacity of small businesses; the Open Guide for VET Trainers to facilitate the re-use of the RE-CREW training curriculum and tools<< Results >>RE-CREW will:- ensure the full understanding of the EU small businesses’ capacity to deal with recruiting and hiring in all its phases;- allow EU at least 60 EU SMEs to express their full potential, grow in sustainable way and address the new challenges of the labor market; -support the VET providers and business support organisations in extending their service portfolio by integrating innovative tools, consultancy and training for the small businesses, the key players on the EU single market

Virtual Albanian European Universities Exchange (VALEU-X) is a joint project to support the internationalisation efforts of Higher Educational Institutions in Albania through modern technology-enhanced academic exchange with European HEIs. It proposes blending on-campus teaching activities with international Virtual Collaborative Learning (VCL) components as a Virtual Mobility element to introduce international perspectives in formal higher educational programmes within a holistic approach of Internationalisation at Home.The project objectives include:- Enable academic staff to extend their teaching processes and content with international perspectives and elements- Help Albanian HEI to develop effective internationalisation strategies- Provide Albanian students with international experience at their home HEI- Prepare Albanian HEI for successful integration in the EU academic landscapeThe foreseen outcomes and results include:- New problem-based learning practices based on constructive collaborative methodologies.- Common international study activities involving Albanian and European students and academics.- Blended Mobility setup using Virtual Collaborative Learning (VCL) methods and modern ICT including Social Media.- Virtual/Blended Mobility augmented Internationalisation at Home strategies with acknowledgment and recognition mechanisms.The envisaged impact encompasses:- Build capacity at Albanian HEI for international/EU academic practices- Encourage personal growth of Albanian students to become EU citizens- Overcome limited physical academic mobility between Albania and the EU- Increase relevance of Albanian HE programs to international/EU job markets- Promote applied teaching and learning using modern technologies- Enhance the adoption of “eBologna” in Albanian HE

The Indonesian Higher Education sector is facing significant change as it moves from a phase of expansion with increased access to higher education, to one where the focus is on enhancing the quality of that education. The reform and restructuring of the higher education (HE) system in Indonesia needed to deliver on these objectives is being slowed by a lack of leadership and management capacity in the HE sector. Universities in Indonesia need to build the capacity of their leaders for governance, strategic planning and management in order to deliver these reforms. The project addresses the need for development for university leaders and managers in Indonesia through the creation and implementation of a structured leadership and management development network (LMDN) and an associated programme (LMDP). When creating the network and programme for higher education institutions in Indonesia, it will create the constitution and operating procedures for the network; structures and materials to support the programme; and identify and equip dedicated facilitates where the development activities will take place. Learning will take place through networking meetings, lectures from visiting speakers, action learning sets, national management research projects, and exercises to strengthen professional networks. The project will ensure staff training workshops are developed and executed for the Indonesian university staff responsible for implementing the new network and programme. During the life of the project, 500 Indonesian leaders and managers will engage with the LMDN, and 208 will be developed through the LMDP with a demonstrable impact on their capacity to operate the governance, strategic plans and management of HEIs. In the year following the project, it is expected that a minimum of 192 additional leaders will benefit from taking the LMDP and that at least 14 additional Indonesian universities will have adopted it, enhancing the capacity for reform nationally.