Context:According to the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs the knowledge economy is expected to drive economic growth in Europe in the near future. Over 90% of jobs are expected to require digital skills. Shortage of as much as 900.000 professionals is expected in the ICT sector or ICT using sectors. According to ICT industry insiders, for every job that is created in innovation driven sectors another 5 are expected to open in the broader economy. On the other hand, over 16M low skilled jobs are expected to be lost in an economy that increasingly requires high competencies. European initiatives such as the New Skills for New Jobs Agenda and ET2020 highlight the necessity of connecting skills built in formal and informal education to work requirements, emphasizing in this context the importance of digital competencies.According to Europe 2020 targets 23% of EU’s population is at risk of poverty or social exclusion as a result of a complex process that involves lack of basic competencies, including digital skills, and poor access to basic services such as lifelong learning. This includes individuals who drop out of school early, may have limited access to educational opportunities as a result of socio-economic challenges, or are unemployed and not being properly retrained to reenter work. At the same time more than 100m individuals in Europe are at risk of digital exclusion.Based on the above, young learners with inadequate digital skills may be at increased risk of becoming professionally marginalized in the future due to competencies misaligned to market needs, foregoing opportunities to become socially included and civically active. Low skilled individuals, who may in the present be attracted by jobs with limited entry level requirements, may face increased professional challenges in the future as the demand for highly skilled workers rises. Objectives:The above point to the urgent need for interventions in education and training practices towards strengthening the digital skill profiles of individuals at risk of exclusion with an emphasis on the next generation. EMPLOY aimed at developing advanced digital literacy in line with industry needs for learners in primary and lower secondary education with a focus on individuals at risk of exclusion, including learners at risk of ESL, migrants, or individuals facing socio-economic adversity. By building digital skills forecast to be in demand in the coming years the project promotes employability, fosters social equity and inclusion, and facilitates economic growth based on human capital, i.e. effectively trained future professionals. Methodology:EMPLOY deployed and evaluated active, game-based learning for exposing learners to work-inspired activities that require digital competencies, problem-solving capacity, and analytical thinking. The advantages of the proposed learning approach included increased knowledge retention through serious gaming (FAS), capacity to transfer knowledge to the real-world, learning linked to educational objectives through effective feedback, and a supportive, inclusive learning environment based peer collaboration and entrepreneurial thinking.Results:EMPLOY developed and evaluated an active learning framework with the objective of building early on digital skills in demand in the ICT sector and ICT using sectors. The proposed active learning methodology was validated in practice through the implementation of a proof-of-concept serious game with content linked to both school curricula and professional requirements. Instructional support will empower teachers to integrate the proposed methodologies and tools into their already well developed educational practices. Outcomes were evaluated through deployment in real-life contexts in Turkey, Greece, France, Estonia, and Italy. Findings were made publicly available to the European primary and secondary education community and life long learning sector.Impact:EMPLOY made strategic use of ICT in education deploying it as a facilitator for linking learning practices to work needs. It evaluated learning benefits of serious games in specific contexts. It contributed to innovation-driven sustainable growth by promoting digital literacy that is necessary for sustaining business development of SMEs and larger companies. It broadened work options for young learners by raising awareness on professional profiles that will be in demand in the coming years and by building the skills that are necessary for entering the knowledge economy. It aimed empowering local communities to fight unemployment and to retain talent, contributing to social cohesion and active citizenship. It tried to promote positive attitudes towards education through the publication of good practice paradigms on the integration of ICT into learning processes. It also supported broader availability of ICT tools for educational purposes. And it enriched teacher skills sets for promoting the adoption of outcomes.

1. CONTEXT:The rapid aging of the population in Europe and the consequent increase on the number of people with some degree of dependence that need attention, creates an increased demand for care workers in Residential and Assisted Living Care field, where there is a growing need of qualified workers all over Europe.In this context, CAREMPLOY goal is to actively promote people's (specially women) labor integration in the sector of White Jobs (Residential and Assisted Living Care - RALC) through the updating and transfer of a specific Training Programme tailored to the needs of the sector and to the National Qualification Frameworks (NQFs) of partner countries, which promotes entrepreneurship of students, through Social Economy models.CAREMPLOY is based upon the PREPÁRATE Training Programme, implemented successfully by the Association of Social Economy Entities of Navarra (ANEL), in Spain, since 2009, leading to the qualification of women with low education levels, on 2 qualifications on the social and health care field regulated by the Spanish NQF.2. PARTNERS:Project has been carried out during 24 months by 5 partners from 5 European countries, which show complementing areas of expertise on management of European projects, VET training, Social Economy, ICT solutions in VET and/or Health and Social Care: Iniciativas Innovadoras (Spain, social economy company with broad experience in promoting entrepreneurship and coordination of European projects), FormAzione Co&so Network (Italy, Consortium of 10 Social Cooperatives with longstanding experience in job insertion on RALC sector, specialized in Social Economy models, entrepreneurship and training), SIC (Lithuania, specialized in social work and non-formal education), ORT France (expert in VET education and ICTs) and CPIP (Romania, VET center on educational and social fields specialized in Adult Training ).3. PROJECT RESULTS:a) CAREMPLOY Training Programme:The CAREMPLOY Training mainly aims to promote the labor integration of people (especially women) on the white sector and improve the quality of the services in the sector. The program combines training in the sector's needs, in collective entrepreneurship and in seeking jobs in the sector.It is available in 6 languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian and Lithuanian. The English version is generic, applicable to different contexts. Other versions besides being translated, they are adapted to the realities of the countries participating in the project: Spain, France, Italy, Romania and Lithuania.Training has an estimated duration of 250 hours, of which 150 are designed to be taught face-to-face and 100 online. It has 12 modules: 1. Gerontology: dependency care; 2. Professional caregiver; 3. Mental health; 4.Palliative Care; 5. Basic health care; 6.Nutrition and health of dependent people; 7. First aid; 8. Prevention of labor risks; 9. Mobilization techniques of dependent people; 10. Professional development and social skills; 11. Collective entrepreneurship; 12. Personal plan of active job search.b) Guides CAREMPLOY Training- Student and Trainer versions:The Training Guides CAREMPLOY, student and trainer versions, have been developed during the project. Guides are available in the following languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Lithuanian and Romanian.They contain all the necessary information for the implementation of the Training Programme. They provide information about its contents, as well as technical information on the use of the Platform.4. HOW TO ACCESS THE TRAINING AND THE GUIDESIt can be accessed from this link: www.projectcaremploy.eu/moodle and ERAMSUS + Project Results Platform. In the link national contact points can be found to facilitate the access to CAREMPLOY Training in order to participate as trainee or implementing entity:1. Italy: Sofia Jobbagy: cooperazione@formazionenet.eu and Marco Gianrossi: gianrossi@formazionenet.eu. 2. Romania: Rodica Pana: contact@cpip.ro. 3. Lithuania: Justina Kiudyte: j.kiudyte@socin.lt and general: visiems@socin.lt. 4. France: Anne-Elisabeth Lenel: anne-elisabeth.lenel@ort.asso.fr. 5. Spain and other countries: Maria José Vivar: mjvivar@anel.es.5. IMPACT:The CAREMPLOY project has achieved:- Increased offer of high quality Training on Residential and Assisted Living Care sector.- Increased number of skilled and trained professionals in RALC field.- Contribution to employment, by the promotion of the Social Economy initiatives in RALC field.