As a matter of fact the digital revolution has an increasing impact on both professionals working in lifelong career guidance and citizens while building-up their career path. In order to prevent on the the digital device of their clients, in particular those mostly affected by unemployment and geographically isolated, public and private organisations working in the fields of education, training and employment have decided to set up a partnership for the project “e-skills development in lifelong career guidance centres”. The project will cover 6 European countries: France, Germany, Lithuania, Romania, Spain and Italy. The overall objective of this project is to share experience in digital and inclusive mediation in the view to strengthen the quality of service offer. It will focus on the up-skilling of professionals with formal and non- formal experience in the field based on a mutual learning process. It is also important to mention the prospects regarding the development of digital skills on the labour market and how to contribute to a better matching with needs of companies. The project is structured on an empirical approach. During the 2 years of the project, 4 training sessions will be organised in order develop a pilot programme of activities focused on three main areas: basic skills, e-administration and e-reputation. The last training will be the opportunity to formalise a repository of competences in digital and inclusive mediation in lifelong career guidance. 68 participants are expected among partners such as career counsellors, multimedia expert, ICT expert, documentalists, project manager, etc.

Background and aim of the projectDigital media is essential for communication and participation in today’s information society. Although senior citizens can benefit from digital opportunities, they are still the population group which is often not yet online. The project “Connect Seniors to the Digital World” (CSDW) therefore aims to empower senior citizens to use tablet computers independently and to benefit from this usage in their daily life.The objective of the project is to create a comprehensive training offer for staff and volunteers of institutions and sites where senior citizens can be supported in the use of tablet PCs. The need for such a training offer had been identified in the German project “Digital mobil im Alter” (Digital mobile in old age - https://digital-mobil-im-alter.de/), which lends tablet PCs to retirement homes and sheltered housing institutions and is conducted by the Digital Opportunities Foundation (SDC) in cooperation with Telefonica Germany since 2012. The Digital Opportunities Foundation is the coordinating organisation within this strategic partnership. The organisation aims to create the prerequisites needed for all people to become part of society and to shape it actively. It became clear that senior citizens need continuous support when using the mobile devices and that it is best when the support comes from people they know and that are around anyway – the institutions’ staff and volunteers. Additionally, the Association Rural Internet Access Points (VIPT) in Lithuania realized that there was a need to support seniors to enter the digital world. The goal of this organisation is to enable local individuals and institutions to build key elements of a modern and vibrant society through the promotion of new information and communication technologies (ICT), the expansion of resources that enable access to the Internet and through improving the quality of education. Two other strong and experienced partner organisations were involved in CSDW, the “Centre for the Innovation and Development of Education and Technology” (CIDET), Spain, and “Educating for an Open Society” (EOS), Romania. CIDET is focused on e-learning, understands technology as a tool, methodology and models. EOS aims to bridge the digital divide in Romania by helping people realise their full potential through the use of technology and works in a country, where the percentage of senior citizens who are not online is one of the highest throughout Europe.Project outputsThe four partner organisations conducted a small-scale study to collect information about: what senior citizens would like to do with tablet PCs; for what they need support; the training needs of the staff and volunteers of institutions for seniors (digital-seniors.eu/index.cfm/secid.265/key.242). 383 people above the age of 65 and 335 multipliers and 40 decision-makers of public education institutions (e.g. libraries) or institutions for senior citizens took part in the surveys that were conducted in January and February 2017. A course was created on the basis of the study’s results and on a blended learning approach (digital-seniors.eu/course). Within the project, the course was piloted with 47 participants in the four partner countries. The course included three face-to-face training sessions, two online workshops and eight weeks of self-learning on the online learning platform Edueca (www.edueca.eu, hosted by CIDET). The course, available in English, German, Spanish, Romanian, and Lithuanian on the online platform, was developed to contain all learning materials and content. Thus, it can stand alone after the duration of the project as a training offer for multipliers – without the need for face-to-face sessions - as well as a supplement for trainers of multipliers. Complementary to the course, the project partners developed guidelines, in which they evaluated and summarized the experiences from the first implementation of the blended learning course in four countries. The guidelines are available in the four partner languages and in English and provide good practices, convincing arguments and helpful recommendations to multipliers and decision-makers for setting up and conducting a training and supporting offer that empowers senior citizens in using tablet PCs in non-formal learning settings (digital-seniors.eu/index.cfm/secid.265/key.336). Furthermore, the partner consortium provided recommendations for organisations all over Europe about how to use the manifold project outputs to implement a training offer for multipliers in their countries, regions and cities (digitale-chancen.de/assets/includes/sendtext.cfm?aus=11&key=1569&pkey=2&dltype=2). In order to increase the attractiveness of the course, the videos that the participating multipliers recorded with their target group were published with English subtitles. To give a quick overview of the course, a handout with information from the main results was published in project languages.

This project hopes to make a modest contribution to alleviating one of the most pressing challenges in Europe - relevant skills for employability. Today knowledge-based economies require people with higher skills. Problem solving, teamwork, creativity, organization, communication, leadership and digital competences are some of the core importance soft skills for current European labour markets. Development of the entrepreneurial skills is identified as competence for lifelong learning by the European Commission and it is seen as a gateway to employment and social inclusion throughout Europe. The non-formal education has flourished in recent years due to its flexibility, needs-based approach and complementarity to formal education. Thus, entrepreneurial skills development in non-formal education settings could be an effective alternative to increase employability of woman including with fewer opportunities and strengthen their competitiveness on the job market. Inspired by the wish to contribute to the above mentioned problem solving association Rural Internet Access Points together with partner organizations from Germany, Slovenia and Greece initiated a project aimed at developing entrepreneurship educational pathway for disadvantaged woman through applying project -based with integrated ICT learning approach in non-formal adult education institutions. The specific objectives are: 1. To support educators of adult non-formal education institutions in learning and training activities, in the acquisition and use of entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and qualifications to facilitate disadvantaged woman in personal development and employability; 2. Through exchanging the practices among partner organizations to develop a three step activity which includes designing learning strategy, creating training program and digital credential of skills of entrepreneurial competences by using Open Badge technology to promote greater employability of disadvantaged woman. 3. To support improvements in quality and innovation in learning and training systems, institutions and practices. 4. Enhance the attractiveness of entrepreneurial education and training in adult non-formal education institutions. Target audience: - 40 educators working at non-formal adult education institutions (adult training centres, librarians, social workers, telecentre employees, community centres, woman NGOs, networking organizations); - 200 disadvantaged women (unemployed, living in rural areas, single mothers, disabled, migrants, widows, etc.). As one of the innovative way to contribute to low entrepreneurial skill and ability is to use practical experiential learning models and real life entrepreneurial activity. This initiative differs from predominant approaches as the project strategy is focused on the implementation of entrepreneurial learning by using project-based with integrated ICT learning approach at adult non-formal education institutions. The synthesis of ICT and project-based learning promotes a pragmatic approach for strengthening entrepreneurial skills such as creativity, initiative, tenacity, teamwork, problem solving as well as take advantage of information, communication and technology (ICT) opportunities. By participating in an entrepreneurial learning activity both educators of adult non-formal education institutions and woman will be able to determine certain theme of the project, its context, format the team, project instruments, work time allocation, identification of real problem, forming alternative problem solving, designing process, to use different ICT tools in the project, presenting the product produced, measuring the success of the project, etc.

In a world increasingly reliant on technology, youth need to be given an opportunity to learn ICT skills in interesting, innovative and relevant way. In Europe non-formal education initiatives are needed not only to cultivate basic ICT skills at an early age, but also to raise interest in continuing with computing-related studies after school. The Competitive European Youth project aimed at enhancing youth (14-18 years old) ICT and project management skills critical for their professional development through applying innovative approaches of non-formal education. The specific objectives were: 1. Through exchanging the practices among partner organizations to develop blended non-formal education programme (methodology and online training course) to promote greater inclusion of ICT and project management in youth non-formal education; 2. To empower 16 youth leaders as ambassadors to pursue ICT-related career paths; 3. To enhance 80 youth (14-18 years old) ICT and project management skills through applying innovative practices of non-formal education and thus improve their competitiveness on the job market; 4. Through application of innovative methods to keep the youth workers up to date to the rising challenges of the digital age. Results reached: 1. The blended non-formal education program YOUth Cre@te IT Project (methodology and online training course) was developed. .2. 16 Youth ambassadors of IT career promoters were empowered .3. Competitiveness of 200 youths’ through enhancing their skills in ICT and project management was improved. 4. Digital skills of 16 youth workers in new educational approaches and methods through synthesis of ICT and project management education were improved.5. 19 IT project – web-sites were created.Apie projektą “Konkurencingas jaunimas – Europos ateitis”Nors šiandien neformalaus jaunimo ugdymo veiklų įvairovė gana plati, tačiau informacinių technologijų krypties užsiėmimų trūksta ne tik Lietuvoje, bet ir kitose Europos šalyse. Švietimo dalyviai, tyrėjai kaip pagrindines problemas įvardija ne tik pasiūlos trūkumą, tačiau ir formalaus bei neformalaus švietimo vykdančių institucijų žmogiškųjų bei finansinių išteklių stoką parengti ugdymo veiklas orientuotas į kūrybišką informacinių technologijų taikymą bei suteikti jaunimui pagrindą ateities profesijai bei karjerai.Todėl siekiant prisidėti prie problemos sprendimo šiuo tarptautiniu projektu buvo siekiama diegti inovacijas neformalaus jaunimo švietimo srityje Lietuvoje, Ispanijoje, Vengrijoje bei Kipre sudarant 14 – 18 metų jaunuoliams sąlygas ugdyti ateities karjeros įgūdžius ypač technologijų srityje išnaudojant IRT siūlomas galimybes bei šiuolaikinių mokymo metodų bei priemonių potencialą.Projekto metu sukurta mišri ugdymo programa “YOUth Create IT Project”, kuri apima metodinę medžiagą, mokymo(si) turinį ir nuotolinio mokymo kursą orientuotą į jaunuolių ateities karjerai reikalingų IRT bei projekto valdymo kompetencijų stiprinimą. Mokymo programa skirta neformaliajam ugdymui. Ji yra parengta penkiomis kalbomis: anglų, lietuvių, graikų, ispanų ir vengrų. Jos įgyvendinimas trunka 40 akademines valandas. Rekomenduojama 14 – 18 metų jaunuoliams. Mokymo programoje daugiausiai dėmesio skiriama besimokančiųjų asmeninėms (socialiniams ir komandiniams), praktinėms (projektų planavimo technikoms bei IT) kompetencijoms tobulinti. Programą sudaro trys esminės veiklos sritys, kurios visos programos metu persipina ir dengia viena kitą: komandinis darbas, projektų vadyba ir praktinis IT projekto įgyvendinimas.Lietuvoje projektą įgyvendino Asociacija Viešieji interneto prieigos taškai kartu su Anykščių Jono Biliūno, Šalčininkų Tūkstantmečio Lietuvos, Kaišiadorių Algirdo Brazausko bei Vilniaus Antano Vienuolio gimnazijomis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted daily lives for millions of young people in Europe and worldwide. Health and well-being problems, social distancing, barriers to access education had a great impact on young people. Exposure of digital technologies and creativity can play an important role to mitigate mentioned negative effects of the crisis on youth. By improving young people digital skills and teaching how to apply acquired digital knowledge to be creative could open windows for new opportunities. Knowledge of how to use different application or digital tools may encourage youth to develop digital creativity, produce digital creations and address the problems of the future.As the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027) outlines digital skills are essential so that everyone can take part in society and contribute to economic and social progress in the digital era. One of the strategic priorities is enhancement of digital skills and competences for the digital transformation including girls and young women are equally represented in digital studies and careers. However, while more people are digitally skilled and connected, still few women choose to participate beyond the basic level of digital interaction and rather stay the passive consumers of digital content created by others. According to statistics, in EU in 2019, women made up only a bit more than a third of scientists and engineers in the EU-28. According to the study Women in the Digital Age, the share of women graduates in the STEM industry stands at 13.1 per 1,000 graduates aged 20 to 29 in the EU. At this point, there remains a particular concern that girls lack the aspirations to position themselves as potential creators of digital technology and it is clearly evident at secondary school. A study commissioned by the EC Survey of Schools: ICT in Education (2019) outlines that more than 4 out of 5 female European students attending secondary schools never or almost never engage in coding at school or after school activities. According statistics provided by the Government Strategic Analysis Center in Lithuania in 2018, percentage of girls who choose STEM studies after graduating school is about 9 percent every year. In high school, for example, 40 percent of girls believe that jobs requiring coding are “not for them”.In the light of abovementioned figures and wrong assumptions association Rural Internet Access Points together with partner organizations from Lithuania, Greece, Slovenia and Portugal initiates a project Empower Girls’ Creativity Through Use of Digital Technologies (SparkDigiGirls). The aim of this initiative is encouraging girls aged from 15 years old to explore digital technologies such as AR, VR, AI, IoT and come up with new and exciting ideas by utilizing their newly acquired digital knowledge to chart the waters of the male-dominated STEM industry with fresh, different and creative viewpoints.The proposal seeks to fulfill specific objectives: 1) reduce girls’ concerns and demystify existing stereotypes about computer science and technology; 2) increase of digital literacy skills for girls to open new and unforeseen possibilities for creativity, participation of girls in the digital world; 3) empower youth workers as mentors to pursue girls creativity through usage of digital applications and increase attractiveness of digital sector among girls.The objectives of the proposal are organized in following elements:1.To complete a twofold analysis of ways how innovative and new technologies may develop creativity of girls (IO1);2.To develop a curriculum which meeting girls' needs and leads to improvement and increase of their creativity through usage of innovative applications/digital tools (IO2);1.To develop online programme focused on use practical experiential learning model and real life tasks that will allow girls to explore technologies and come up with new and exciting ideas and solutions for given problems. (IO3);2.To implement digital female role model campaign (IO4);3.To prepare guidebook empower youth workers as mentors to pursue girls’ creativity through usage of digital applications (IO5).The main target groups that will be impacted by the project:•200 girls age from 15 who wish to develop their creativity by using digital technologies (including girls with lower opportunities like living in re(including girls with lower opportunities like living in remote areas, migrant girls, from families at risk, etc.).•40 youth workers from formal and non - formal youth education institutions.