Erasmus+ programme which already has provided learning opportunities abroad for 4 million people within the period of 2014-2020 is expected to be even more significant with upcoming financial period doubling the programme budget and providing mobility opportunities for 12 million people. Rising numbers of student and staff mobility inside European union confirms the tendency and political will to correspond globalization needs seeking to improve learner’s competences in terms of ability to work in international environments. As well as future specialists must be prepared to work in international environment, training providers, preparing those specialists, have to assure and be able to correspond up to date needs of the learners and employers. VISION project partnership strongly believes that these expectations might be corresponded within organization and implementation of quality-assured mobility - one of the main objectives of each consortium member long-term internationalization strategies. In addition, VISION activities aim to consolidate the European efforts on enforcing usage of learning outcomes for comparison and transferability between vocational education and training programmes in different European countries and to foster quality-assured mobility in IVET as well as to contribute to the strategic objectives for VET in Europe (in particularly increasing attractiveness, excellence, flexible access, internationalisation and mobility in I-VET and C-VET).Thus the goal of VISION project is to assist VET service providers from Lithuania, Italy, Netherlands and Finland to tackle the challenges in terms of internationalization strategies and quality-assured mobility implementation within establishment of sustainable network equipped with necessary knowledge, skills, tools and instruments. Achievement of 3 main objectives will lead to the accomplishment of the aforementioned goal:-establish sustainable network in accordance to participating organizations internationalization strategy needs;-share experience and knowledge in the field of VET learners incoming and outgoing geographical mobility planning, organization and exploitation;-Put into practice improved knowledge, skills and abilities of staff members as well as arrangements necessary for quality-assured mobility implementation while applying ECVET based instruments.The objectives will be achieved within organization of:a) 4 joint-staff training events on quality assurance within geographical mobility, responsibilities of tutors/mentors implementing quality-assured mobility, soft skills development of mobility participants and ECVET instruments application;b) Development of set of instruments for sustainable ECVET partnership in Beauty sector qualifications;c) Blended mobility of VET learners putting in practice updated skills, knowledge’s as well as developed instruments;d) National dissemination events to introduce VISION project achievements and experience to stakeholders. VISION project will be implemented by four VET organizations from Lithuania, Italy, Netherlands and Finland:Karaliaus Mindaugo profesinio mokymo centras, Lithuania;Essenia UETP - University and Enterprise Training Partnership s.r.l., Italy;Nova College, Netherlands;Savo Consortium for Education, Finland.

European rural areas can be characterised by gender-selective migration since the number of women leaving rural areas exceeds the number of men doing so. Globally, women remain less likely to participate in the labour market than men, are more likely to be unemployed than men, and are over-represented in informal and vulnerable employment. Women in rural areas of the EU make up below 50% of the total rural population, they represent 45% of the economically active population, and about 40% of them work on family farms. The unemployment rate in rural areas began to decline during the analysed period (2013-2017); women have been more affected by unemployment than men (7.1% vs. 7.6% respectively). The biggest rate of women’s unemployment is registered in rural regions of Greece. (IPOL_STU (2019)608868). Although women in rural areas of the EU make up just below 50% of the total rural population, they represent 45% of the economically active population, and about 40% of them work on their family farms. Moreover, their importance in rural economy is probably even bigger, since their participation through the informal rural economy is not statistically recognised. Female entrepreneurs represent only one third of self-employed people in the EU and women farmers represent 30% of the total number of EU farm managers. They tend to have smaller farms than men, but take more calculated risks than men. Women’s ideas for innovation are as marketable as men’s, but they are not recognised by predominantly male stakeholders (COPA, 2017). All the above mentioned led the DigiWomen partnership to approach women coming from disadvantageous rural areas as end beneficiaries through the provision on modern and innovative methodologies and tools to effectively educate themselves. The VET trainers responsible for implementing training courses for these women will guide and support them creating tailored to their needs. Through training and skills development, rural girls and women can play a much greater role in the development of green food and agricultural value chains, both as current and future agricultural workers and entrepreneurs. (IPOL_STU (2019)608868). The purpose of the DigiWomen project is a transnational cooperation among 5 partners with the same needs and characteristics; to educate VET trainers to support women coming from disadvantageous rural areas to train themselves in a more business education and training focusing on developing job qualifications, leadership skills and bookkeeping. To achieve it the DigiWomen project comes to enhance their skills on financial, digital, agricultural and English language literacy. To this end, women will receive equal opportunities through the use of modern and innovative digital training tools; an E-learning Platform which will include particular curriculum for VET trainers and support them to create attractive and friendly modules. Thus, the consortium members decided to approach particular target groups which are dominant in their area of intervention. The project addresses mainly to target groups as follows:•Women with low job qualifications coming from rural areas trying to incorporate in labour market or create their own business•VET trainers/ coaches/ mentors as relevant professional categories of staff which are involved with women to their integration in the communities. The objectives of the project are as follows:•The provision to VET trainers of digital tools which will help them to organize better their training courses and enhance their skills on training approach to women coming from rural areas.•The development of basic skills in financial, digital, agricultural and English language literacy provides women with basic knowledge and skills so as to look for better working conditions•The development of a curriculum (knowledge – skills - competences) for the VET trainers on a collection of literacies’ qualifications suitable for supporting women to enter in the labour market•The stimulation of women to educate themselves on the proposed literacies by the project so as to look for better working conditions or think of creating their own business. •The raise of awareness of “woman entrepreneurship” in rural areas.The expected results of DigiWomen project are located on the job qualifications that participants would acquaint after the project completion. VET trainers and women coming from disadvantageous rural areas will be the significant beneficiaries of the project as they will be trained in multiple subjects and will gain, except for the knowledge, personal development qualifications as confidence and self-esteem. The fulfillment of the project’s objectives on upskilling for better working conditions or dealing with entrepreneurship after the implementation of project actions.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has affected and put unprecedented pressure on education and training systems worldwide and across the Union. It has brought major changes to how we learn, teach, communicate and collaborate within and between our education and training communities. This has had an impact on learners, their families, teachers, trainers, institution leaders, as well as on the broader society. ” This introduction to the Council conclusions on countering the COVID-19 crisis in education and training was the starting point for the consortium to plan an initiative that combined contemporary digital advances in learning technologies that can be implemented in a remote context, designed to provide trainees with a supportive and responsive learning environment that takes into account the “new” challenges that a rudimentary transfer of traditional classroom-based resources to the home or other context was not as effective as it could have been.In this context, STAY+ is a project to gamify positive behaviours of young people during the pandemic and beyond. It seeks to provide an innovative solution for VET professionals that have found it challenging to engage young people (aged 15-21 years old) through the transition to online/distance learning. It specifically looks to promote positive behaviours that protect learner wellbeing and have an overall improvement on retention rates. STAY+ will be unique in its approach as it seeks to:•gamify health and wellbeing best practice into an educational/training digital platform•use leading digital marketing and engagement techniques in an educational/training setting•use location-based data to tailor the mobile-experience to where you are in the worldThe project will be based on the ‘Stay’ mobile interactive site that has piloted a rewards scheme for young people adhering to the COVID-19 UK government guidelines (and those also seen across Europe) to #StayAtHome, driving positive action and behaviours. The current platform allows users to earn unique digital merchandise (badges) based on their activity and utilises GPS technology to reward them for staying at home. The STAY+ project will build upon this innovative model to embed rewards into VET digital learning environments with a sustainable, flexible and long term view beyond the current pandemic. It will develop the initial concept further through transnational cooperation and a range of reports, resources and tools targeting the specific needs of VET organisations. Outputs are based on best practice, research and development, and sustainability including:- 10 Best Practices that highlight the positive role VET providers can play in helping to protect learner wellbeing- Research on VET learner engagement and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic- the STAY+ Platform- practical guide on using the STAY+ platform - A short self assessment checklist on the readiness of VET organisations to start the co-creation process of badges, and subsequently to promote transnational co-creation at the same time- Co-creation guidelines for digital agencies working with VET organisations and learners to create their own badges- Guidelines on monitoring student engagement and promoting wellbeing in digital learning - how the two are interlinked- Ethical guidelines for digital inclusion - how to avoid widening the gap for disadvantaged learnersThe STAY+ Platform will be developed with the overarching objective of empowering young people to become advocates of digital vocational training; with increased awareness of a subject area,health and wellbeing, and how to maintain their own motivation, manage their time and complete tasks. The desired impact of this objective is to improve engagement and retention levels of learners on vocational training courses

This project was addressed towards increasing the financial literacy of marginalised communities who are at an increased disadvantage due to their comparatively low level of financial literacy and the way in which this is translates into daily life.Financial literacy is defined as: “a combination of awareness, knowledge, skill, attitude and behaviour necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve individual financial well-being.”The aim of this project was to increase the target groups’ capacity to cope with the demands of life financially, in a different culture, with minimal support networks, and to enable them to increase their financial literacy through a series of interactive activities, outputs and extensive dissemination activities.The projects achievements are the successful development of the following innovative outputs:- Handbook/Guide on the Relationship Between Financial Literacy and the Cultural Aspects of Marginalised Communities - Framework for Financial Literacy Curriculum - e-Course on Financial Literacy for Marginalised Communities- Project Website (http://flimco.erasmus.site)- Social Media channels of the project (Facebook and Youtube)- 2 leaflets in all partner languages (12 leaflets in total)- 3 e-bulletins in all partner languages (18 e-bulletins in total)- 6 newsletters in all partner languages (36 newsletters in total)- 10 promotional videos in all partner languages (50 videos in total) - 118 stakeholders from within the target groups directly engaged with project outputs and testing phase- 251 attendees at 5 multiplier events across Europe promoting the project- around 50,000 wider relevant stakeholders reached through extensive dissemination and communication activities

Transnational mobility has over the last decade become a household byword in VET policy discussions not only in EC context, but also at national and regional policy level. Nowadays, being increasingly employed as a pedagogical tool in formal and non-formal contexts, issues of quality in mobility become a pressing concern. Although considered quite important it is very difficult to pin down precisely what good quality in mobility actually means. Here comes the correlation between quality and quantity: the more is known about quality and how to achieve it, the more confident and effective organizations can be in their efforts to reach out and offer mobility experience as a meaningful opportunity for strengthening future employability and personal development. According to EC Mobility Scoreboard that monitors progress in IVET mobility based on 10 key action areas, the average EU performance for 2016 in terms of ensuring mobility quality is considered unsatisfactory. As regards partners, only Lithuania and Italy performed very good in mobility quality, followed by Germany and UK classified as performing good, and last in the ranking are Bulgaria and Portugal with no data provided. Given this conceptual problem and relying on EP Resolution of 12 Apr 2016 on Erasmus+ and other tools to foster mobility in VET, STAYMOBIL concept was prompted by the importance of: +a common European education area grounded in a strong mobility component for developing stronger European identity and enhanced citizenship +improving VET mobility programmes so as to deliver added value for all participants as regards qualifications, recognition and content +improving social responsibility (SR) skills as part of mobility learning outcomes. Thus, STAYMOBIL project sets the overall aim to improve quality assurance in transnational VET mobility through socially responsible behavior of all VET mobility actors, thus promoting and further developing quality in mobility and sustaining learning outcomes. Specific objectives ~to provide mobility organizers with an innovative framework to assess, monitor and promote QA and sustainability at all stages of VET mobility ~to foster mobility organizers to verify and continuously improve quality of mobility activities through the development of a new to date practical approach for self-audit ~to enhance applicability and facilitate transferability of the project innovative approach through the provision of a set of recommendations, strategies and good implementation practices ~to enable mobility users to assess their SR performance as essential part of learning outcomes, thus increasing broad awareness of good ethical and socially impeccable behaviour during mobility. Project is aimed primary at: 1.Mobility organisers: +VET institutions, sending and/ or receiving VET learners and staff +Intermediary organizations involved in mobility +Companies providing mobility placements 2.Mobility users +VET learners (apprentices and VET students) +VET staff (teachers, trainers, etc.) 3.VET policy makers at national and EU levels. Within project lifetime 4 IOs will be developed: 1.Reference Framework for Sustainable Transnational VET Mobility setting up a series of quality indicators to assess, monitor and promote QA and sustainability at all mobility stages. 2.Practice Kit aiming to verify, assess and improve the quality of activities provided at all mobility stages based on O1 quality indicators matrix. It will comprise: Guidance Manual for Implementation, Evaluation and Review, Web-based Self-Audit Tool and Progress Portfolio. 3.Recommendations Booklet providing guidelines for applying and facilitating transferability of O1&O2 outside project consortium. It will comprise: Good Practices Dossier; Strategy Cards for Successful Employment of O1&O2 and Tips Packet for Enhancing Transferability. 4.Performance Skillbox serving to raise awareness, evaluate and enhance mobility users’ level of SR before and after mobility as essential part of learning outcomes. To ensure visibility and encourage wider uptake of project IOs a series of multiplier events will be held: 1.Small-scale conferences in 5 partner countries to popularize the project to relevant stakeholders 2.Open Event in Brussels to gain wider publicity of project results and attract the attention of EU authorities and VET related alliances at EU level 3.Final Conference in UK aiming to spread information to a wider audience about the project results, seeking further exploitation of project IOs and follow-up activities. STAYMOBIL project will result in raising the issue about common understanding of ‘quality through SR’, provision of high quality mobility and higher level of satisfaction from the experience, thereby sustained learning outcomes and increased number of mobility organizers and users, contributing to European internationalization of VET organizations in Erasmus+ Programme countries and creation of a genuine European labour market.