Global labour markets are in constant change in response to emerging mega trends like ageing societies and rapid urbanisation. We are witnessing the replacement of traditional occupations by creative communities whose raw material is their ability to address those challenges, imagine new solutions and innovate. A major role in this change is played by the creative industries (CI) defined as “industries that origin in individual creativity and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of IP”. The CI are one of the most dynamic sectors in Europe (representing 3.3% of EU economy, and 3% of employment), but in Israel are characterized by a small market, with few employment possibilities and a need to compete globally.CLEVER aspires to be the catalyst of change in HE and vocational training for creative professions as well as the entire creative economy eco-system. This will be done by ensuring that graduates in creative disciplines are fitted with updated leadership and entrepreneurship capacities and skills that enable them to maintain life-long portfolio careers and to enhance 21st century creative economies.CLEVER will:• Develop a Creative Leadership & Entrepreneurship strategic plan for each participating Israeli HEI to serve as a roadmap for short and long-term implementation, including: curricula updates, new academic and LLL modules and business models.• Develop new teaching capacities and methods in the Israeli HEIs aligned to creative leadership modules• Pilot of academic and LLL educational modules To start a change through the entire Israeli eco-system CLEVER will develop:• Benchmarking report between the Israeli and EU creative economy practices• Creative Israel 2020 Whitepaper policy recommendationWith these outcomes CLEVER encompass all stakeholders in the creative economy thus ensuring impact, exploitation and dissemination of results beyond the project's lifetime.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed that many sectors are not prepared for the current digital area, meaning that not all their processes, activities or events can be adapted to a virtual format. Although digital technologies have been introduced to our societies at a gradual and slow pace, many do not seem to have been adapting to them at a similar pace, and the sudden stop of offline and face-to-face life has caught them by surprise. It is not only at a personal level that this has had huge implications (communicating with others, leisure activities…) but also at a professional level. Workers and staff did not have access to digitalised materials and tools as the situation required, nor the managers, directors and decisions makers of organisations, entities or SMEs were able to lead the transformation and iterative and innovative processes needed to adopt a more online format. What has also been manifested by the COVID-19 is that not only those sectors declared as “essential” (food, health, energy…) are actually “essential”: over the last months, our society has realised how important is culture for our personal well-being and for the society as a whole. Creative Industries have been able to connect people with themselves and with each other and have been able to keep people motivated, inspired and willing to transform their new realities. On the other hand, digitalising something can be seen as a straightforward process once you have the knowledge and skills required, however, having the creativity and inspiration to make such digitalised process, activity or experience as attractive as the original one is the biggest challenge most are facing. In a world where we are all fighting for a place in the market, only the most creative and innovative ones will achieve their goals. Thus, the project aims to reinforce adults’ professional competences and skills in all aspects related to creativity, to accelerate the transformation of their professional activities, to inspire them to do it creatively and to help them manage and disseminate them in a successful and effective way. The project expects that said professionals will learn to explore and experiment with new, original and creative tools and strategies to create attractive, motivating and encouraging offers in their sectors and adapt to the current labour market. In this way, the project will foster and provide grounds for highly professional national and cross-border cooperation in the field of professional competences of staff workers in these sectors and long-life learning.The Creative Digital Transformation project will accelerate digital transformation of entities, SMEs and organisations in the target sectors (creative industries, culture and tourism, and education) via creative and innovative solutions, by strengthening their workers’ competences, and by reinforcing the cooperation and networking within them. Target Groups: the project will target directly one of the sectors that, due to its already existing difficulty to find their place in the economy and labour market, had been hardly affected sectors of the society: workers active in those fields that have not been declared essential, namely: Direct target groups: -Professionals: educators, touristic and cultural workers and professionals from Creative Industries -Managers: directors and representatives of the educational, cultural/touristic sectors and Creative Industries. Indirect target groups: stakeholders, namely, third parties that will benefit from the main project results indirectly; local authorities and decision-makers; actors of the CIs, etc. Objectives: •Boost digital transformation of cultural, educational and touristic activities currently organised at a local level; •Develop new tools and resources that enhance and accelerate the acquisition of professional skills of adult learners•Raise awareness about the importance of art, culture and education in the development of resilience and creativity •Reinforce creative skills and competences of workers in the educational, cultural and creative sectors to create, manage and disseminate goods, activities and events•Create synergies and networking chains among local actors in the field of education, culture and tourism by establishing new collaboration models via virtual meansThere will be three Intellectual Outputs developed with the aim of reaching project objectives: 1. Visual Virtual Map of European Good Practices of creative strategies to digitally/virtually transform activities at a local level 2. Development of two online courses “Digitalisation of materials and events”, one for educators and cultural/touristic staff and one for managers and representatives. 3. Cycle of webinars: training webinars on creative process planning.

<< Background >>The global public health crisis has compounded existing gender and social inequalities in the labor market, making it more difficult to achieve economic and social progress as envisioned by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Globally, 40% of all employed women (45.8% in Southern Europe) work in sectors severely affected by the crisis, such as tourism (59%, mainly concentrated in the lowest-paid jobs - Eurostat, 2018), and arts and entertainment (61%). During the crisis, the unequal distribution of increased care demands has disproportionately affected women and prevented them (always or most of the time) from devoting the required time to their jobs, with around 37M women around the world (86% in Europe) at significant risk of losing their jobs and incomes [ILO, June 2020]. COVID-19 has highlighted the weaknesses of mass tourism model, and the decline in tourism has seriously affected the level of income and resources for the creative industries and for the conservation of cultural and natural heritage. Project partners work to challenge women to take up a transformative journey at their home and across European destinations by investing in social innovation and co-creating opportunities for sustainable domestic tourism and more inclusive European regions. Women involved will be driven towards novel approaches to experiential tourism that encourage domestic travel and vacations at or around home, contributing to supporting the local economy, encourage local people to discover and rediscover the beauty of their own city or region. They will contribute to stimulate sustainable travel choices and generate less harmful GHG emissions by favoring public transport, bicycles, electric scooters or just walking. OTBT will thus contribute to new interest toward decentralized areas and small villages that are off-the-beaten-track through peer-mentoring, informal learning, and substantial deployment of digital tools helpful to foster communication, promotion, storytelling, and networking.<< Objectives >>Off-the-beaten-track (OTBT) aims at empowering and improving the employability of adult women (30+ years) that are at risk of losing or have lost their jobs and incomes as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic by exploring the link between tourism, sustainable development and creativity (UNWTO Action Plan, 2010). It fosters cross-innovation between CCSs and tourism, and builds on informal learning and mentoring by:promoting networking, inspiration and empathy among women of different backgrounds, ages, geographies and cultures, and the most vulnerable and disadvantaged ones would be empowered and inspired with their life and work and to better face uncertainties about their future;motivating women in engaging in sustainable development through creativity, problem solving and resilience, along with enhanced digital competence.They will be led to co-create and further manage a digital forward-looking learning Academy. It will act as a women community and hub of resources, information, tools and contacts for skilled females that want to commit and work together to flexible and short-term projects, including new social enterprises, to advance long-term goals and drive long-term change related to sustainable development and creative and inclusive urban regeneration of European destinations.<< Implementation >>Objective 1Harnessing the full potential of culture, creativity and sustainable tourism to promote empowerment of adult women that are at risk of losing or have lost their jobs and incomes as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic.Result 1Partners will develop a women-centered learning model including a) a novel Methodology, b) a Facilitator’s Handbook, c) a Microlearning Programme focused on the 2030 Agenda and SDGs, that will exploit open resources already available, and d) a Self-Assessment Tool helping further monitor how women become more confident, creative and proactive in their communities. Tools and content will be open and freely shareable.Objective 2Bringing together cohorts of adult women in direct collaboration with inspiring female changemakers in the arts, culture, tourism and sustainable development, so as to create long-term creative links and partnerships as drivers for gender equality and social cohesion.Result 2Partners will organize mentoring circles managed at the local, national and EU level, also involving female participants into a contest aiming at transferring to them specific skills of creativity and creative thinking, and pooling their challenges and opinions to draft a set of guidelines for local/regional policymakers. Objective 3Fostering active participation and female empowerment by creating a community of practice that encourages women advocacy for causes that matter to them, and a supportive environment where they can take advantage of informal learning and peer-mentoring also to develop new projects or business ideas for social change.Result 3Partners will develop an online platform that will support the female community allowing them to access educational resources, networking opportunities and shared knowledge and experiences.<< Results >>Major outcomes that OTBT strives to achieve is setting up a long-term hub for women working in tourism and CCSs or interested to make a career in these fields, whether they want to access networking and learning opportunities, testing out a business idea to be further crowdfunded, or co-develop a new collaborative project by accessing EU/regional/national funds.Partners will commit to the development of a business plan that will help them create a spin-off (association or a social enterprise) after the project ends and beyond the Erasmus+ financial contribution. The new organization shall be strategically and financially viable, attractive and worth the effort for women and funders, and sustainable in the mid to long run.OTBT aims at resulting in a transdisciplinary and participated approach to engaging disadvantaged women with some of the global challenges of our time, and develop their transversal and digital skills in a way that is enticing, inspiring and immersive.

<< Objectives >>MEDS aims to build on the key concepts and practices of the European Capitals of Smart Tourism (Accessibility, Sustainability, Digitalisation, Cultural heritage & creativity) to a novel cohort of Destination Managers capable of working in and with public administrations. They will encourage the digitalization of tourism and social innovation of small European destinations, contributing to making them evolve with a common purpose and a strong sense of place shared by visitors and residents.<< Implementation >>MEDS offers a learning approach that combines digital microlearning with physical co-creation labs to expedite smart tourism in European destinations. Learners will immerse into work-based learning experiences in which they will act as Budding Managers of Smart Destinations and will develop new projects and actions of sustainable tourism that can be driven and led by public authorities, also by activating public-private partnerships, and by using public and private resources.<< Results >>At the end of the transformative learning journey of MEDS, participants will be ready to better understand and manage evolutions brought about by the twin green and digital transitions, and overcome the old idea of tourism as a separate and stagnant sector in favor of a more inclusive and integrated approach. They will be empowered to ignite new models of tourism governance participated by the private sector and local communities.