This project tried to transfer the ideas and knowledge on sustainability through information, education and training to students, schools, employers, employees and other stakeholders in the Hair and Beauty sector to provide insight into sustainability: Health & Safety, environment, equipment and entrepreneur skills.The hairdressing sector in Europe employs more than one million people across 400.000 hairdressing salons, receiving 350 million potential customers. The H&B often has more affinity with knowledge about their profession than with other aspects of the business. Attention to labour, health & safety, environment, marketing, service and services are crucial for successful entrepreneurship. The aim of this project was to develop innovative ways of learning about sustainability and to promote sustainability in schools and companies in the sector. The educational products we have generated, which are matching the goals, includes workshops on sustainability and innovation, teaching materials for schools and extracurricular education about sustainability in the 'green' salon (3 learning modules, on sustainability and entrepreneurial skills), a study of sustainability in the sector in Europe, a diagnostic scan for businesses and schools, a roadmap for introducing sustainability in the salon, a physical sustainability game for use in schools, companies and other educational purposes, an internet awareness game about sustainability, a scan on strategy, a final sector conference and student participation, with the aim of developing a magazine on sustainability in the H&B sector and a demo of sustainable hair creations. We also communicated on the results through a brochure, articles and press releases, meetings with stakeholders: social partners, educational institutes etc., a project website and the final conference in Amsterdam. By informing students, teachers and policy makers, we wanted to take steps towards more sustainability. Vocational education is in close contact with the companies in the local community and can open doors to changes in the industry. Therefore, activities were organized with students, workers and employers in the partner countries. Several classes with students and teachers are actively involved in the activities in each country. Through this project we want to demonstrate that -in Europe- we need to act sustainably in the sector in a striking way.We gathered facts through research on sustainable developments in the participating countries, aspects of management systems with a focus on health & safety and environment, the desired situation in a sustainable salon (possible core of a simple certification system), competences needed to reach this situation and research on a diagnostic scan to map the current situation on sustainability in a school or salon. The outcomes of the research were discussed with experts and the results were input for developing the scan, the internet awareness game, the learning material in 3 modules and a final sector conference with student participation along the project. Using the competences of the different partners, their network, the experts, entrepreneurs in the sector and the teachers and students in the conferences and at home in the schools, we combined knowledge and perseverance to finalize the task in a good way.Long term benefitsThe effect of working sustainable in a ‘Green salon’ bottom line, is reducing risks and having more pleasure and satisfaction on the work spot. Sustainability creates less problems with health & safety, less environmental damage, less waste and a better and healthier use of materials and resources, a more controlled use of energy and water, more sustainable choices in investing in equipment and a higher level of customer experience and employee satisfaction. This all has to be managed by an entrepreneur or self-employed H&B specialist with the right skills. Through the project we have created awareness on the risks on the health & safety and the environmental issues. In the contacts with other schools, Coiffure.eu (the international hairdressers association), the social dialog between social partners and the EU, regional entrepreneurs (organizations) the outputs have been spread. A more sustainable way of working in the salons can have a good start with education and training in regular VET and non-formal education accessible to people who are already working in the sector. Also the partners have contacted entrepreneurs and suppliers with the developed information.PartnersES-El Palo – Malaga, VET school: Hair & BeautyDK-Aarhus Tech, VET school: hairdressing department FR-IGS Lyon, VET & HE school: experienced in development of ICT games and entrepreneurial toolsUK- Bridgewater College, VET school: hairdressing departmentNL- ROC Amsterdam, VET school: hairdressing departmentNL-Stivako – VET school: entrepreneurial skills and sustainability in the creative industry

EnDigiCom focuses on the improvement of digital skills within companies, mostly SMEs, and VET providers because the labour market is looking intensively for qualified personnel with digital competencies and the professional use of social media tools. European employability is the goal of EnDigiCom and the project partners.EnDigiCom is intended to address the lack of personnel with suitable Social Media competencies in SMEs. The overall project aim is the further development of vocational training provisions for organizations who seek to train their staff to master the daily challenges including the professional use of Social Media tools.EnDigiCom has 7 project partners who have already worked together on several international occasions and have extensive experience in EU projects:- 4 educational partners focusing on VET and HE business programmes, - 1 partner (BUSINET) being an international educational organisation with some 100 VET and HE member institutes from 25+ countries enabling the project team to ascertain the widest possible dissemination of the project results internationally- 2 partners being Social Media experts who focus on corporate consulting to implement SM strategies as well as staff teaching and training. They will enrich the project team with their know-how and expertise and are responsible for the two learning activities.Project Overview:EnDigiCom will begin by asking partners to reflect on existing programmes. A questionnaire will also be developed and sent to SMEs, in the different partner countries, to confirm the SM competences needed in the workplace. Results will inform continuing exchange and discussion as well as analysis and benchmarking actions that expect to result in a common denominator (syllabus) that can be used by all partners with a view to modernising and extending existing course curricula and programmes on the use of Social Media. Beyond this, during the second part of the project, the focus will be on testing the agreed syllabus through operating short courses for teaching and non-teaching staff working in the participating education and training institutes.In terms of target audiences, in addition to the participating education and training institutes, and wider network members having a similar vocational or professional development focus (with access to wider audiences provided via Businet), we also consider individual students/learners – able to benefit from an enhanced skills set that is relevant to the needs of the labour market – as well as the business sector that will benefit from accessing better skilled VET graduates and, in some cases, from being able to access continuing development opportunities for existing staff.Whilst the predominant focus of the EnDigicom project is an exchange of knowledge, experience and good practice, we do envisage some core outputs and outcomes, namely:- agreement on a robust set of key competences necessary to handle the daily duties of staff members having responsibility for Social Media tools and platforms within a workplace business environment;- model curriculum against which existing programmes and short courses can be reviewed/extended/modernised which will be tested/trialled (through short-courses being offered) prior to being finalised in EN-DE-FR-SI.European employability integrating new SM competencies is the motivator for the project partners to launch this ERASMUS+ partnership, as there is a daily demand of SMEs to work internationally beyond national borders. Therefore, the international exchange of good practice and further development of our curricula on an international level is essential to the project. While each partner has already been active to create national SM curricula and trainings, EnDigiCom, as a European co-funded project, will enable the partners to establish a common framework for those key-competencies on an international level.