The Erasmus+ project „Flexible Tailored Learning Pathway for Everyone“ (FlexLearn) is the partnership of 4 European VET institutions, whose objective is to contribute by sharing the best practices in the educational field, to improve the skills of the teachers, trainers and the key persons in Inclusive and Tailored Learning process. As a result of this cooperation, they create a web-based Competence Collection of educational approaches and methods and increase the capacity of operating at a transnational level.Period: 24 monthsParticipants: European VET institutions; the Key persons of arranging the teaching/training process, Educators.Aim: To improve the flexibility, accessibility and inclusion in education through tailored pathways, to promote the quality of VET through increasing the skills of the people who are responsible for putting it into practice – educators, education specialists, key-persons in Educational leadership.Necessity: The Project is called into life by Haapsalu Vocational Education and Training Centre. Due to the statistics, about 22% of the students drop out of VET schools in Estonia every year. There are a lot of students whom it is difficult to access and maintain in studies in mainstream ways, especially the risk groups (SEN-students, low-skilled adults and students, who are living in the countryside and are difficult to reach). To find out the ways to make learning more flexible and reachable for these groups, the project concentrates on topics, which are relevant in all of the participating countries. Due to the pre-project communication between the partners, we have found out the strengths of each country, which has been the general base for working out the topics for LTTA meetings. Together created web-based Competence Collection Box will be a necessary working tool for Educators’ in Inclusive and Tailored Learning process. International experiences that the participants gain from the meetings would extend and develop their educators' competences and improve the quality and accessibility of Education in every participating country.Main activities:3 Transnational project meetings, 2 specialists from every country to monitor and evaluate the progress of the project, share feedback and work with the Competence Collection4 Training Activities, 4 participants (Teachers, Education specialists and leaders) from each partner organization. Every partner organizes one LTTA meeting which includes the teaching program for 5 days. Every Training Activity is focused on a certain topic due to the strengths and experiences of the partner organization:Finland - Tailored Learning Pathways for different students. Ireland - RPL - Recognition of Prior Learning and work experiences according to curricula and learning outcomesNetherlands - Learning Methods focused on developing student`s self-management, study and activity skills (project training, simulation, group work)Estonia - Digital approaches and Flexible Long-distance Learning Solutions (e-learning, development of digital competences, digital environments, and digital security).During every activity:The host partner introduces the Educational system and the learning process at their organization and generally in their country. The host institution gives an overview of the focus topic and the approaches implemented in their school and country. Each partner presents the activities and approaches of their school according to the topic. Additional activities according to the choice of the hosting partner, to expand the background of the topic - involving experts, visits to local organizations, practical workshops/teamwork activities to share the best practices in use. As a result of the activities, the best approaches according to the topic are worked out and added to the web-based Competence Collection. Participating teams will evaluate the gained knowledge of LTTA and make conclusions. After the training activity, every participating institution organizes an evaluation activity with the staff (round table forum, discussion, presentation etc) to find out how to implement it. The Coordinator of every participating organisation is responsible for completing the electronic feedback.The main impact of this project will occur in the rise of the quality of teaching and educational management in every participating country. As a result, the participating organizations and the participants have more knowledge and skills in the Inclusive and Tailored Learning process and implementation of necessary approaches, they are experts in every relevant topic the project activities covered. As an additional value, they have created a widely available web-based Competence Collection, which is a freeware tool and will be shared with other VET institutions.

Context/background of the project:The main goal was the development of skills and competences during work-based learning in international cooperation, improve practical skills due to working in teams with experience in cooking, learn new cooking techniques and recipes. One more aim of the project was to develop open-minded European citizens. Number and profile of participants:The exchange brought together 4 participants + 1 teacher from each partner organisation, for a total of 20 people. Participants of this project are young people – students and apprentice students – between 17 and 25. All participants had culinary experience and were very interested in new topics.Description of activities:There have been four main activities in the project. The project took place in AT, EE, ES, FL from the 1st September 2016 till the 31st of August 2018. More in particular, the project objectives are to improve empathy, tolerance and understanding among different countries, cultures and religions, discover other cultures through food and raise awareness about diversity raise awarness and discuss possible solutions. Activity 1: Meeting in Valencia/Spain – April 2017The overall objective was to learn about cuisine with healthy background considering allergies. Provided the target group with the chance to learn about new cooking techniques and recipes considering allergies.Activities:- Non-formal learning activities: ice breakers, group activities, group discussions, intercultural evenings, country presentations- formal learning activities: Excursion to the Albufera, visiting rice farm, visiting olive oil farm, cooking activities, professional talk-lecture of a Nutritionist, Laboratory.Activity 2: Meeting in Joensuu/Finland – May 2017The main goal was the development of skills and competences during work-based learning in international cooperation. The overall objective was to learn how to prepare food using modern methods. Provided the target group with the chance to learn about finish food prepared using modern methods.Activities:- Non-formal learning activities: ice breakers, group activities, group discussions, intercultural evenings, country presentations, sightseeing.- formal learning activities: Excursion Koli park, working in the kitchen over the subject in teamsActivity 3: Meeting in Haapsalu/Estonia - October 2017. ” How to prepare traditional Cuisine with Slow Food Philosophy and Biodiversity”.The overall objective was to learn how to prepare traditional cuisine with slow food philosophy and biodiversity. Provided the target group with the chance to learn about old Estonian food - traditional festive food, nordic cuisine - slow food.Activities:- Non-formal learning activities: ice breakers, group activities, group discussions, intercultural evenings, country presentations, sightseeing.- formal learning activities: Excursion to the Nina farm - a traditional Estonian seaside farmstead, visiting the food fair - competition of young chefs, cooking activities, professional talk-lecture Ranno Paukson - topic Slow food, Workshop with HKHK Office Work students – „Eating with your Eyes, Workshop „Getting Creative “.Activity 4: Meeting in Villach/Austria – April 2018The main goal was the development of skills and competences during work-based learning in international cooperation. The overall objective was to learn how to prepare ethnic food considering international migration and tourism as well as traditional food. Provided the target group with the chance to learn more about international food preparing. Activities:- Non-formal learning activities: ice breakers, group activities, group discussions, intercultural evenings, country presentations, sightseeing.- formal learning activities: Excursion to the Weissensee - fish farm, excursion to our slow food pope with food tasting, kitchen activities with the topics: ethnic food, traditional food modern style, traditional pastries, fish dishesA short description of the result and impact envisaged and finally the potential longer-term benefit:Youth exchange participants will have:-improved their vision of “the other”-gained interest in meeting young people from different countries-discovered other cultures-developed a critique sense towards migration issues-reflected on their own identity as a person living in a multicultural Europe-learned new cooking techniques-learned how to prepare traditional Cuisine with healthy background considering allergies-learned how to prepare ethic food considering international tourism an migration-improved their English a multicultural contextPartners will have:-been inspired about new ways to use food as an educational tool for social gathering and understanding-trained potential new volunteers for hosting projects-been part of starting a new project which will hopefully lead to future editions of the -project together and other projects a

The Erasmus+ project „Adult Education - It’s Never too Late to Learn“ (AdELe) is the partnership of five European adult education and VET institutions, who contributed to Europe 2020 goals by sharing the best practices in the Adult Learning field and improved the skills of the teachers, trainers and the key persons in Life Long Learning process. During the project, they created a web-based Toolbox and increased the capacity of operating at the transnational level. Period: 30 months Participants: European Adult Education and VET institutions; the key persons of arranging the adult teaching/training process, adult educatorsAim: to improve the quality and accessibility of Adult Education by increasing the skills of the people responsible for putting it into practice – adult educators, Adult Education specialists, key persons in the local Adult Education field. Necessity: The project was called into life by Haapsalu Vocational Education and Training Centre, which is the local coordinator and main provider of Adult Education in the area. The project grew out of the real-life demand of how to better reach the age group 50+ and the low-skilled or low-qualified adults who are living in the countryside and are difficult to reach and how to involve more adult students into Life-Long LearningThe project concentrated on the topics which are relevant in every country and international experiences extended and developed educators' competencies and improved the quality and accessibility of Adult Education in every participating organization. Main activities: 3 Transnational project meetings for the project managers and Adult education specialists from every participating organization to discuss the activities, share responsibilities, evaluate the project, share feedback from the participants and work with the Toolbox. Finally, discuss the impact, make conclusions and discuss further dissemination and cooperation. 5 Learning/Teaching/Training activities, 4 participants (teachers, trainers, adult education specialists) from each country –. Every host country organized one LTT with a teaching program for 5 days. Every Training Activity was focused on a certain topic due to the strengths and experiences of the organizations: LTT 1 – Cooperation with different parties (local organizations, municipalities, enterprises, companies, unemployment agencies etc.)LTT 2 – In-service training as a service (how to build up adult education course, curriculums, methodologies, how to aim the right target group)LTT 3 – Marketing and sales of adult education courses – how to reach the possible learners (Increasing demand and take-up through effective outreach, guidance and motivation strategies which encourage low-skilled or low-qualified adults, to develop and upgrade)LTT 4 - Improving and extending the supply of high-quality learning opportunities tailored to the needs of individual low-skilled or low-qualified adults (language learning, integrating migrants to the community and the local labour market, development of migrant education for instance language and citizenship).LTT 5 - Extending and developing educators' competencies through the effective use of ICT. Increasing the IT competencies of the learners and the effective use of ICT when running the courses ( how to do it)The two last LTT-s were arranged online. During every Training Activity: - the host country gave an overview of the Adult Learning possibilities at their school and generally in their country. - Visits to the local organizations and enterprises who provide Adult Education - Practical workshop for the participants to share the best practices of handling the topic in their country and at their school. The result of the best practices of every topic was collected on our website. (https://adultlearning4ever.wordpress.com/)- Working on the Toolbox for the Adult Educators Results (expected impact) Toolbox for the Adult Educators On the project web page, we collected: - The success stories of effective Adult Learning (blog) - The best ideas from every meeting - The best practices carried out during the Workshops- The Best ICT tools and free online environments for educators Dissemination of project results: we shared the results of the Project and our experiences during the mobilities on the Project Website, on the web pages of the participating schools, local associations and in the EPALE environment.https://adultlearning4ever.wordpress.com/https://epale.ec.europa.eu/en/node/300130https://epale.ec.europa.eu/et/node/300130?fbclid=IwAR0NQN9BfaGXDqchIoqYhrj6KQJ0dSgclHY2UI4QvikOT0sYUDmu9Q1laTg

In order to meet current educational standards, it is becoming increasingly important to be up to date with the emerging technological trends and approaches. The DIGI-TB project focuses on digitalization in the kitchen and service areas. This topic is relevant to all participant schools since they all deliver training courses related to gastronomy and cooking. The partner schools from Austria, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Italy and Lithuania have set the aim to create and publish digital cooking recipes, develop new educational methods. Using digital solutions to market and exploit them in the catering industry will support the attractiveness of the catering profession in VET. Transnational cooperation is very important to effectively address the challenges identified at EU level, e.g. slow digitalization of VET curricula, insufficient level of trainers‘ digital skills, low attractiveness of VET offers for young people, etc. The project aims to form a school exchange partnership that will address the need of introducing innovative methods and tools into vocational education and training. The participants will get introduced and acquire new knowledge about traditional cuisines of relevant countries, will learn about the benefits of slow food, seasonal cooking and using natural food resources, will learn how to prepare national dishes of each partner country/region. By participating in workshops with specially selected companies, they will learn to deal with and better understand sustainability in production.The participating pupils, supported by their teachers, will develop a digital Treasure Box, i.e. a repository of digital recipes and other educational resources, that could be used both for enriching in-classroom learning and for supporting the implementation of distance learning. The project will ensure that the particiaption schools, students and teachers benefit from any possible result that the mobilities and exchangees between them can guarantee. As one of the expected results, we tried to distinguish and highlight the most important and most valueble experiences in each hosting country. All the developed results can be easily transferred and exploited in the curricula of gastronomic orientated schools in the partner countries and in other countries as well. While working and interacting together during four international school exchanges, the pupils will improve not only their digital and social skills, but they will also develop their intercultural competence which is key for becoming open-minded European citizens.The DIGI-TB project also supports the objective of strengthening the profiles of the teaching professions by providing opportunity to VET trainers to become more engaged and involved in the design of training curricula as well as to introduce new methods, digital tools and innovative content during their teaching practices. The project will also contribute to the upskilling of VET trainers by offering them to participate in joint staff training events planned within the framework of the project.

"The use of digital technology in education has been actively promoted for a number of years throughout the EU and generally teachers and educational management have responded positively to the introduction and use of digital technology in the classroom. Many vocational schools strive towards digital maturity as outlined in the eSchools programme and the partners in this project are all actively using digital technology in their vocational education and are all well advanced towards digital maturity. Over the course of the project we examined the effectiveness of this use. Not only a self evaluation of our digital maturity but also of our response to the learning needs of students. We observed that in many cases digital technology is being used to substitute for existing teaching tools. Students often use tablets or laptop computers as a substitute for books. Teachers use digital projectors and digital presentations as a substitute for the traditional blackboard. The Internet is being used to replace the students trip to the library. While there is nothing wrong with this as such it demotes digital technology's role in education to one of substitution for existing technology. During the project we continually asked if we can we get more from digital technology. How can digital technology be employed in a more productive way to enhance vocational learning? In fact how can we harness the full potential of digital technology so that our students gain the maximum vocational educational benefit from it’s use. We set out to incorporate the things we know about how students learn, their attention span, different types of learning and other educational theories into decisions about how, when and why we should use digital technology. The main focus of the project was to address this question at a practical level in the following way: By conducting a critical examination of how digital technology is currently being used in vocational education. By identifying digital resources currently available that may be used to enhance student learning. This included the identification and evaluation of online educational resources as well as a more general evaluation of the Internet as a learning resource. Areas such as independent e-Learning, digital technology in classroom gamification and the use of Alternate reality software were also considered. We Re-examined how students learn with the goal of developing a better strategy for the use of digital technology in the vocational classroom. This included an examination of the different types of learning : Visual, Aural, Verbal, Physical, Logical, Solitary and how digital technology can be used to deliver each of these. We also examined how we can better use digital technology to assist students with learning difficulties, disadvantaged students and minority groups. This included examining digital technology as a learning supports, as an accessible resource and study support, types of digital assistive technology, focusing on the stronger learning styles of the individual student. From this we developed sample vocational lessons using digital technology to enhance student learning and demonstrate how a more professional application of digital technology can add significantly to the students learning. These lessons covered a wide range of vocational subjects. We then tested and evaluated these sample lessons in a real vocational classroom situation so as to fine tune our examples of a better way to use digital technology in vocational education. Primarily the project provided participating teachers with the opportunity to examine in detail how they currently use digital technology in vocational education, question whether this use is educationally sound and work to develop a better strategy for digital technology use to enhance student learning. In so doing also to examine how students with difficulty can be helped by using digital technology to deliver course material targeted towards their stronger learning type. The importance of recording and sharing the project experience was also fully recognized. We produced a project website (https://redproject.corketb.ie/) and public Facebook group which record project activities and learning as each phase of the project progressed. We also produced an ebook entitled “Re-Evaluating Digital Technology to Enhance Learning"" which recorded the learning from the project and contains the sample lessons as well as a rationale behind each lesson. In addition to this we established a youtube channel of presentations made during project learning events (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrJ1y01HUM8R93Y9Y_TJVLw) and added a project section looking at the effect the Covid lockdown might have on digital technology use in the classroom. Project work was also distributed on the EPALE platform."