Skillability is a in initiative which is based on project partners' expertise, shared values, commitment to equal opportunities and to design and development of innovative education-based solutions. We are well aware of the specific challenges that many people with disabilities need to overcome in their lives. Many such challenges are in the focus of national and regional policy measures, and within the EU there are a number of common frameworks on coordinated policies and strategies. With Skillability, we are addressing a niche group withing the wider group of people with disabilities: people with talents or skills which can, if supported, become for them an additional source of financial income, contribute to the development of entrepreneurial attitudes, open the road to greater financial independence, reduce the reliance on the social systems, facilitate the return to formal or non-forma education and training systems, provide direct opportunities for digital training in developing new skills and partial qualifications, extend their contact and social networks, help reduce the impact of inaccessible physical enviroment and geography-based challenges.We intend to create a digital platform where people with disabilities can present their talents, skills or products for the visitors of the platform - individuals and businesses - to purchase or to support in other ways. The platform will be people-centric with its main property being a solid centerpiece of a wider and more comprehensive support infrastructure. This infrastructure will consist of specially-deisgned digital training courses focusing on: Personal presentation skills, Digital sales, Product presentation (incl. copywriting, graphics and video), Terms of service in the digital world, Remote services, Logistics and delivery (National/International), Pricing and promotion, and a range of additional topics and subjects which will come up from the direct work of our organisations with the target group of the project. The platform will be focused on bringing the two parties in a typical marketplace together, but in a spirit of support and common purpose. No payments will be made through the platform - all purchases and other support will pass through other standard secure channels for this, and Skillability is not designed to be a commercial platform.We will develop a comprehensive methodology for individual needs' assessment and for designing individualised training paths for each Skillability platform member. A team of trained mentors in each country will then work with interested people and help them on the platform. We expect that this work will also include the various stakeholders in this very specific field - these could be parents or other family members, the immediate support network of the candidate, their case social worker, their doctors, physical or occupational therapists. We will then, based on a thorough assessment and the personal plans and aspirations of each participant, carry a complete training needs analysis and develop an individual training path for them. The training will be a product of the collaboration between key licensed education and training institutions and organisations who have joined the project, and who stand by to develop further digital training courses and resources for Skillability based on the aggregated results from all training needs analyses.To further support the Skillability initiative participants, we will carefully construct and anthology of stories, successes and failures, personal stories and achievements. This will be used to shed light on the potential, on the capabilities, and away from the disability. We expect that such a collection can have an imprtant inspirational and motivational effect for many others - in particular in countries and societies where a disability is still largely a drive for stigmatisation, or where there are still significat obstacles - physical and otherwise - to successful and seamless integration of all people with disabilities in the economical, social, cultural and educational systems.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fast becoming ubiquitous. In particular, it is having a critical but unclear impact on Higher Education (HE) practices, educators and learners across Europe, which urgently needs to be properly understood.Accordingly, this “Artificial Intelligence in Teaching” project (AIT) aims to identify and analyse AI best practices in HE in three countries and to develop a roadmap for future developments and use. AIT will investigate both dimensions of AI in education: learning ‘with’ AI and learning ‘about’ AI. The first dimension involves AI approaches such as adaptive and personalised learning. While it is not a cure-all, AI has the potential to help teachers do what they do best: focus on the upper levels of Bloom's taxonomy and on the human aspects of teaching, helping learners learn more effectively. However, a proper understanding of the second dimension of AI in education is equally important. Not only is it about training the AI engineers of tomorrow, although that is key, it also involves raising all HE stakeholders’ awareness and understanding of the full implications of AI for the HE sector and beyond.The objectives of the AIT project are: A.To identify and analyse practical examples/potential uses of both dimensions of AI in HE.B.To identify and analyse best practices/potential uses of both dimensions of AI in HE.C.To identify national characteristics of approaches to AI in HE in the United Kingdom, Portugal and Denmark. D.To develop a roadmap for the development and application of both dimensions of AI in HE.E.To disseminate knowledge about both dimensions of AI in HE. The AIT group is a very strong consortium comprising The Open University (UK), Universidade Aberta (Portugal) and Cphbusiness (SmartLearning) (Denmark), each of which has been involved in successful EU projects over many years. All three partners are digital learning providers with strong track records. Together, the consortium supports more than 250000 learners, from all over the world, each year—and each partner recognises the growing importance of AI for their institutions and beyond. The AIT consortium will conduct national analyses (drawing on academic and grey literature, together with research-based interviews of key players) in the three countries. The focus will be on identifying examples and best practices of AI in HE (across both AI dimensions). The analyses will include outlining national characteristics, specific technologies, and didactic and pedagogical approaches to AI in HE in the United Kingdom, Portugal and Denmark. Finally, based on the analyses, AIT will develop a roadmap for the development and application of AI in HE, which will be disseminated widely.The expected outcomes and potential long-term benefits include: (i) increased knowledge of both dimensions of AI at all levels in the HE sector, (ii) research-based data of AI technologies in use across the HE sector, (iii) a research-based roadmap for future development and use of AI in HE, and (iv) increased knowledge of AI for informing institutional decisions and policymaking across Europe.

The global workforce is today facing a critical period of jobs and skills instability. With a big portion of today’s jobs set to disappear or become displaced by AI, robotics and automation, the world today requires a human workforce which possess proficient digital skills. Pursuant to such predictions, the WEF has recently launched the ‘Reskilling Revolution’, aimed at providing better education, new skills and better work to a billion people by the year 2030. The DS4AIR project supports innovation through the design, development and evaluation of an online training course on Digital Skills in view of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Revolution. This is aimed at improving and extending the reskilling of vulnerable adults in the workforce who possess a lower level of knowledge and digital competences. Consequently, this will future-proof their careers vis-à-vis the anticipated shift and demands in digital skills.In line with the WEF’s initiative and as a proactive (rather than a reactive) measure, the project’s objectives are:- to establish the current state of affairs in the business industry in terms of AI readiness- to identify the gaps between the required new digital skills and competences and the demands of the labour market, in view of the Artificial Intelligence Revolution- to create a learner persona defining the course’s target audience- to design and develop an online self-paced training course on digital skills for the Artificial Intelligence Revolution- to reskill vulnerable adults whose jobs are threatened by the new technologies, hence ensuring their survival and prosperity in the job market- to analyse the quality and impact (including the degree of satisfaction) of the course through a summative evaluation of the content and instructional design, vis-à-vis the expected learning outcomes- to write a short recommendations document on digital skills for corporate training in the Artificial Intelligence RevolutionThe five participating organisations in the strategic partnership are B&P Emerging Technologies Consultancy Lab Ltd (B&P EmTeC Lab) as lead partner, the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, the Cámara de Comercio de Valencia (Valencia CCI), the South Eastern Regional College (SERC) and SmartLearning (within the Copenhagen Business Academy). SERC and SmartLearning have years of experience in adult education and in particular in the digital learning domain. The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry and Valencia CCI bring their invaluable business and economic insights and their extensive networks of business affiliations. Finally, B&P EmTeC Lab will lead in the design and development of the online training course and the role of AI in the digitalisation of the business industry.The project activities are clustered depending on the objectives and tasks leading to the delivery of the intellectual outputs. During the initial months the activities centre around the compilation of the needs analysis, with a multiplier event aimed at attracting the interest of the key stakeholders beyond the consortium. This will then be presented for further feedback and input, during the second multiplier event. In the second cluster, the project activities focus on the design and development of the online training course, with multiplier and training events aimed at receiving valuable feedback from all stakeholders. The third cluster of project activities begin with the evaluation of the online training course, through piloting with a group of vulnerable adults, whose jobs are threatened by the new technologies. The resulting feedback will be used to draft a short recommendations document, which will then be disseminated amongst learning and development professionals in the corporate sector. In terms of the project’s expected impact, it is envisaged that the results will yield a high quality digital learning environment, based on the needs and requirements of vulnerable adults in today’s workforce. It is also expected that the digital competence of participating adults, will be enhanced, thus improving their careers’ prospects. Participating businesses will be equipped in terms of skilled labour to embrace the disruption brought about by emerging technologies and better placed to understand, assess and act upon the reskilling requirements posed by the foreseeable skills mismatch brought about by the Artificial Intelligence Revolution. In terms of the potential longer term benefits, the online training course will become a valuable open education resource for re/upskilling for business and interested individuals around the world. Furthermore, the resulting recommendations document on digital skills for corporate training in the Artificial Intelligence Revolution will complement the Pan-European policy efforts in the popularisation of digital competences, by providing evidence-based practice for future guidelines.

"The innovative IDEAS project will be developed in direct response to the EU's Digital Education Action Plan (2021 - 2027) and, in particular, Strategic Priority 1: ""Helping develop a high-performing digital education system"" - ""digitally competent and confident teachers and education and training staff"". Further, this project will be underpinned by the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu) which states: ""As the teaching professions face rapidly changing demands, educators require an increasingly broad and more sophisticated set of competences than before. In particular, the ubiquity of digital devices and the duty to help students become digitally competent requires educators to develop their own digital competence."" Indeed, the JRC Science for Policy Report: Digital Education Policies in Europe and Beyond 2017 states: ""The integration and innovative use of digital technologies in education has become a policy priority across Europe."" However, the use of digital technologies in education presents several challenges in relation to digital poverty amongst students where access to reliable internet/hardware/software impacts their ability to participate effectively in their learning. (World Economic Forum 29 April 2020). Therefore, a key objective within this project will be to address some of the practical issues around equity and inclusivity in the classroom environment. All partners are based in Europe from UK, Malta, Portugal and Denmark and is comprised of: 2 VET Colleges from UK - South Eastern Regional College and Forth Valley College; a Danish e-learning/Adult Learning organisation with adaptive learning expertise - Copenhagen Business Academy; a Higher Education Institution from Portugal - Universidade Aberta; a private organisation with expertise in equality, inclusiveness and teacher training - Evolve Global Solutions; and B&P EmTech Lab - a specialist technology company with expertise in Artificial Intelligence. The innovative aspects of the project lie in the development of a micro-credentialed teacher training course offering bite-sized modules that will be flexible and adapted to individual professional development needs. This will be supported by an innovative Community of Practice where teachers from across Europe can communicate, share best practices and help to raise teacher digital competence and skill thereby, preparing them for virtual/online/blended teaching, learning and assessment strategies in a post COVID-19 environment.Objectives:1.Develop a 30-hour digital teacher training course using adaptive learning models which will enable 64 teachers from any curricular area of VET or HE in the 4 countries, to improve their digital competence and skills using a personalised micro-credentialed training package with support from 16 IDEAS Mentors (80 teachers)2.Recognise the learning of those undertaking the course through Europass Mobility, Digital Badges and Certificate of Attendance 3.Establish robust accreditation for the digital training course by Universidade Aberta which can be applied across Europe 4.Pilot the course with 64 teachers in 4 countries with support from 16 IDEAS Mentors ensuring functionality as well as meeting the skills needs5.Build a Community of Practice LinkedIn site for IDEAS Mentors, IDEAS Teacher Mentees and 500 educators from partner organisations to share and collaborate on the innovative results achieved 6.Produce an electronic Best Practice Guide for teachers supported by empirical data and own findings which will offer a step-by-step remote guide to developing digital competence and pedagogical approaches individually and within their VET/HE educational setting Target groups:*VET/HE organisations & providers*VET/HE teachers*VET/HE students particularly those who feel excluded or have additional needs*Policy makers, research bodies & expertsActivities:Intellectual Output 1: Design & develop an online digital training course for 80 VET teachers to improve digital competence & skills supported by digital pedagogical strategies & create a Community of Practice for teachers to share best practiceIntellectual output 2: Pilot programme to evaluate the resources, measure expected outcomes and facilitate continuous improvement launched at a 3-day Teacher Training Event Intellectual output 3: Publish a Teacher Best Practice Guide based on the outcomes of the project underpinned by external empirical research Multiplier Events: Live streamed and targeting 125 selected stakeholders to disseminate the project resultsParticipation in the IDEAS project offers an opportunity for partners to upskill teachers, improve their digital competence and skills and develop the organisation's capacity by facilitating innovative learning experiences which will ultimately positively impact learners. The course will provide access to new materials to support the teachers' CPD, personalised to their individual needs."