<< Background >>The ComEnt project aims at developing a blended learning educational programme and associated teaching / learning resources for higher education institutions; accrediting agencies; and social entrepreneurs / innovators on the innovative topic of community enterprise development. The fostering of community-led and community owned enterprises promotes civic engagement. The knowledge, skillsets and competencies acquired through this initiative will enable university graduates and social innovators to empower marginalised groups and disadvantaged locations. This provides the capacity to create wealth and promote social inclusion, particularly for those who have been less successful in engaging with the dominant neo-liberal and capitalist market system.An enterprising community is not simply concerned with capitalism but seeks to build a viable and sustainable social, economic and cultural ecosystem. Enterprising communities involve an integrated mix of social, private and state enterprise, each adding value to the other. According to Cooke (2018), there are sufficient resources (live and dormant) owned by statutory agencies; community and voluntary sector; and private sector which could be utilised productively to create and sustain community-owned social enterprises. The ComEnt project defines a community enterprise as an organisation owned and managed by the community, whose mission and vison are centred on serving individuals from a defined geographical area (predominantly disadvantaged locations) and / or communities of interest (predominantly marginalised groups in society). This makes community enterprises a distinct group within the wider social enterprise sector, not only trading for social purposes but reinvesting any profits in ways that provide benefits to a particular community. According to the European Commission (2021) ‘being entrepreneurial is a valuable skill for EU citizens, both for their personal and professional development. Entrepreneurship education plays a key role for Europe’s competiveness and for the continuous growth of Europe’s economy’. Furthermore, Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning (2018), ‘promoting entrepreneurship in education as a key competence as it encourages EU citizens to be enterprising and to formulate innovative solutions to societal problems and to design products of added socio-economic value’. Therefore, the specific promotion of community sponsored entrepreneurism within higher education courses is innovative.It is critically important for higher education institutions, in partnership with the community and voluntary sector, to undertake research on the topic of community enterprise. Furthermore, it is equally important to educate students and relevant stakeholders on the ways in which community owned enterprises can facilitate community-led local development. The ComEnt project's overall impact contributes to the fulfilment of specific ERASMUS+ priorities. These include: increased sense of initiative and entrepreneurship; increased level of digital competence; improved levels of skills for employability and new business creation (including social entrepreneurship); improved competences, linked to occupational profile; and increased opportunities for professional development.<< Objectives >>Overall, this project wishes to equip stakeholders with the necessary knowledge, skillsets and competencies to develop and enhance the development of community owned and community-led enterprises, which would be an innovative approach to fostering social inclusion amongst marginalized groups and disadvantaged areas across Europe. Ultimately, the stimulation of this kind of thinking and the development of a competent body of practitioners throughout Europe will lead to an increase in this particular form of community development which is enterprise and employment focused; seeks to unlock and enable the use of dormant community assets; and provide locally-focused goods and services which will have a social cohesion purpose and impact.The key objectives of the ComEnt project are: •To identify and reflect on best practice examples of successful community enterprise and determine their critical success factors. • To develop and enhance the knowledge, skillsets and competencies of learners on the concepts of community-led local development and community owned enterprises; and to apply an empowering and consultative framework in encouraging communities to become ‘enterprising’. •To develop a course syllabus and associated teaching and learning resources, with a possible focus on: community enterprise models / approaches; leadership, human resources and operational management in community enterprise; governance / legal entity frameworks; and finance. •To engage with higher education institutions. policymakers and relevant community development stakeholders with regard to replicating this innovative educational programme on completion of the project.<< Implementation >>The main intellectual outputs of the ComEnt project include: RO1 National and summary reports on the state of the art on innovative models of community enterprise development. RO2 Course syllabus and associated teaching / learning materials RO3 Project website and learning repository. RO4 Evaluation, Testing and Optimization Other activities include:Learning, teaching and training activities will take place during the developmental phases of the project (LTT1 - LTT2), when the blended learning course materials will be developed and tested by project partners. Local Conferences (E1-E5) – CCJ, ADV, AdM, FHV and BFU will organize and deliver a local conference to audiences (40) drawn from the target groups for the project in which RO1, RO2, R03 and RO4 will be showcased and opportunities provided for hands-on trial and testing of the educational resources. Similarly ACEEU will organize and host a European conference (E6) and provide similar opportunities.<< Results >>On completion of the ComEnt project, it is envisaged that the following will be achieved: − a stronger awareness among academics, students and policymakers about the nature, purpose, barriers and enablers for the different models of community enterprise development; − comprehensive information flows between the community and voluntary sector; higher education institutions, statutory agencies; and private sector (quadruple helix) on the necessity for improved levels of skills for employability and new business creation (including social and community entrepreneurship);− a shared understanding among researchers; lecturers; graduates; and community and voluntary sector on the knowledge, skills and competency requirements for empowering social entrepreneurs to promote sustainable community-owned enterprises and employment. -An innovative accredited on-line / blended special purpose award (15 ECTS) and associated educational materials on community enterprise. The course units within the special purpose award can be incorporated independently into relevant educational programmes offered by higher education or VET institutions.

The SEDETT (Social Enterprise Development Education and Training Tools) project was a partnership of eight organisations (HEIs, training, community and youth advice organisations) from the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Poland, Romania and Lithuania, that was formed to explore factors affecting the sustainability of social enterprises from Oct 2016 – Oct 2018. The context for the project was that social enterprises recognize that they cannot rely on the continued availability of public funds to remain sustainable as businesses. Social enterprises need to have the capacity to attract investors in order to be sustainable and continue to deliver their goods and services. In addition, higher education and vocational training providers have a role to play in ensuring social enterprises remain sustainable by developing relevant curricula with appropriate learning resources that reflect social enterprise practitioners’ experiences. Social enterprises also needed to learn in order to achieve their own organisational development and this can be enhanced through the use of creative learning experiences that allow practitioners to develop their soft skills. Therefore this project aimed to:-•Produce a social enterprise capacity assessment tool (SECAT) for practitioners to use for self-evaluating their organisational development.•Produce learning resources for educators and trainers to use when developing inter-active course materials on social enterprise development.•Provide examples of resources for educators and trainers to use as creative learning experiences for social enterprise organisational development.The aims were achieved through case study research undertaken with over sixty key actors in twenty-two different types of social enterprise organisations that were located in the partners’ home countries. The synthesis of the collected data allowed an inter-active SECAT to be developed and blended open access e-learning materials to be generated which will facilitate personalized and organisational learning at differing levels of engagement. The project outputs were refined and developed in four workshop/training events that included locally based practitioners. The target groups for this project were students, teachers, trainers, partners’ institutions, research centres, careers and youth advisory agencies, policy-makers, existing social enterprises and their staff seeking to achieve development.The impacts of the project outputs include (i) the increased awareness and knowledge of social enterprise development at local, national and EU level; (ii) the availability of the SEDETT toolkit of open access blended e-learning materials for formal and in-formal courses of education and training; (iii) the use of the SECAT by practitioners to develop organisational capacity in the social enterprise sector across Europe, and (iv) the potential incorporation of the innovative learning methods into partner organisations education and training approaches. The innovative outputs of the project have contributed to the EMES research agenda on innovation in social enterprise and support the key priorities set out in the Europe 2020 Education and Training Strategy.

Reason for the Project: The DIREKT project aims to instill best Information Literacy (IL) practices in higher education systems in the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan & China. The project is much needed in order to up-skill library and academic staff specifically their transferable, pedagogical and lifelong learning skills in the Information Literacy field thereby developing capacity and affecting all stakeholders including students. The project aims for improved, more relevant University services in the Information Literacy area leading to better awareness, modernization and improvements in teaching and learning. Concise Description: Creation with Librarians and Faculty, of curriculum-integrated IL programs (embedded in the three cycle system (bachelor/master/doctorate), quality assurance and recognition of qualifications for the development of lifelong learning in higher education and in Society at large and incorporating appropriate electronic media. Development of training programmes supported by 7 ECTS modules- a DIREKT Curriculum for Information Literacy which will be embedded in curricula in PC universities and with involvement of external stakeholders to ensure maximum transfer effect to Society at large.Impact envisaged: As Information Literacy is a vital transferable skill for lifelong learning that transcends all academic disciplines what is truly special and unique about this project is that the results will benefit a huge learner group- all University staff, students and librarians and the effects will be felt in RF, KZ and Chinese Society through university links with external stakeholders.

<< Background >>The GENERAL needs of the partnership will be defined here but before it is really vital to underline how the pandemic caused a drastic increase in the household waste within Europe and more specifically in the partner countries. As it is a well known fact the COVID-19 pandemic has already had tremendous impacts on the waste and household sector. At first, while the pandemic was progressing and lockdowns were imposed in many countries, the citizens' consumption habits changed because of the “I-stay-at-home-effect”. Besides the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an increase in the consumption of single-use plastics, oftentimes as a result of health and hygiene concerns. These are the main consequences of the global pandemic era and it will continue to affect the whole world. For this reason, the project partnership has the same global problems at the country level and all these created a big awareness of the“waste management” both economic and circular needs. In this regard, the German coordinator took the partners’ attention to a report by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU); that has published a report about waste management in Germany in 2018. In this report, it has been indicated that Germany's high recycling rates of 67 per cent for household waste but for household waste in particular, has been required to strengthen efforts to promote consumer awareness and waste prevention. Though the pandemic situation has interrupted the statistical data collection in partner countries, there are several reports and papers (i.e. World Bank , UNESCO, WHO, ZEROWASTEEU and academic papers from the related literature)are indicating the global needs for waste management both at the society and industry level. This project will not only meet the needs of the partner countries but may draw guidelines for the other beneficiaries and stakeholders all over the world. NEEDS OF PARTNERSHIP: The preneed analysis which were conducted between on December 2020 findings summarized following: To improve necessary skills and competences of adults about waste economy, To participate in the waste economy, To maintain sustainable consumption philosophy as citizens, To manage household waste sorting, To have household waste aware citizen skills, to protect the nature, to change their past habits, to learn recycling waste at the household. TARGET GROUPS of this project include young adults, adults, trainers, teachers, educators, tutors, adult learning and education institutions, adult education associations, lifelong learning centres, professional training and consulting centres which work on waste management and circular economy, municipalities, policy makers, public authorities, universities, researchers, supporting groups.FINALLY, this project will enable people from different parts of the society to make them work together about a common problem threatening the World.<< Objectives >>Despite efforts at EU and national level, the amount of waste generated is not going down. The decoupling of waste generation from economic growth will require considerable effort across the whole value chain and in every home. In order to provide the transition to the circular economy will be systemic, deep and transformative, in the EU and beyond, the Commission has declared to propose the harmonisation separate waste collection systems and a whole new range of sustainable services, product-as-service models and digital solutions will bring about a better quality of life, innovative jobs and upgraded knowledge and skills. Since it will require an alignment and cooperation of all stakeholders at all levels - EU, national, regional and local, and international, The 2Teach - 2Touch Project will provide modular training modules to the adults in the partner countries. Besides since the 2Teach - 2Touch Project aims to facilitate citizens’ involvement in waste management and circular economy, the deliverables of the project will upskill the competences of adults and help citizens take account of regional and local conditions of circularity. CONCRETE OBJECTIVE 1: The project will provide tailored cut information about how citizens can be more involved in the waste management and circular economy at the household level (R1). CONCRETE OBJECTIVE 2: The project will get sufficient information about waste reduction in household and true consumption behaviour in everyday life (R2). CONCRETE OBJECTIVE 3: The project will provide detailed information about how high-quality, functional and safe products, which are efficient and affordable, last longer and are designed for reuse, repair, and high-quality recycling in the household (R3). CONCRETE OBJECTIVE 4: The project will facilitate the understanding of the most effective combinations of waste separate collection models, the density and accessibility of waste separate collection points, including in public spaces in the partner countries (R4). CONCRETE OBJECTIVE 5: The project will enhance the accessibility of citizens in upskilling competences of waste economy by creating a digital environment (R5).<< Implementation >>PROJECT MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES- Project Technical Management- Financial Management- Quality Assurance, Evaluation, Impact Assessment- Mid-term and Final Monitoring Reports- Process Evaluation Report and Quality reports;- Dissemination strategy and report;- Dissemination material (newsletters, leaflets, articles)- In-presence transnational meetings with representatives of the partner organizations.- Sustainability planE1-E5: MULTIPLIER EVENTS in Germany, Italy, Turkey, Spain, Ireland and PolandACTIVITIES RELATED WITH RESULTSR1 - 2Teach 2Touch Module 1 - Participation in Waste Economy as a citizenR2 – 2Teach 2Touch Module 2: Waste Reduction and True Consumption R3 – 2Teach 2Touch Module 3: RecyclingR4 – 2Teach 2Touch Module 4: Household Waste SortingR5 – 2Teach 2Touch Module 5: Digital Environment<< Results >>INTANGIBLE RESULTS: The achievement of intangible results will be measured using tools such as interviews, questionnaires, tests, observations or self-assessment mechanisms, due to their qualitative nature: Strengthened cooperation between partner countries through the development of a formal network based on structured communication and cooperation models, Identification of key circular economy awareness competences that can enable target groups to set up waste management with more skills; Partners of the project and their local and regional networks trained on the use of file sharing open source platform with distance learning functions during the project lifecycle; Increased awareness of public regional, national and European bodies on the urgency to facilitate the transition into circular economy and adopting EU waste legislation at the household level.TANGIBLE RESULTS: Detailed set of skills and competences being citizen in waste economy; List of indicators of achievement; 5 TRAINING MODULES AS RESULTS; National reports summarizing the main findings of the interviews; Pilots and evaluation reports; Installed and functioning digital environment; National report of practices via digital environment; Final feedback report on the use of the digital platform. Project Management (PM) Results: Meeting minutes. After each meeting a report (minutes) will be written by the host partner and reviewed by Europass Berlin, containing a schedule of required follow-up activities and tasks and an evaluation questionnaire to be filled in by all participants; List of coordination team members; Work Plan; 8 quarterly partner technical and financial reports; Interim and Final technical and financial reports; Monitoring, Q&A and Evaluation Plan; Quarterly monitoring reports prepared by all partners; Interim evaluation report; Final evaluation report; Partnership Agreement; Risk Severity Matrix and Mitigation Plan; Mid-term and final impact report; Gantt Chart. Dissemination and exploitation results: Dissemination and Exploitation Plan; 2Teach 2Touch web showcase (project website, FB, Instagram, and LinkedIn media profiles, web page on partner websites); Visual identity (logo, web banner, leaflet in 6 languages); 4 newsletters in 6 languages, 2 Academic paper.

The reason for the project is the multiple challenges faced by Vietnamese and Laotian university staff teaching vocational education. These include a lack of competencies and skills in modern pedagogical teaching practices, the need to acquire key principles in vocational language teaching as well as ICT methodologies, the need to be an “integrated teacher” capable of combining both theoretical education and practical training, understanding quality assurance processes and mechanisms in vocational education, to secure opportunities to develop and retain practical skills of existing university vocational teacher staff. The main result after a Start Off meeting with needs analysis, planning and QA training will be an initial EU training (after preparation) in English for Specific Purposes (terminology, soft skills, key writing) and general vocational pedagogical training with ICT inputs. Programme Countries then create a 9 module pedagogical/ICT based Core Curricula which will be developed, piloted and integrated into existing university pedagogical vocational teacher training in each university. There are two Supplementary Modules as support. National Awareness Days explaining the objectives and status of the project will take place twice in each PC and promote dissemination and sustainability. Action Group will develop a CATALYST Strategic Plan ensuring post-project dissemination and sustainability. All modules will be downloadable on an online platform designed as not only a hub for academic activity but additionally for administration. We envisage very strong impacts as the Programme Country universities were selected for their interest in this project and based on EU partner experience a project like this will initiate key change.