"When we started the project Entrepreneurship was seen as ""a key competence that could boost competitiveness and growth"" and contributed ""to the general good of society."" According to a study on the SME's impact on the EU labor market published by the European Commission in January 2012, 85% of new jobs created in the EU between 2002 and 2010 were in fact created by SMEs. The consortium has left the hypothesis that the business and make it prosper it will be a challenge, regardless to the location or environment of the entrepreneur. There were various business creation and development barriers that hampered even the most courageous entrepreneurs. The lack of entrepreneurial culture and the knowledge of some tools needed to create companies limit the survival of companies and prevent persons with relevant ideas to implement it. An OECD study, indicated that on average, one third of new European enterprises did not survive its first year of existence.The results obtained from the research carried out within the project indicated the need to develop services, including guidance and counseling services, of young entrepreneurs to implement their business idea. In this respect, the most obvious challenge was to adequately contextualize the business idea by combining some fundamental aspects that were preliminary to creating the business.As far as small, small and medium enterprises are concerned, the results of the research reveal from the entrepreneurs a significant level of uncertainty and concern over the economic situation, the obstacles that may arise in the path of the necessary and continuous process of innovation and change.In these sense a consortium of 6 organizations from 6 different countries (Italy, Slovakia, France, Turkey, Spain, Romania) aimed to provide potential entrepreneurs with support, training and guidance. This project was about sharing knowledge and experience and developed pertinent tools for startups.This project intended to provide a sustained support to entrepreneurs through a system already existing in France, called ""CAE Co-op"". This feature allowed persons, often away from employment, to test their business idea before creating their own business enjoying a support and training for entrepreneurship. Emphasis was be placed on developing the capacity of trainers,counselors, coach and consultants in entrepreneurship to guide better the entrepreneurs on trial. The pilot project within this program was fully involving a 24 people with this profile, who was coached by professional trainers for entrepreneurship, receiving all the necessary tools to start their own business. Once the system made its evidence, it might be a system open to all unemployed people of these area, in particular the young people who were particularly attracted by this kind of system (already proven in France).The specific objectives were:- To develop entrepreneurial skills of persons excluded from employment, especially young people.- To strengthen support and secure the path of entrepreneurs.- Professionalization of support entrepreneurship operators through the development of a common framework for entrepreneurship training adapted to the context of respectively four territories referred by the project , drawing French, and Slovak tools.- Creation of a network involving the formation operators, economic integration, coaching and social entrepreneurship through the establishment of a platform for economic initiative.- Exploitation of results at regional and national levels.- Undertake an effective dissemination and exploitation plan, in order to spread the results and reach the highest number of end users and beneficiaries, to ensure that the results of the project will be sustainable also after the end of it."

<< Background >>The traditional activities of fishing, marine farming and agriculture are strong images of the the territories' identity. Consumer demand for local, environmentally friendly and healthy products is growing. However, collaboration between the agricultural and maritime sectors is weak. Local policies and actions to promote local products very rarely, if ever, deal with land and sea products together, even though there are a number of common problems: an increase in the average age of professionals, sectors not very attractive to young people, difficulties in accessing the market, under-appreciation of products, lack of managerial, marketing and communication skills, etc. LandSea was developed from the shared observation of a lack of capacity of the territories and their actors to promote traditional activities of the land and sea. Indeed, the promotion of the agricultural sector (activities, products) and the maritime sector (fishing and breeding) is separately approached. It is a question of learning to renew the links and decompartmentalise the interventions of the actors of the territory. In all the territories covered by the project, initiatives have been carried out to promote only local rural products, but the producers have only benefited from communication support and not from capacity building. This lack of skills has been identified as a factor of weak local initiatives and higher value-added activities. Faced with the increasing ageing of local fisheries and aquaculture actors and the low attractiveness of these jobs, particularly for young people, it is necessary to strengthen their capacities and the ones of actors in the land and sea sectors in order to encourage innovation and the creation of new income-generating activities.The LandSea project responds to unmet needs in the project territories in terms of capacity building for actors, particularly in terms of promotion and involvement in the territories. The need to add value to products is the same for both land and sea. These two sectors have common elements to enhance such as short circuits, enhancement of know-how, local production, etc. and often encounter the same problems, in particular pollution, the drop in productivity, the ageing of the profession, etc. LandSea addresses the needs of different target groups a) future mentors: adults and organisations in the green and blue economy through training programmes capable of strengthening the entrepreneurial spirit of young people, local developers, project leaders, farmers, breeders, fishermen, and developing new joint entrepreneurial initiatives in their territory; b) adult workers linked to the rural and maritime economy (including those directly involved in agricultural and fisheries production) wishing to train to develop their entrepreneurial skills, but also young adults belonging to marginalised/underrepresented groups for better social and economic inclusion, through entrepreneurship and self-employment in the green and blue economy sector. c) other VET actors and the maritime and agricultural sector to improve the professionalisation of workers and to move towards qualitative exploitation through complementary activities with high added value.<< Objectives >>The project aims to provide free online access to innovative training contents to strengthen the capacities and skills of local actors (and training centres) wishing to jointly valorise land and sea products so that they can become mentors, local ambassadors or resource persons of the local heritage of these local products. The aim is also to raise awareness of the need for joint promotion and the opportunities that this can bring to the project territories (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Spain, France, Greece, Italy) and even more so throughout Europe.The development of entrepreneurship, possibly collective, is presented as a solution allowing income-generating activities and a dynamic of the territory because it responds to a growing demand from consumers. The impacts of the project will be the following:Among the target groups:- Improved accessibility to training resources (contents, methodologies, etc.) on the green and blue economy and local development dynamics, - Increasing professional skills and knowledge in the areas of the blue and green economy, entrepreneurship and sustainable local development approaches,- The improvement of learning methods through innovative training materials;- The promotion of the cultural diversity of the European Union as the guide will promote 7 discovery tours of the partner countries;- Improving competitiveness and entrepreneurship, employability in these regions and living conditions- Reducing the unemployment rate among young people- Stimulation of the green and blue economy in the project territories and in other coastal regions of the Mediterranean basin (Southern shore, Black Sea)At local, regional and national level:- professionalisation of the agricultural and maritime sectors, taking into account these two dimensions in the Mediterranean and Black Sea: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Spain, France, Greece and Italy- technological development and improvement of competitiveness through the promotion of new local, regional and/or national projects jointly or on societal, environmental and economic issues of the green and blue economy sectors.thus allowing :- the appropriation of local development approaches, particularly in favour of employment,- the strengthening of local economies in rural and maritime regions through a joint approach to traditional land and sea-based activities, particularly where unemployment is high- the development of the common maritime, rural and agricultural heritage- the initiation of a sustainable local development approach and a better management of local resources, At European and/or international level: - Improvement of knowledge in the use of ICT for professionals in the project sectors at European and/or international level- Professionalization of the sectors at European and/or international level- Promotion of diversification of activities and preservation of local resources- Raising awareness at European and international level on the need for a common and cross-sectoral approach in the green and blue economy sectorsMoreover, the methods and activities developed can be transferred to other territorial contexts that lend themselves to transnational, intercultural cooperation and a participatory approach to solving common problems of territories linked to the rural and maritime world.<< Implementation >>The activities to be implemented will be the following: R1 - LandSea training contents on the joint valorisation of land-sea productsR1A1 - Construction of a skills grid and a training curriculum based on the needs analysis and the results of the Local Stakeholder Committee (LSC) meetingsR1A2 - Development of training contents according to the expertise of each partner, in particular on the green and blue economy, sustainable development, circular economy, environmental issues; entrepreneurship (procedures and management); sustainable marketing (communication, tools); available funds and financing; cooperation and territorial dynamics (local animation), short circuits, diversification of activities, tourism, etc. R1A3 - Development of self-assessment quizzes so that each learner knows which module to focus onR1A4 - Translation into all languages for increased availability of the training in 6 languages (EN, FR, BG, GR, IT, ES)C1 - A 3-day training workshop will take place in Bulgaria for 14 adults, future mentors, based on the contents of R1 in order to become local facilitators, capable of initiating the joint land-sea valorisation process in their territory. This training activity will allow to evaluate and give qualitative feedback on the contents developed.R1A5 - Revision of contents following C1.R2 - LandSea methodological guideR2A1 - Elaboration of the LandSea guide giving a methodology for prefiguring the LandSea discovery circuit, the guide will allow to be able to autonomously: identify the local products and land-sea know-how, as well as the heritage likely to be highlighted, define and set up the modalities of circuits adapted to the territory, conceive circuits in a participative way and finally materialize and animate the discovery circuit. R2A2 - LandSea pilot action via the collection of the characteristics of each territory with the CLPPs, the organisation of a pilot participative workshop in each territory with at least 5 participants per partner which will lead to the prefiguration of a land-sea pilot circuit (i.e. 7 circuits in total for the project)R2A3 - Finalisation of the methodological guide according to the feedback from the participants in the pilot action and with the finalised pilot circuits as illustration. R3 - LandSea e-learning platformR3A1 - Design and development of the platform - Collective choice of the platform on the proposal of the coordinatorR3A2 - Transformation of the questionnaire into a self-test of online skills assessment so that autonomous learners on the online platform know which modules to focus on. R3A3 - Digitalisation of the training content to become a free online learning pathway - the training contents will be transformed to become accessible and playful, pedagogical work will be done on the existing contents as well as illustrationR3A4 - Transformation of the LandSea guide into an e-book in order to have access to each step of the methodology in an interactive way R3A5 - Construction of a virtual library: all the resources used by the project partners will be available to the learnersR3A6 - Valorisation of competences - the competences acquired through the training will give access to a certificate of participation and to competence badges. R3A7 - Revision of the platform according to the feedback of the pilot action for finalisation<< Results >>The expected results of the project are :- The availability of relevant training contents allowing to train in the valorisation of land-sea products on one's own territory in direct link with local productions for the elaboration of sustainable commercial strategies with higher added value; - This training will allow to train directly and collectively via a transnational workshop of 14 mentors in Bulgaria and will thus allow to install collective dynamics favourable to the emergence of a European citizenship based on the reciprocal knowledge of the heritage of the agricultural and maritime world of the partner countries.- The availability of a methodological guide for the joint promotion of local products from the land and from the sea, particularly through the organisation of tours and the diversification of activities via tourism. Experiments in tourism diversification will be carried out within the framework of the project: - 7 prefigured discovery tours - Participation and practical training (methodology) enabling 35 local participants to familiarise themselves with the methodology in order to reproduce it or to enhance their production towards tourism or heritage enhancement actors. - This methodological guide is based on a participatory approach and will allow the actors who appropriate it to highlight the assets of their territory and to open up to any actor interested in joining the initiative.- Free access to the previous results by digitising the LandSea training content and by transforming the LandSea methodological guide into an Ebook via a fun and practical learning platform, allowing independent training while being able to value the skills acquired via badges. - This online platform will make it possible to enhance the value of the project's results, to encourage their appropriation by a larger number of target groups and to strengthen the promotion of the added value of the activity of agricultural and maritime actors in the territory. - This platform provides access to lifelong learning. The results of the project will be available in all the languages of the partnership and in English in order to be accessible to as many people as possible. - It will allow farmers, fishermen and other economic actors in the EU and the Mediterranean basin (both in the South and in the North) to be introduced to a new way of valorising and diversifying local land-sea productions that generate new sources of income. Vocations and professional projects could be created among young people and adults (unemployed, looking for a new professional project) that would enhance the identity of their territory. All this work will help to strengthen the spirit of enterprise, and will generate new initiatives in the green and blue economy sector in a logic of sustainable development.

Self-directed learning has been described as a process where learners are responsible owners and managers of their own learning process. Self-directed learning integrates self-management (management of the context, including the social setting, resources, and actions) with self-monitoring (the process whereby the learners monitor, evaluate and regulate their cognitive learning strategies). The Internet has widely improved the possibilities for self-directed L2 language learning by giving access to a boundless amount of OER Open Educational Resources accessible ubiquitously, 24/24. These are training materials expressly developed for L2 learning based on e-books, videos, webinars, MOOCs, Apps and other specific software, available for free or for a small fee, Additionally, the web allows free access to written texts, videos and TV and radio programs in many different languages developed for native language speakers that can be used directly by intermediate and advanced L2 learners. Finally, thanks to Skype and social media, direct interaction with teachers, other learners and native speakers has become easier and cheaper. From and educational point of view, the Internet has widened the possibilities for not formal and informal learning and for individualized learning strategies, as well as for self-directed learning. Some learners are able to find their way and benefit by themselves of this large amount of resources, while others needs to be guided and supported in the process, hence the need for a L2Learning Supporter (L2LS). This project wants to explore and promote the role of the L2 Learning Supporter using the web based OER. The project will develop a methodology and a Guide on supporting L2 self-directed learning with web based OER. Other IO will be a Report in the state of the art on supporting L2 self-directed learning by using web based OER, two E-training courses based on the Guide (one addressed to L2 Learning Supporters and the other one to L2 learners), a website for supporting L2 self-directed learning. This project is submitted by a network of four L2 training providers based in FR, DE, IT, UK, plus two ‘technical’ partners specialized in E-learning and use of the internet for education (AT and PL). Thanks to the project, 240 trainers and 320 L2 adult learners will be trained to use the methodology. Additional 200 trainers and 400 L2 adult learners will use the project website developed for supporting of L2 self-directed learning. Additionally, over 15000 people belonging to the target groups will be informed about the project. Long term benefits will be an improved use of OER by L2 trainers and L2 adult learners, both producing an improvement in L2 learning and diffusion.

The recent COVID-19 crisis has just confirmed how important is to improve the capacity of our societies to develop innovative solutions to overcome the current challenges. SOCIAL INNOVATIONS are new social practices that aim to meet social needs in a better way than the existing solutions, resulting from working conditions, education, community development or health. These ideas are created with the goal of extending and strengthening civil society. Fostering the creative capacity of the citizens is key to make it possible and the education systems in Europe, including Adult Education (AE), have a key role to play on it. CREATIVITY is more obviously found in young children than in adults because of alignment of intellectual conformity, which in turn suppresses their creative potential. As a result, it is crucial to strengthen our efforts to foster the creativity of the adult learners. Developing innovative tools and andragogical methods in AE designed to foster creativity applied to Social Innovation would be an optimal solution to meet both objectives and needs.Creativity is not only a mental action of individuals but also a social process. COLLECTIVE CREATIVITY is in fact a necessary quality in any innovative process which requires cooperation between groups or individuals. Collective Creativity reflects a qualitative shift in the nature of the creative process, as the comprehension of a problematic situation and the generation of creative solutions draw from – and reframe – the past experiences of participants in ways that lead to new and valuable insights. COLLABORART project gathers 7 entities experts in AE, social innovation, Cultural and Creative Industries and educational technologies from France, Ireland, Greece, Turkey and Spain. They have worked together in collaboration with an extensive network of national and European stakeholders, identifying KEY AREAS OF INTERVENTION to foster Collective Creativity for Social Innovation in AE. The main conclusions of this analysis indicate that:- GAMIFICATION is one of the most appropriate and recommended methods to foster collective creativity applied to define citizen-based solutions for social issues. Nevertheless, not all teachers are necessarily aware of what gamification can entail and how it might enhance their students’ learning.- ARTS and CULTURE enhance the potential of creativity and social innovation, and may perform effectively as both a cohesive and a net-working social factor, answering various human and social needs, and to improve quality of life and wellbeing. - Adult educators require competencies and resources to make full use of the DIGITAL technologies for VIRTUAL online and distance learning The AIM of CollaborArt project is to address the above identified needs and challenges by developing the competencies of AE teachers, TARGET USERS of the project, to foster Collective Creativity for Social Innovation of the adult learners, TARGET BENEFICIAIRES, through Art-based virtual Gamification. Adult learners will be trained to identify real life problems and to provide solutions collectively in collaboration with stakeholders. They will learn how to apply collective creativity to co-design and implement social innovative solutions based on culture and arts, thanks to the creative skills acquired through virtual gamified scenarios. To this aim, the project will co-design and co-create the following set of innovative OUTPUTS:- ECVET Curriculum in Art-based virtual Gamification to foster Collective Creativity for Social Innovation (IO1)- Multilingual eLearning Platform (IO2)- Gamification App (IO3)- Guide for validation, certification and accreditation (IO4)CollaborArt will involve 83 AE teachers (28 from partners’ staff /30 experts involved / 25 participants in pilots). The project will also directly involve and benefit 125 adult learners that will participate in the pilots. 435 stakeholders will be directly involved at local, regional, national and European level and the project will reach a minimum audience of 1000 recipients through the dissemination activities.The project will have a positive impact in: (i) partners and other AE organizations in Europe, developing innovative solutions to foster Collective Creativity for Social Innovation; (ii) AE teachers, extending and developing their competences in Art-based virtual Gamification to foster Collective Creativity for Social Innovation, (iii) adult learners, accessing to education and training opportunities tailor made to their needs; (iv) stakeholders, accessing to innovative solutions to foster Collective Creativity for Social Innovation through AE. The project will apply EU frameworks (DigComp) and instruments (ECVET, EQAVET and Europass) to promote and boost transparency, recognition and mobility of adult educators in Europe, with the active support and cooperation of a network of key associated partners and relevant stakeholders.

The project Virtual Spitfire has 4 partners from 4 countries; UK, Sweden, France and Greece, all working with adult education in socially deprived areas of post-industrial decline. The project aims to support individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences for low-skilled adults living in post-industrial areas. It will also focus on upskilling adult educators in the use of Virtual Reality in the educational process. This will be carried out by utilising the interest and local knowledge of the people and environments of post- industrial landscapes. We will encourage the often deep interest for the local area by using the context of old industrial factories, mines, harbours, agricultural production centres that once stood at the centre of local communities. The industries may have dissapeared or experienced technological change such as automation leading to loss of employmentSocial inclusion is a process, which assists people to participate fully in life from an economic, social and cultural perspective. The idea is that every member of the society, no matter their background or situation, should be able to participate in the community and society and be encouraged to contribute to social, cultural and work life. The focus of the Virtual Spitfire project is the enhancement of intercultural competences of adults and the improvement of social inclusion capacity through the provision of continuous professional development courses to adult educators for diversity management and intercultural management. Virtual Spitfire project addresses the entrepreneurship, Civic skills, Personal, Social and Learning and Cultural awareness and expression, key competences as specified in Key Competences Recommendation for Lifelong learning (revision 2018). This relies on an awareness of how culture, as a collective social construct, shapes the views of the individual in return. It is important to highlight the crucial process of developing a sense of one’s own place or role in society – which may be understood as one's 'socio-cultural identity' - as well as a sense of the identity of others with positive open-minded attitudes towards diverse cultural differences in different contexts. This understanding of culture, based on the individual existing within particular contexts and communities implies interaction, inclusion and mobility as key issues and opportunities in society. Extending and developing educator's competences.High quality and well trained educators can help adult learners to develop key competences for the labour market and in everyday life. The project is based on a methodological approach designed to maximize impact through the production and sharing of OERs based on practical classroom and work based training activities and on the use of VR and digital media. A Continuous Professional Development course for the training of adult educators on th euse of VR is to be developed by the Virtual Spitfire project. The project focuses on on-line training material where adult educators etc. can access to high quality material for the target group. The project allows adult educators through the use research skills for VR in a simple, effective and relatively inexpensive way to contribute to an individials development. Allowing them to train on simple tasks and key competences that would otherwise be prohibitively time-consuming. Additionally adult educators will receive training on the use of post-industrial landscapes with their asscoiated archives as a resource in their work.The Outputs include:1.Methodological Framework. Using Local Industrial Heritage and Virtual Reality for Adult Education2.Main Virtual Reality Production Example of Spitfire manufacturing3.CPD Training course curriculum4.Scenario-based eLearning and Learning Outcome Matrix5.VIRTUAL SPITFIRE OER PlatformThe impact and long term benefitsAt local level, the availability of “ready-to-use” resources on VR in Adult education and methods will immediately reinforce the response of the sector to the urgent needs of EU societies in terms of social and professional inclusion of different cultural groups and in general people with disadvantaged backgrounds. At regional/national level, the Virtual Spitfire project is expected to create a common methodological framework, based on a smart use of VR technologies for enhancing key competences. At European level the project aims to contribute to the debate of facilitating VR blended training to adult groups into order to enter the labour market. The creation of a local body of adult educators trained and competent in using materials and implementing strategies to successfully transfer key competences to adult learners entering the labour market.