"“Dual ECOsystems – EU Alliances for ICT” project is promoted by a consortium of 7 partners from 4 different EU countries.The project partners, within the regional/statal Dual System in which they operate, have more or less informally created virtuous local ""ecosystems"" in the ICT sector to ensure effective local cooperation between the VET actors involved in the delivery of Dual training programmes, for the success of all (student/worker, companies, VET institutions).Such ecosystems normally involve:•VET institutions•Companies, Chambers and companies’ representation bodies•Workers' associations / Trade Unions•Universities •Accreditation and Certification bodiesThe project starts from the premise that within the partnership the partners have identified some cases of apparent good practices, that are success factors in the different Dual Systems of the countries involved, which guarantee the proper functioning of the ecosystems, in terms of: high quality of VET paths; raising the employability rate; effective work-based learning system; efficient skills certification system.“DUAL ECO” project will let partners observe and share good practices adopted in the 4 local “ecosystems”, confront together on them and evaluate which good practices have the potentiality to be transferred at European level; then, the partners will conduct an experimentation on some selected good practices, importing them into their local ecosystems and applying to existing VET Dual programmes, in order to evaluate the transferability of each good practice at a larger scale.To achieve this goal, the project will be articulated in 5 Short-term joint staff learning and training events:•one for each country involved (Italy, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom) – for staff of partners organizations (managers, teachers/trainers, tutors, researchers) - organized as Study Visits, combining on-site visits to relevant organizations, presentations, discussions, workshops and/or training courses. These activities will be aimed at studying the good practices implemented by each ecosystem, at sharing ideas and confronting on the models in place;•one in Italy - for staff of partners organizations (managers, teachers/trainers, tutors, researchers) – organized as Training in participatory technique, managed by professional facilitators, that will combine peer discussions and workshops.This activity will let the partners exchange the good practices and confront among them on lessons learnt through the four study visits. At this stage, the partner organizations must learn from each other in order to create a “Dual ECOsystems” model, including a set of good practices that can be transferred at EU level, taking into account the different national contexts.The model will be reported in an Handbook, drafted by the partner organizations and containing “good practices and methods for effective Dual ECOsystems”.Each local ecosystem selects the good practices to import. To evaluate their transferability, the good practices chosen will be applied in each partner “ecosystem” on a local Dual VET ICT programme (involving associated partners from the countries):•In Italy on “Junior System Administrator - IFTS in Apprendistato” (level IV EQF) – duration 1-year course, at Engim Lombardia – starting in October/November 2022•In Spain on “Specialization VET Programme on Cybersecurity” (level VI EQF) – duration 1-year course, at Maristak - starting in September 2022•In Germany on 2nd-year training of “Higher Education Apprenticeships Programme” on ICT (level VII EQF), at ITB Bremen – starting in September 2022•In United Kingdom on 1st-year training of “Higher Education Apprenticeships Programme” on ICT (level V EQF), at Belfast Metropolitan College – starting in September 2022Once set the good practices to be evaluated, the partnership will agree on general and specific “evaluation indicators”.Each local ecosystem will run an on-going evaluation on the effectiveness of the good practices applied.At the end of the programmes, a “Final evaluation on the effectiveness of the good practices applied” will be held by each local ecosystem.On the basis of the evaluation outcomes, each local ecosystem will draft a brief report on “Evaluation on the transferability of the good practices applied”, in order to improve the final version of the Handbook.The latest release of the Handbook can be shared in all UE national context for the application of good and transferable practices of the model developed (Dissemination of the project results)."

"In the document published by the EC in 2012, “Rethinking Education”, the necessity to integrate technology in training centers was already highlighted, insisting on the need of providing trainers with proper training in this regard. Moreover, the Common Framework for Digital Competences for Trainers 2012, published by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport reinforced this argument stating that trainers need to improve their digital competences to normalize the use of technological resources in class. The MOBILE-TECH project wants to contribute to make this a reality.The use of mobile devices for learning is not something new and although there are some experiences of its successful implementation, we have detected some barriers for its implementation in VET:- Most of VET trainers are not aware about the potential of mobile devices as a tool for learning.- Mobile devices, and specifically smartphones, have a bad reputation ""majority of people on Earth believe mobile phones, beyond not being conducive to learning are in fact antithetical to it"" (UNESCO Mobile Learning Week Report, 12-16 December 2011, p.11).- Most of VET trainers do not have the necessary competences/knowledge to use mobile devices for learning (ICT skills, knowledge of the different apps which can be used for learning, how to create/modify their own apps, how and with which purpose to use mobile devices).The aim of MOBILE-TECH project is to encourage VET trainers´ training about mobile learning through the creation of an Open Collaborative Learning Platform. To achieve these objectives, we will carry out several activities which can be gathered in three products:1) “Trainers´ guide for mobile resources to be used in the classroom”. The guide a) describes what mobile learning is and which devices, tools, media, apps could be used in education; b) it offers an illustration of the abundant pedagogical benefits and advantages of m-learning and describes good practices collected in the 5 project Countries (Germany, Spain, Great Britain, Greece and Finland); c) it demonstrates how to plan your mobile learning approach. The guide is available in the 5 project’s languages (English, German, Finnish, Greek and Spanish).2) Development of Trainers´ course “How to develop new training resources and teach mobile learning (m-learning)”, addressed to teachers from VET centres and from other educational fields. The course is divided into 6 modules: 1 - Introduction and presentation of the course for trainers; 2 - M-Learning: definitions, models and pedagogical benefits; 3 - How and in which cases use solutions, tools and applications for mobile devices; 4 - M-learning in practice (how to develop own contents and how and for what to use different mobile devices); 5 - How to take the most of the use of social networks; 6 - Planning m-learning.3) Open Collaborative Learning Platform for trainers. All the project materials will be hosted in this platform. Not only the guide and the course but also different pedagogical materials related to m-learning in the classrooms. The Learning Platform also includes a specific area to share knowledges and information about mobile devices, tools, apps, etc. (M-TECHwiki) and to discuss doubts and questions concerning m-learning (Forum M-TECH).The Training course and the Learning Platform have been tested in partners’ countries. Totally 100 trainers and 150 students participated in testing sessions. Moreover, the platform and the training materials (the guide and the course) were presented in the multiplier events celebrated in all project countries. To ensure the smooth development of the MOBILE-TECH project different key transversal actions were implemented: A1 - Creation of an e-mail distribution list for partner’s communicationA2 - Use of Asana platform for an effective management of the projectA3 - Creation of a Skype group for online meetings - Quality Management Plan, monitoring and preparation of 4 reports (A11, A12, A13 and A14)- Dissemination Plan, implementation y preparation of an intermediate and a final report (A18 and A19)A6 - IPRA - Four financial reports (A7), (A8), (A9) and (A10) A15 - Web 2.0. campaignA16 - Publications in pressA17 - Elaboration of a video presentation of the project.The consortium met in four International Meetings to plan and evaluate project progress: M1-Kiel (Germany), M2-Glasgow (Great Britain), M3-Helsingfors (Finland), M4-Durango (Spain)."

The European Union has high levels of school drop-outs (with significant differences between countries), which in many cases are associated not only or exclusively with a problem of pupils' ability (i.e. pupils with learning difficulties), but also are closely related to social, motivational and even family factors that surpass a merely educational area. This situation occurs more frequently at certain levels, such as vocational training (especially the initial training), and training on professional certificates. The profile of students in initial professional training usually presents particular characteristics, which make them more vulnerable to school drop-out and which sometimes manifest in problematic behavior.This is because this level of education picks up a type of students that comes from failed studies, and that in many cases face learning problems, but also behavior and coexistence issues (school failure, low motivation, drugs consumption, violence, bullying ...). Furthermore, immigrant students at this VET level reach a high level of representation. In Spain, for example, it is situated around a 35% (for students 16-17 y.o.), adding other vulnerability factors, such as social integration, language issues, etc. There is a clear indicator when dealing with this group: 35% of immigrant students in Spain dropped out in 2018, in front of the 15.3% of the local students.The presence of students with these risk factors, and who respond to a profile of low motivation and who present behavioral problems, has a high qualitative impact in VET centers. This impact is direct on trainers, staff and other students, and can lead to a spiral of discomfort and conflict that greatly reduces the quality of training. Furthermore, those students are highly vulnerable and in risk of drop- out and an unsuccessful educational (and even) professional integration. We, therefore, face a problem that responds to a casuistic with multiple dimensions and that must be approached in an integral way.With our InVET project we want to contribute to improving this situation, by focusing on the development of a complete Pack of Resources addressed to i-VET centers, managers and trainers, and that would include:1. Specific references on successful initiatives developed at education centers to fight against conflict and pro difficult students’ inclusion. We would offer trainers and managers in VET centers with complete examples (in the form of video testimonies) where the protagonists of those initiatives can explain the contexts, the measures, the impact and assessment carried out.2. Guidelines (and recommendations) to implement concrete measures in the educational centers at different levels: from the pedagogical point of view, to organizational aspects, including logistics and models for the design of active learning environments, etc.3. Resources that would help trainers and managers at the centers to implement the proposed measures.Project objectives, thus, include:- To fight against the exclusion factors that lead young i-VET students to drop out of school.- To provide the VET centers, their managers, trainers and staff with success references and commented examples that allow them to transfer these initiatives to their own contexts.- To offer a complete analysis of a complex problem, in which multiple factors and dimensions intervene, and which must also be addressed from a comprehensive approach.- Create a set of tools and resources that, with a practical approach, offer intervention models at various levels: pedagogical, organizational, logistic, etc.- Contribute to a better understanding of the European reality in reference to school dropout and its causes, so that this vision can be used and transferred to other educational sectors.Addressing the problem of school dropout is a European need. Even if the contexts and realities may differ between the Member States, the problem is common. And in the case of the students of i-VET, it is clear the need to equip the centers and trainers with practical and contrasted tools that allow them to address the problem, since the consequences for them as professionals (influencing the quality of their work) and for their students leaving school (with unemployment rates clearly higher than those of other profiles) highlight an important failure of the education system.The partnership is led by Maristak Durango, and composed of a set of organizations experienced in the work with young disadvantaged students in the VET system, and includes experts, from public and private sectors, on drop-out and early school leaving, on the development of training programmes and ICT-based learning environments, and on training trainers initiatives. This mixed expertise joint together and addressed to common goals are considered the key factor for the successful development of the project.

"Progress in promoting equality and inclusion is one of the cornerstones of the ERASMUS + programme, especially significant when it comes to vulnerable groups such as the case of immigrants collective, and more specifically young immigrants who are immersed in phases of education and professional training. The reality offers worrying statistics when it comes to assess immigrant students´ performance (lower than the figures for national classmates) and drop-out figures (over the national average in all the European countries). Linguistic adaptation is a central issue in the mentioned educational phases, that can contribute to improve not only the academic results but also social inclusion of immigrant students.However, it requires the design of appropriate environments and teachers prepared to meet the challenges that undoubtedly generates multilingualism. And those are the central targets of MULTIESKOLA project.MULTIESKOLA project is designed to respond to the challenges of multilingualism in educational centres focusing on:- The need of all the students to develop language competences both in mother tongue and in other language to facilitate their social and labor inclusion.- The development of trilingual educational models and excellence models that clearly respond to the current social and labour market demands.- The respect for the minority languages, official and non-official, that coexists in many European regions in educational (formal and informal) environments.Thus, the project main goal was to respond to the new challenges of European schools and i-VET centres by providing resources for the development of an inclusive education and training, from the perspective of multilingualism.The MULTIESKOLA project has clearly targeted the target group of teachers, as well as school directors and I-VET centers. Its development has focused on the design of a Toolkit of educational resources for teachers, within the framework of the priority ""Strengthening the profile of the teaching professions"". This result allows to improve the professional skills of teachers of secondary schools and initial vocational training, promote continuous and peer learning through the creation of a learning environment that allows the interaction between teachers, experts, the educational community in general and representatives of parents, among others.The project was initiated by a team formed by 5 European organizations, directly linked to the field of education and training, thus representing the target groups of the project.The main activities carried out include, first of all, a research phase, with interviews with managers, directors and teachers at different centers, which has allowed collecting ideas and data in each participating country and which has been a key information base for the approach of the contents of the Toolkit.Next, the Toolkit of Educational Resources for Teachers has been designed and developed, a tool that includes four thematic working areas (peer mentoring, Diversity and interculturality, Edutainment and Motivation), and offers training content, practical tools and resources useful in the day to day of the teacher.In addition, the transversal management, evaluation and dissemination activities have been developed. The latter has been especially relevant, and the partners have managed to involve a large number of educational centers and stakeholders in their local and national contexts, thus achieving a significant impact on the target groups of the project.It is interesting to note that, in fact, at the end of the project, there are already a significant number of educational centers and teachers that are using the Toolkit to organize their school activities (curricular and extracurricular ones). The partners are receiving very positive feedback, and it is foreseen that this use will also allow an update and adaptation of the Toolkit to new ideas, needs, approaches, and even thematic areas, in a medium-long term.The MULTIESKOLA Toolkit has from its origin, a vocation to be a living product,open to the contributions that are received from the teachers who use it, and who enrich it with their comments and ideas."