3D printing (3D-P) has a large effect on creativity and innovation and it has been identified by EU as one of the technologies that will boost the development of future products and services. The use of 3D-P in the European industry is growing rapidly, creating new jobs that requires new skills and qualifications. As the development of these skills is not commonly supported by VET programs, there is an urgent need to strengthen the VET curricula content in order to provide the students, youths and adults with the necessary key competencies. The main objective of 3DP project was to address the need of European industry for workforce with 3D-P skills by developing a specialized VET course and e-learning platform. Several specific objectives are defined from the main objective:1. Promote active cooperation between HEI, VET providers, SMEs and a certification body in order to obtain a significant impact on the modernization of VET education in the 3D-P sector;2. Create a flexible learning pathways able to provide VET graduates with important competences and skills, including growing use of digital learning, and aiming to improve the level of both sector specific and transversal competences and skills, with particular regard to those relevant for the 3D-P labour market;3. Prepare guidelines and case-studies on the use of 3D-P in VET education to define the most suitable training paths; 4. Generate a VET 3D-P curricula embedding the most relevant topics for the 3D-P labour market;5. Create a VET course focused on developing skills in 3D-P and the related fields;6. Develop a multilingual learning management system (LMS) to make the course content free and easily accessible; 7. Prepare a guideline for the trainers using the developed materials.The consortium was made up of 9 partners from 6 countries.The main activities undertaken by partnership are: • Developed 5 Intellectual Outputs (IO)• Created a Pan-European certification system and tool, including self-assessment tests and a 3DP knowledge certification test that was sent to ECDL Foundation for approval. • Run one learning, teaching and training activity for trainers in 3D-P• Run a series of pilot test on IOs• Evaluated and revised the IOs• Translated the 3DP courseware and LMS in English, Romanian, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Lithuanian• Produced/ translated/distributed 4 newsletters and one leaflet• Created and continuously updated the project website and social media channels• Held 7 multiplier events in Romania, Italy, Spain, Poland, Malta and Lithuania• Disseminated the project and its results to the target groups• Organized 4 transnational project meetingsThe main project’s results are the 5 IOs developed:•Guidelines and case-studies on the use of 3D-P in VET education•Curricula of 3DP course•3DP courseware•3DP trainer guidelines•3DP learning management system (e-learning)The 3DP project supported the improvement of participating organizations’ capabilities in 3D-P and related fields, allowing for development of their activities. The staff of partner organisations gained more knowledge on 3D-P, VET education, e-learning, etc. and expanded their expertise in project management.The main attained impact is the modernization of VET curricula by adding features relevant to 3D-P sector. The 3DP outcomes are equipping VET students with new key competencies specific for 3D-P, competencies that are not available in the existing VET curricula. Consequently, the partners as well as the external experts consulted, are considering that the impact of the 3DP project on the VET curricula is a significant one. Already, VET providers from Romania, Spain, Italy and Lithuania are including 3DP courseware in their curricula. The potential is huge and we expect more and more organisations to use the 3DP teaching material.The project had an impact on all the target groups. It helped VET and other students, post-tertiary graduates and key personnel of various organizations to gain 3D-P competences and, consequently, to increase their chances to find a good job or to open a successful business, to support their organizations in improving the operational capabilities and/or extending the activities range.The companies using 3D-P benefit from the availability of skilled work force, thus being able to develop, expand their activities field, innovate their processes, etc.The individuals graduating the 3DP course also enhanced their creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, as they become able to benefit from the formidable opportunities offered by 3D-P.On longer term, we anticipate that the 3DP project will provide significant beneficial impacts on VET providers, regional development agencies, political decision makers, chambers of commerce and industry, industrial associations, foundations relating to design and 3D-P, capital investors, patent attorneys etc. and on the people interested in developing their 3D-P skills.

1. The overall aim of this project will be to develop and test a new 'Skills Escalator' model and approach to the development of the skills and competencies of front line health and social care staff working with elderly people living with dementia, using innovative digital technologies and methodologies. The project will include a strong emphasis on workplace learning and mentoring as well as the development of a range of flexible online and blended learning resources and content accessible through a wide range of means including PCs, tablets and smartphones. 2. The context and need for the project were identified through background research by the partners and their practical experience of working together on related EU and other projects focusing on the needs of elderly people living with dementia. Within the EU rapid growth is forecast in the elderly population and in their health and support needs and the numbers living with dementia are forecast to grow from 9.6 million in 2016 to 15 million by 2035 (OECD / European Commission estimates). This is resulting in growing labour and skills shortages in the care sector with care providers often having to recruit staff who lack the qualifications and experience required to work with a client group with complex needs. 3. The project is led by the R & D Centre Linkoping from Sweden and includes 4 other partners, Dundee and Angus College from Scotland UK, Somorrostro Training Centre from the Basque Country in Spain, Zemgale Planning Region from Latvia and TTC Ilfov from Romania. A transnational approach is needed because of the urgent need to upgrade the skills of care staff working with the ultimate target group in all the partner countries, and the added value that will result from the exchange of knowledge and expertise and joint development and testing of innovative approaches between the partners to address this issue.4. The objectives and main activities of the project will be;(i) To prepare a Baseline Study which will focus on the care services provided in each region, staff and skills shortages particularly among care / nursing assistants, and existing training provision.(ii) Establishing a Knowledge Triangle within each region through stakeholder forums bringing together employers / care providers, municipalities / policy makers/researchers and VET providers to provide an ongoing 'knowledge loop' of input and feedback.(iii) Developing a dedicated Skills Escalator transnational learning and knowledge platform providing flexible access to learning opportunities for both existing and potential care staff.(iv) Developing an online / blended dementia care learning programme for front line care and nursing staff in both specialist dementia care and generic key employability skills which can be tailored to individual learner needs.(v) Piloting the platform, learning programme and learning resources with care staff in each of the partner regions.(vi) Developing a Skills Escalator Toolkit which will include guidance for care providers seeking to implement the model. (vii) Producing a Final Innovation Report and organising national / transnational mainstreaming and dissemination programmes.5. The main results and impacts of the project will be;- Development of a delivery model and package of tools and resources which will provide a powerful and accessible vehicle for developing the skills and competencies of care staff with low / no qualifications and enhancing the quality of care for elderly people living with dementia.- Directly developing the skills, competencies and qualifications of 150 learners in the partner regions who will participate in the piloting.- Exploitation of the outputs / products through the project's mainstreaming and dissemination activities, 1,200 people will participate in launch and dissemination events and a further 1,500 will benefit through stakeholder forums, presentations, network meetings etc.6. The EU exploitation potential of the model, methodology and products is considerable and the partners will make full use of their own transnational networks as well as EPALE, and the Erasmus Plus Results Platform to maximise usage and take up.

"Memory Media explored health and social care issues in a consortium of five partners: Dundee and Angus College and Forth Valley College (UK), Centro de Formación Somorrostro (Spain), FoU Centrum, Linköpings Kommun (Sweden) and Gannan Medical University, China. This international partnership aimed to enhance the attractiveness of HE courses in Europe by looking outside of Europe to one of the strongest economies in the world and how they assign resources to the care of older people. Creating an opportunity for convergence of two different cultural approaches (East meeting West) brought benefits to partners’ HE curricula. The project idea arose from research findings that approaches which use art/multi-media are having an impact in dementia care. Cognitive stimulation is a recommended evidence-based intervention for people living with dementia. People with mild-to-moderate dementia should be offered the opportunity to participate in cognitive stimulation activities including informal stimulation through recreational activities and/or more formally via structured programmes which aim to provide stimulating activities based on psychological theories of cognition. Activities can be carried out by health professionals, carers or relatives in a variety of settings. The project undertook comparative research and created new practical and theory-based teaching materials to teach students in HEIs how East and Western approaches work in different ways. The project used techniques from digital media to create a stimulating ""memory box"" app that can be used in health and social care and/or community settings. Outputs include a project website, research findings, teaching and learning material and a series of peer teaching course-plans. The project achieved this through reaching five objectives: 1) To work with a transnational consortium (Europe and China) to create new learning resources for HE learners which adopt innovative approaches to care for people living with dementia. 2) To promote cross cultural learning and better understand how Eastern and Western approaches can converge to create workable practical solutions. 3) To develop teachers’/trainers’ competences to ensure they have the necessary knowledge and skills to use the resources with their HE learners. 4) To draw on existing research from Europe and China to explore a common way forward that meets the changing needs of government health and social care policies and the shift from institutional care to home care from the West, and the growing need for institutional care from the East. 5) To lay the foundations for a Capacity Building in Higher Education Project in the pipeline by building a strong strategic partnership to inform this future development. 247 learners and 93 teachers (higher than the expected 48 learners and 12 teachers) evaluated the resources. Teachers & learners then came together in peer learning events to exchange ideas and carry out practical learning to ensure participation and deep & long-lasting impacts. Those directly involved experienced positive impacts, personally & professionally (e.g. increased motivation, job satisfaction, development of intercultural skills) & a sense of achievement. They gained a more positive attitude towards the EU, and a better understanding of skills levels in other countries. The project brought benefits primarily to students and teachers but also to health and social care professionals who gained valuable new resources for use in practical care settings."

As underlined in the EC Recommendation 2018 on Key Competences (in line with UN, UNESCO, OECD) “everyone has the right to quality and inclusive education, in order to maintain and acquire skills that allow full participation in society”. As Von der Leyen pointed out in her political guidelines, the quality and inclusiveness of education systems is of strategic importance. The COVID 19 pandemic is having a strong impact on this principle. In this phase digital technologies and Open Educational Resources represent a crucial means to support educational systems enabling students to continue learning in lockdown time; but also proved a major barrier for some when access, equipment or skills were lacking. A new digital divide in the EU, between those who have access to innovative, technology-based education and those who do not, is on the rise, worsen the already existing emergency in term of school drop out in some European countries, among which Italy (14%) Spain (17%) Romania(15%) and Cyprus and Greece where the % of early leavers is lower but still far from the 2020 target (PISA 2018 and Eurostat 2019). O.L.A. project promotes the use of OERs and OEPs (Open Educational Practices) for in presence, distance and blended learning among primary and secondary school systems (ISCED 1,2,and 3) of the partner countries. Taking into account UNESCO and EC priorities, OLA refers to the following Areas of Action, actively involving 60 teachers and 1300 students inside and outside the partnership, other 300 stakeholders in the MEs and reaching at list 3000 stakeholder through dissemination activities:1.Building the capacity of educational actors and stakeholders to create, access, re-use, adapt and redistribute OER; 2.supporting development and availability of OERs for ISCED levels 1,2 and3 and reinforcing European cooperation in OEPs and in innovative didactics. 3.Encouraging inclusive and equitable OER quality, as well as OER models focusing on the analysis of a variety of stereotypes (moving from but not limited to gender)4.Improving digital and digital literacy competences in teachers and students5.Improving teacher competences with reference to learning methods for distance and blended learning6.Promotes a critical and responsible use of digital contents, widening the digital literacy competences conception in the computing subject in ISCED 2 and 3 levelsTo lead these objectives a strict work plan will be approved by the General Assembly of the project and monitored by CNR IRPPS. 3 Intellectual Outputs will be realized:IO 1 – OLA MOOC MODULES FOR TEACHERS TRAINING: 5 MOOC modules for primary and secondary school teacher- training will be co-designed by researchers and teachers: 1 –What OER are; 2- RE-USING existing OER; 3- Building and evaluating OER; 4 - OEP and BLENDED EDUCATION; 5: Creative commons and open licenses. Each module will provide focuses for ISCED 1, 2 and 3. The modules will be focused on the creation, access, re-use /adaptation/ remixing of OERs, on the adoption of OEPs in distance, blended and in presence learning. The modules will be developed in a modular way. Formative and summative evaluation tools will be provided according to EQAVET and EQF frameworks. During the second half of the 1st and the 2nd year, 50 teachers from partner schools and from other primary and secondary schools will undergo to the OLA MOOC modules, before to create the 80 OERs provided by the IO3 and adopt OEPs in their working daily life. IO2 - Guidelines for Teachers and educators presenting the OLA theoretical framework, a methodological toolkit, a common glossario -Tesaurus and checklists, instructions for teachers explaining how to use the e-tools devoted to the OERs design and the creation of interactive educational tools, videos, flashcards.IO3 – 80 SCENARIOS FOR PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL: at list 80 inclusive and equitable quality OER scenarios will be designed and implemented in STEAM related subjects, including multidisciplinary and civic/citizenship issues The OER implemented, besides to the specific subject of the scenario, will implement the students’ competences in using digital information and social media platforms critically, effectively and responsibly, promoting digital literacy, critical thinking and consciousness of stereotypes by analysing in texts and digital resources and media (moving from but not limited to gender), information overload and disinformation management. The Intellectual Outputs will be implemented in a participatory way, involving teachers, students and researchers, the National Advisory Boards, whose members are relevant expert in the field of educations, and the OLA LABs community (the participatory Multiplier events in which participants are involved in a process of analysis and evaluation of the IOs) in the co-creation process and in the ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness and usability.

Fast technological developments and the rapid uptake of digital technologies is changing the structure of traditional industries in the EU, pushing towards the so-called Advanced Manufacturing and the 4th Industrial Revolution (or Industry 4.0). Several common gaps at EU level have been identified in the engineering related qualifications at EQF5 level which include Engineering studies at University Level and Technical Engineering studies at Higher Vocational Level. These gaps relate to engineering processes, product design and general design for the manufacturing automotive industry. The aim of the project has been to develop professional and specialization skills, thus ensuring a transition from a general academic model to the application of knowledge for the development of key processes in a reference sector. A bridge is built for the transition from high scientific and technological knowledge to necessary and important specialized industrial skills. In this context, the project UPenAUTO aims at building a strategic cooperation at EU level between industry, education and research actors engaged in the review of competences and skills offered in Higher Education proposing modular and flexible training itineraries for engineering related graduates, based on specific profiles needed by the EU automotive industry, and promoting the uptake of Dual/alternate international training schemes in the automotive sector for boosting employability and securing talent within the EU. The specific objectives were the following: ->To respond to skills mismatches in the automotive sector by covering an existing training gap in the field of automotive engineering and design. ->Set up of a new EU Framework for new sectoral qualifications for the automotive industry that will contribute to the modernization of the European HE. ->Develop new EQF level 5 curricula for the smart specialization of engineering graduates. ->Boosting employability in the automotive sector through the uptake of Dual/alternate education systems alternating theoretical courses with work-based learning, “strengthening the relevance of graduates´opportunities to start their professional life based on their education” as stated in the Bologna process. ->Allow the connection between HE and research in terms of contribution of HE to the education and training of future workers devoted to innovation activities. ->Make STEM education relevant and attractive. ->Influence EU-level education and training policies and tools to ensure recognition, validation and increase international labour mobility. ->Encourage the use of skills and growth projections in course design, delivery and evaluation, as set in the recommendation Modernisation of Europe´s Higher Education Institutions.