"The project ""Empowering VET Teachers – Innovative & Enhanced CPD for Newly Qualified VET Teachers Working with Migrant Students"" (acronym e-VET) concerns VET education. In the EU, a high quality of VET has been recognized as one of the elements that support economic growth. At the same time, the rate of youth unemployment across EU is high: in 2019 17.7% for aged 15-19 and 14.0% for aged 15-24, what combined with 4.5 million people immigrating in 2018 to UE put pressure on the EU economies, and potentially could be eased by efficiently provided VET. In most countries participating in CPD it is required from teachers to develop competences needed to work in a multicultural environment. Therefore, the e-VET project focused on increasing the VET teachers' effectiveness by developing their soft skills. Project objectives were to: 1. Provide newly qualified VET teachers with an online diagnostic tool assessing their professional skills and identifying the areas of improvement ensuring further, relevant, based on their individual needs CPD.2. Up-skill newly qualified VET teachers with soft skills methods and tools fostering inter-cultural communication and competences, increasing participation and learning performance of disadvantaged learners, and combating discrimination, racism, bullying.3. Equip newly qualified VET teachers with digital guides on increasing social inclusion within the classroom environment with the use of training scenarios of interactive, project-based learning activities ready for immediate classroom implementation.Outputs of the project are combined in one integrated product – developed in the project e-learning platform https://platform.e-vetproject.eu/ consisted of:- an online diagnostic test assessing soft skills (Diagnostic Tool - DT), that enables teachers working with migrant students or in another multicultural environment to assess their professional skills in 5 key competences: ethics and professionalism, management of the multicultural environment, teamwork, communication, and critical thinking & problem-solving skills. Results of the diagnosis are in form of evaluation that helps to identify the areas which are still to be improved.- MOOC incorporated into e-learning platform that equips teachers with digital guides on increasing social inclusion within the classroom environment by developing their competencies previously assessed with DT. Based on e-learning course text, presentations, videos, as well as online quizzes, and additional materials in 5 modules, teachers can develop in ethics and professionalism, management of the multicultural environment, teamwork, communication, and critical thinking & problem-solving skills. These modules are related to competences examined by DT to assure the homogeneity and complexity of the project results.The e-learning platform https://platform.e-vetproject.eu/ provides both gamification elements (Badges, Quizzes), and reporting features for the users to be able to monitor their progress. This e-learning platform and its content is available in 6 languages: English, Bulgarian, Greek, Italian, Polish, Spanish. The main target group of E-VET project are therefore newly qualified VET teachers working in intercultural classes. During course of the project also other stakeholders like VET students, participants of vocational colleges, board of educations, teacher development centers, adult education centers, schools and trainers were involved and supported the project with their feedback during pilot testing and seminars. 140 participants were engaged in the testing of the Diagnostic Tool, 40 in the platform testing and 207 in the testing of the MOOC. In traditional and online seminars 229 people from different countries were involved. The participation of teachers of different ages and experiences, as well as from different culture allowed to create a product understandable as a language, to balance the difficulty of the questions and the fairness of the assessment. Although the outputs were prepared for newly qualified VET teachers working in intercultural classes, the platform may be useful to other groups like teachers and trainers of any sector.The project has a European dimension. Offering a full cycle of initial assessment, training modules and three levels of assessment it allows the opportunity to increase teachers’ motivation to work with new knowledge and skills, to improve the effectiveness of teaching using what they have learned and to overcome previously insurmountable obstacles. The acquired knowledge will facilitate their work in a multicultural environment, preventing school dropouts and the social inclusion of migrant students, improving specific ICT skills for working with e-learning platforms and transferring them into schools, especially in pandemics and distance learning. Project results can be also used by teachers on different levels of education. Its online formula allows accessing all interested stakeholders."

Supporting the mobility of vocational school students in the European labour markets by addressing the skill gaps is possible thanks to the unification of educational standards and the introduction of commonly available compensatory tools (such as digital open educational resources). The answer to these needs is carried out in an international project E- STEPS (E-Skills Training on Employability Practices & Solutions).The experience of project partners associated with skill and professional development of young people and adults as well as their excellent knowledge of the issues facing vocational education resulted in the development of innovative project that will allow the digital integration for learning, teaching, training and youth work as well as the development of a European area of skills and qualifications along with improvement of the competencies of adult educators. E - STEPS project is being implemented in the international teams ensuring professional, interdisciplinary and high quality collaboration.The E-STEPS project envisages increasing the mobility of vocational school students from five EU countries by developing their knowledge and skills in the area of soft employability skills and the development of a European area of learning by improving the quality of teachers / educators. The project will directly involved 500 students, 100 teachers and a number of representatives of educational institutions.During the project, students will undertake a course on soft employability skills (6 competencies) implemented in two stages - workshops in groups of 10 people supported by an e-learning platform and as part of self-education, completion of which will lead to a final contest – the winners of which will participate in a conference actively disseminating the results of work in the project.The activities undertaken in the project involve the creation and testing of innovative tools in the form of an e-learning platform and a set of educational materials (guides, e-learning courses, face-to-face workshops programs and reports relating to the evaluation of the effectiveness of vocational education in the context of the needs of the youth labour market). The project is intended to provide the scope for the exchange of experiences between the beneficiaries and organizations to strengthen the personal and professional potential of all participants (international and national conferences). Implementation of the project will be undertaken using a variety of communication channels (social media platforms, instant messaging, online softwares), and the principles of effective management and partnership programs implementation.Results of the project will include a report on the analysis of the needs of vocational education, an innovative, multi-lingual platform with workshop guides containing practical exercises, guides for educators, case studies of young participants and interviews with partners collaborating atinternational meetings. The results will be disseminated at conferences and communicated to all stakeholders using available communication channels.The project involves creating permanent changes in the teaching of students on vocational courses - enhancing their professional capacity and personality by developing soft skills that will help to increase mobility in the labour market and enable them to obtain a satisfactory occupations.Teachers covered by the project activities will benefit from the innovative tools that will fill an existing gap in vocational education for the related soft skills (Career Management Skills; Self-reflection (signature strengths, values, preferences), including self-worth and confidence; Emotional Intelligence; Managing mental health (stress management, resilience); Relationship building and networking). By participating in the study and analysis of the needs of vocational education, teachers will get the opportunity to compare their experiences in relation to the other partner countries. The project also supports directly the needs of all of the participating entities, allowing them to develop and update experience as well as providing an opportunity to develop both professionally and personally.

<< Objectives >>WOMENIN aims to promote entrepreneurship among women entrepreneurs. In addition, as specific objectives we want to identify the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs, we will promote the global vision of the internationalization of women entrepreneurs in Europe, we will promote digital entrepreneurship and we will facilitate the interconnection of women entrepreneurs through digitalization.<< Implementation >>The activities that we are going to implement in the WOMENIN project are aimed at the creation of a digital training manual that analyses the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs and possible solutions to the challenges, the creation of a digital training course aimed at VET trainers where the challenges manual is explained and finally, the creation of a virtual escape room where the knowledge of the manual is established.<< Results >>WOMENIN wants to create a training manual that analyses the challenges of women entrepreneurs, create and develop a training course for VET trainers on the manual and create and use a digital escape room. In order for these three results to be achieved, the project partners have internal and external evaluation tools to develop the materials with the highest possible quality and efficiency.

Due to COVID-19 organisations across Europe have had to make rapid changes to how they operate accelerating their digital transformation which is filled with a promise of new occupations and improved quality of life for all but also points towards the risk of widening the skills gaps and greater inequality. Whilst increasing rates of youth unemployment of 14% across Europe (Statista, 2020) remains a challenge at the same time businesses of all types and sizes are struggling to fill a wide range of technology roles that are critical for future growth.The EU Digital Skills and Job Coalition confirms that 37% of EU workers have insufficient digital skills and there are clear signs that the digital skills gap is widening. By 2022, there could be almost 500,000 unfilled digital technology jobs in Europe. On the other hand, young people are described as “digital natives” with an almost instinctive skill for digital mastery. Unfortunately, young people believe they are ill-equipped to navigate the new economy and to understand the skills needed for the future, digital jobs. There is also a significant mismatch between the career aspirations of young people and reality of the jobs market due to misinformation and a lack of high quality career advice which needs to be elevated by showcasing information about future roles. The World Economic Forum Reports 2018 on Future of Jobs stresses the importance of VET career advisors in preparing young people to become the new agile learners in future workforcesby providing a high quality career advice that is essential to personal and economic wellbeing. Finally, in the light of COVID-19 the career guidance provision is becoming even more crucial and there is a need for a digital platform that can assist VET career advisors to provide a high quality career provision featuring the future digital job trends. The partnership of Our Digital Future is a response to the above described challenges and the partnership focuses on working with:The Our Digital Future project will be working with the following target group:- 80 VET career advisors working at VET institutions who provide group and individual career sessions online to young people - 16 Experts (scientists, policy makers, start ups, businesses) currently specialising in the emerging, digital jobs within space exploration, alternative energy consultancy, 3D printing oforgan/body part creation, food technology, robotics, cyber security, virtual reality design and artificial intelligence development.- 40 Other VET stakeholders and decision makers who are in position of the influence in relation to the future emerging jobs and can shape the importance of high quality career adviceand guidance.The key outcomes of the project are:- Contributing to the initial and continuous professional development of VET career advisors by providing them with an accessible information to strengthen their understanding of the futuredigital job trends in the labour market within 8 innovative sectors- Supporting the uptake of digital practices for the teaching by supplying VET career advisors with a set of resources on a digital platform and an app to deliver group and individual career sessions online featuring the future digital job trends.- Creating an opportunity for VET career advisors to exchange innovative practices with each other and share digital tools- Raising awareness among other VET stakeholders and decision makers about the future emerging jobs and the importance of relevant career advice.For that reason, Our Digital Future partnership will collaborate to create a set of innovative practices:- 32 visual infographics showcasing key trends, skill requirements, job profiles in relation to the new emerging, digital roles across Europe within 8 innovative sectors from spaceexploration to artificial intelligence development- 16 video interviews with experts and professionals specialising in the digital emerging new roles across Europe accompanied by 16 lesson career advice plans incorporating the videos andpromoting the 8 innovative sectors- 1 digital platform and 1 app with set of digital functionalities: creation of login/avatar, interactive content display, a virtual networking room.Our Digital Future project contributes to the EU Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition's pledge as the intellectual outputs created within the project are promoting the acquisition of digitalskills amongst Europeans and the project implementation will result in:- raising an understanding about future digital jobs- increasing the professionalism of provided career advice by VET career advisors to young people in an online format- influencing educational systems to develop future talent to match the needs of employers and digital economy- boosting interest and capacity of VET career advisors to promote digital future jobs

Population ageing is one of the greatest social and economic challenges facing the EU. Projections foresee a growing number and share of elderly persons (aged 65 and over), with a particularly rapid increase in the number of very old persons (aged 85 and over). Due to changes in age demography and growing number of seniors, the demand for qualified caregivers will be increasing parallely. This trend is reflected to some respect in the educational offer of different institutions, like VET schools, educational centers, adult education institutions. However, all of them are focused on development of professional competences of caregivers and forget about fostering soft skills development, which in case of caregivers are crucial. Today, about 60% of care in the EU is provided by informal carers. Nevertheless, even caregivers who went through formal education path present major shortages in a soft skills. Preliminary, on the base of the desk research, the following soft skills were identified as the crucial ones while working with seniors: 1) communication skills 2) being a good listener 3) empathy 4) patience 5) 6) assertiveness 7) keen observation skills 8) being able to empower and motivate 9) ‘thick skin’ skills.Unfortunately, caregivers are not equipped with sufficient level of soft skills and have no knowledge and awareness of their importance, while other stakeholders like owners of residential/care/nursing houses and seniors themselves more often appreciate caregivers with appropriate personal approach. This approach has the reflection in seniors wellbeing which as now one of EU strategies priority. The competition on a labour market leads us to a situation when unskilled personnel will not be employed.For the purpose of project realisation following target groups were identified:•formal and informal caregivers of seniors working as a freelancers or working in nursing/care/residential homes, day care centers. This usually includes professional staff like nurses, physiotherapists, speech therapists and caregivers with no medical background.•People working in centres of culture or senior clubs who are responsible for organising the free time for seniors. Sometimes in these places work professional animators or therapists, but very often those people had no professional background•Seniors, adult residents of nursing/care/residential homes, day care centres; those who use assistants for living.•Participants of centres of cultures and senior clubs.•Owners of nursing/care/residential homes and day care centres and people responsible for HR policy, stakeholders, decision-makers in the field of senior care.The partnership of Here4U project aim at: •increasing the level of seniors` caregivers soft skills •improvement of competences, linked to their professional practices•empowering seniors` caregivers •improvement of the level of seniors` service highlighting the emotional and psychological aspect of seniors` care •fostering relation between caregiver and senior•improvement of seniors` wellbeing•increasing participation and learning performance of seniors For that reason partnership plan at creating the following outputs:•IO1 – Diagnostic Tool for Assesment of Soft Skills – the purpose is to develop and test a multidimensional ICT tool and to identify areas of improvement. It will be a standardized tool prepared according to the psychometric approach. After completion of the questionnaire, every user gets an automatic report which includes the results of the assessment. •IO2 - E-learning platform fostering soft skills improvement – developed in the latest standards (HTML5, CSS3) and will follow the “Progressive web application” guidelines. This means that the platform will be fully responsive so that it can be accessed by any device (including mobile devices). Beside this it will be installable as a mobile application on a every mobile device and it will behave as an app.•IO3 Online course empowering seniors`caregivers – digital guides and materials on increasing their level of crucial soft skills necessary to work with seniors (identified in details in IO1), as well as fostering relation between caregiver and senior and improving seniors` wellbeing by the usage of scenarios and video tutorials ready for immediate implementation while working with seniors.•IO4 Advocacy document - the collection of best practices and recommendations gathered and adjusted relatively to the concept of the project and disseminated widely amongst the places where the caregivers work, as well as at decision making level.