The EU is currently facing a paradox: while the youth employment rate stands at 16.1%, there are around 2 million unfilled vacancies across Europe. It has been elaborated that this paradox might be attributed to the fact that “a high number of employers cannot find the right mix of skills in the job market, especially with regard to e-skills.”(Eurostat, 2017, app.1,pt.5). The explanation has been supported by employers themselves who when recruiting young people, look first and foremost for the right attitude and aptitude to enable young people to be effective in the workplace. In particular, 5 key competences are foreseen: - Communication - Adaptability / flexibility - Creative thinking - Problem Solving - Teamwork In order to overcome this skills mismatch, better VET provision is needed to include those soft skills and better prepare the youth entrance on the labor market. The main objective of STRATAGAME is to support young people in acquiring and developing key soft employability, developing an effective open and innovative education through the use of ICT and contributing to professional development of the VET teachers by including common methodologies for introducing soft employability in curricula. These objectives were achieved by providing VET teachers with specific tools enabling them to include soft skills teaching in their professional activity, by developing an online diagnostic test to assess the soft skills of young people such as communication, adaptability/flexibility, creative thinking, problem solving and teamwork; by creating an online game to let young people and VET leaders develop the above mentioned soft skills and by providing to VET teachers electronic guides, equipping VET teachers with digital guides on didactic methods for incorporating the diagnostic test and the online game on soft skills within wider classroom activities. Partners are 7 entities from 5 European countries including Romania, Spain, Italy, Poland, and Turkey. All of them are educational providers and or stakeholders working for territorial development and labor insertion thanks to better adequation of skills to the market demands. The working team created for the implementation of STRATAGAME work under the leadership of the Romanian partner CDA: Arad Development Center. Then, STRATAGAME involves in the project activities two main target groups: VET teachers, including I-VET and C-VET formal, non-formal, and informal providers from all kinds of subjects and specialization to integrate soft skills among their activities. At least 140 VET teachers were planned to be directly involved in the development of project products. As the second target, STRATAGAME addresses young people understood as VET learners and potential VET learners facing the need for soft skills to facilitate their labor market integration. Again, at least 140 young people were planned to be directly engaged during the development of the project outputs. Finally, STRATAGAME also works with educational stakeholders such as VET institutions and teachers associations, youth associations, business associations, employment services, among others, with the aim of widening the outputs diffusion and impact. Description of activities STRATAGAME developed three main products: 1) A Diagnostic test, made of a set of psychometric questions and which aimed at drawing an evaluation of the youth level of competences in the 5 key soft skills addressed. This tool is helping teachers to assess their students' level of knowledge and provides young people with a deeper self-understanding. 2) An online game, which has the form of one building with 5 rooms, each one presenting a new challenge corresponding to one of the 5 competencies. 3) Electronic guides, which are supporting tools given to the teachers with teaching notes related to the online games, new scenarios for classroom implementation, sources of information and references on soft skills theoretical contents, best practices, etc. The methodology used for the development of STRATAGAME products relies upon educational gamification theory. The idea behind it is that learners are motivated and remind better the knowledge while entertaining. Also, it is participative and interactive, based on real cases and a contextual approach. Results and impact The project brings important impact on VET teachers by providing them with a selection of innovative didactic tools to apply within current methodologies and the daily classroom while getting increased teaching effectiveness, an increased understanding of the employer's’ requirements, and higher overall job satisfaction and motivation for Continuous Professional Development- The project has a positive impact on youth by developing their soft skills with the use of online tools resulting in an increased professional potential, an increased level of awareness of their own soft skills, increased confidence in their employability potential, and higher chances of getting a job. Soft skills are crucial not only in the workplace but also in daily life. By developing soft skills in the classroom, young people increase their chances of success within such fields as completion of assignments (time management), peer relationships (teamwork), and job hunting (networking). As long term benefits, partners expect to contribute to a better-trained youth generation able to be more efficient at the time of answering to employers expectation, thanks to an overcome of soft skills mismatch.

<< Objectives >>To provide educators working with women from difficult backgrounds innovative teaching tools to enable them to access public and private funds and increase their financial skills to start their own eco-business;To enhance educators knowledge about gender gap and gender discrimination issues and provide the right tools to tackle them; To upskill women educators in order to offer them new skills to make them more competitive in the labour world.<< Implementation >>- Training activities to teach the educators how to use the resources developed by the project to deliver eco-entrepreneurship classess to empower end emancipate women from difficult contexts- Co-creation sessions involving educators to ensure that the resources are adapted to their needs- Assessment activities to ensure high quality standards- Promotion activities to advertise the project and raise awarenessa bout the importance of women empowerment through financial independence and work<< Results >>- A Women’s needs Assessment Toolkit to allow educators to assess the skills that women have already acquired and that would be useful in starting their eco-business- A Train the Trainers Programme to improve educators skills in delivering eco-business courses to women - An online platform to provide easy, free and immediate access to the training courses- A sound and extensive dissemination campaign to advertise the results of the project, multiply the impact on the target groups

Technological innovations like Artificial Intelligence (AI) are exerting profound changes on the way people live and work. It is impacting all economies, societies and disciplines of knowledge, including how, what, why and where physicians need to best practice medicine and serve their patients. However, change is not only about the mere availability of such innovative technologies, but rather requires soft skills to get better connection with the patients, professionals, organizations and other agents concerning the health processes. The main objective of AIIS is to contribute to improve European HEIs’ offer in the field of medicine by providing a comprehensive programme for medical students, where AI, innovation, intrapreneurship and soft skills will play a key role, and which will be largely disseminated for its integration into universities’ curricula.AIIS proposal is built along three main axes:-A training programme anchored in social and market realities. Making full acknowledgement of latest technical innovations and the best learning methods to address them, as well as targets perceptions on the topic prior to the design of a comprehensive learning journey, training materials and challenges.- An individual and collaborative training programme developed and piloted relying on two main training needs identified:o Artificial intelligence (AI).o Soft skills, intrapreneurship and innovation. This training will be delivered making use of an innovative methodology mixing online contents and collaborative work to answer challenges (health challenges related with AI), making it flexible and attractive for students.-A long-term proposal designed in a way to enable insertion in students’ curricula. A wide network of HEIs, Research centres and companies will be created, and the project will foster public/private collaborations and partnerships. A key result of the project will be an exploitation plan aimed at mainstreaming the AIIS programme to the AIIS network.

<< Objectives >>The main objective of UPINFOOD project is to promote the transformation of the sector towards a new modernised vision of food that supplies nowadays demand in quality and healthy products while being sustainable, taking the most of new technologies and being a motor of innovation, thanks to education addressed to the key actors of this industry. Thus we intend to:-Develop a competence framework -Train professionals from the sector -Create collaborative tools -Equip VET trainers<< Implementation >>-Working seminars to better our mutual definition of key concepts-Focus groups with our target groups to assess their needs-Development of the project results -Implementation and testing of our results-Validation and certification of our results-Enrolment of further stakeholders thanks to a mainstreaming strategy that will support the spread of the UPINFOOD material and their integration among training offer in the food innovation field-Promotion of results<< Results >>Our expected results are:-A competence profile and learning pathway for the food (future) professionals relating to innovation, sustainability and empowerment.-An online training course including tests of competences, practical activities and collaborative elements -A train the trainer manual that supports the implementation of the course-A mainstreaming strategy-Durable impact on the local, regional and EU level in terms of transformation of food business models

<< Background >>The whole fashion industry employs 4,7 million people, in over 797,100 companies, with a turnover of EUR 5,7 million (Source: COSME). Fashion is one of the most polluting industries on a global level. In the last 15 years, clothing production has approximately doubled. Large amounts of non-renewable resources are extracted to produce clothes that are often used for only a short period, after which the materials are largely lost in landfills or incineration (1). Several problems are identified, starting with the production of raw materials, which are sources of contamination, but also the production processes, with the use of chemicals and dyes, the transport, the use of clothes themselves, and washing, which is also source of contamination, as toxic fibres end in the seas, and finally, the end of products life. The currently existing linear system does not allow to take benefit of any type of economic advantage, it stresses the reserves of natural resources, pollutes and degrades the environment and ecosystems and promotes significant negative social impacts at the local, regional and global scale. The entire model of this industry must be transformed.The current trends toward sustainability in the textile industry consist in the gradual elimination of hazardous raw materials, the transformation of the way clothes is designed, the improvement of recycling, or the effective use of resources and the use of renewable textiles (not synthetic). However, those trends are still marginal, and considered “best practices” in a market largely dominated by the fast fashion and massive industry. Our partnership could observe among his public, made of entrepreneurs and workers from local textile small companies, the lack resources to face those challenges in an extremely competitive context. New skills are needed to follow forward and accelerate this transformation, also giving the new generation opportunities to integrate this ageing industry. More sustainable and resource-efficient business models not only helps protect the environment, but also provides competitive advantage by creating important cost savings and boosting innovation for sustainability. Indeed, while consumers are themselves asking for more environmentally friendly fashion products, the growth of online trading is changing the way businesses operate and consumers interact, generating new challenges and opportunities. Technological progress and consumer behaviour are at the heart of a profound transformation within the fashion industry, which needs to be encouraged with proper training. For SMEs from the fashion sector, this is to be translated in the following concrete needs observed: -Training to update the skills: education has an important role in the transition and response.-Business model: Entrepreneurs need to find sustainable and innovative ways of delivering and capturing value in order to meet existing challenges and emerging opportunities, with a particular focus on circular economy and digital economy.-Human resources: Attract new talents in a context of ageing workforce-Need for collaborationCovering those needs will bring small businesses of the sector major efficiency to transform management practices and their business environment, stimulating new business models and trading formats, but will also create new jobs with new skills requirements. (1) A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning fashion’s future Ellen Macarthur foundation – 2017<< Objectives >>The main objective of TECOFASH is to support a performant, competitive and sustainable European fashion industry, focusing on increasing the capacity of professionals from SMEs and start-up to turn their business toward circular business models and environmental and sustainable innovation thanks to transnational and intergenerational cooperation and training. Our training will consider the triple bottom line of Elkington theory: the economic, the social and the environmental as the three keys for sustainability. In detail, TECOFASH is presented as a proposal addressing 3 Specific Objectives (SO): Specific Objective 1: Awareness rising of experienced fashion entrepreneurs about their need for adaptation and innovation to make a transition toward new sustainable business models.Specific Objective 2: Development of new competences for youth and unemployed to apply innovation circular and digital schemes to the fashion sector.SO3: Intergenerational collaboration and peer learning among those two target groups so they can benefit from higher levels of knowledge, also contributing to attract a new generation of workforce in the sector. TECOFASH will be based on knowledge sharing and peer-learning for working fashion stakeholders’ up-skill in terms of business model innovation, circular economy, integrating channels and process innovation, cooperation and networking, digital improvement, sustainability and CSR, personal development, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit, among others. To answer this challenge, our training proposal will focus on two pillars:-Sustainable and digital production processes, addressing the technical and operational aspects linked to the design, production, and distribution of fashion products, for instance how to reduce water consumption or taking care of the raw materials used. -Sustainable and digital management of a fashion company, that will explore how to turn the entire management system in a circular and responsible loop, including for instance cooperative management systems based on human and social responsibility.<< Implementation >>TECOFAH project brings together 7 partners from 5 countries and regions that are particularly concerned by the fashion industry: Poland, Italy, Spain, Lithuania and Greece while meeting the required skills to implement such action, with partners being business support organisation and representative of the textile, sustainable or digital fields. Together, they will address: -Experienced fashion entrepreneurs, needing to renew their skills and up-skills to develop further their SMEs toward long term sustainable practices, integrating digital, social, environmental and economic factors.-Youth, especially low-skilled youth or unemployed, providing them new knowledge, skills and competence in business management and business models in the fashion sector as a career opportunity. This group has informal high-level digital competences that might be used by the first group. -Supporting stakeholders for the exploitation and mainstreaming of the training to be developed. During this project, partners will implement the following activities: -Development of 3 training packages addressed to the experienced entrepreneurs, the youth and both together. They will also develop an e-learning platform to provide wide free access to the materials. At least 220 individuals will be trained during the projet life. -Piloting activities will be implemented where the two first target group will meet and increase their respective skills based on peer-learning and work-based approaches, being the method chosen for this project highly relying on interactivity and dialogue. At least 20 pairs will be created to test this method. -Sustainable events, that will be organized in each country at the end of the project as a way to promote the results achieved in a sustainable way. -ICT will be used as a catalyst for the project activities impact. -Our activities will be transnational, being in line with an international scenario for smart growth and sustainable development goals, from local individual actions to global impact.-And of course, all those activities will be supported by an efficient management system that will itself be designed with the idea of reducing the impact to the minimum, meaning fewer transnational meetings, more virtual meetings, a no-papers dissemination strategy, the optimization of online management tools, and a continuous reporting effort to spread our achievements.<< Results >>As a main result, experienced entrepreneurs are expected to raise awareness about the need for digital and environmental transformation while increasing their capacity of innovation. The youth and unemployed are expected to increase their practical knowledge about this key industrial sector, being able to develop new ventures/ find new job opportunities in this field, benefitting in the long term to the entire sector competitiveness. TECOFASH project intends, with the previously exposed objective, to present a training programme oriented towards the following outcomes:-Connect the companies from the sector with the younger generation, and attract new talented workforce towards this industry-Link representatives from the sector with training experts,-Be clear and open based, without conditions and free from constrains,-Focused on the main skills gap identified, being the production processes, the digital and green skills. -Make full use of the digital technologies and virtual collaboration to contribute to the up/reskilling of the sectorThis will be achieved through the production of 3 main results:R1 Sustainable and digital production processes The first output will be dedicated to the development of a training package addressed to both experienced entrepreneurs and youth targets with different level of complexity to address each one specific needs under a technical perspective, with a focus on products, sources of contamination and production. R2. Sustainable and digital management of a fashion companyThe second output will be dedicated to the development of a training package addressed to both experienced entrepreneurs and youth targets with different level of complexity to address each one specific needs. It will focus on managerial and transversal aspects related to the business models and digital and lean managementR3. Online cooperative platform:This result will create the expected dialogue between the two target groups and their collaboration toward sector innovation, with the final aim of attracting the younger generation in this sector. It will be dedicated to the development the training platform hosting the different training packages and the social modules for the implementation of the training and collaboration activities.Thanks to this, partners expect to achieve a significant impact at local, and further, national and European levels, supporting fashion SMEs to continue their effort to answer environmental and societal challenges and reach competitiveness and sustainability.