Through this project we intend to provide critical skills of using Internet and other skills that are nowadays compulsory for an active and responsible digital citizen. Such skills will be useful not for a short period, but also for lifelong learning and employability, as all of them are listed among the required skills the employers are looking for even after 2020. (World Economic Forum (The Future of Jobs, 2018, Report), Eures (The top ICT skills in demand by companies today, 2019) etc.)Through YNSPEED (Youth new personal & employable skills development) project we will address 3 hot topic of the nowadays digital era such us: fake news, artificial intelligence and education for a sustainable development + a continuous interesting & useful topic as learning English, this time by using technologies. Through the project will be implemented a MOOC platform for courses addressing (critical) digital & media literacy (Fake News), Artificial Intelligence, Sustainable Development and Learning English with Technology. Thus, 250 youth workers & youth aged 16-35 that are willing to develop & improve such skills skills could attend MOOCs that are addressing hot topics for the nowadays digital society. By finalizing such courses they can obtain diplomas that are nowadays already informally recognized by some employers (another long-term aim of the project is to make efforts for validating such kind of informally acquired competencies) fostering youths' employability, too. Thus, the YNSPEED project addresses open&innovative practices for informal learning using digital platforms, tools&materials.Aims and objectivesThe YNSPEED project aims to address open and innovative practices for informal learning through which the young people from 5 partner countries in the project are aware of the learning process and develop specific skills that will improve their employment skills such as: critical thinking about fake news, approach and education for sustainable development using digital platforms, tools and materials.The specific objectives of the project that are planned to be achieved over a period of 2 years are:- to equip the youth workers and the disadvantaged youth from the 5 communities involved in the project with knowledge relevant to their professional and personal life and to improve their employable skills, over a period of 24 months- to prepare the young people from the 5 communities of the project consortium for lifelong learning, involving them in a process of operationalizing the critical thinking skills regarding fake news, addressing artificial intelligence and education for sustainable development in the a digital company for a period of 24 months-to design and validate training tools and materials that promote innovation in learning (ie LET course) with flexible approaches (ie MOOC) that will be used within the partnership for direct target groups - youth workers and youth in disadvantaged areas from those 5 communities involved in the project, over a period of 24 months.Therefore, youth workers will be prepared to increase the level of self-empowerment or self-development and, more importantly, develop the level of adjustment to new social and economic context.How will we measure the degree of attainment of these objectives:-we will develop new tools to be used for the development and support of the critical thinking- we will centralize the reactions direct and indirect will have towards these tools- we will measure the degree of interest for the project coming from the stakeholders in the filedAs concrete results, through this project we will produce:- An online platform suitable for running MOOC courses + 4 MOOC courses (developed under CC licences, using partially OER resources that could be easily transfer and adapt to other users/learners)- 5 Multiplier dissemination events/conferences- 2 short training courses for youth's workers + a youth's learning strategy - national policy recommendation for validation of informally acquired competencies through MOOC coursesThe consortium's transnational nature with different types of organizations allows to assess different EU situations; to bring and share multiple learning experiences and scenarios. This multinational teamwork draws a more comprehensive approach to the needs and solutions, bringing the projects' benefits in the different stages of implementation in terms of interventions & results' quality.

<< Background >>The WINnovators project stems from the belief that Higher Education Institutions can play as catalysts of change within the territories where they are located, contributing proactively to shaping socioeconomic development processes.Starting from this conviction, WINnovators develops tailored capacity-building actions primarily between the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from the WINnovators consortium and associated partners, then among the other non-academic partners (business incubators, tech companies, NGOs), to strengthen the links with society and business and reinforce the systemic impact of the Project Results. It is indeed necessary that HEIs act as change agents to foster sustainability and innovation goals and educate their students to guide and support other disadvantaged people - such as young women from rural communities - in the transformative innovation paths encouraged by peer-to-peer learning.Taking this approach requires reconfiguring teaching and learning practices in HEIs towards capacity development approaches that involve Open Innovation Ecosystems (OIE), communities and informal learners into teamwork practices, to transform young women’s careers towards digital, STEM/STEAM innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability.In other words, there is the need for new approaches on how to attract marginalised young women to the blended informal-formal learning methodologies that could increase their career possibilities and open up the outreach to innovative, expert communities such as at HEIs and OIEs.Specifically, the WINnovators project stems from the following needs: i) The need for promoting digital, entrepreneurial, STEM/STEAM innovation and sustainability competencies of young women from rural areas and outskirts regions who are facing socio-economic difficulties because of the pandemic, or the lack of experience and skills and the absence of mentors and partners with whom develop further their own innovative business approaches. We believe that such young women fall into a risk category because of the lack of opportunities in their regional neighbourhood to engage with people who can accelerate their innovation ideas locally. The WINnovators project tackles unconscious biases regarding female entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership. It indicates the need for such forms of learning and development of own entrepreneurial ideas, STEM/STEAM and digital innovation and sustainability competencies that are provided digitally, facilitating the learning process through problem-based settings. ii) The proved need of the HEIs to proactively develop new teaching and learning approaches that build innovation and entrepreneurial capacities across HEIs, OIE partners and communities, thus creating responsive environments to boost innovation and sustainability equally in the partners’ regions. The sustainability is achieved through the development of a shared capacity for being responsive to the needs of people and of the environment. The good approaches for HEIs on how to stream collectively towards capacity building are not yet developed and empirically tested.iii) The need of HEIs to develop novel teaching and learning approaches that engage HEI students and external informal learners (such as young women in the rural communities) to experience and develop jointly collective level capabilities and build the capacity in STEM/STEAM, innovation, sustainability and entrepreneurship, teaching them how to act as change agents in their communities and activate people with fewer opportunities towards innovative careers. WINnovators is not limited to the development of students’ competencies, but it aims to build collective level capabilities that they can evoke after graduation in their local communities. This is a practice that can be trained only in action settings, such as the ones developed by WINnovators, which binds together HEIs and the needs of young rural women at risk of marginalisation.<< Objectives >>The WINnovators project aims to draw attention and contribute to the development of entrepreneurial, STEM/STEAM digital skills of young women at risk of marginalisation in rural and outskirts communities, promoting gender equality through concrete initiatives and actions that push for the employment of these women in innovative/advanced business that follow digital and sustainable transformation goals of societies. WINnovators wants to contribute to the transformation of the educational practices in Higher Education, to provide students with concrete instruments and experiences to act as the capacity developing agents in their communities and create an actual value as part of their HEI learning practices. This will be ensured through specific capacity building actions that will see the participation of underrepresented young people (women), teachers and students from the universities, business incubators, open innovation ecosystems and local communities. In the long run the WINnovators project contributes to the increase of female innovators in Europe and to change the teaching practices of educators in HEIs towards capacity building goals for the communities.Therefore, the WINnovators’ MAIN OBJECTIVE is to co-develop and implement, in cooperation with the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the Open Innovation Ecosystems (OIE) in the consortium, innovative teaching and learning approaches and concrete policies for capacity development in the digital, entrepreneurial, STEM/STEAM innovation and sustainability fields, from which young women from rural areas and HEI students and educators would mutually benefit in the short and long run.The project SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES are:i) Develop a set of capacity building practices in teamwork across HEIs, OIEs and rural community members of partners’ countries, through their concrete involvement in the co-design activities for the development of the WINnovators Training practices Collection (PR1).ii) Develop the entrepreneurial, STEM/STEAM digital innovation and sustainability competencies of young women at risk of marginalisation in rural and outskirts communities, and the capacity of HEI students and educators to act as change agents through the development of the gamified eTrainings and e-Modules that promote innovation-led collaboration between young women, HEIs students, educators and OIE experts (PR1, PR2, PR4).ii) Build a WINnovators Community as a shared capacity mediated by the WINnovators Interactive Working Space (PR3) for teamwork (HEI students, educators, OIE experts, young women from rural communities, associated partners’ networks, educational policymakers) and supported by the shared online space on social media.iv) Involve in an international online policy-seminar policymakers from all partners’ countries, who will contribute to the co-creation of WINnovators’ policy guidelines (PR4), to raise awareness and foster also at a European policy level the gender sensitive education, and the cross communities, HEIs and OIEs capacity building training practices in STEM/STEAM, digital innovation, sustainability and entrepreneurship.To reach such objectives, the following KEY MILESTONES have been identified:Milestone 1: Co-development of the WINnovators’ Training practices Collection (Y1, PR1).Milestone 2: Development and integration of the gamified interaction with the e-Modules and platform (Y2, PR2).Milestone 3: Final release of the WINnovators Interactive Working Space (Y2, PR3).Milestone 4: Launch and implementation of the WINnovators’ eTrainings (Y3, PR4).These Milestones will be a crucial indicator in the monitoring and evaluation process of project activities, to ensure the development of high quality and impactful results.<< Implementation >>Over a three-year period, the WINnovators project focuses on transforming teaching and learning practices and establishing specific capacity building actions across the HEIs, OIEs and communities in partners’ countries, where future educators are provided with digital, STEM/STEAM, entrepreneurial and sustainability competences to jointly collaborate with young women from underrepresented groups, exercise collective capabilities and grow as future societal agents. 1) Thanks to the joint effort of project partners and associated organisations, WINnovators co-develops the WINnovators’ training practices in the FIRST YEAR (PR1). In the SECOND YEAR, the HEIs partners will pilot WINnovators’ training practices, engaging young women from rural communities, HEI students and educators, the OIEs and community policymakers. Based on the lessons learnt, the project partners compose the contents of the two WINnovators’ e-modules: “STEM/STEAM entrepreneurship communities for young women” and “Joint capacity building for sustainable futures”. The project runs the WINnovators’ e-modules in the THIRD YEAR, engaging a second sample of young women from rural communities, HEI students and educators and policymakers.- Module 1: “STEM/STEAM entrepreneurship communities for young women” engages young women from rural communities aged 18-30 with scarce employment opportunities in their areas in STEM/STEAM innovation processes, as well as in sustainability and entrepreneurial projects that promote their competencies. The aim is to help them - with the cooperation of HEI students and mentors from OIEs - to improve their innovative business approaches and service ideas that promote their careers. The second target of Module 1 are HEI students and educators from various curricula (teachers’ training, andragogy, youthwork, educational technology, programming) which will learn and moderate STEM/STEAM innovation, sustainability, entrepreneurial teamwork and design innovations in cooperation with young women from rural areas. The final aim is to build students’ and educators’ long-lasting capacities with local OIEs, open education stakeholders and communities, and provide them with concrete experiences on how to take active roles as change agents in the communities. - Module 2: “Joint capacity building for sustainable futures” engages the HEI, OIE and community policymakers in developing their knowledge and skills of the good practices and policies for joint capacity building.2) The project co-develops the gamified learning principles for HEIs, OIEs and communities cross capacity development in STEM/STEAM digital innovation and entrepreneurship projects (PR2). These gamified learning principles should motivate the young women in their pursuit to be entrepreneurial innovators and the HEI students to be change agents in their communities. The gamified approach should promote social motivation with competition and support between the teams and experts. The effects of gamification on WINnovators training and elearning approach are evaluated.3) The project co-develops and evaluates the usability of the The WINnovators Interactive Working Space (PR3) that supports portfolio-based teamwork and gamified e-learning across HEIs, communities and OIE partners. 4) From the experiences gained at running the WINnovators’ training case studies (year 2) and the WINnovators’ e-training (year 3) the project co-develops: iii) Best practices on WINnovators eTraining and Impact Evaluation (D.4.1), and iv) WINnovators’ Policy Guidelines for HEI educators and communities (D.4.1), which are widely shared during the Multiplier Events organised in all partners’ countries and during the international online seminar targeting educators, communities, organisations who work with young women at risk of marginalisation, OIE partners etc.<< Results >>The project foresees the following Project Results and corresponding outcomes/deliverables:P1 - WINNOVATORS TRAINING PRACTICES COLLECTION (leader Tallinn University)→ D.1.1 WINnovators’ Training practices Collection are described based on 6 case studies carried out by HEIs partners with the involvement of about 50 young women from the rural neighbourhoods pursuing new innovative entrepreneurial ideas and careers. The training practices will describe how capacity building may be done when HEIs and open innovation organisations cooperate and actuate for the sake of the communities, engaging young women to innovation careers and students to be change agents.→ D.1.2 WINnovators’ e-modules contain open digital micro contents (learning nuggets) about entrepreneurship, digital innovation examples, STEM/STEAM innovation approaches, design thinking canvases and collaboration scripts and capacities, competencies focused assessments which are developed based on the WINnovators’ training practices experiences. On this proposal, two e-modules are developed: “STEM/STEAM entrepreneurship communities for young women” and “Joint capacity building for sustainable futures”, that are tested with different target groups of policy makers and young women and HEI students during the project lifetime, and will remain available for HEIs and other stakeholders beyond the project lifetime.P2 - GAMIFIED INTERACTION FOR WINNOVATORS LEARNING (Leader University of Ljubljana)→ D.2.1 Game elements for the WINnovators are developed and applied during the WINnovators Online Working Space as part of the e-modules, which will provide additional motivations for informal learners and the HEI students to engage with the self-learning contents, stay active during the teamwork activities and support others. One outcome is the knowledge about the effects of game elements on learning and designing in innovation teams, which can be used by HEIs and open education.PR3 - WINNOVATORS INTERACTIVE WORKING SPACE (leader VITECO)→ D.3.1 WINnovators Interactive Working Space supports HEIs and OIEs with the currently unavailable portfolio tools and sharing space for design thinking teams. The tool also provides e-learning nuggets about STEM/STEAM, entrepreneurship, digital innovation and sustainability issues with the gamified learning approach. Such a tool is currently missing from HEIs and communities.→ D.3.2 WINnovators platform usage guidelines (video-tutorial) provide easy to understand self-training tutorials for accessing and engaging the WINnovators Online Working Space.PR4 - WINNOVATORS ETRAINING AND POLICIES (leader BADEN)→ D.4.1. Best practices on WINnovators eTraining and Impact Evaluation provide case studies on how HEIs, OIEs and communities may together change the lives of the young women at risk of marginalisation towards entrepreneurial, STEM/STEAM and digital innovation careers and following sustainability goals.→ D.4.2. WINnovators’ Policy Guidelines for HEI educators and communities are co-developed as digital whitepapers and shared in the framework of the international online seminar, which will scale up the impact to the other universities and create synergy among HEIs, and OIE stakeholders.E1-E5 WINNOVATORS MULTIPLIER EVENTS WITH POLICY MAKERS IN ALL PARTNERS’ COUNTRIESOrganised in all partners’ countries to further share and promote the results of the project, involving as many stakeholders as possible, especially across the policy makers.E6 - INSPIRED WOMEN FOR STEM & INNOVATION VIRTUAL EVENTThe event sees the participation of the young disadvantaged women involved in the eTraining sessions, who will have the chance to virtually visit several ICT companies and speak with female entrepreneurs that will hopefully act as role models and good examples of empowerment.E7 - JOINT ONLINE MULTIPLIER SEMINAR FOR POLICYMAKERSThe event will see the co-development of D.4.2. WINnovators’ Policy Guidelines for HEI educators and communities.

The Trans2Work project is designed as complementary with “Equal Access for All -Strengtheningthe Social Dimension for a Stronger European Higher Education Area” (EquiED)(http://www.equied.ni.ac.rs/en/) in SR and “Support and Inclusion of SwDs at Higher Education inMontenegro” (SINC@HE) (http://sinche.uom.gr/) in ME and “Equal Opportunities for StudentsWith Special Needs in Higher Education” (EQOPP) (http://www.eqopp.ba/) in BiH. The aforementioned projects have been designed to improve the equal access, inclusion and support of prospective and current students with disability (SwD) at HEIs in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Taken into consideration the specific objectives of these 3 projects, the proposed project is a follow up and complementary based on the assumption that SwD often experience limited access to and success within postsecondary and higher education programs which subsequently limits their employment. Thus, Trans2Work links the outcomes from the aforementioned projects and makes the next step by preparing SwD to meet the needs of the labor market after their graduation. This project proposal completely addresses regional priorities for JP in Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, concretely the priority “Developing the Higher Education sector within society at large, University-enterprise cooperation, entrepreneurship and employability of graduates”. All three partner countries (PC) have done a lot for persons with disability (PwD) on the legislative level. I.e. ratified UN Convention on the Rights of PwD and adopted laws such as the Law on Prevention of Discrimination Against PwD both providing framework for right to education and employment/work for PwD. Almost all universities at partner countries have career centers and for those that have not the already established centers for students with disability from aforementioned projects have been included within the Trans2Work project.The associations of individuals with disability and the employment agencies in three partnercountries are actively involved in supporting PwD to find an appropriate job and some, i.e. inSerbia, developed programs for employment of PwD and specialized services both for PwD andfor employers.Although there is a good background and some common good developed strategies there are a lotof differences that are making the mobility among partner countries not easy and in a lot of casesthe implementation of those policies are still inefficient and not practically linked. A review onreports and literature focusing on the transition from HE to work life in the 3 partner countries has showed a lack of research data and information. Generally employers are skeptical about thepossibility of hiring PwD since their concern relates to the ability of PwD to carry out theiremployment responsibilities. Important factor for positive change in the attitude of employers is the level of education of PwD. Furthermore gathering statistical information to build up a clear picture of the situation of PwD within the labor market is particularly difficult. This is due in part to the fact that partner countries do not carry out regular or consistent surveys on the employment situation of PwD at the HE level. Comparison of the situation at EU level is further complicated by the fact that each partner country has its own system for defining the population with disability. Aim of the project is to improve the quality and relevance of school to work transition of HE SwD in RS and ME and BiH. Main objectives are to (a) upgrade and prepare HEIs services to support SwD to their transition from HE to Work following the EU policies, (b) link HE to “disability friendly” work environments, (c) assimilate transition opportunities and skills with EU practices and policies and (d) to prepare employers on understanding the needs of employees with disabilities in order to offer new jobs.