The COVID-19 pandemic has posed serious challenges to schools worldwide. The sudden transition from traditional to virtual classrooms plunged many teachers into uncharted waters, highlighting the insufficient experience with, and knowledge of, digital and remote teaching strategies. Practical and experiential, including Entrepreneurship Education (EE), have been halted despite the significant efforts and advancements of the last decade to include EE in school curricula. The Digital Firefly Project will develop tools and courses that will aid continuity in education by helping teachers to adjust to the new circumstances. The project’s target groups:i) Teachers and trainers in secondary education and VETii) Teacher educators involved in pre-service or in-service trainingii) Entrepreneurship educators involved in schools and VET who have never or only slightly been trained in digital and remote teaching strategies and thus currently face specific difficulties in adapting their EE strategies to a virtual environment and/or to a blended learning environment. The project will identify and address the challenges teachers, trainers and teacher-educators face in developing entrepreneurial competences through the New Normal, i.e. online and/or blended learning environments. The primary objectives of the project are:1) Investigate how teachers, trainers and teacher’s trainers could effectively maintain, adjust and scale their EE strategies to the demands of the New Normal.2) Train and support teachers, EE educators and EE teacher’s trainers on how to use digital and remote teaching strategies and tools for delivering effective entrepreneurial learning experiences.3) Provide practical online tools to ease the way for teachers/EE teachers and EE teacher’s trainers to ensure continuity of EE in online or blended learning environments.4) Contribute to the wider policy and research discourses on the post-covid future of education in general and EE in specific. The project will produce three primary deliverables:Output 1 - Digital Firefly Research and Policy reportOutput 2 - Digital Firefly Teacher Kit - teacher resources for online and blended entrepreneurial educationOutput 3 - Firefly training courses - Open online courses focusing on specific practical topics relating to online and blended entrepreneurial education. The research and policy report will provide the evidence base for and feed into both the development of the teacher kit and the Firefly courses. Furthermore, the resources in the teacher kit will be extensively referenced and used in the Firefly courses to provide course participants with tools that they can take with them from the trainings to implement in their own teaching environments immediately. The courses will promote collaboration and networking among European teachers to grow individual teachers’ personal and professional learning networks, thereby providing them with means and opportunities for continuous learning beyond the actual online courses.The policy and practice impact from this project is expected to be significant due to the innovative nature of this pioneering work that has not been done before for the schools and VET sectors - dissemination will focus heavily on scaling research and outputs to wider audiences at national and international level.

<< Background >>PEPAICO has as its goal to provide, students, professionals and entrepreneurs with the necessary and sufficient knowledge and tools to allow them to take on the challenges posed by the emergence of artificial intelligence and exploit the wide range of opportunities offered by this technology, either as novel products or innovative means to upgrade processes.According to International Data Corporation, the global artificial intelligence market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17% to reach 250 billion euros in 2027. The impact of artificial intelligence on employment has been extensively studied over the last ten years, leading to a paradoxical conclusion called ‘job polarisation’. Examining the US, Acemoglu and Autor (2011) came to the same conclusions than Darvas and Wolff (2016) who worked on the French, German, Italian, Swedish and British cases found similar results for the US, while report such developments for a selection of EU countries: in all these countries, the number of middle-education jobs (clerks, machine operators, assemblers) is declining while at the extremes, the number of high-education jobs such as managers, engineers and health professionals and the number of low-education service occupations (e.g. shop workers, deliverers, etc.) that are not worth to replace by automation, are growing. A key conclusion is that the quality of human capital plays a crucial role. The ability of individuals to use the technological advances for the benefit of their work requires developing particular digital skills through well designed policies. This underlines the importance of using appropriate instruments to ensure that workers are well prepared to harness the disruptive forces of digital technologies.Because it creates a wide range of new products and services, artificial intelligence is the very type of technology favouring not only entrepreneurship but also new generations of graduates, professionals, and entrepreneurs.Engineering, life sciences, business, arts, security, and even politics, all sectors use under one form or another. artificial intelligence technology is virtually limitless. J. Boynott provided seven examples spanning from finance, medicine to law to the showing how artificial intelligence can disrupt almost all industries. But artificial intelligence also changes radically the way businesses are run. K. Patel listed five ways AI can bring added value: efficiency, productivity, customer experience, creativity and error avoidance. At the same time, artificial intelligence is increasingly viewed as a threat rather than an opportunity, including youth who is presumably more acquainted with digital skills than their elders. In a study made by Young Enterprise on young people’s view of AI, 76% of respondents said that they think that AI will lead to fewer jobs. The artificial intelligence revolution is nevertheless irreversible. According to a survey performed by IBM and Oxford Economics, 82% of enterprises are now considering AI adoption. What really worries enterprises in implementing AI has nevertheless changed. Instead of the availability of technology, which was seen as the most important obstacle, now, it is the lack of skilled people enterprises consider as the most deterrent barrier.By contributing to the emergence of graduates, professionals, entrepreneurs well aware of the opportunities and threats artificial intelligence is and will be bringing in, the project is expected to: i) lead to business creations and jobs; ii) upgrade the employability of the learners since artificial intelligence is adopted by an increasingly number of companies.<< Objectives >>Spanning over three years, PEPAICO has as overall goal to alleviate this barrier by providing students, professionals and entrepreneurs with the knowledge allowing them to face the challenges posed by artificial intelligence and exploit the opportunities it creates in terms of careers or businesses. To that end, the project will achieve the following objectives:-O1:Characterise the advantages, drawbacks, opportunities and threats brought by each type of technologies on employability, career and business;-O2:Specify and develop a modular methodology blending in-person teaching and distance learning to train students, employed and unemployed professionals and aspiring and confirmed entrepreneurs on artificial intelligence along with tools to monitor and assess the trainees’ progress;-O3:Develop a face-to-face training course on artificial intelligence combining theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and gamification;-O4:Construct a distance learning platform on artificial made up of adapted as well as specifically developed online contents and a micro-learning application;-O5:Promote a generation of graduates, professionals and entrepreneurs well-aware of and well trained on artificial intelligence with the message than well tackled, artificial intelligence can lead to employability improvement, career boosting and business opportunities.<< Implementation >>Lasting 36 months, the project is made up of four intellectual output-producing activities (IOs). There are additionally an activity package (AP) dedicated to the dissemination and exploitation of the project results, and an activity package (AP) devoted to the project implementation and management.-“IO1 – Impacts of artificial intelligence on employability, career, and business” will set the ground for the educational methodology to be adopted by PEPAICO. Its purpose is to investigate the effect of artificial intelligence on each industrial sector and perpendicularly on each job position. IO1 will start by setting up a common terminology since artificial intelligence terminology and meaning are often vague, multi-semantic and intertwined. The results will be combined with existing studies to provide an in-depth insight of the impacts of artificial intelligence on employability, career and business.-“IO2 – Pedagogical methodology” has as its goal to specify the modular blended training programme on artificial intelligence in terms of content as well as format. To that purpose, the project will: i) determine job seekers, employees and entrepreneurs’ needs and expectations regarding training on artificial intelligence by means of quantitative surveys and qualitative semi-structured interviews; ii) use the results in combination with the outputs of IO1 to determine the artificial intelligence knowledge and skills to be acquired by each target groups regarding their backgrounds, professional profiles, and personalities; iii) Specify the formats to be used for the educational materials e.g. in-class theoretical teaching, simulations, coaching, gamification, peer-to-peer assessment, self-evaluation, etc.-“IO3 – Learning content development” will develop the core training content based on the survey, need analysis, and intended learning content specified by IO2. The developed content will be rolled out in face-to-face teaching and training pilot sessions. To that purpose, IO3 will: i) inventory partners’ educational material responding to the specification of IO2; ii) Adapt existing pedagogical material to make it tailored to trainees’ needs; iii) Develop complementary pedagogical material to fully respond to job seekers, employees and entrepreneurs’ expectations; iv) Carry out pilot sessions and refine the content taking into account the collected feedbacks.-“IO4 – Distance learning platform and micro-learning application” will design, develop and deploy the distance learning on artificial intelligence through four components:-The online teaching modules resulting from adaptation of the modules developed by IO3 and complemented with additional modules if necessary-The micro-learning application whose goal is to enhance the training process and create a collaborative network of trainees on artificial intelligence-The library of examples of use of artificial intelligence to enhance careers or businesses to illustrate-“AP5 – Dissemination and exploitation” is aimed at reaching the largest possible audience. For that purpose, it will combine multiplier events and online promotion of the project results, including the development of a website dedicated to the project in particular, and artificial intelligence in general, and participation in all relevant social networks. -“AP6 – Consortium coordination and project management” will put in place a management system be sufficiently flexible to allow the project face unexpected events while strong enough to ensure the project be implemented according to the work plan.<< Results >>PEPAICO will result in:•At the knowledge level,-R1:The project will produce a mapping of the impacts of each artificial intelligence technology on each industrial sector, job and position. This result will be reached by the achievement of the objective O1. It will help companies exploit the opportunities created by artificial intelligence while mitigating the risks it brings in, in terms of business development as well as process improvements. It will also help graduates and professionals identify the levers offered by artificial intelligence to upgrade their employability or promote their careers.-R2:The project will identify produce a pedagogical methodology for modular blended learning aimed at determining the artificial intelligence topic to be taught to students, professionals and entrepreneurs according to their background, industrial sector, situation, and aspiration as well as needs and expectations. R2 will be the result of the achievement.•At the educational level, the project will design, develop and implement a 360° learning approach grounded on the intended learning outcomes specified by the results R1 and R2 and combining face-to-face coaching, distance learning and daily micro learning:-R3:The set of modules to be taught in face-to-face sessions -R4:A distance learning platform aimed at allowing learners to access to a wide range of training contents including among others online courses, market forecasts, business cases, technological trends and best practices-R5:A micro learning application allowing learners to: i) self train on artificial intelligence knowledge and skills; ii) find information with the assistance of artificial intelligence; iii) network with other learners.Altogether, R3 will concretise the achievement of IO3 while R4 and R5 represent the achievement of the objective O4.•At the dissemination level, the project will:-R6: Create a website presenting artificial intelligence issues notably, but not exclusively in terms of business and jobs, the project objectives, content and partners as well as the Erasmus+ programme. The project website will naturally linked to the project distance learning platform as well as its micro learning application. This main communication tool will be supported by hardcopy material including flyers and brochures.-R7: Organise three multiplier events held in Finland, France and Spain to present the project outcomes, discuss their scientific and pedagogical relevance and promote their take-up at the academic as well as business level.Together with R3, R4 and R5, R6 and R7 will accomplish the objective O5.

This project is about supporting actors in all sectors of the lifelong learning system to enhance the development, validation and recognition of the entrepreneurship key competence across lifelong learning. It will do this by creating the Entrepreneurship360 platform as a one-stop-shop to provide guidance, collate tools, share practice, learn through online training and connect those working on the practical implementation of EntreComp into learning and work. The project includes partners from, and will actively engage with wider networks of practitioners and organisations from, formal education, youth organisations, employers and business/start-up. This project will drive the implementation of EntreComp as a tool for lifelong learning sectors to place a focus on the transversal skills needed in the modern workforce - addressing skills gaps and mismatches to support social inclusion and economic growth. The objectives of the project derive directly from EntreComp research carried out by partners with the European Commission – we will target lifelong learning organisations and practitioners working across Europe to access and engage with the Entrepreneurship360 platform as a one-stop-shop for the peer networks, guidance, tools, resources and MOOC based training that they need to understand and use the EntreComp competence framework. The project will:• Mobilise engagement across lifelong learning to understand the relevance of EntreComp• Connect practitioners and organisations interested in or actively using the EntreComp framework• Empower learning organisations and practitioners to use EntreComp as a tool to drive entrepreneurial learning design, assessment and recognition• Tailor guidance to specific contexts through how-to guides on the potential of EntreComp for emerging areas of potential - initially (1) Employers - HR and recruitment (2) Youthwork and (3) Assessment and certification/recognition• Map progress of the EntreComp community [evidenced through an extensive baseline survey and follow-up survey after 30 months to assess progress and impact]The project will target practitioners, organisations and system level actors across lifelong learning. It involves partners from across lifelong learning sectors, and this will drive active engagement with networks from formal education, youth and non-formal sector, employers/business and start-up support organisations. Specific partners will take the lead on recommending and implementing networking approaches with specific sectors of lifelong learning. This drive up the quantity and quality of design, implementation, assessment, transparency and recognition of the entrepreneurship key competence. It will target governance systems, professional networks, learning organisations, business,employers and practitioners involved in the design and delivery of learning in any setting. This project seeks to show how EntreComp can be part of a transnational solution to the needs identified above. While the focus will be on Europe, the project will reach out to worldwide networks, both sharing and showcasing the value of EU initiatives and EU funding.This will be the first action focused one-stop-shop focusing solely on how EntreComp can drive key competence development across lifelong learning sectors. It will be innovative in its focus on all sectors of lifelong learning from formal education through to HR recruitment and start-up. The project partners can capitalise on their strong links and networks into education, youth, employment and business sectors to create a holistic and highly relevant online one-stop-shop to support entrepreneurship key competence through implementation of EntreComp. The intellectual outputs will include the platform which will be the one-stop-shop at the centre of project and bringing together all the deliverables for the engaged participants including (IO2) a comprehensive toolbox of practices, tools and resources, (IO3) four tailored guides to support emerging areas of use for EntreComp e.g. recruitment or youthwork and areas where additional guidance is needed e.g. assessment and (IO4) a set of two MOOCs to provide a learning pathway for participants to engage and learn how to implement EntreComp. A project baseline and final survey of perceptions, understanding and usage will be designed and shared at the beginning of the project, and this will be repeated with participants, and correlated with the type of involvement they have chosen (mapped across five EntreComp goals). This will be the primary evaluation approach to map the progression of organisations actively using EntreComp to evidence a deeper and more sustainable use of EntreComp by practitioners, organisations and education systems engaged through the platform. This will ultimately drive more effective and higher quality development, assessment and recognition of the entrepreneurship key competence across lifelong learning in Europe.