European education and training systems continue to fall short in providing the right skills for employability, and are not working adequately with business or employers to bring the learning experience closer to the reality of the working environment. These skills mismatches are a growing concern for European industry's competitiveness (Industrial Policy Communication Update COM, 2012, p:582 ). By 2020, 20% more jobs will require higher level skills. Education needs to drive up both standards and levels of achievement to match this demand, as well as encourage the transversal skills needed to ensure young people are able to be entrepreneurial and adapt to the increasingly inevitable changes in the labour market during their career. The scope and pace of reforms needs to be scaled up so high quality skills can support both growth and jobs (EU Commission Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes, 2012, p:2). Skills mismatch refers to a discrepancy between the demand and supply of skills on the labour market. In other words a situation in which the skills sought by employers are different from the skills offered by job-seekers or workers. In order to achieve excellence in VET, curricula must be systematically renewed, delivery must be constantly modernized and businesses, especially SMEs, must be actively involved. VET must be able to react to the demand for advanced vocational skills, tailored to the regional economic context. Within this context given, this project aims to develop a platform through which vocational education systems and the labour market, especially the SMEs, communicate interactively, while one side voting for/valuing the skills they need and the other side, that's the vocational systems answers by updating the current curriculum. Also, the training content developed on skills analysis and mapping through the ECVET Skills Platform is considered to serve the quality of vocational education and training systems, giving the experts responsible for teaching technical skills the mission of teaching also the personal and conceptual skills.Target group of the project is vocational education and training institutions, teachers/trainers in VET, SMEs, employers, decision makers, non-governmental organizations and trainees. It aims at creating a channel among the members of the target group to keep them updated about the needs and requirements of the firms and the provided skills at educational institutions. During the project, the first step will be to identify qualifications of CNC Machining according to EQF as Level 4. Then, secondly, defining the expectations of the firms will be taken together with the opinions of technical teachers. In this context, ideas and expectations from firms and individuals in decision-making positions in the labour market will be gathered and a list of the necessary skills required will be established. Then, with ECVET Skills platform that will be installed on the internet, a ranking of importance will be listed by firms. This is the most innovative part of the project. Following this, the training curriculum in vocational high schools for CNC Manchine will be renewed and/or developed in order to ensure the most needed top ten skills. Trainers will be trained on this platform and will be informed about how they should implement their education. Then, hese trainers will apply the top ten skill-building training curricula on the qualification list from the digital platform.The students and teachers will be able to access into the videos and teaching materials on the platform and assess their own learning with the rubric provided. Therefore, they will have higher self-esteem in terms of qualifications and the market can be more satisfied in with hiring more qualified employers. On the other hand, top ten skill lists created by firms; and all teaching materials and videos created in a dynamic fashion can be downloaded openly to all individuals in order to ensure that the created platform reaches wider population. Thus, as students, teachers, and trainers easily access these information, the widespread impact of the platform will be increased.Establishing a vocational education and training curriculum and extensive content by using an online web portal to develop a system for skills and qualifications that are supposed to be based on the needs of the labour markets is the innovative wall of the project. One of the pioneering innovative elements will be enabling countries to obtain the skill ranking of CNC machining. The proposed web portal can be seen as one of the most key innovations of the project, since it will be accessible by all related stakeholders.

"<< Background >>As part of the Europe 2020 strategy, almost all EU Member States have formulated national targets and indicators to reduce the rates of early school leavers. The project partners have already analysed and discussed their needs in various preliminary meetings. The participating vocational schools in particular lose many educationally disadvantaged pupils on the way to graduation. But the companies also complain that their trainees drop out of training. The Corona pandemic has exacerbated this phenomenon in all partner countries.According to the partner schools, the reasons for the dropouts are often absenteeism, poor grades, but also causes in the personal environment. The teachers often do not know how to react and support the students. The modular training aims to provide answers to this and thus meet the needs of the teaching staff of the individual partners.The needs of educationally disadvantaged young people are identified in advance and the ""end target group"" is thus included in the development. This ensures that the training content equips teachers with the skills that will actually benefit the young people.<< Objectives >>The reasons for learning disadvantages can be manifold. Usually there are several factors in the personal and social environment: poor housing conditions and thus a poor learning environment, poverty makes personal support by the parental home difficult, experiences with violence, drugs, debts, etc. block the possibilities of concentration. All of this leads to lower self-esteem, lower motivation and additional barriers to learning. Due to the usually multiple problems, individual support is necessary. Young people with socio-economic difficulties and learning disadvantages generally need strongly individualised learning support. In order to be able to support this target group better in the future, teachers need special methodological and didactic competences. Within the framework of the project, a digital ""modular further training to become a coach for integrative learning processes - iLEAP Coach"" will be developed for teachers and trainers, which will impart exactly these urgently needed competences.Furthermore, topics such as educational disadvantage, inclusion, digital tools, etc. will not only become more present locally, but also nationally and internationally through the dissemination activities, thus broadening awareness of the issues.If widely applied, this modular training can counteract rising school dropout rates.<< Implementation >>Within the framework of the project, different activities are carried out, both digitally and in presence.The digital project management meetings and the transnational partner meetings serve on the one hand to check the progress of the project and on the other hand to develop the individual modules of the digital modular training to become an iLEAP coach and to distribute the work packages among the partners.In the Training of Trainers activity, 2 master trainers per partner organisation are trained, who act as the main multipliers for the iLEAP Coach training.Different dissemination activities within the organisations serve to multiply the knowledge gained within the partner organisations. Through different marketing activities (e.g. information material, open day) and the country-specific multiplier events, educational staff and other interested stakeholders are to be sensitised to these topics and additional local support services are to be developed during the project.<< Results >>A variety of results are expected during the project. First and foremost, an empirical needs analysis will be carried out. The objective of this is to determine which individual problems the pupils and trainees of the participating partners have, how these affect the learning opportunities and existing competences and which competences the teachers and trainers should have in order to be able to strengthen them individually.Based on the findings of the analysis, the contents of the modular training to become an iLEAP coach (inclusive learning process coach) will be determined and developed in the framework of 4 modules.The 4 modules of a digital training for trainers and teachers to become an iLEAP coach include a method case for application in 5 languages (Romanian, Macedonian, German, English, Cypriot Greek) and are freely accessible online for the target group. In addition, 2 employees from each partner organisation are trained as master trainers. They then act as contact persons for further training within their own institution and their network."

"The problem of increased youth unemployment is a transnational problem in Europe. For many young people it is difficult to enter employment after their training. The reason for this is a mostly very schooled training system that is not very oriented towards real work processes.The project partners the Bildungswerk der Bayerischen Wirtschaft (bbw) gGmbH, the companies Dräxlmaier, INA Schaeffler and Stabilus, as well as the vocational schools Scoala Profesionala Germana Kronstadt and Stredna odborna skola strojnicka at the locations Brasov (Romania) and Kysucke Novo Mestp (Slovakia) led the project ""Work-Based Learning in the Field of Cutting Mechanics: Introducing VET Multipliers to Alternate Work-Based Learning in Romania and Slovakia"". The project had a duration of 36 months, from 01.09.2015 to 01.09.2018. The first local cooperation structures were already in place before the start of the project. For some years now, the companies have been working together with the vocational schools on the implementation of an apprenticeship in cutting mechanics. The project increased the labour market relevance of this training by introducing dual elements and deepened the cooperation between the training company and the vocational school. The aim was to make the training more practice-oriented and action-oriented. Within the framework of the project, appropriate know-how was exchanged and the close cooperation between the partners ensured a long-term cooperation. According to feedback from the partners, the project contributed to a stronger willingness to take on trainees on the part of the training companies and facilitated the transition to employment for the training graduates. The higher priority was thus given to promoting the employability of young job seekers and indirectly reducing the risk of youth unemployment. In addition, the various measures taken to disseminate the project experience (e.g. website, posters, presentations) not only aroused interest in the project, but also, based on feedback from the partners, ensured increased interest in the multiplication of the results by colleagues and other interested parties. In order to achieve the goals, further training courses and workshops on practice-oriented training methods and 2 workshops on the dual training system in Germany were carried out within the framework of the project. These took place for vocational school teachers as well as company trainers and managers of the project partners. In addition, existing teaching and testing materials were revised and modernised. The regular feedback from participants and partners on the activities and the course of the project was positive and most of the suggestions for improvement were implemented at an early stage.The project is in line with the objectives of the ""Europe 2020"" strategy. It aimed to improve education systems, thereby laying the foundations for a competitive, sustainable industrial sector and reducing the discrepancy between the demand for skilled workers and the training of skilled workers."

<< Background >>The context of COOPERATE is represented by COVID-19 pandemic which has demonstrated the EU national health-care systems’ inability to counter it.All involved EU countries - Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Poland – have been unprepared to manage the crisis, adopting restrictive measures on freedom, which have halted the economy while failing to contain the virus.After a year, thanks to the science, EU countries are benefiting from vaccinations and easing those measures. Nevertheless, due to the experimental nature and the scarcity of vaccines and the virus’ constant mutation, the pandemic is still far from its resolution.In particular, what emerged was the inadequacy of the protocols of health-care facilities, which failed to avoid that the virus caused thousands of deaths among the most vulnerable, like the elderly.According to the Director for Europe of the WHO Hans Kluge, in Europe, in April 2021, almost half of the people died from COVID-19 were residing in care facilities.Based on official sources, like the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, countries such as Germany, Spain and Italy have suffered a high toll in terms of deaths in these structures. In Germany, 29% of COVID-19 deaths are long-term facility residents. In Spain, more than 13,000 elderly people have died in the residences. In Italy, out of 7,300 facility residents who died, 40% tested positive to COVID-19 and presented flu symptoms. Similar situations can be found in Poland and Greece.The main criticality found in these facilities has been the scarce or absent information on the procedures to contain the infection.In light of this and considering that, a year later, it is possible to leverage on more evidence, the priority need of COOPERATE is to provide a “European” response to the pandemic from the point of view of its management in the health-care facilities. The project is based on the awareness that, despite common problems, each EU country has dealt with the virus in a specific way and presents practices on which it is necessary to leverage to equip the health-care facilities, and related professionals, with more adequate transversal and technical skills to face COVID-19 and future crises. The need is, in other words, to promote the skills improvement and professional development of health-care operators by realizing a quality, European and EQF-aligned VET training offer.<< Objectives >>COOPERATE aims at achieving, as overall objective, the improvement of the health-care system from a VET point of view and within a European framework.This objective is framed as follows:- to gather the learning outcomes that, in each country, define the health-care sector, as described by the national Qualification Frameworks. Thus, facilitating partners’ understanding of how the sector is regulated in other countries represents a key step to provide a common, European and quality training response to the pandemic;- to leverage on the best VET programs of the represented countries. In fact, each country has its quality programs which it is strategic to take into consideration;- to assess the professional gaps found in the target facilities, in order to identify potential points for improvement. Analysing the main challenges of health-care operators and facilities is extremely strategic.The project pursues other aims connected to these objectives and to partners’ needs.Partners aim at promoting a more accessible use of the training offer, in line with the contemporary trends of online realization of events. Partners intend, also responding to one of the Programme’s horizontal priorities, to favour an experimentation of digital fruition of their training offer.Secondly, partners intend to sensitize VET providers, health-care organizations and operators and policy-makers on the project and its results, to give sustainability and visibility to the action and create future partnerships, for the improvement of the activated cooperation and the creation of on-the-job schemes.Finally, partners aspire to increase the European dimension and the network with actors committed to the improvement of their structure.<< Implementation >>COOPERATE will reach its objectives through the following distribution of activities.Transnational Project Meeting 1 – Month 1: Kick-off Meeting, occurring in Germany, Dresden and lasting 1 day, hosted by BSW.Project's result 1 - Months 2-12: C-VET Professional Course on pandemic management for health-care technical and management professionals.-PHASE 1 - Months 2-4: deployment of Expert Teachers which will study the national situation in terms of Qualification Frameworks and excellence courses. Based on this, each Expert will develop a proposal of the potential contents to include.-PHASE 2 – Months 5-8: deployment of Researchers, which, with the support of project assistants, will carry out a country-based assessment targeted to health-care professionals organizations, to identify learning gaps relating to the specific country and labour market.-PHASE 3 – Month 9: Transnational Learning Activity, which will occur in Warsaw, Poland. Partners’ Managers, Teachers and Researchers will gather and share the produced evidence to define the most important learning outcomes to include in the Course.-PHASE 4 – Months 10-12: BSW will be in charge of elaborating the C-VET Course, based on the cooperation realized with the partners.Project's result 2 – Months 13-15: Technical Description of the Course, with the specification of training modules, translated in all involved languages.-Months 13-14: BSW’s Expert Teacher will edit the Description, translated in all involved languages.-Month 15: the Description will be shared within a second Transnational Learning Activity occurring in Dresden, Germany. The event will be attended by partners' managers, Expert Teachers and 3 trainers per partner, with the aim of building the capacities of local trainers to deliver and also evaluating the Course.Project's result 3 – Months 15-20: digitalization of the C-VET Course.An IT technician, incurred by FORMAC will develop, liaising with the Expert Teachers, the digital contents of the Course. This result will support the digital transition of the involved VET providers organizations. National Experts will be tasked with developing the contents of the Course in their native languages. The IT technician will also be tasked with uploading on the project website - Project's result 4 - all the developed digital contents. Each partners’ Expert will be supported by IT Technicians in the development of the Course's contents in digital format. In order to ensure the quality and effectiveness of this result, Partners’ Managers will be given additional staff costs to directly participate in the implementation of this activity.Transnational Project Meeting 2 (TPM2) – Month 21: Final Transnational Project Meeting, occurring in Madrid, Spain, lasting 1 day. It will be hosted by FAB.Project's result 4 – Months 1-24: project’s website.-Months 1-3: creation of a dedicated website for the project.-Months 3-24: communication and dissemination of project’s activities.-Month 20: uploading by the IT technician of the digitalized Course on the website which will also represent the web platform for its online delivery. Each partner's website will have a link to this website.Multiplier Events – Months 21-24: In order to facilitate the dissemination of project’s results to the national communities of stakeholders (health organizations and institutions, health-care professionals, policy makers and national authorities), each partner will autonomously carry out a country-based dissemination Conference, with the aim of involving, each, 25 national stakeholders. This activity will be led by each partner’s coordinator which will leverage on partners’ networks to reach the most valuable and strategic national stakeholders to share the results of the project, increase their sustainability and trigger their use and visibility. Conferences will be carried out in Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy and Greece.<< Results >>COOPERATE intends to achieve different outcomes, which will concern the impact of the project on the participating organizations and the involved management and technical staff and 4 specific project’s results, representing the bulk of the project.In terms of participating organizations, the expected outcome is the increased European dimension of the partners forming the consortium. In fact, the project will involve organizations from Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Greece. The facilitated cooperation will have the objective of increasing their ability to interact and create partnerships at the European level, developing the skills needed to manage and/or participate in transnational consortia. Furthermore, for Fondazione SMA, COOPERATE will represent the first experience at the Erasmus+ and EU level, which means that the project will represent an opportunity to make an important step in terms of internationalization for a new comer.Another related expected outcome is the improved designing skills of educational development and partnership projects at the European level, which will concern the management staff that has participated in the preparation of the project and will participate in its activities.A third expected outcome that the project aims at producing will be the improved, always within a European perspective, participating VET organizations’ training offer relating to the topic of the project. This improvement will happen in terms of both the training contents – which are expected to improve as a result of the cooperation between partners from different European countries - and the delivery and fruition methods – i.e. development, delivery and fruition of training contents in digital format.The three mentioned expected outcomes will be achieved leveraging on 4 project’s results, aligned with and functional to the same outcomes:1. Developed a C-VET Professional Course for pandemic management targeted to both technical and management health-care professionals. The expected outcome is to create, through the cooperation between training organizations from several European countries, a Course that has relevance at the European level and is aligned with the National Qualification Frameworks and the labour market needs of involved countries, as well as with the European Qualification Framework.2. Edited a Formal Technical Description of the developed Course, containing the specification of learning outcomes, training contents, required skills and qualifications and career opportunities. The Description will also include a description of the European-based cooperative learning process that has facilitated the development of the Course. The Course and the related Description are expected to be available in each involved EU language.3. Facilitated the digitization of the Course through the development of its training contents in digital format for its online delivery and fruition. The digital contents are also expected to be available in all involved languages;4. Created a website of the project which will serve as platform for both the project’s communication and dissemination and for the delivery of the Course's digital contents.The final expected outcome is the increased EU civil societies’ and relevant stakeholders’ understanding of Erasmus+ and of project’s results, as well as of the need to improve the national education and training framework through the European cooperation. The Project aims at disseminating its results to the national communities of stakeholders involved in VET training processes, in the health-care professional sector and in policy making. The aim is to encourage the sharing of the cooperation practices activated in the project, as well as to extend the visibility of Erasmus+ and the project’s results to the widest possible audience, to increase the number of actors (including VET providers) and professionals in the sector interested in the Course’s contents.

In the project, it is aimed to give technical training of standard machine parts by AR technology to hearing-impaired people that work in the metal sector in order to increase technical knowledge and increase communication in the production line. In addition, the guideline will be created in order to reduce the negative and prejudiced attitude of the companies and to provide equal opportunities to target group to have a career in the company. The project starts with research for identifying standard machine part in the production line and problems of firms and target group. After that, sign language is created for the standard machine elements. The sign language is translated into the e-book that is based on AR technology. The training content will be created for standard machine element that encompasses which sector standard machine element is used, what for, which part of the production line and its basic mathematical calculation. Also, the guideline is created for the firm to set goals for the target group and to increase awareness on them in order to give the equal career opportunity to them in the company. Sign language and training translate into AR Technology which is compatible with cellphone, laptop, and computer. After these activities are completed, the implementation stage starts. The implementation takes place at the pilot company that has a decent amount of hearing impaired employees. After that, the impact of this AR based e-book, curriculum and guideline on the hearing-employed employees, firms and the communication between them is measured. After the impact analysis, the dissemination activities take place in order to share the innovation in metal industry at as many countries as possible within Europe and more.