<< Background >>The current pandemic has affected everyday lives of people around the world. Countries have introduced various forms of restrictions in order to fight against the virus and keep their citizens safe – including complete to targeted closures. The pandemic has had a huge impact on education system as well. A nationwide closure of schools has been common recently. These closures have affected the way of gaining knowledge not only amongst young people and children but adults as well. It is estimated that the current pandemic has affected the professional development in VET sector.The world in time of the pandemic is a different place: telework has gained popularity in many countries that did not use it before and ICT skills have become a basis for both – work and education environment. The ongoing changes in VET are demanding different kinds of support mechanisms for teaching staff globally. Mostly this concerns implementing new pedagogies, curricula and use of new technologies. However, this is not always easy or possible due to the scale and speed of the labor market changes. As consequence VET providers are often struggling on their own with the future oriented changes. (UNESCO-UNEVOC 2020.)The current situation requires a transformation within small and medium goods producers in Europe. The existing patterns related to trade and export of goods do not work any more – they should be quickly replaced with new methods of communication and online marketing techniques. Furthermore, digital models are essential in order to open up to new markets.There are several organizations SMEs can turn to in order to gain assistance and support: chambers of commerce, clusters and VET agents. Entrepreneurs want to find a partner who will support them with their participation in foreign fairs, completing customs procedures and requirements for the import or export of goods, advertising goods on foreign markets, adjusting marketing strategies and more. The problem is that most common form of communication between SMEs and those institutions was a standard face-to-face meeting. However, in the current situation (the COVID 19 pandemic) there are certain limitations. Firstly, many chambers of commerce or clusters are not able to provide entrepreneurs with quick support in the field of opening / resuming foreign exports in the online dimension. Secondly, the traditional face to face mode is not available during the Covid-19 pandemic and so the entrepreneurs are left with no choice – the only possibility of communication nowadays would be digitalised communication which requires certain skills.The aim of the project: to strengthen the possibility of small and medium goods producers in Europe for successful transformation from traditional to effective and online transborder activities (import/export) by building capacity of Chambers and similar VET institutions for providing digital education support as well as the development and implementation of digital pedagogical competences of VET educators.<< Objectives >>The project focus is on two target groups:•T1: employees of chambers of commerce, regional development agencies, VET clusters, local authorities and centres for entrepreneurship development, VET teachers, trainers and mentors;•T2: owners and managers of small and medium enterprises involved in the production of goods and employees of sales and export departments in these enterprises.By implementing the project and its results the project partners endeavour to provide assistance to the forementioned target groups facing challenges which occurred during the worldwide pandemic of Covid-19. The main goal to be achieved is transforming small and medium goods producers in Europe so that they become effective and online transborder organisations. Moreover it is important for the Chambers and similar VET institutions to provide digital education and support and implement digital pedagogical competences.With the COVID-19 situation continuing and the new Erasmus+ program 2021-2027 with increased possibilities to cooperation and mobilities on a European level in mind there is a need to develop ways of cooperation and learning using digital and virtual methods. The project is a response to the European Union’s call for support for digital transformation in the coming years - illustrated by the recent proposal for the Digital Europe programme (for 2021-2027), which would be the first ever funding programme dedicated solely to supporting digital transformation in the EU.Thus, the project focus is on ICT (new technologies and digital competences); new innovative curricula/educational methods and development of training courses; entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurship education. Innovative practices in digital area are the core of the project.Moreover, the activities within the framework of the project will result in a raised awareness and knowledge of VET actors in the area of digital pedagogical literacy. The project will enhance access to quality trainings and qualifications in the area of: Development paths accounting for successful business launch or cross-border expansion; Specifying the transborder business strategies based on EU recommendations; New online marketing techniques for digitalized enterprises in the EU; Assistance in legal and customs procedures applied to EU member states Participation and presentation of products at online fairs or events.The aim is to include as many vocational fields that have been affected by the COVID-19 situation as possible. The emphasis is on organising very few face-to-face sessions and create the online work environment by experimenting and co-creation online. This way the project can proceed according to plans despite the pandemic of Covid-19 but at the same time increase the VET educators skills, competences and confidence to work online.Additional objectives of the project would include:•VET: Enhancing access to training and qualifications for all;•VET: Initial and continuous professional development of VET teachers, trainers and mentors in both school and work-based settings.<< Implementation >>The methodology that the partnership intends to apply is going to be based on proper, competent management and effective monitoring of the activities, on-going assessment and evaluation of project outcomes. Firstly there needs to be a project management plan created to make sure everything is according to the schedule. This step is strongly connected with planning, assigning responsibilities and minding completion of tasks as well as preparing reports. Another important issue is the Promotion and Sharing strategy which would consist of preparing a Promotion plan, deciding on promotion activities, evaluation and feedback collection, preparation of promotion materials and their reporting. There will be one leading organization which task will be to evaluate and monitor the quality of the project cooperation and results. Essential promotion and sharing materials will be prepared including:•Visual identity of the project (logo and templates with Erasmus+ emblem);•Project website;•Leaflets;•Newsletter ;•Articles (partners will prepare articles about the project in order to present its outputs);•Social media (there will be two social media channels created).The promotion materials are crucial for effective communication with the Target Groups of the project. However, the Project Results are the main goals and all the activities and action taken by all the partners are focused on developing the final results of the project. In order to prepare the results the partners need to arrange the very first meeting – the kick-off meeting. During this meeting they will update all working documents, update membership of groups, make detailed decisions and define tasks and responsibilities. Also the training about management system will take place. Details about implementation of all activities within PR1 will be made.During the first months partners will work on setting up and adjusting the m-learning environment structure. Then partners responsible for the individual modules will breakdown their parts into chapters and confirm the capability of contributing to digital education – this way the materials and methodology will be developed. The next step will be to conduct internal testing. In addition, m-learning course will be given for evaluation to external Experts who will provide opinions and recommendations. Works concerning PR2 will start with distributing templates for partners and content division for them to contribute to the works on this output. After introducing improvements agreed by partners after the internal testing and external evaluation, the final version of the m-learning course will be delivered to target groups for testing.The very last activity connected with PR2 will be monitoring the testing phase in partners’ countries. Based on the feedback gathered, the team of developers will fix all bugs and malfunctions identified, but also will implement all reasonable suggestions for improvements. After the establishment of the final version each of the partners will need to translate the content into their national languages.In the last month of the project, partners will meet in Spain. This meeting will be the time of summarising the project and plan the activities to be done by all partners in order to sustain the results after the project ends.<< Results >>During the project two Project Results (PR1 and PR2) will develop. The first result is Methodological VET handbook - methods for effective digital education. The agreed learning outcomes outlined in the Research Report will be the constant benchmark for partners’ work and this will allow partners to tailor content to suit local cultural and societal values. Demonstrating the flexibility of the Methodological VET handbook, it will also aid further transferability beyond the project consortium. Methodological VET handbook developed will specifically address the needs of the owners and managers of SMEs involved in the production of goods and of VET teachers, trainers and mentors regarding the appropriateness of learning environments, structure and relevance of learning content and accessibility of learning platforms.The proposed new Methodological VET handbook will consist of 5 main Chapters:1 – Development paths accounting for successful business launch or cross-border expansion;2 – Specifying the transborder business strategies based on EU recommendations;3 – Assistance in legal and customs procedures applied to EU member states;4 – New online marketing techniques for digitalized enterprises in the EU;5 – Participation and presentation of products at online fairs or events.The estimated size of a module will be 30 pages. The structure of the handbook will consist of the following parts:- the educational objectives;- the content with the description of the 5 modules (exercises, source texts, quizzes, practical advices etc.);- detailed description of the possibilities of using content modules, for further development and integration with other development topics;- tests verifying the increase of knowledge.The handbook should be used to increase competencies of the goods producers in the 5 topics (and consequently, to increase their chances of transborder digital readiness). Furthermore, it could be used by VET teachers, trainers and mentors and employees of chambers of commerce as a standalone textbook for courses aimed at increasing competencies. Finally, it will be a basis for the digital Methodological VET handbook that will be posted on the platform developed in PR2.The second result of the project will be the On-good m-learning training materials for small and medium goods producers. Because of overwhelming amount of information we have access to today, VET teachers can find it difficult to learn about the most efficient ways towards implementation digital qualifications aspects in their teaching. This is why the On-good m-learning tries to build upon the scheme of data/information collection – processing and matching – customised learning path presentation. The innovative character of the On-good m-learning is definitely its ability to perform a fully automated knowledge/skills diagnosis of each teacher and response to the results of this analysis with a customised learning path. This approach will ensure that the On-good m-learning is not aiming at delivering universal resources to all VET teachers, but will instead focus on presenting a set of action fiches that can be treated as a direct response to the analysis performed. The expected impact that the On-good m-learning will have on VET teachers is that these educators will be able to implement different actions that will help them engage in digital education related activities and therefore contribute towards better resources utilisation and consumption.