"In Palestine, the undergraduate students encounter several problems to initiate their own businesses even they have several skills in IT tools. This returns to the traditional methods adopted in teaching IT courses that don’t contain innovative orientation methods. The current teaching methodologies concentrate more on how to use the tool but for which purposes it could be used for. These traditional teaching ways used in universities create a systematic traditional way of thinking which consequently makes graduates only seeking for jobs and ignoring creating their own jobs.Thus, there are needs to develop academic IT programs that respond to the needs of the lifelong profession, and to establishing academic-official-professional partnership to develop a vision for career-oriented education.This project aims to develop the curricula of IT programs in the Palestinian universities. This development will enhance the teaching methodologies among teaching of IT courses that will consequently influence the students' ability to use the IT tools. The project will contribute in developing of networked and specialized centers of competences for technology enhanced learning that help IT and non-IT graduates to improve them in innovative and creative thinking. Furthermore, the project will not only results a teaching material, but it will help in creation of a IT specialized portal that exchange the experience, teaching methods, and success stories among the students and the teaching in IT departments.The project belongs to ""Developing the Higher Education sector within society"" which include the following National Priorities as defined by the Palestinian Minister of Education and Higher Education in PS: • Development of partnerships with enterprises.• Knowledge triangle: education-innovation-research.• Development of lifelong learning in society at large.The project set these priorities as a domain to enhance the graduates' thinking to be more reliable and productive."

With the rise in population and drop in the economy, Jordan needs new ideas and schemes involving the younger population for the country to strive in the future. JOB-JO is an initiative brought together by universities in the South of Jordan lead by Mutah University, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, as well as European partners. The aim of the project is to promote youth employment and reduce poverty in Jordan’s remote areas which will empower economic and social aspects of these communities as well as provide women more opportunities for success. Although the literate rate in Jordan is high, and people are getting more educated than ever, the employment rate is low due to many social and economic factors. As most universities provide the best education possible, students still lack many skills that would be easy to gain. The career centers would provide services in order to teach and train unemployed graduates to be requalified for more job opportunities. Services such as training courses, skills and communication workshops, as well as support entrepreneurships and initiatives brought by the community would be offered. These services would have European influence through exchange programs as well as the great relationship to happen between universities in Jordan and the experienced universities in Europe. The short term impact would be to allow graduates to gain skills and training needed for their professions where in the long term, these career centers would foster the economic growth and reduce the unemployment and poverty in the remote areas of Jordan.

Joint project for the modernization of educational programs in Engineering (security in the administration and management of computer networks and systems), national priority for Moldova and Kazakhstan, regional priority for Vietnam.GOAL IN EACH OF THE THREE COUNTRIES:Overcome skills gaps on the intermediate levels (technicians, maintenance and protection of the systems and networks) and upper level (design, engineering for the protection of computer systems and networks), improving the employability of students and perfecting technicians and executives in companies.Aim of the project is to create a Bachelor and a professional Master degrees for the development, administration, management, protection of computer systems and networks in businesses in Moldova, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, at least partly avaiable by distance learning. Moreover, the project will allow to set up a training device targeting already active progfessionals (lonlg life learning).PRINCIPAL ACADEMIC PARTNERS:- International Telematic University UNINETTUNO (IT)- GIP FIPAG (FR) - CESIE (IT) - University of West Attica (former Piraeus University of Applied Sciences) (GR)- University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (BG)- University of Vigo (ES)- Technical University of Moldova (MD)- Alecu Russo Balti State University- State University of Moldova (MD)- Academy of Economy Studies of Moldova (MD)- L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University (KZ)- Sh. Ualikhanov Kokshetau State University (KZ)- Al-Farabi Kazak National University (KZ)- Kokshetau Abaï Myrzakhmetov University (KZ)- Taraz State University (KZ)- Ho Chi Minh University of Technology (VN)- Hanoï University of Science and Technology (VN)- Vietnam University of Agriculture (VN)EXPECTED RESULTS :24 teachers trained in EU6 job descriptions, 3 lBachelors and 3 professional Masters , curricula, course contents and digital learning resources available online. 3 centers of excellence for network safety. 3 didactic Cyberspaces , 810 students and 150 employees trained.12 Double degrees or joint degrees.

"While medical studies are clearly structured through guidelines and regulations, specialty training lacks standardisation and is very weak structured. The last evaluation on specialty training in Germany in 2011, done by the Bundesärztekammer (German Medical Association) showed that 42% of the residents were not fitted with a structured training plan and 25% received only oral information about the specialty training process. Preliminary projects of the University of Applied Sciences (HTWK) in Leipzig, as well as literature research has showed considerably that there is a need to improve the training of specialists, especially in surgery, and not only in Germany but throughout Europe. In addition, surgical specialist training in Europe is few standardized. It was evident in the preliminary projects that it is first necessary to improve the pedagogical abilities of the experienced surgeons (in particular those responsible for training) in order to meet these needs. This motivated the development of a training program for trainers (TTT = train-the-trainer). There exist no consistent, transnational education program focused on the acquisition of pedagogical competences for physicians. Surgeons who are directly involved in specialty training are not requested to have been enrolled in any formative program for teaching skills. This has given rise to requests for the development of a transnational training program for surgical trainers. The aim of this program is to improve the pedagogical skills of the consultants responsible for the specialty training of residents. We developed a professional profile for the surgical trainer and a corresponding curriculum. We defined learning goals, contents and methods, rules for supervising and assessing the learning progress and rules for giving feedback. The open multilingual online learning platform allows consultants and physicians responsible for the specialty training of residents all over Europe to study and use the developed learning material and curriculum. That is unique throughout Europe.An interdisciplinary approach was important for the development of such a training program. That means, besides medical experts, pedagogical experts and experts for the development and implementation of training courses were involved in the project. All project partners played an important role due to their commitment to surgical training and previous projects in this area, and have made an important contribution to the success of the project. Besides the University of Applied Sciences (HTWK) Leipzig as a scientific institution in the field of education, three other international/European institutions participated in the development of the trainer profile: the Jesús Usón Minimally Invasive Surgery Centre (CCMIJU) Cáceres, the department for Surgical Research and Technology of the renowned Semmelweis University Budapest in Hungary, and Medis Foundation, a Romanian surgeon's association/society for surgery.The project started with an international study about the basic conditions for the surgical training of specialists. Based on these results, the demanded profile ""Surgical Trainer"" was developed, as well as the curriculum and the teaching materials for the ""Surgical Train-the-Trainer program"". In 3 countries (Spain, Hungary, Romania), test course events were carried out according to the curriculum of the previously developed surgTTT program. These events were jointly evaluated. Finally, the SurgTTT Learning Platform was created and equipped with the course materials.The platform is available in the web with free access for everybody.Thanks to the project, we awakened awareness among the responsibles for surgery training, about the special challenges that this training demands, as well as the needs of their residents. The results-analysis after the test course events showed that the participants were able to assess and develop their own pedagogical behaviors and didactic skills. In this way, they would be able not only to better structure the trainings with their assistants, but also to provide more optimal support in the learning process. Thus, the trainers will be able to evaluate the performance of their assistants, by using the appropriate assessment instruments. The priorities given in the project application for the development of continuing education programs in accordance with the European quality framework as well as their preparation in different European languages ​​(Hungarian, Spanish, Romanian, English and German) could be fulfilled. However, it has been found that short 2-day programs on weekends are more suited to physicians responsible for continuing education, since the clinic day often does not allow for a longer doctor's absence. It is therefore planned to offer additional 2-day SurgTTT courses after the end of the project."

Buildings account for around 40% of total energy use and 36% of CO2 emissions in Europe . According to the recast Directive on the energy performance of buildings (EPBD) all new buildings after 2020 should reach nearly zero energy levels, meaning that they should demonstrate very low energy needs mainly covered by renewable energy sources. EU 2030 targets aim at least 40% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions (from 1990 levels), at least 32% share for renewable energy, at least 32.5% improvement in energy efficiency , and 80% reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 . Therefore, an urgent need is present for a deep market transformation by deploying efficient materials and technologies in the construction sector to support the real implementation of nearly zero-energy/emission and plus-energy buildings with high indoor environment quality across Europe. As energy consumption of buildings depend strongly on the climate and the local weather conditions, additional aspects arise (such as environmental, technical, user experience, functional and design aspects) on the selection of the appropriate material and technical components installation for a successful implementation of nZEBs. Further, this selection of materials and design for climate should be based on a circular economy perspective considering environmental, economic and social effects along value chains. Better utilisation of products and resources via reuse-repair-recycling is essential in achieving a transformation from a linear to a circular economy model. Many of the current materials and technical systems still have varying degree of difficulty in accomplishing a circular perspective. Material and technical system development in a ZEB framework should focus on building thermal performance improvement, high quality of indoor environment according to occupants’ comfort and health needs, while reducing the emission intensity in terms of production, maintenance, assembling and operation.