The objective of making vocational education and training (VET) globally competitive and attractive by the European Union has put vocational teachers in the spotlight. Teachers and trainers working in VET are key actors to ensure its quality and relevance to today’s demands. They play an essential role in the implementation of reforms that have been part of the EU and national agendas.Preliminary analysis of NEEDS and research among partner organisations have identified the following challenges which will be addressed within this project:-Lack of useful tools for training in rescue, surviving and first aid-Difference in approach of teaching rescue, surviving and first aid depending on the country-Need for firefighters or rescue teachers across Europe to be more acquainted with innovative methods of teaching, share good practise in using them in educational process-Need for providing the practical training of teachers in rescue, surviving and first aid-Interest of VET organisations to be more socially active and provide educational tools related to health and safety to its community-Lack of knowledge in basic steps of rescue, surviving and first aid among peopleIn response to above, “Preparation for emergency situations: teaching rescue, surviving and first aid” (TeachMergency) project have been initiated by 3 partner organisations from the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Slovakia.TeachMergency AIMS to equip teachers/trainers with innovative tools in teaching rescue, survivor and first aid. Partners will focus on exchanging best practice, passing this know-how to colleagues and increasing quality of education of firefighters and rescue professionals. The importance of training cannot be overstated in the world of emergency services. Where life safety is at risk, the competence of the responders should be paramount. When the citizens in the community call for help, they expect and deserve the very best from rescue professionals when they respond.In addition, developed simple online material will reach communities and teach basics in rescuing, survivor and first aid.Further OBJECTIVES of the project are:-To identify and exchange key elements that involve human protection skills: rescuing, surviving and first aid.-To provide VET teachers/ trainers with a tool and a practical platform to increase their professional development.-To contribute to a healthy, safe, prepared for potentially risky situation community creation.The project will be a giant step forward to making sure that firefighters and rescue training organisations have a chance to create a professional, enriched and motivating learning environment for its teachers/ trainers so they can be part of lifelong learning.The focus is on training the teachers/trainers (36 from all partners) and to provide them with the most needed practical environment to exchange the good practice in rescue, surviving and first aid topics. TeachMergency also will involve firefighter students (12 from all partners) who are on the front line to become rescue specialists.Main activities will relate to:-4 transnational partner meetings within the 2-year project duration-Staff training: first aid (Slovakia)-Staff training: water rescue (Lithuania)-Staff training: mountain rescue (Czech Republic)-VET learners blended mobility: competition on rescue, surviving and first aid (Czech Republic).Partners will prepare a Teacher’s Guide to share the accumulation of skills, knowledge and competences acquired during teaching rescue, surviving and first aid.Within the project created short Educational Videos which includes tips on how to rescue, survive and provide first aid, teachers and students will reach out to other members of their local community in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Lithuania.All results will be created by experience from three different organisations from Northern and Central Europe, but it will influence VET organisations in whole Europe as results will be disseminated within and outside of each of partners network including Associated partners: Slovak Red Cross – Region office Zilina, Pardubice region Fire brigade and Vilnius Fire and Rescue Board.There is no doubt that gained knowledge and developed outcomes will be implemented in VET education as those are directly related to the curriculum of rescue professionals and firefighters. Trained teachers and students will become “ambassadors” of such experience and know-how and developed material will be easily used to teach any member of the community about rescue, surviving and first aid no matter age, background or country.Partners have already discussed potential ideas for the continuation of this project considering the importance of teachers/trainers professional development in regards to the quality of VET education.

The IDEALCAREL project is focused on the education of railway engineers at universities. The project consortium envisages three universities that offer bachelor's and master's degree study programs including courses in the railway laboratory. So, the project partners are linked by the usage of special practical trainings in railway laboratories. These special equipped educational rooms are at different technical levels, but providing training for students is a common feature of education. Railway laboratories as an important educational and research base of the university serves also for cooperation in the education of railway experts for practical purposes, i.e. for staff of infrastructure managers and railway undertakings. The need for an innovative approach to education within the transition to digital formulates an unique opportunity to create a new methodological procedures in trainings. This obtain process of creation an unified curricula despite various national differences in traffic management in the regulatory base of railway infrastructure managers. At the same time, the project contributes to meet the objectives of EU transport policy, which includes creation of a single European railway area and to establish an interoperable railway system.Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, new ideas have to be developed on how the contents of the exercises can be taught digitally in order to be prepared for challenges such as a pandemic in the future. This project aims at equipping education of railway engineers to face the challenges presented by the shift to online and distance learning, including supporting teachers to develop digital competences and safeguarding the inclusive nature of learning opportunities. This is a comprehensive task of codifying and standardizing training content, which requires extensive research work and communication with practice. The outputs will be used to railway engineers in the academic field. The solution of the project is divided into four phases, within which three Intellectual Outputs (IO) are planned. The first IO1 is focused on a comprehensive analysis of railway sector at the level of the EU for investigating the educational needs and innovations. The second IO2 is oriented to work out the relevant study materials that are suitable for distance education in special conditions of railway laboratory training. The main objective is to support practical exercises in the railway laboratory by innovative approaches, in particular software support and multimedia teaching tool support in digital education. The third IO3 is aimed to develop a concept for digital teaching of the laboratory content, so this material can be used internationally. The content of the curriculum i.e. training scheme in specialized subjects included in university study plan, especially in the bachelor's degree, means to create conditions for full support of students in development of practical skills in connection with the theoretical knowledge. As the IDEALCAREL project team consists of universities from different countries with different state of knowledge and experiences with laboratory training education, the methodology of “knowledge exchange” will be applied throughout the whole project (between teaching staff as well with students). The definition of methodology for practical teaching materials approach will be achieved by use of brainstorming a validation. Achieving the planned outputs is guaranteed by the set out of project implementation schedule, project management and division of responsibilities for individual intellectual tasks, budget as well the rules of communication between the partners.The planned results of the project is creation of learning materials and training concept for the railway traffic operation, indicates the nature of the research task at all. As a part of the task, the project partners will develop and apply the knowledge gained in basic research projects. Every university educated for the railway sector will benefit from the project results. By using the developed teaching material, they will be able to set up generic lectures and have a recourse trap level for laboratory training.The impact of the project is in the achieving the education process on higher quality level for the railway market. With this effort, engineering students benefit from a generic understanding of the system without focusing on national operational rules. This leads to promote higher flexibility, tailored contents, operational and practical subjects for educational courses in the rail sector, and in the more general Transport domain. Very important is to promote and / or reinforce the interaction between educational establishments and industry, through “trusting partnerships” between academia and practitioners. This graduates will contribute to the creation of railway system as a modern, interoperable, sustainable and green transport mode.

Current curricula of Computer Science are based mainly on commercial solutions. IOSCS project proposes development of innovative Computer Science courses which would be based on Open Source tools, i.e. on Open Software and Open Hardware solutions. Nowadays all of the consortium organizations are a little experienced with introducing such courses. The goal of IOSCS project is to develop 6 study courses, all of them based on Open Source approach, which then will be embedded into existing curricula. Developed courses will cover fields of programming, mathematics, operating systems, embedded systems, systems controlled by computer and other hardware and/or software applications. The results of IOSCS project will be: descriptions of the courses, materials necessary for lectures and practical classes, analysis of the new courses' implementation experiences during summer intensive courses and the handbook composed of the materials necessary to follow the courses by the students. Newly developed Open Source courses will be tested during summer intensive courses, in which students coming from consortium organizations will participate along with the university teachers who will try to deliver new contents and gather feedback. Finally, all the results will be publicly available on the website of the project and involved organizations as well as spread during International Conferences on Open Source tools in Computer Science university education, which will be held every year.