The project came about due to a significant increase over time of additional support being made available to students suffering from anxiety, particularly linked to exam pressure. The ability of VWNC students to perform under pressure has become a serious issue for both the college and the students, impacting on the results they achieve and their preparedness for progression onto university and employment and the pressures they will face in those environments. Current strategies support students with stress and anxiety to some extent, but are not always proving to be very effective at improving performance of the students under pressure. Although it is accepted that for all people exams, assessments or presentations can be a stressful experience, a growing number of young people seem ill equipped with the strategies to cope and this can disproportionately affect their outcomes and hence life chances. The project’s overarching aim was to address this particular need which is increasing and impacting on the well-being of young people as well as giving students, teachers and trainers from participating institutions an opportunity to share their own perceptions on dealing with issues around pressure, and trial new strategies as adopted by partner institutions to help foster resilience and to reduce anxiety. It is hoped that this will aid students to perform better under pressure and get the best possible results from their courses. In addition, the project strategies strategies will help students to cope better with the transition to higher education and employment. Objectives • Identify and implement strategies at the point of enrolment and on programme to build resilience in order to develop a more self-assured student. • Engage with students to develop appropriate student centred approaches for dealing with pressure and improving outcomes. • Share best practice with fellow professionals to improve the effectiveness of support. • Carry out student surveys to measure the impact of the project. • Develop a range of strategies to support the transition to higher education and employment. Needs and Target GroupsThe project focused on the needs of two different groups. Firstly, students with anxiety who are undertaking exam based qualifications and secondly students on exam based qualifications not currently presenting any symptoms of anxiety. This is in recognition that some strategies will be preventative whilst others will help minimise anxiety levels. While the UK group focused on those undertaking A Levels and/or Applied General qualifications, the project partners selected groups that undertake appropriate assessments that require students to perform under pressure and deal with any potential anxiety issues to ensure they perform to their full potential. TransnationallyVWNC students come from a range of schools with no discernible differences in terms of student resilience to the pressures of exam performance. As there is no hard evidence of work being undertaken in the UK to address this issue, we are therefore currently following what would be best practice in terms of support for these students in the UK and it is not having the type of impact we would expect. This project was carried out transnationally in order to explore significantly different practices and determine whether strategies practices in different countries are proving effective in improving performance students. We undertook a proper assessment by both looking at our own practices and comparing them internationally with the aim of developing new approaches that will have the potential to significantly improve the outcomes for students and develop an approach that can be utilised across a range of different institutions in the UK and Europe.

"<< Background >>In the post-Covid era, all sectors, including education and the tourism and hospitality sector, must be part of taking responsibility for developing recovery plans that build a more sustainable future. There is a concern that many in the industry leave high goals and sustainability strategies and invest in simple and cheap to be able to recover quickly. According to the UNWTO, “The sudden and unexpected fall in tourism demand caused by COVID-19 places millions of jobs and livelihoods at risk while at the same time jeopardising the advances made in sustainable development and equality over recent years.” The European Council recommendation (2020) on VET for Sustainable Competitiveness, Social Justice and Resilience also emphasises the role of ""green and digital transition"" and ""accessibility"" to create ""a modern, attractive and flexible vocational training"". The recommendation further supports embedding environmental and social sustainability into VET curricula including linking the environmental aspect to other fields as well as increasing the use of new learning environments, tools and pedagogies for both VET specific and transversal content. The twin transitions towards a more sustainable economy will require VET to adapt so that learners acquire the skills needed for the twin transitions, while also strengthening the role of VET in their lifelong learning continuum. It is increasingly important that graduates are equipped with greater understanding of their own competences and ability to recognise when reskilling or upskilling is required. The economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis offers an opportunity to accelerate both small and large-scale reforms in VET in local, national and European contexts and strengthen its resilience, notably by digitising learning and methods and agile adaptation to changing labour market needs. This includes paying attention to the need to ensure access to digital competences and technologies for every learner, teacher and trainer. VET plays also a crucial role in tackling many of the most pressing challenges that Europe is faced with today, such as competitiveness, youth unemployment and social inclusion. In 2017, a study commissioned by the DG of Employment and Social Affairs confirmed that one of the most effective ways to increase the quality and attractiveness of VET is to make the link between education and business stronger. Results also indicate that the most effective strategies are those that build bridges to the world of work while people are still in education. The most effective strategies were found to combine a training component with strong links to the employer community, more formal training linked to work-based learning and work experience.<< Objectives >>The aim of the project is to create opportunities and develop a model for teaching and learning green and sustainable entrepreneurial skills that are needed in today's hospitality and catering business. The project will use blended learning, where both digital skills and physical mobility are included in the model. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the restaurant industry in a negative way, creating major challenges for the hospitality industry. This has affected the attractiveness of the industry and brought many challenges such as pointed in the Annex 4 (Covid impact analysis). In many countries, there is a great shortage of chefs and staff for the restaurant industry. With the project, we want to increase interest in vocational education, create motivation and attractiveness to the industry and give students a broad and stable foundation to stand on with good digital knowledge, increased international experience and an understanding of cultural similarities and differences. Students get to develop their communication skills in language and the social and civic skills in the various virtual and physical encounters between schools. For the staff, the project contributes to the development of digital methods and training tools, which supports teachers in their professional development to increased digital preparedness. An entrepreneurial mindset is a transversal competence needed at various stages of our lifes. Entrepreneurial learning is the development of attitudes, skills and knowledge that enable the individual to turn creative ideas into action. Entrepreneurship is not only related to economic activities and business creation, but in today’s VET education an entrepreneurial mindset is seen as another core professional competence for creating value in all areas of work, with or without a commercial objective. Entrepreneurial learning stimulates innovation and the capacities to deal with exponential change such as the climate and biodiversity crisis. It engages and motivates through relevant learning experiences for education, life and work and empowers students to create value for society and deal with societal challenges<< Implementation >>Partners have chosen persons who will allocate sufficient time resources for the GreenPopUp4all project. The project has a detailed timeline and implementation is planned and documented in a GANTT chart (Annex 3) where the milestones for the implementation are to be found. For quality control there is also an Impact tool (Annex 5) document to help to manage the project as well.Areas of responsibility for different activities have been divided between the partners, too. All partners will nevertheless participate to each activity. The responsibilities are divided into eight activity areas which include tasks from project management and dissemination to actual LTT activities and other related tasks. These are explained more closely in the implementation section concerning project activities and achieving planned results. LTT activities are essential as well as testing the blended learning model in practice. Workshops for teachers and students provide a good environment to get feedback in order to develop the blended learning module and the manual for the teachers for sustainable entrepreneurial skills. Testing a blended learning module and having virtual meetings, for instance, offers also a possibility to involve participants with fewer opportunities to take part in transnational activities. Teachers’ workshops offer a possibility to share new ideas and gain knowledge, which supports their teaching and developing the new blended learning module for sustainability and entrepreneurship. Student workshops help to encourage youth to act as global citizens. Essential is to increase their understanding about sustainability in the catering industry. The project aims to support sustainable entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial mindset, cooking, travelling and improving participants’ key skills. Students improve their digital skills during the project and in LTT activities they will develop their language skills and especially their teamwork skills in a multicultural team. ZBC, Kuressaare and Gradia will have the main responsibility for these results.Project management and implementation will be carried out by all project partners, but the main responsibility for these activities is for Borås and Gradia. The project coordinator, Gradia, will organize and coordinate transnational meetings, regular online meetings and reporting procedures. There will be continuous evaluation of project results and quality management. Diverse dissemination activities are also planned for securing sustainability of project results and sharing the results to a wide audience.<< Results >>There will be two main results in the project. Result 1 will be a step-by-step guide for teachers about implementing GreenPopUp restaurants into everyday training process. It will support earning sustainable and entrepreneurial skills within the food & catering industry with the help of PopUp restaurants as a method. Documented procedures and guidance will support teachers’ everyday work and ensure sustainability and wider usage of the project results and outcomes also after the project has ended. Teachers will be more skilled to use different digital platforms in the future and usage will also be more versatile. New methods and blended learning will have a positive impact on teachers’ everyday work and the concepts of sustainable development and green values are linked to the work more closely. Due to the documentation it will be easier to implement the same procedures on a larger scale or in different contexts – also for new users. Documentation is also essential when thinking about results and risk management, such as changes in the staff etc.Project result 2 is a module in a learning space in a common open platform aimed at students and teachers in European VET schools within food & catering. The platform will probably be Moodle, where we will create an online learning module with relevant theory and content related to project result 1. The blended learning module on sustainability and entrepreneurship in catering serves several purposes. First, it provides an overview of the themes and topics for students. Students will foster entrepreneurial mindset during the project and develop their transversal skills as well. Participating in workshops and performing practical tasks by productizing marketable food and beverage products or services suitable for the target group is essential part of the learning process.After the project, the module can have a function as a stand-alone orientation or extra resource for learning about sustainability and fostering an entrepreneurial mindset. It offers also possibilities for (KA1) blended mobility activities. The module will combine the benefits of online learning with traditional in-class learning and physical mobility. Virtual, hybrid and blended digital pedagogy means also flexibility in learning and teaching. The module has high transferability potential and will be made available for other potential users internally and externally as well.The project offers a possibility for students, teachers and other educational staff to to experience an international learning community for through physical and virtual mobility and internationalization at home. This will increase inclusion and integration at the same time and encourage participants with fewer opportunities to participate in international activities. Changing ideas and practices concerning sustainability and entrepreneurship is also essential in the learning process for teachers and students. The project supports also cooperation with different stakeholders in local, regional, national and European level. The created transnational network and new contacts will be beneficial for both teachers and students in the future collaboration."

PEEISS is a Transnational European project, developed by several partners from Macedonia, Slovenia, Austria and Finland targeted at students, teachers, trainers, managers, entrepreneurs and innovators from these countries, with the support of the Learning Programme Erasmus+ of the European Union, which aims at promoting the process of learning entrepreneurship by implementing new and innovative teaching methods and e-learning tools. To address the entrepreneurial skills of learners, the project offers dedicated pedagogically-rich education and training. In order to achieve this, it deploys well-grounded didactic and pedagogical models as founded in e-learning education by the help of creating intellectual outputs that come up from mutual teaching and training activities among partners, transnational project meetings and multiplier events. The goal of PEEISS as a project, to find new and innovative methods of teaching and learning entrepreneurship and to include entrepreneurship in every field of society, can be attained only by the mutual force of the project partners whose strong points will contribute to the achievement of project aims and will make it a valuable experience for all direct and indirect participants.Contents and activities planned for the realization of the project aims can be divided chronologically in three important phases: preparation activities, project management and implementation of project activities. Implementation of the project activities will be conveyed by the use of training activities, workshops, Transnational Meetings, the multiplier event - Final Conference, virtual mobilities which will result in the creation of intellectual outputs and enhancement of the project dissemination. The aims of the project will be achieved by implementing suitable teachers/trainers activities: - Training activity about using innovative teaching methods for teachers and presentations of ECVET in entrepreneurship, Finland;- Workshop for creating Curriculum for entrepreneurial teaching for extracurricular classes of Business and Entrepreneurship in Slovenia;- Implementing trainings for students for development of entrepreneurial way of thinking and soft skills according to the prepared Instruction book managed by Ekonomska šola Novo mesto;-Training activities for entrepreneurial learning and development of the students' entrepreneurial mind, Austria;- Training activity for Innovative teaching methods for entrepreneurship, Austria;- Workshop - Innovative Entrepreneurship: From Idea to Marketplace, Macedonia.The project will have a profound impact on the participants, the participating organisations and the target groups. All the key staff and the learners involved in the project will deepen their knowledge of teaching and learning entrepreneurship, they will understand and enjoy the benefits of using innovative methods for teaching entrepreneurship, they will grasp the foundations of using ECVET in VET and they will learn how to develop themselves as excellent, competitive and successful entrepreneurs. The schools involved in the project will have an opportunity to share ideas, practices and teaching materials on the new open source web platform, which in the future will be highly beneficial for everyone interested in the field of entrepreneurship. This will promote equity among learners from all regions because they will have an equal opportunity to enjoy in the results of this project. The students will benefit by becoming more competent on the labour market once they finish their vocational education.

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"The EU 2020 strategy promotes digital skills, as does the 2013 Great Coalition for digital jobs. The EU lighthouse action calls for more ICT-oriented qualification (appropriate curricula at all levels of vocational education and training). In the area of work-based learning, AR4VET is closely linked to the efforts of the European Training Alliance and the so-called Riga Conclusion of 2015, which require systematic approaches to the professional / professional development of company trainers and mentors in work-process-oriented environments become. The EU's strategies help to transform digital technologies into almost every aspect of everyday life. Especially teachers / (company) trainers as well as trainees need the appropriate skills for the correct handling of these new technologies. Technological development often outpaces the development of the required skills among company trainers and teachers. There is a particular need for activities where digital technologies complement existing activities. This applies in particular to the field of work-based learning, since here the need for digital competences is not immediately reflected into the professional development of teachers and trainers. This can lead to a loss of authority and a deterioration in the quality of the training. Teachers and trainers in particular need digital skills to keep pace with technological, educational and social developments in the world of work and society. The transnational project ""Augmented Reality for Vocational Education and Training"" (AR4VET) develops and tests concepts and selected content for the use of extended reality in teaching and learning processes with the aim of a measurable motivation increase among learners as well as to provide teacher and company trainers with a new teaching method, in order to be able to visualize complex situations in particular. This is a contribution to VOCATIONAL & EDUCATIONAL TRAINING 4.0. Augmented Reality is a novel technology with great potential. This new teaching and learning method requires concepts and content to convey competencies to teachers and to company trainers. Thus, further application scenarios are conceivable. So far, however, there is a lack of relevant, industry-related content for teaching and learning in the process of work. For chemistry, automotive engineering, architecture and IT, the use of AR in vocational training has not yet been tested. The use of AR in the teaching and learning process is a didactic innovation, which is technologically induced, and should lead to a didactic transformation or to a user-centered orientation in the classroom and in the company. AR encourages the inclusion of other target groups. A transnational online questionnaire (2017) of the AR4VET consortium, among 45 teachers / trainers (see ANNEX I), found out, that over 80% of them are interested in subject-related AR-content and concepts for use in the classroom or in the company. Because AR is a new technology, they prefer mainly demonstrations / videos, or finished teaching and learning materials. AR4VET will be provide to (in-company) trainers and teachers: - Blended learning course for the use of AR in teaching and learning processes in the company as well as vocational school - Training for use and creation of content on various AR hardware (e.g., Microsoft Hololens) - Object database for license-free use of objects in class - Best practices use in chemistry, automotive, IT and building visualization - Guidance for use in the company and in the classroom Cross-country co-operation allows an EU-wide application in different sectors as the needs of teachers / company trainers and pupils / trainees are addressed, irrespective of the type of vocational training system of the partner countries in AR4VET. The professional development of teachers / trainers is compared between the different sectors. This would not be possible without the participation of facilities from DE, NL, FI, SL and CY."