ContextThe project aims to equip professionals in Europe with the necessary resources as to be able to cope with the online technologies and social distancing to better serve the excluded LGBTQI population as a result of the new situation that emerged from COVID-19 crisis. This is a novel situation for the whole world, to which our proposed action will attempt to respond by using innovative tools and practices that exploit the benefits of ICT solutions in times when social distancing and all other precautionary measures are at the top of the EU’s priorities.RAINBO aims:a. To support professionals, relief aid officers, social workers, mental health, health care providers on how to better include intersectionality and LGBTQI perspectives in their activities b. To enhance their acquisition of digital competences and enable to incorporate in their work do delivery high quality and inclusive support in order to meet the needs of LGBTQI beneficiariesc. To create an incentive for VET, adult education, professionals, and stakeholders to adopt the project approach after project closured. To strengthen transnational learning and cooperation’s networks of institutions, CSO’s, public bodies/services, community centers, helplines, professionals and foster social inclusion and equality, ensuring that LGBTQI people is included in all health, humanitarian and economic relief efforts-To raise awareness of medical and mental health inequalities faced by the LGBTQI communityRAINBO project will be implemented in 5 countries, (UK, Greece, Portugal, Luxembourg, Netherlands).Target groups:a) professionals supporting LGBTQI such as youth workers, community mediators, humanitarians’ officers, health care providers, medical personnel, mental health professionals, social workers, helplines officers, counselors, and volunteers etc.b) LGBTQI people will be the secondary target group and the end beneficiaries of the project activities.The project is expected to deliver:-VET programme for 100 professionals in order to a) improve their knowledge in LGBTQI medical and mental health issues and under the lens of intersectionality; b) acquire the appropriate digital competences for providing support in social distancing context c) contribute to the elimination of biases and stereotypes for sexual and gender minorities and ensure that LGBTQI people is included in all health, humanitarian and economic relief efforts.- Increased transferability of the project outputs and results for professionals, stakeholders, CSO’s, health care providers, etc on how to better include intersectionality and LGBTQI perspectives in their activities.-An e-learning platform in order to a) facilitate the VET programme for practitioners b) raise awareness about the project & disseminate all project material, c) motivate professionals and VET providers to use the project’s products.-A sound and updated report in order to a) explore the specific inequalities that LGBTQI individuals faced in their countries under COVID 19 crisis and b) the level of professionals’ digital competences, in order to perform their obligations and providing adequate services.- Strengthen the links between the consortium members, VET and educational stakeholders in the one hand and organisations supporting human rights and LGBTQI rights and fighting stigma and discrimination on the other hand. -5 open days will be organised in the participating countries, the UK, Greece, Portugal, Luxemburg, and Netherlands for promoting the project and its results.-3 online workshops for VET and adult education providers will be organized in the participating countries, Greece, Portugal, and Luxemburg.- An international conference will be organized, in the UK to present the project and its outputs to interested stakeholders.-Enhanced know-how of all participating project team members on practices, terms and tools for promoting LGBTQI inclusion in their work cycle.-All participating partners will enhance their relationships with CSOs and LGBTQI associations and networks, stakeholders at the national and EU level.Long terms benefits -The professionals in Europe will be equipped with the necessary resources to be able to cope with the online technologies and social distancing to better serve the excluded LGBTQI population as a result of the new situation that emerged from COVID-19 crisis. -The level of services provided to LGBTQI can be elevated and the organizations and institutions providing such services will be enhanced. -Increased awareness of the public on the power and importance of how to better serve the excluded LGBTQI people and elimination of stereotypes and biases.

AGILE4CIRC project comes as an answer to the complicated situation of the low-skilled or low-qualified adults around Europe. They are facing labour market that has gone under significant changes and discrepancy between the educational offers and market demands, with low levels of qualification and limited ability to create new jobs. Most affected are the people in the range of 30-60, that lost their job and could not find a new one due to the change of the skills required by the market. AGILE4CIRC is addressing those issues with focus on Circular Economy.AGILE4CIRC objectives are aligned with EU policies in the field of employment fostering sustainable development of the economy, increasing the level of employment, equal opportunities for all, a high degree of economic competitiveness, increased quality of life and economic and social cohesion.AGILE4CIRC objectives are: •To design of innovative methodological framework for development of business ideas using Agile•To do a research on Circular Economy and Social Responsibility in each country dedicated to adults and new business opportunities to be developed for the targeted group in the new economy. •To designing a training course and toolkit applied to Circular Economy and Social Responsibility.•To develop Incubating Service Management System for business agility in the Circular Economy and to Incubate 12 business ideas•To start MOOC platform with all the training Materials, necessary reports and funding support materialAGILE4CIRC activities include:•Development of innovative methodological framework basing on Agile,•Development of training course that will motivate adults to re-enter the employment market or start new businesses in circular economy. •MOOC will be started as a supporting tool for successfully developing and incubating business ideas, •Motivational and confidence building activities for adults to stimulate them to continue working career or starting a new one,•Virtual incubating of new business ideas generated by adults during the project•Dissemination events, including seminars with relevant stakeholders, workshops and a closure conference•Other activities related to Quality Assurance, Evaluation, Exploitation and Sustainability of AGILE4CIRC outcomesProject partners include: 1 HEI, 1 foundation, 1 business incubator, 2 NGOs and 1 SME. Cooperation has been already established to develop the project proposal and the tasks and activities have been distributed according to each partner’s expertise. This is all done on the previos experience between the partners from other projects. Different methodologies (Agile, Liberating Structures, LSP, Toyota Kata) will be used for development of the Training Course. Addition is the knowledge that partners are bringing in relation to entrepreneurial mind state and skills, social innovation, circular economy, business development and others. Project results include:-Design of innovative methodology to develop a business idea using Agile, for low-skilled or low-qualified adults. -Designing the Training Course and toolkit applied to Circular Economy and Social Responsibility.-Design of Incubating Service Management System App-125 Adults trained across the partnership-25 selected participants for LTTA-12 Business ideas supported in the circular economy-3 national seminars organised with relevant stakeholders - 20-25 target adults integrated in each seminar (65 total)-Closure conference/Seed funding seminar organised with 70 participants (15 internationals and 55 locals)-1 MOOC developed-Website, logo, poster, flyer. Also, relevant stakeholders such as Business Associations, Business Incubators, policy-makers, etc. will be invited to participate in various project activities.The project is designed to have a long-term benefit to the low-skilled or low-qualified adults around Europe. Partner organizations will seek to use all new tools created during the project, to carry out actions aimed at a wide audience, beyond the defined target numbers in this project. Associated partners will help to embrace results after the project ends. Website and MOOC will ensure that anyone interested in this topic can get the information and use the outputs we created. Conferences, training, publishing papers in journals where project results can be presented will enhance longer project benefits.

The DigiVET Project aims to address the current challenges of the VET sector emerged from the transition to the digital era and the impact of COVID-19 in the provision of VET for both trainers and trainees. The pandemic outbreak accelerated the long-expected turn to digital technology in education and training, providing for a reliable solution during these turbulent times, while the VET sector has been disproportionally affected since its strong work-based component does not allow for much flexibility and reliance on digital tools. The need for innovative solutions is even more apparent to motivate learners to seek for quality VET opportunities and combat the increasing levels of early leaving. The unprecedented shift to digital tools and resources during the pandemic fed the development of the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027) to reset education and training for the digital age, focusing on fostering the development of a high-performing digital education system, and enhancing digital skills and competences for the digital transformation. The DigiVET Project aims to contribute to VET trainers’ professional development through improving their digital competences, in particular their capacity to develop digital learning resources to address contemporary needs of trainees. As clearly mentioned in the European Framework for the Digital Competences of Educators (DigCompEdu), professionals dedicated to teaching need to able to effectively use digital technology in various fields of teaching/training delivery. Taking into consideration the challenges faced by VET trainers in their efforts to adapt to the unfolding situation that requires high incorporation levels of digital technology in VET, the DigiVET Project aims to: - Develop VET trainers’ digital competences, in particular the development of digital learning resources for VET, - Build the capacity of VET trainers to adapt their delivery of VET in the digital era, through the incorporation of digital resources and tools, - Support the provision of flexible, high quality VET, adapted to correspond to the requirements of the digital era and the COVID-19 impact, - Develop an online VET Hub that will provide open access to digital learning resources in various VET sectors, - Motivate VET trainees to select quality VET opportunities that reflect their needs and interests, contributing to personal and professional development. To that end, the partnership will first of all, carry out a brief yet comprehensive research to identify in more detail the impact of COVID-19 on the provision of VET, involving at least 360 VET trainers who will respond to questionnaires, participate in face-to-face (or online) meetings and get in-person interviewed on their emerging needs. Based on the research’s findings, the DigiVET Training Programme hosted in the DigiVET e-learning platform will be developed to provide theoretical and practical skills and knowledge on the development of interactive, engaging digital learning resources according to the identified needs of trainees, aiming to keep them motivated in participating in VET, thus contributing to their personal and professional development. The DigiVET Hub, directly linked with the DigiVET e-learning platform and the Project’s website, will act as an open space providing free access to a variety of digital resources, courses, modules, etc. developed by VET trainers who will have completed the DigiVET Training Programme. VET learners and the public in general will have access to quality training opportunities in various fields, improving their personal and professional skills and knowledge, while at the same time having the VET sector adapting to the digital era. Once the Project’s results are pilot tested and finalised, they will be made freely available to the public in English and all partner languages. VET trainers will have the opportunity for professional upskilling through the attendance of the DigiVET Training Programme, hosted in the DigiVET e-learning platform. Once they complete the training, they be able to develop their own digital learning resources to use them in their every-day work on VET delivery, and if they wish, to upload it to the DigiVET Hub to be accessible for free. The Project foresees to equip VET trainers with all the necessary knowledge and skills to incorporate digital technologies in VET provision, thus increasing their adaptability to the digital era, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, VET trainees will have the opportunity to access a variety of VET modules and other digital resources that will be available for free in the DigiVET Hub. The variety of training opportunities offered will substantially contribute in getting trainees engaged with VET, contributing to their personal and professional development.

The educational curriculum seems to not successfully match with the 21st century skills requirements.In order to develop a student-centered learning environment, cover successfully the needs of a growing diverse population of students in China, India and Cambodia with a variety of multi-cultural, multi-linguistics and multi-ability needs and respond to the gap in skills set in the labour market and society, shortage of qualified teachers and poor level of student learning this proposal aims at modernizing the academic curricula, transferring knowledge and best practices on innovative and ICT-based teaching methodology on 21st skills acquisition from HEIs in Programme Countries to the HEIs of Partner Countries that will be benefited directly from this project. The results include 21st century skills teaching state-of-the-art report, a 21st century skills Educational Programme that will be incorporated in the academic program, capacity-building sessions for Faculty staff and development of 21stTeachSkills e-toolbox and learning Platform. Impact will be generated in institution-level, regional level through dissemination activities and networking and European level with the supprt of the EU-HEIs.

Over the past 50 years, the continued miniaturization of transistors has allowed them to run faster and dissipate less energy. This meant more efficient computation and radical changes in the electronics industry. On the same time, automation and robotics have also developed all these years to an unprecedented level: faster and more flexible production lines and higher level of automation have been created.This radical change affected all the industrial and societal sectors, and it is difficult for a country to keep-up to the globalization changes, if its educational system does not keep-up with these. For specific regions of Asia however, this process have not been developed adequately. To this end, the Digi-CHE-Asia project focuses on enhancing the Digital Capacities of these countries through specific actions and cross-fertilization of ideas and methodologies with successful examples from Europe.The Digi-CHE-Asia project has 3 main pillars: a) the enhancement of undergraduate studies via suggestions to optimize curricula, b) the development of an innovative MSc programme in relation also with VET courses for professionals and c) the inclusion of public and private stakeholders, especially from the manufacturing and high-tech industry in order to give the opportunity to students and professionals to increase their capacities in Electronics, Automation and Robotics (EAR) and thus becoming invaluable assets to the modern industries.Additionally, Digi-CHE-Labs will be created in order to create a focal point of EAR in each University, where interested students, academics, professionals and industry experts will have the opportunity to exchange ideas and keep up-to-date with the new technological advancements.It is expected that the Digi-CHE-Asia project will have an important impact at academic, industrial and societal level, allowing the participating countries to become important players in the manufacturing and high-tech industry.