<< Objectives >>Acquiring and retaining talent is a strategic task. Onboarding plays an important role in it. Digitalized Onboarding helps new hires achieve confidence and proficiency. OBJECTIVES•To develop Digital Onboarding Methodology•To Implement a set of digital tools as VR, Voice Synthesizers, and the like•To develop a training course on how to implement the Digital Onboarding Methodology, processes and tools The project outputs will be distributed in Open Access Format.<< Implementation >>Activities•Project management•Development of digital onboarding methodology, scenarios, processes •Research on open source digital tools•Creating training course and examples of digital onboarding content•Dissemination and implementation•Continuous quality assurance<< Results >>Results•Digital Onboarding Methodology, Scenarios and Processes •Report with digital tools applicable for onboarding•Digital content that demonstrates application of the selected tools for onboarding•Training course “Digital Onboarding - Methodology, Processes, Tools and Implementation”•Partner employees who have undergone this digital onboarding training•Digital dissemination materials•New hires included in digital onboarding programs•Training of VET and Dual-education teachers

<< Background >>According to European Investment Bank survey, “Who is prepared for the new digital age?”, 2020, “Digitalization is an enormous opportunity and challenge for the current generation. The recent Covid-19 pandemic is a sombre reminder of the relevance and the necessity of digital technology for variety of businesses and sectors: from health to retail, from manufacturing to education”. It is stated at this survey that European firms lag the US in the adoption of digital technologies. Only 66% of manufacturing firms in the EU, compared to 78% in the US, report adopting at least one digital technology. The EU’s firms lag behind the US’ companies in improving business processes related to the digitalization of activities.The reasons we apply for this project are:1.The digital transformation of European businesses is vital to the EU's competitiveness. In particular, this applies to the digital transformation of education, including in-company training.2.The digital transformation of education is important both for training organizations and for enterprises, their employees and that part of population of working age that is looking for a job.3.The Covid-19 pandemic affected almost any organization and person in EU, forcing businesses to reorganize their operations, most of them implementing on-the-go information and communication technologies allowing remote work. These forms of work and operations are likely to persist for a long time.4.The magnitude of the necessity to digitalize the business becomes clear from the Eurostat data. In the beginning of 2019 there were almost 25.3 million active enterprises with more than 131 million persons employed in EU-27. The EU’s population was estimated at 446.8 million, while the persons considered to be of working age (15 to 64 years old) accounted to 64.6% of the population. 10.8% of EU’s adults (population aged 25 to 64) participated in formal and non-formal education and training. Thus, we can estimate more than 20 million adults will participate some form of education and training during 2021 and next years. Upon the pandemic situations probably more of them in digital form.5.We want to contribute to the EU’s firms competitiveness catching up in the digitalization of business and activities, especially in the area of adults education and training.6.We believe that the digital transformation of the adult education must take place in organized way, transforming an adult education institution into Digital Education Enterprise.That's why we called our project “Digital Education Enterprise”.By this project we plan to address the needs of:1.Development of Digital Education Enterprise’s business model and processes2.Development of Digital Transformation Plan that will reengineer an adult education organization, including in-company one, into Digital Education Enterprise3.Implementing the plan in this project participating organizations4.Business model for aligning the adults training programs to the needs and opportunities offered by the labor market and specific organizations5.Implementation of innovative practices for digital education services based on best practice and ISO-standards for service management6.Purposeful use of digital technology in adult education, training, teaching and learning<< Objectives >>By this project we want to achieve:1.Creation of Digital Education Enterprise business model and processes2.Creation of Digital Transformation Plan that will help the adults education and training organizations to reengineer their usual way of working to the Digital Education Enterprise business model.3.Implementation of the Digital Education Enterprise business model and processes in the organizations participating this project in an appropriate manner4.Creation of a Business model for aligning the adults training programs to the needs and opportunities offered by the labor market and specific organizations. This model will implement “the producer” concept, placing the organizations that need a specific program, corresponding to the needs and opportunities of the labor market, as well as to the requirements of specific enterprises, to be in the role of producer of digital learning content.5.Implementation of best practice for digital education services delivery based on ISO-standards for service management, like ISO 20000-1 SMS, because adults’ education is a service itself. This best practice shall provide a complete set of processes.6.Transfer of the digital pedagogy and expertise in the use of digital tools for teachers, including accessible and assistive technologies and the creation and innovative use of digital education content, developed by the grant agreement 2020-1-BG01-KA226-VET-095108, where part of this project members participate.7.Sharing the results of this project to the public and interested parties upon the Erasmus+ rules.8.Improved digital competitiveness.<< Implementation >>We will perform the following activities:1.Project management activititesWe will apply the principles, themes and processes of PRINCE2 project management method during the pre-project stage, along the project life cycle stages, and for the post-project stage. We will use a cloud digital project- and documentation- management technology for this project purposes. We will produce the necessary project management documentation. All participants in the project will be properly trained and will use this technology.2.Development ofa.Digital Education Enterprise business model and processes.b.Digital Transformation Plan to reengineer the usual way of adults training and education to the Digital Education Enterprise business model and processes.c.Business model for aligning the adults training programs to the needs and opportunities offered by the labor market and specific organizations upon producer’s model.d.Complete set of processes for digitalized adults training by implementation of requirements of ISO 20000-1 for service management systems.e.Digital training content how to implement the above business models, the Digital Transformation Plan, and processes.f.Digital Education Enterprise’s website.3.Implementation activitiesa.Implementation of the Digital Education Enterprise business model and processes, the Digital Transformation Plan to reengineer the usual way of adults training and education to the Digital Education Enterprise business model and processes, and the Producer’s Business Model in this project participating organizations.The implementation will be done in appropriate manner according to the project participating organizations specifics.b.Implementation of adults training service delivery processes developed upon ISO 20000-1 services management systems requirements.c.Tuning and implementation of the digital pedagogy and expertise in the use of digital tools for teachers, including accessible and assistive technologies and the creation and innovative use of digital education content, developed by the grant agreement 2020-1-BG01-KA226-VET-095108.d.Networking events, meeting and working sessions (DETAILS TBD) according to the project plan.4.Sharing and promotion activitiesa.Sharing the project outputs by number (TBD) of events: webinars, conferences, and employers.b.Publishing the project results at the project’s web site, Erasmus+ related EU’s platforms, and project participants web sites.<< Results >>The Digital Education Enterprise project outputs (product) are:1.Digital Education Enterprise business model and processes2.Digital Transformation Plan to reengineer the usual way of adults training and education to the Digital Education Enterprise business model and processes3.Business model for aligning the adults training programs to the needs and opportunities offered by the labor market and specific organizations upon producer’s model.4.Complete set of processes for digitalized adults training by implementation of requirements of ISO 20000-1 for service management systems.5.Digital training content how to implement the above business models, the Digital Transformation Plan, and processes.6.Digital Education Enterprise’s websiteThe Digital Education Enterprise project outcomes we plan to achieve during the project and in the post-project stage are:1.Implemented and working Digital Education Enterprise model and processes, Digital Transformation Plan, and Producer’s business models for alignment of adults training programs to the labor market and opportunities, and specific employers’ needs2.Implemented processes and best practice for service management upon ISO standards for service management3.Implemented digital pedagogy and tools developed by the grant agreement 2020-1-BG01-KA226-VET-095108, where part of this project members participate. Through this – expanding the digital readiness and capacity of the project’s stakeholders and the community4.Achieving resilience by implementation of business continuity processes for digital education service delivery according to the requirements of ISO standards (Managing service continuity and availability process as per ISO 20000-1, and ISO 22301 Social security – Business continuity management)5.Improved digital competitiveness in adults’ education and training6.Digital transformation achieved by reengineering the usual way of working to the Digital Education Enterprise business model.

Despite the level of unemployment in some EU countries is high (Spain – 25.7%, Portugal – 13.9%, Bulgaria – 11.1%, Czech Republic – 5.8%(source The Statistic Portal, Nov. 2014) a number of industries suffers from a lack of qualified staff. Along with it, the youth unemployment is growing and the employment opportunities for adults over 50’s is decreasing. A survey conducted by Ernst & Young, Germany, estimates that qualified personnel deficiency causes the lost profits from revenue aspect circa 33 billion euro only in Germany. Particularly affected are SMEs. A weak point for them is the fact a lot of them can’t afford professional HR management, or the firms are placed in non-attractive areas – agricultural regions, small towns or villages, and the like. The business searches for solutions of the above problems, relying on long term training, paying more attention to older employees, or trying to attract personnel from other countries.The magnitude of the problem could be estimated taking into account the number of the enterprises in the EU exceeds 25 million. The index of the start-ups is about 10% of that number. The index of the launched in 2009 SMEs and survived within 1 year is about 81%, while the launched in 2005 and survived within 5 years is only about 46% (Eurostat, 2012). The obvious conclusion is that millions of people across the EU are willing to take the risk and start a new business, but are unable to build a sustainable business model to monetize their technical expertise, mainly due to the lack of appropriate business competencies for the development and survival.For all these people who have taken the risk to start a business or working for the most common sector - micro, small and medium enterprises, is very hard to interrupt their business activities in order to supplement own competencies. For the unemployed, especially young people and those at the end of their active age, it is a problem to finance a good business training, and there is a lack of VET organizations offering the needed skills in small villages and distant regions. Therefore, the only available access for the affected citizens seems to be training through the modern ICT.According to eMarketer 196.6 millions of people in Europe own smartphones. The smart phones penetration in a number of EU members exceeds 50% in 2014. Most people in EU, including the youth, have a broadband mobile or fixed internet access and a wide range of mobile devices - smartphones, tablets, laptops, traditional desktop computers, smart TVs, game consoles, etc. Hence the availability of these facilities creates conditions for the delivery of educational content and training opportunities anywhere at any time. If it is appropriately designed and available, the educational content could be used at the workplace, on public transport or at home.The Open MLP project objectives are:1. Building a strategic partnership between educational and business organizations for the development, delivery and usage of educational content for the needs of the today’s global business environment and the business development in the EU2. Exchange of best practices and programmes on training of business competencies3. Creation of a sustainable open business model for development of mobile educational content, which will give a possibility for further development after the lifespan of the project and an open access for development of a network of VET providers and other partners in order to become self-financing4. Development and delivery of educational content and competencies with a focus on SMEs5. Development of accessible (free) mobile application (app) for the implementation of training programmes on a wide range of modern mobile devices– smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc.6. Development of a standard structure of the educational content, which will be used by the project partners for the implementation of the pilot testing of the programmes and after completion of the project, by other VET and business organizations, students, entrepreneurs and interested parties.7. Development of a multilingual learning content, accessible for people and companies in the EU in the framework of Erasmus+ programme8. Implementation of innovative practice for vocational training 9. Creation of available educational content and training for young people through modern mobile devices, which most of them already possess, and the utilization of modern ICT technology in favor of enhancing the professional competencies, entrepreneurship and micro and SMEs10. Transfer of technology (a free mobile application, an open standard format of educational content) to the interested actors within the EU and all countries participating in Erasmus+11. Dissemination and exploitation of resultsStrategic Partners: 5 organizations from 5 EU Countries with a bilateral representative.

The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the normal business operations and processes of almost any industry as well as the normal life of any citizen of the EU countries. The normal operations of the educational organizations were severely affected, as well as the teaching and learning efforts of teachers, pupils and their parents, students, participants of life-long learning. The educational ecosystem was forced to adapt by implementing organizational and technology means.Before the Covid-19 pandemic most educational organizations went through “flu-holidays”, but for a shorter time. The typical scenario of interruption was “turn-off the whole educational activities for short period”.Today the Covid-19 situation is different. The educational ecosystem must manage long-term disruptions and provide continuity in variety of scenarios: lockdowns; some of the students are in class, some are in quarantine; no teachers available; a lot of learners must asynchronously catch up with missed classes, etc.The ”Covid-19 Digital Response” project’s (d-Response) objectives are:1 Capacity building for online, blended and distance learning and teaching by using digital technologies2 Development of digital pedagogical competencies of teachers based on the EU Framework for Competences in the field of digital technologies3 Creation of learning content suitable for working in a digital environment. Dissemination of this content upon the “open source” model4 Creation of methodology and processes for the implementation of online, blended and distance learning along the educational lifecycle, under normal and Covid-19 like situations. Applying business continuity best practice and standards.The results of the project are presented by 5 intellectual outputs:O1 Digital platform for online, blended and distance learning and teaching based on open source and free accessible web-servicesO2 Methodology and processes for online, blended and distance learning and teaching along the learning lifecycle, under normal and Covid-19 and the like situations, based on digital technology, and business continuity best practice and standardsO3 Digital learning content suitable for online, blended and distance teaching and learningO4 Trainers Digital Competences ManualO5 Case study on implementation of the d-Response project products with pilot schools in Bulgaria and RomaniaThere are six partners in d-Response project1 School of Business Competences Ltd., Bulgaria, Educational centre – Vocational Training2 Liceul Technologic Szekely Karoly, Romania, School– Vocational Training3 Instituto Tecnologico de Canarias S.A., Spain, Research Institute4 Die Berater Unternehmensberatungs GmbH, Austria, Educational centre – Adult education5 ACEEU GmbH, Germany, QA body which accredits universities in Entrepreneurial University- and Engaged University- accreditation programmes. 6 Centre for Advancement of Research and Development in Educational Technology Ltd., Cyprus, Research Institute/CentrePRINCE2 project management method will be used for d-Response project management.The d-Response project activities are focused on the delivery and implementation of the project’s intellectual outputs and achieving the project’s goals. These fall in two categories:1. Project management according to PRINCE22. Project’s outputs delivery and implementation:O1 Identification, integration and set-up of appropriate digital environment. Creation of project’s web-site to promote and disseminate the intellectual outputsO2 Development of methodology and business processes which reflect the specifics of teaching/learning in digital environment, and provide business continuity under normal and Covid-19 like situationsO3 Development of digital learning content. Establishment of formats and standards for the learning content, which allow easy transfer to other languages. Using “Text-to-voice”, “Print-to-Braille” tools to prepare learning staff for people with disadvantages.O4 Development of Trainers Digital Competences ManualO5 implementation of the d-Response’s outputs with pilot schools in Bulgaria and Romania, feedback, and preparing of Case study.General activities: Training the relevant project roles on the intellectual outputs. Dissemination of the project outputs. The potential longer-term benefits by d-Response’s outputs:The O1 digital platform is built on open-source and free accessible resources, which are maintained by the community. By our experience these can be used for 5+ years.The O2 methodology and processes develop digital learning/teaching/business continuity culture which once established can be upgraded with the new technologies.The O3 and O4 outputs will be shared under “open code” model, hence have potential to be implemented and maintained the educational community.The O5 Case study will provide reliable model of implementation of online, blended and distance learning and teaching for educational organizations which have no experience.

"PROJECT BACKGROUNDYouth unemployment is one of the most pressing challenges Europe faces. According to Eurostat youth unemployment statistics there were 4,96 million unemployed persons under 25 years old in the EU 28 in December 2014, which amounts to a youth unemployment rate of 21.4 %.While many young people search in vain for employment or apprenticeship positions, existing vacancies are often not filled because employers complain they cannot find suitable young candidates. Among the reasons for this gap are lacking basic knowledge about the way enterprises function and an unsatisfactory level of key competences. Such basic business competence, however, is essential for successfully (inter-)acting in the world of work.PROJECT OBJECTIVESYoung people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds are particularly affected by the risk of unemployment. They are the target group that most urgently need skills, competences and guidance for the competitive labour market.ENTRE-YOU addresses this problem by developing a unique training programme leading to internationally recognized certification. It targets young disadvantaged jobseekers.The ENTRE-YOU training concept combines basic economic knowledge with social and personal skills needed for being successful the labour market. The aim is to enable young jobseekers to become „CEOs of their own lives“. In particular, the following key competences of the European Commission’s key competence framework are addressed:- 1. Communication in the mother tongue- 3. Mathematical competence- 4. Digital competence- 5. Learning to learn- 6. Social and civic competences- 7. Sense of initiative and entrepreneurshipPROJECT PARTNER CONSORTIUMFour key partners (AT, AT, HU) will bring specific competences, methodologies or good practices into the project, which will serve as the starting point for the ENTRE-YOU project outputs.The four transfer partners are from coutries with high youth unemployment rates (RO, HR, ES, BG). Their main objective is to pilot the ENTRE-YOU approach with their target groups and evaluate its potential.PARTICIPANTSENCRAFT will reach a minimum of 430 people benefiting directly from the project.- Participants taking part in pilot courses: 125- Trainers involved in the Train-the-Trainer Course and training material development: 35- Local Participants at Multiplier Events: > 270Indirect beneficiaries are hundreds of thousands young disadvantaged job seekers, who potentially could be given a new perspective on life and ""self entrepreneurship"" through the ENTRE-YOU approach.PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGYENTRE-YOU develops a comprehensive training package which is tailor-made to the needs of young people, including those with a low level of education, from social-economically disadvantaged backgrounds and at risk of being excluded from the labour market. The training package includes- a curriculum of defined learning objectives covering three areas:o Economic thinkingo Economic planning and implementationo Personal and social competence- an interface with the existing certificate EBC*L certification system, which allows the participants to take an internationally recognized exam at the end of the training- didactic concepts which ensure that the training approach is life-, action-, production- and media-oriented and thus likely to be designed to raise the interest and motivation of the hard-to-get target group- a set of attractive and motivating face-to-face and online learning materials on the three areas mentioned above- a manual for VET and labour market trainers how to effectively uses these materials- a Train-the-Trainer seminar to enable adult educators to apply and cascade the developed products- a clear and purposeful strategy in terms of quality control, dissemination and sustainablity, promoting the ENTRE-YOU outputs and making sure that they will be used by after the end of funding.IMPACT ENVISAGED AND LONGER TERM BENEFITSENTRE-YOU will lead to an improved offer for VET institutions whichs meet the training needs of young disadvantaged jobseekers. It can be expected that in the long run the project will contribute to a higher employability for young adults."