CULTURAL HERITAGE, NEW TECHNIQUES AND SUSTAINABILIY SHAPE OUR IDENTITIES AND LIVES The regions Friesland (NL), Central Bulgaria (BG), Valencia (ES) bear a wealth of intangible heritage, such as traditions, knowledge of old crafts and social networks. What all regions have in common as well is waste. It has become essential to create a circular economy in which the reuse of products and raw materials is maximised and their value destruction minimised. In Craft Your Future students examine whether the advancing technology and trends can help revitalize old crafts using waste as raw material. STUDENTS IN THE LEAD The rise of youth unemployment in the EU underlines the necessity to spark a dynamic and positive attitude among young people towards enterprising behaviour, networking skills and pro-activity. Learning by doing and educating students to take initiative and investigate opportunities themselves, rather than waiting for others to take the initiative, will increase employability. Craft Your Future addresses this need by the key focus on the initiative of the student. OBJECTIVES Craft your Future recognises that young people in Europe must look outwards and proactively engage with the challenges and opportunities that our modern globalising world provides. What trends & new technologies (e.g. 3D printing and laser cutting but also the use of big data, new ways of interacting, social entrepreneurship, circular economy) are feeding into our society today that can lift traditional crafts to the 21st century? Concretely, Craft your Future aims to: • Let VET students become closer to and more involved with their regions old crafts and traditions and cherish it. • Ensure young people have the power, knowledge and competences to be the change for sustainability that our world needs. • Educate VET students to be the innovators in the companies they will work for in the future by letting become aware of trends & new technologies and learn how to spot them. • Start the inter-cultural conversation and exchange between youngsters about cultural heritage (traditional crafts), trends & new techniques and the circular economy, let them discover what their regions have in common and how using trends & new techniques can push traditional crafts to the 21st century in a circular economy. • Increase the pool of work based learning opportunities for students in order to develop their competences for future working life. • Preserve cultural heritage by using culture as a driver for creative innovation, turning intangible tradition and waste management issues into a real future by using trends and new techniques. • Develop VET teachers’ skills by letting them to work with their students on ‘real-life’ cases. • Reinforce VET colleges network by setting up a cooperation with regional stakeholders. • Create a bridge between generations. The young generation will understand the elder generation better by getting to know them through their craft knowledge and stories and vice versa. PARTICIPANTS Craft Your Future is aimed at VET students from all fields of education, thus creating a cross-sector approach and allowing students from not only different countries but also different backgrounds to learn from each other. Secondly it is aimed at VET teachers and VET colleges anf world of work stakeholders (local authorities, cultural centres, regional craftsmen, artists, (social) businesses, etc.). ACTIVITIES Craft Your Future students are in the lead to 1) investigate challenges and opportunities on the cutting edge of traditional crafts, trends & new technologies and the circular economy, 2) design innovative solutions to the challenge of waste recycling by using traditional crafts and trends & new technologies, 3) propose solutions and innovations to the world of work and develop community strategies to convince communities to buy local & sustainable. Craft Your Future will develop the following tangible products: • IO1 - Craft your Future - Student Training Programme • IO2 - Craft your Future - Regional Alliance set-up toolkit • IO3 - Craft Your Future - Regional strategy and action plan • IO4 - Craft your Future - Online Community METHODOLOGY Craft Your Future is a true Strategic Partnership meaning all partners provide their key input that contributes to the realisation of the project goals and concrete deliverables. IMPACT & LONG TERM BENEFITS The Craft Your Future project unites educational institutions, students, local authorities, creative centres and (social) businesses in creating a strategy that help regions use intangible cultural heritage to increase their attractiveness, boost local economies and build a future based on regional resources. Craft Your Future ensures young people have the power, knowledge and competences to be the change for sustainability (in the broadest sense) that our world needs.

In the context of rapid socio-economic change, exponential advances in technology, and the burgeoning ICT sector of the emerging fourth industrial revolution, business leaders identify a growing need for managers and employees who possess soft skill capacities, such as critical thinking, people management, etc. Yet, most ICT small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro-firms cannot afford soft skills training programs especially in these difficult times. The proposed project aims to address the soft skills gap and increase the competitiveness of ICT SMEs and micro-firms. In doing so, this project offers an ICT sector soft skills framework and an innovative, engaging ICT soft skills curriculum with teaching and learning resources that are all freely-available via a device-agnostic e-learning platform. The project partnership includes seven teams of locally, nationally, and internationally-recognized experts representing universities, SMEs, e-training organizations, non-profit foundations, and VET providers from 6 countries: Malta, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Slovenia. Product testers include about 65 employees, managers, and trainees from ICT sector SMEs and micro-firms, VET organizations, and other training providers recruited through the partnership network. Multiplier events include another 150 to 240 participants from ICT sector SMEs, micro-firms, and associations, VET training programs, and policymakers, Commission, European Council, and other relevant EU representatives. Project activities are divided into six phases. In Phase 1, project management and coordination plans are developed, agreed upon, and set into motion during the initial kick-off partners’ meeting. Once initiated, these plans guide the timing, collaboration, outcomes, and evaluation of all project activities and outputs. During Phase 2, review of relevant literature and a needs analysis of soft skills for the ICT sector yields a soft skills framework. This framework guides the design and development of an Industry 4.0 soft skills curriculum that employs open, innovative pedagogies, resources, and tools in Phase 3. This curriculum directs development of an ICT sector teacher and trainer digital soft skills resource guide, as well as digital soft skills scenarios and interactive resources for learners that are based on real-life workplace situations. This phase concludes with the assembly of a methodological handbook for teachers and learners, containing guidelines and tips for integrative implementation of the curriculum, resources, and tools. Phase 4 involves pilot testing all of these products with ICT sector employees, trainees, managers, and educators. Observations and feedback are then used to revise and fine-tune the products and delivery process. In Phase 5, the partners engage in the promotion, dissemination, and exploitation of these products with the support of their expansive local, national, and EU-wide education, company, business association, government, and media networks. Phase 6 extends across the life of the project; it involves quality control, monitoring, and evaluation of all activities, timelines, expenditures, and outputs. Four face-to-face transnational project meetings (TPMs), as well as one training and six multiplier events are held during the course of the project. The TPMs are organizational and informational partnership meetings. The training event teaches partner members how to use the training resources. Held during the final months of the project, the six multiplier events introduce the findings and outputs of the project, disseminate information about the project products to potential stakeholders and media, and identify potential partners and collaborators who are interested in using and sharing these products. The results of this project will have a significant impact on ICT sector SMEs and micro-firms. The needs analysis findings and resultant soft skills framework will provide critical information to education, business, industry, and government sectors. Products generated from this project will address the current soft skills gap identified in the needs analysis process. Moreover, this project offers a freely-available, easily accessible, timely, innovative curriculum, relevant and engaging learning experiences, and appropriate training guides in a number of languages for ICT sector SMEs and micro-firms that might not otherwise have access to such training resources. Finally, due to the strong local, national, and EU network of collective partnership connections with target users, such as ICT sector managers, employees, and trainees, as well as VET trainers and students, this project will have a wide impact across Europe. To enhance sustainability beyond promotion and networking measures, project products will include open educational resources (OER). All products will also be freely-available via a device-agnostic e-learning platform for at least two years after the project.

Project Claim your Future set the ambition to inspire students to steer change and innovation in their region. In the rapidly changing and globalising world of today and tomorrow, you need to be financially and economically independent. This independence asks for developing new skills such as personal leadership and an entrepreneurial mind-set. Young people recognize this need, along with the urgency to develop their ambitions and sense of belonging in an inclusive society. Project Claim your Future was an initiative of VET schools, universities (of applied sciences) and NGO’s of 6 countries in Europe, placing students in the lead position. The project was a unique multilevel and cross-sectoral collaboration in regions and in Europe, where innovation took place initiated and executed by students themselves. Consortium partners Friesland College (NL), Inova+ (PT), Bridging to the Future (UK), KSPMC (LT), Servei Solidari (ES) and Hamburger Stiftung fur Migranten (DE) developed innovative tools through regional and European action: a transnational training for social entrepreneurial thinking and action with impact, peer workshops and training, a think tank platform and activities, a longitudinal measurement tool of learning and a method about students in the lead. Aim of the activities and tools was to inspire young people to steer change and innovation, through becoming role models to their peers and through raising awareness. Students became aware of the fact that an ongoing investment is needed in skills and ambitions for the rest of their lives. Innovation asks for new role models, therefore Claim your Future students will be the first generation to start change. More than 180 students were part of Claim your Future teams in the course of 3,5 project years. They reached more than 1000 young people around them with their workshops and presentations as role models. Altogether, Claim your Future students and teams involved more than 3000 people with their activities.The sustainable collaboration of students, educational institutes, regional social entrepreneurs and government created new infrastructures that allow young people to get involved and create an ongoing impact. They influenced the process of local /regional policy- and decision making so that they influenced the future. Local and regional government developed a sense of relevance and urgency in involving students in policy and decision making. Through the collaboration of different educational levels (VET and HEI), participating organisations contributed to a higher educational level, a better employment and employability of their young people and a focus on social entrepreneurial skills. Due to the wide range of innovative activities, the project delivered input for the improvement of educational systems, of local / regional government and of the socio- economic infrastructure.

"The Soft skills learning game we want to develop in this project will focus on the soft skills most needed by students and young people starting out in the real world of work (based on desk research and needs analysis to be performed by the partners and the students themselves) and will include different types of learning resources and tools - the more ""traditional"" reading resources will be kept to a minimum and be supported by real-world, decision-making scenarios exercises in a game, which based on recent research keep learners engaged and motivated and allows them to explore and practice new skills. If today's young people want to have a strong position on tomorrow's job market then they will have to take control over their work, their career, their personal development and their lives. In short: to develop their soft skills and show some degree of young leadership in order to be able to continue to occupy their rightful place in the labor market. We want all European students to gain, at every level, insight into their qualities, knowledge on how to build up a professional network and dare to take control of their careers. They need to know how to be agile and follow developments in their work and take advantage of the opportunities that arise. Our students are the future leaders of tomorrow and their young leaderships role is crucial in finding their position. This is what we want to achieve with this project, using an innovative form to teach this to VET students: the LEADER serious game. This project is designed to produce high quality Intellectual Outputs which enable VET students' increase of Young leadership skills across students in all types of VET institutions. However, in order to achieve this impact, the project requires partners to engage in many activities, and produce outputs which are cross-cutting across IOs and are still very essential to achieving the outcomes of the project. During the project we will inspire hundreds of VET students be helping them develop their young leadership skills through playing a serious game combined with e-learning and face-to-face training. Besides this overall goal, we have grouped the activities and results that will be realized in this project, according to the way in which they contribute to the overall project. After the completion of the project, there will be a very clear and tangible output that will be distributed all over Europe to create awareness about young leadership, soft skills and help teachers of VET to be better educate students about this. The game will be hosted on the LEADER platform where all the results of the project will be presented. We want to create this dynamic e-learning platform with the interface in English, featuring all the important outputs from the entire project. The platform doesn't just contain the information created in the rest of the project but we will also create an entire new part on the platform that we will fill with formats for a media campaign. By doing this, we can ensure that the project will be transferable to every other region in Europe, because we've created a complete kit of all the information necessary to start working with this subjects through all the education in the VET schools. These campaigns can be easily adjusted so that all other interested parties in Europe can use this.The project is very innovative due to the fact that this project is not only being developed for VET students but also by VET students. To all the partners, this seems the only logical way to organise such a project: be involving the students from the start, even in formulating the soft skills that will be trained through this project and the game, we make sure it matches their way of thinking. Another innovative concept to be employed is the so-called single-concept learning or “thin slicing”. Considering the short attention spans so common today, single concept or bite-size learning focuses on one behavior change, one narrow concept andone slim goal at a time. Thin slicing is about isolating a single learning concept and, with very limited information, delivering a powerful impact. The LEADER learning programme will thus be made of small e-learning ""snacks"" that demonstrate how specific skill works in different situations. Then the learning experience will be integrated into a blended learning intervention (e.g. a mix of managerial coaching and instructor-led training), which will provide multiple paths for participants to get the message. The project consortium is experienced in development of e-learning and blended learning courses, mentoring and coaching, and is aware of the importance of taking into account VET learning peculiarities and preferences. Furthermore, one of the partners (8D Games) has special expertise on accessibility and user-friendliness of technological solutions, which will help ensure that the innovative methods used in LEADER learning Programme make learning attractive."

SELF-REGENERATE will equip VET institutions with an enterprise coaching methodology that enables their students to enter the business world fully equipped with the business and English skills to become successfully self-employed. By supporting the creation of an incubation programme in VET, students will become active economic players of the region - thus supporting the local development. SELF-REGENERATE recognises that developing entrepreneurial competences and business English are two sides of the same coin. The need to develop entrepreneurial competences is urgent, as is set out by the EU’s EntreComp. As recognised by Eurostat (2012), we need to increase the entrepreneurial careers of young people. This can only be done by raising awareness of entrepreneurship, developing entrepreneurial competences and helping them set up an enterprise that is adequate to today’s markets. Moreover, it is recognised that no second language is a barrier to career progression and becoming a successful entrepreneur. Eurobarometer’s ‘Europeans and their Languages’ (2012) reported that one of the main motivating factors to learn a language is to improve career prospects and work abroad. However, language support is limited and costly for young people (Eurobarometer, 2012). SELF-REGENERATE will achieve this by creating a practical methodology that combines the Bridge Model and business English. The Bridge Model is a structured method with 4 stages from pre-start up to a mature and sustainable business. This is based on BTF's experience of supporting over 40 enterprises of different sectors and countries to become fully fledging enterprises. This methodology will be complemented by the improvement of students' English. The ability to speak English is seen as a key to raise your career aspirations. It plays an important role in upskilling the students so that they can make their enterprises more sustainable and also become more employable. This will result in a flexible methodology, allowing students to start at the stage they wish. It will be delivered by mentoring and/or independent student work. These results will be achieved through the development of the following outputs and their targets: O1 - SELF-REGENERATE Curriculum & Trainer's Manual: the curriculum and how to implement manual that will equip Trainers to become expert start-up and business English coaches. 2 trainers will be trained during the pilot stage of this output. The manual's will be part of the online platform and shared during the multiplier event so that more VET institutions can access the material. O2 - SELF-REGENERATE Training Manual for Learners: Aimed for the students, this manual will enable them to become entrepreneurs that can revitalise their peripheral region. 20 students will receive business coaching during the pilot of this output. The manual's will be part of the online platform and shared during the multiplier event so that more students can access the material from any background. O3 - SELF-REGENERATE OER and Online Platform: An online platform where SELF-REGENERATE products with interactive learning material and handbooks will be downloadable. Moreover, it will also have an action platform encouraging peer support in English and Enterprise. Multiplier Event: Final conference in each partner country