Racism and discrimination are not new phenomena and although publicly condemned, are often privately tolerated in online contexts. They have undergone a transformation from visible to more latent forms and are manifested in popular social networking sites (hereafter SNS). Youth, the main users of these sites, are particularly affected by and exposed to racist and discriminatory messages, that in forms of images, videos, comments, are circulated in SNS. Users can be easily mislead, since “cloaked” (disguised) forms of discrimination are hidden in false, “politically correct discourses”, like “I am not a racist, but... “. While taking into consideration how these sites constitute a powerful form of non-formal learning, recognizing how youth in particular are challenged by online racist contents, this project is directed towards providing guidance for vulnerable community members who are more likely to face discrimination (i.e. migrants, certain ethnic and cultural groups, young people at risk of social exclusion, their parents and educators) and for everyone willing to act against these conducts, such as NGOs, media content providers, community managers, local and national authorities. The previous ICUD project turned out to be a significant success and made good social impact . Its evaluation is published here “Internet: Creatively Unveiling Discrimination” http://www.collage-arts.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Quarter3.pdf). This project will consist of similar stages as the original one although consist of different partner countries and take shorter period of time (12 instead of 24 months). The project will use the methodology of the original ICUD to prepare the participating youth workers to learn and use and share the antidiscrimination pack. The project is aimed:-to share methodology worked out during the project INTERNET: CREATIVELY UNVEILING DISCRIMINATION (I:CUD) called ‘antidiscrimination pack’ which has been done by CEPS SOCIALS PROJECTS (http://digitaldiscrimination.eu/);-to enable and support young people to become active and responsible digital users;-to assess and reflect on their own use of technology, make changes, challenge and combat digital discrimination.The project provides a practical guide on how to unveil masked discriminatory practices: to show a way of becoming creative “prosumers”, who do not just passively “consume discriminatory contents” but actively produce material counteracting such conducts. There are 3 accumulative phases of the project, the framing research process (1), the action pilot process (2) and the communication and dissemination process (3) can be understood as logical steps in order to prepare our youth workers to learn, test the antidiscrimination pack and later share it, an integrated and interactive tool that includes reflections of people working with youth and young people themselves.Phase 1- based on the rules set by the original project the partner organizations collect theoretical frame and case studies within their interdisciplinary groups (teachers, social workers, youth trainers, community managers) to discuss and work out possible ways of acting against and combating discriminatory material in SNS. During this process the methodology of the second phase will also be outlined by the P1.Phase 2– based on the research done in phase 1 the partners test the original antidiscrimination pack. They learn themselves to use it and organize creative and empowering activities with young people aged 15-30 at risk of social exclusion, members of communities who are marginalized and are more likely to be exposed to discrimination online or face-to-face. Participants of the pilot groups will receive training followed by digital sessions, during which they can express their thoughts and reactions in form of short videos. In this way the project gives voice to the mainly affected and integrates their ideas in a practical tool designed for actions. The original anti-discrimination pack can be in this way also improved by new ideas and experiences. The original antidiscrimination pack enriched by our amendments (Anti discrimination Pack 2.0 – further called AP) will be accompanied by a new web platform that will include recent case studies floating in SNS, short videos, collected by the partners and a methodological guide divided into a theoretical frame and an integrated practical part with concrete steps to be followed.Phase 3 foresees a 4-month dissemination process during which local dissemination events will take place across the partner countries as well as follow-up trainings provided by participating youth workers. These actions will be organized and attended by altogether 15 youth workers from PL, DE, ES, UK and CY and tutored by 2 educators from the mentoring CEPS from Spain and 1 facilitator from Dramblys. Within the project frameworks will be organized i.a. 3 transnational meetings of staff and a training event for youth workers involved.

"The present reality of digital era brought the necessity of digital skills and competence development also in Higher education students work experience sector. It has clearly pointed to the importance of virtual internships and its potential effectiveness for all parties involved, which has been also supported by a recent enabling of virtual internships within Erasmus+ program. During these times of Covid-19 pandemic and connected restrictions, the realization of standard physical Erasmus+ internships has been quite limited across all countries. Virtual internships remain now for HE students almost the only possibility for getting the international work experience. We also believe that apart from current situation, virtual internship is a valuable complementary option for getting work experience now and in a future ""new normal"". For the people with different barriers it is the only option regardless to current situation. We believe that acquiring work experience via internships is a necessary part of skills and competence development of Higher education students and to be able to fully use the potential of virtual internships too, it is necessary to target the gap in skills and specific knowledge areas this topic requires not only at the side of students/trainees but also among university internship coordinators as well as host organization representatives. The option of having internship virtually/online is an efficient alternative but the current reality has showed that since the Erasmus+ has included them into the program there has been quite low number of students and companies joining. One of the main reasons is that comparing to standard physical internships there are new specific skills and competence needed to be learned at the side of all parties involved and more than ever before the digital access to such learning content is nowadays a must.The objective of our project is to develop a digital learning portal ""Virtual Internships Academy"" (VIA) , offering the complex digital learning content for trainees, university coordinators as well as host organizations for successful preparation, execution and closure of virtual internships while assuring the good quality for all parties. Our project will help to carry out virtual internships as a supporting learning source which will help increasing their number not only within Erasmus+ program (with direct positive effect on graduate employability) but will also help to encourage all parties using innovative digital learning tools. Moreover with our project University internship coordinators will be able to switch their preparation activities for students, done in present form, for a modern and effective digital learning tool.Our project team consists of 6 experienced partners who either have experience with virtual internships, or plan organize virtual internships as a new opportunity of Erasmus+ program or are host organizations and company consultants which will be able to use the project to motivate and couch the other companies for offering and successful execution of virtual internships.All together we cover the required skills at all levels needed for the project from identifications of needs to multilevel and cross-sectoral expertise. The team has also great possibilities for analysis and dissemination of the project outcome among regions of partners and their networks, together covering all the target groups of the project users. Only incorporating the VIA digital learning platform into the work practice of the project partners as a first step after completion, will have a huge impact to their networks of different target groups, which will have a natural domino effect to further multiply the users with fast sharing of its benefits.The expected impact of our project is mainly in helping to carry out virtual internships with our project as a supporting digital learning source, which will help increasing their number and quality not only within Erasmus+ program and with direct positive effect on graduate employability. The project aim is also in helping to encourage all parties using innovative digital learning tools. VIA digital learning portal will be freely accessible to everybody interested to learn how to prepare for and successfully execute virtual internships. There will be a certification of completion issued to every participant completing all the lessons with all modules of selected target group. The VIA certificate will serve for the further recognition and awareness of virtual internships and need for their quality preparation. VIA platform will be a digital tool and we will use the full potential of online promotion possibilities and digital measurements of its impact to all target groups in all regions. We believe our project will help students to be confident joining virtual internships, university internship coordinators to successfully coordinate them and companies to be more open to offer virtual internship opportunities."

Year 2020 is the year of challenges all over the world. It is hard for us to model and estimate the impacts of the COVID-19 epidemics; still, we need a progressive strategy. The unplanned situation established in connection with the COVID-19 epidemics also means a challenge for the career advisors, who are currently the supportive pillar of the labour market supporting the economy. They are standing in front of an unexpected task – the provision of the continuity of their work without having a chance for personal meeting with the clients. They can adjust to the new reality by providing distance counselling with the help of the available communication tools. The strengthening of the career counselling system is the interest of all. However, in order to enable the advisors to manage accumulated challenges, their training and renewal is indispensable. Due to the fact that the problems arising from the epidemic are of global nature, and that according to the needs assessment and the needs analysis implemented in each of the partner countries, career orientation services and their use in the everyday practice takes place to a different extent and on a different level, this question should be treated within an international context, in the framework of which we can get to know the best practice examples of the partner countries, and in cooperation, we can work out a global training program for the digital (e-)career orientation service providers, in order to provide them guidance according to the challenges of the 21st century, that can be applied in all partner counties as well as in other countries of the EU.There are 5 organisations involved in the project, operating in the fields of career counselling, research, digital skill development and adult education from Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, France and the Netherlands, that provide guidance, training and special service as well as special services, and that also provided the support of their members as an umbrella organisation.Main objectives of the project:-Facilitation of digital counselling and competence development of professionals implementing career counselling by working out a new, innovative modular blended-learning training programme reflecting to the challenges of the 21st century.-Facilitation and development of international cooperation of professionals implementing lifelong guidance, professionals implementing career counselling, advisors, training institutions and organisations providing other labour market services, and establishment of partnership networks.-Deployment of digital technologies as well as innovative and open pedagogies among career counsellors.-Facilitation of lifelong learning of career counsellors.The direct target group of the project include career guidance counsellors in different sectors (schools, labour offices, counselling and HR consulting agencies, outplacement agencies).The project will also be beneficial for the indirect target groups: practitioners in career guidance in different sectors, researchers in the field of career guidance, policy makers in the field of career guidance for different target groups, life coaches, business coaches, organization developers, NGOs providing assistance to vulnerable groups, social partners and professional associations, other relevant stakeholders in career guidance and for the unemployed people and the employees taking the career advisory and counselling services, who are in a crisis situation from multiple points of view.We are planning to prepare 4 intellectual outputs within the project. In the first phase of the project, mapping good practices and following that, the exploration of success factors and their impacts provide an opportunity for working out a methodological guide based on (explored) outcomes, facilitating the use of high-quality and modern digital tools. Following that, we will work out a blended-learning training material targeting the professional and digital competence development of career counsellors, as well as an experience exchange that can be applied both on a national and international level for the establishment of an electronic platform.The biggest advantage of modular blended-learning training programme provided for career counsellors is the acquisition of new competences that meet the requirements of 21st century. We place emphasis on digital competences, completed by a methodological guide that facilitates more efficient, higher quality and client-oriented career advising and counselling services.Partner organisations plan to incorporate in the offer of educational activities outputs of the project, which will be made available also to other interested parties. Project activities will facilitate the development of partner networks of professionals and organisations operating in multiple sectors.

At application time, spring 2016, over 1.1 million people – refugees, displaced persons and other migrants – had made their way to Europe either escaping conflict and serious threats in their country or in search of better economic prospects. More than 60 million people are today forcibly displaced as a result of violent conflicts and natural disasters. The refugee routes have changed during the project’s life time, but still with a common European challenge in how European governments are willing to share the burden. One of the RefuSkills project partners, Turkey, is now serving as a buffer according to the agreements between EU and Turkey.The project consortium comprised 14 partners from 9 countries. The partnership included partners with critical first line experience from reception of refugees and other migrants, and others from handling applications for transit or residency.The RefuSkills project aimed to use the Skillsbank experiences with structured Learning Outcomes in EQF and ECVET format to meet the immediate needs for a rapid competence assessment and a documentation and declaration of skills, competences and certifications of great value to the individual migrant, the recipient country, and to the host community.The main objectives were:1) Establishment of an easy-to-use mechanism, the RefuApp, to give refugees/migrants an opportunity to document their skills and competences (in their own language) by using basic ECVET and Learning Outcome principles2) Facilitation and reduction of processing time in the handling of refugees’ and asylum-seekers’ residence applications, and identification of appropriate/relevant individual career pathways towards employment and training3) Improving the recipient countries’ possibilities for a fast identification of migrants’ skills and competences, and thus for a facilitated integration and participation in work and capacity building programs4) Exploring the possibility of issuing a “RefuPass” stating the individuals competence portfolio based upon Learning Outcomes extracted from Skillsbank and the RefuApp Skillsbank (Leonardo da Vinci 2011 project) is the basis for the RefuSkills technical developments. It is a multilingual web-based toolkit targeting career guidance, recognition of prior learning and individual training support. It is based upon Learning Outcomes and uses principles from EQF and ECVET. The interface is presently available in 14 languages, AR, BG, DE, EE, EN, ES, FR, IT, NL, NO, PL, PT, SI, and TR. The system aggregates Learning Outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills and competences into logical units constituting full qualifications. Skillsbank furthermore offers a Recognition of Prior Learning assessment module where each Learning Outcome can be self-assessed by individuals. Subsequently assessors can validate and conclude with a consolidated assessment to be included in the individual’s competence portfolio.The RefuSkills project has used the Skillsbank options as the RefuApp for a “self-declaration” by the migrant to be matched against selected qualification descriptions defined by partner countries as relevant: cooking, serving/waitering, office work, hairdressing, welding and sales clerk. In addition to these occupations, a section for Core Work Skills / Transversal Skills is available.The Arabic option makes it possible to create bi-/tri-/quadri-/multilingual versions of qualification requirements. The migrant will use the most relevant language for the self-assessment input, whereas the hosting side can work in an available parallel language version.After the self-assessment, several options are available:•The migrant can use a print-out as a self-declaration against a competence profile;•The self-assessment can pass through an external assessor to be formally validated against qualification requirements;•After the external assessment the migrant may have a “compatible qualification document” as a competence passport according to qualification requirements and standards; or•Have a basis for career guidance and further training – formally in a training institution or in the workplace.Depending upon type of output required in a national or a sectoral setting, the output documents are linked to the Skillsbank database for an automatic merge of information into the new layout. This applies to developed documents as well as to a Europass CV or other existing formats and will be extended with a “RefuPass”.The main project steps:•Initial surveying/mapping of refugee status in all partner countries•Identification of Key Competencies expressed as Basic Skills, Transversal Skills or Core Work Skills and Competencies•Identification of the most relevant/requested vocations/occupations and the respective qualification matrixes•Development of ICT solution, the RefuApp, integrated with Skillsbank modules, new documentation, and use on tablets and mobile

<< Objectives >>The project main objective is to improve educators´ knowledge, professional competences and lifelong learning in public and non-public organisations by the form of mixed-mode learning, to increase level of supporting, counselling and educational services for refugees, migrants and immigrants, to promote their social inclusion with educational and inspirational videos. The project places great emphasis on international cooperation development, on creation and strengthening of partner networks.<< Implementation >>In addition to the Project Management and Implementation, project activities are organized into 4 work packages:WP1 Development of the DECAMI Research ReviewWP2 Development, pilot testing and evaluation of the DECAMI Modular Mixed-Mode Learning Programme for Educators and DECAMI Supervision ProgrammeWP3 Development of the Interactive Online Portal and preparation of the DECAMI Motivational VideosWP4 Organization of national seminars, workshops and conference<< Results >>Main project results are:-DECAMI Research Review - new scientific approaches in facilitation migration processes -DECAMI Modular Mixed-Mode Learning Programme for Educators to increase their knowledge and professional competences in provision of migration supporting services-DECAMI Supervision Programme to promote the quality and level of migration supporting services-DECAMI Motivational Videos to promote social inclusion of refugees, migrants and immigrants -Interactive Online Portal