<< Background >>The widespread pandemic of COVID-19 has significantly interrupted the traditional training and education, as well as VET education, throughout Europe and the whole world. The current situation is forcing European educators to adapt in a short time interval towards digitising their classroom. However, the pandemic has already placed the education system to the test. The circumstances became worse by the fact that apprenticeships and learning by working, which reflects the practical training in VET has been discontinued in almost all Member States, according to the European Centre for Vocational Training report. Digitalisation and industry 4.0 are perhaps the most important drivers behind the profound transformation of the labour market, the way people work and the new digital skills required to meet the needs of the digitalised market. VET is valued for fostering job-specific and transversal skills, facilitating the transition into employment and maintaining and updating the skills of the workforce according to sectoral, regional and local needs.Boosting digital skills at all levels helps increase growth and innovation and build a fairer, more cohesive, sustainable and inclusive society. Being digitally skilled and acquiring digital literacy can empower people of all ages to be more resilient, improve participation in democratic life and stay safe and secure online. Equipping Europe’s future workers and job seekers with digital skills and competences will be critical for economic recovery in the coming years, especially after the severe consequences of the pandemic in all fields of life.The skills to be gained will extensively affect their professional development in an ever more digital society of IoT and Industry 4.0., the hands-on teaching approach supported by the construction, coding, and gamified problem solving with drones' will help teachers reach out more effectively their audience. Students with disadvantages and learning difficulties will benefit from this project's results and potentially tackle early school leaving through students' more inclusive engagement.The benefits of making activities in an educational setting are numerous: they can play an important role in encouraging and guiding students towards the end goals, they can fosters students’ growth, the strategies and processes learned can eventually be transferred to other contexts and also be put into use in new and different situations. Moreover, making activities have a significant impact on overall skills and competence acquisition, as well as its usefulness for the purposes of personal growth, employability and social innovation.<< Objectives >>Drone technology stands out as fun and practical equipment for the contemporary classrooms, experiments, and exploration. Drone technology is a fascinating way to introduce students to STEM related professions, equip them with relevant skills and thus cover the gaps reported in the labour market to meet the new job creation arising. At the same time, it blends together all STEM fields such as maths and physics, electrical and mechanical engineering and computer science. It promotes other employability skills needed in the 21st century such as problem-solving, group work, leadership, creativity and initiative.The DRONES@STEAM project proposal addresses three main priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme as shown below:HORIZONTAL: - Addressing digital transformation through development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity- Inclusion and diversity in all fields of education, training, youth and sportSECTORAL:- Contributing to innovation in vocational education and trainingBased on the above, the DRONES@STEAM project will support VET trainers and educators in an attempt to strengthen their profiles with the acquisition of new skills, the development of targeted material, the collection of tools and resources, while at the same time it will create opportunities for linking VET schools with the labour market building on synergies and partnerships with established organizations.The key competences to be promoted as part of the project are:- high digital skills which appear to be missing from VET curricula and are currently needed to enter the labour market and be included in VET job profiles - targeted ‘wide and deep’ digital competences and the use of technologies leading to the 4.0 industry.- job-specific VET related skills for various fields and sectors which are not offered as work-based learning opportunities or include danger or hazards for the workers.<< Implementation >>The activities include:-5 TPMs-1 LTTA in the form of Blended Learning Mobility of Learners with their VET trainers-Multiplier Events: 7 events to be organised-Competition: 1 in each partner country (except GR which will organise 2 due to distance) and 1 at the EU level<< Results >>The DRONES@STEAM project promotes the capacity and readiness of VET schools to modernise their teaching, use digital technologies in training, create innovative digital content and equip trainers with digital competences. This will be achieved through the development of:-A complete READY-TO-IMPLEMENT DIGITAL PACK for the introduction of drones’ technology and STEAM skills in VET schools including a targeted competence framework based on which students’ skills acquisition will be monitored, assessed and validated through the eco-system of the Open Badges, -a set of DIGITAL CONTENT in the form of CROSS-CURRICULAR BASED SCENARIOs with real-life examples moving away from subject boundaries promoting STEAM skills and guidelines for exploiting drones’ technology.-Professional development course to be designed for VET trainers for digital up-skilling or re-skilling in order to become digitally competent and confident to introduce such skills and technologies in schooling. In that way the readiness and capacity of trainers will be increased and will be able to shift efficiently to online and flexible blended learning.-Guidelines and procedures to prepare VET trainers and teachers to familiarise themselves with the 2020 EU Drone Regulation as per the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) which has foreseen the need for regulating the fast growing drone usage across sectors in order for EU citizens to be informed about the proper use of drones and their capabilities and restrictions, and the E.U. legislation encompassing it.

V-UPGRATES is a comprehensive programme with which professionals in Vocational Education and Training (VET) can assess and improve their digital skills. Thus they are able to teach more effectively and are better equipped to prepare their students for the labour market.The V-UPGRATES interactive platform (IO4) provides the opportunity for participants to first take a skills audit in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)(IO3). Upon that they receive detailed test results and suggestions for specific V-UPGRATES online courses. Topics of the quiz and online courses are:-Internet security-Virtual learning platforms -Online communication tools-Media editing-Web publishing-Interactive technologies in the classroom.These topics are the results of a V-UPGRATES survey (IO1) among VET teachers. Moreover these empirical findings strongly correspond with Digital Competence Framework of the EU. Both reference systems have a focus on the management of one’s digital identity and reputation. Only if VET trainers and teachers are familiar with safeguarding of personal data, they are able to discuss with their pupils and e.g. to contribute to protect them from delicate online situations.Overview of the autonomous learning process of V-UPGRATES:Step 1: Test skills and knowledge with a multiple choice quizStep 2: Improve with V-UPGRATES online coursesStep 3: Evaluate with hands-on online tasksUpon successful completion of all steps, each user receives a V-UPGRATES certificate. It validates the non-formal learning results. On top the user can get in touch with other VET teachers and trainers, moreover he/she gets information about face-to-face IT courses in their area, to even deepen the competences acquired in the online procedure. All mentioned features are included in the V-UPGRATES interactive platform, which is to be found here: https://upgrates.vupgrates.eu .By the development and implementation of a self-regulated training process, the project consortium refers to findings of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) of the OECD (2013). According to this survey professionals in Vocational Education and Training have a significant need for more fully developed ICT skills (18%) and more effective incorporation of new technologies in the workplace (16%). Moreover TALIS shows that most VET teachers and trainers do not consider themselves digitally confident or able to teach digital skills effectively, with as many as 70% of respondents stating that they need more training.Project aims in a nutshell:•Improving the digital competences of VET professionals•Furthering the professional development of VET trainers and teachers, thus achieving a systemic impact on teaching quality and learning outcomes•Removing the most significant barriers to continuous professional development – namely schedule conflicts, a lack of incentives and prohibitive costsV-UPRATES was developed within 30 months by an international consortium consisting of seven partners (IT enterprises, schools, further training institutions, universities) from Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Romania and Germany. Coordinator is the Institute of Civic Education, Leibniz University Hannover in Germany. 14 multiplier events took place for VET professionals, decision makers on regional and national policy level and coordinators for continuous professional development. The website shows all events and it comprises more details to the above mentioned intellectual outcomes (IOs): https://vupgrates.eu/

<< Background >>Rapid digitalisation over the past decade has transformed many aspects of work and daily life. Driven by innovation and technological evolution, the digital transformation is reshaping society, the labour market and the future of work, and inevitably E & T. Employers face difficulties in recruiting highly skilled workers across a number of economic sectors, including in the digital sector.Boosting digital skills at all levels helps increase growth and innovation and build a fairer, more cohesive, sustainable and inclusive society. Being digitally skilled and acquiring digital literacy can empower people of all ages to be more resilient, improve participation in democratic life and stay safe and secure online. Equipping Europe’s future workers and job seekers with digital skills will be critical for economic recovery in the coming years, especially after the severe consequences of the pandemic in all fields of life.To thrive in a technology-driven economy, VET trainers, educators, job seekers, workers, but perhaps above all ‘the lockdown generation’ whose education and employment prospects have been affected due to the pandemic, will need to be digitally skilled and confident to succeed in a rapidly changing environment and adapt to new and emerging technologies. Evidence in the participating countries show that levels of digital skills are still low, albeit gradually improving, while the digital transformation is accelerating. While acknowledging that 90% of jobs in all sectors in the future will require some form of digital skills, yet 35% of Europe’s workers lack these skills, the partnership is committed to contribute to the upskilling and re-skilling as digital skills in demand will range from basic to advanced, including AI, data literacy, supercomputing and cybersecurity.<< Objectives >>Main aim:The proposal aims (1) to promote the introduction and acquisition of high digital skills including AI and Unity Game Development in VET schools thus responding to the needs of the labour market and (2) to empower young people with digital literacy to enhance their resistance to excessive online use such as addictive gambling habits through the demonstration of how an AI model can predict lucky games.Other aims:•To upgrade the attractiveness of VET with targeted to the needs of the labour market curricula thus responding to the demands of the digital transformation•To promote social innovation and change for a sustainable future through the digital upskilling of the younger generation•To empower YP with targeted digital competences, skills and knowledge in order to acquire an overall understanding of gambling and harden their resistance to gambling addiction.•To introduce the fundamental knowledge of Artificial Intelligence both for VET trainers and young people•To develop a new set of AI learning and teaching resources as well as Unity Game Development, that will enhance the schools’ collection•To provide young people with high quality opportunities to acquire digital skills using the Unity Engine for educational purposes and to boost their creativity, innovative, problem solving, teamwork, leadership and empathy skills•To develop a professional development training for trainers in order to upgrade their profiles•To empower young people to prevent and/or deal with gambling addiction and excessive online screen usage.•To promote awareness raising for the dangers of gambling addiction through the acquisition of digital literacy skills<< Implementation >>Activities:The consortium plans the following activities:-Five transnational project meetings-One Blended Mobility for VET learners accompanied with their VET trainers-Four Project Results -Six Multiplier Events<< Results >>The results include the following:-National State of the Art Report for the AI-driven digital transformation -Peer review among partners-Educational Pack with a new AI Curriculum for secondary schools, set of new digital material, collection of case studies for exploration, collection of resources, -An interactive platform in the form of an academy-Pilot-testing of the SmartAInnovators programme-Dissemination Plan-Quality and Evaluation Plan

The project aimed to design and deliver a training programme specialising in Entrepreneurship and eCommerce. The course aimed at increasing the knowledge and competences of female individuals in the area of electronic commerce and business. The aim of the course is to improve the employment prospects or business opportunities of the participants.The course targets female individuals who would like to:-Increase their knowledge on the importance of e-commerce in today’s competitive environment;-have an opportunity to access a range of resources and tools specially made for women entrepreneurs who would like to start a business or have recently started a business;-Explore adopting e-commerce services as part of their product / service offering,-Use e-commerce to bring a new service/product closer to the market. In the framework of the Smart Women project, seven partners from European countries have created an innovative European Training Model, focused on women, aiming for encouraging entrepreneurship and putting business ideas into practice. The Smart Women Model combines online learning using online learning platforms and face to face training based on project collaboration, peer-learning, guidance, coaching and counselling. Also for each topic a quiz was developed to assess the participants at the end of each module.The following topics were included;1. Planning your Business2. Digital Marketing3. Creating Digital Content4. ICT and Online Security5. E-CommerceA thorough awareness and marketing campaign will was implemented to promote this training course vis-à-vis its importance for the growth of the European economy. This also included the branding of the project, the promotion of the course amongst potential participants, and the organization of conferences in identified partnering countries. To support the sustainability of the project, this component will also include the carrying out of ex-post surveys to establish the effectiveness of the training and be used to fine-tune the delivery of the programme.Development of an e-learning platform – in parallel with the delivery of the training programme, this project embarked on transforming the content of the course into a virtual learning environment (moodle). The e-learning platform will support the sustainability of the project. Having an online / blended course will reduce operational costs following the closure of the project and will also provide a more accessible learning environment for participants with different needs. Moreover, the e-learning platform will allow the course programme to be delivered following closure of the project. The activities were accompanied by 6 transnational project meetings where the expertise and ideas were exchanged, the observation of workplan and time schedule monitored as well as the next tasks and responsibilities agreed.The project consortium consisted of 7 partners, each of the partners brings to the project team a high-quality profile, multi-sectoral knowledge from similar previous initiatives and experienced working teams; all of which can be exploited for the successful project implementation. The Applicant, the Malta Communications Authority (MCA), has the remit to bridge the digital divide by stimulating and supporting citizens and business to embrace Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a key enabler to continued social and economic growth. All Digital is a European non-for-profit organisation (NGO) and a member based association with a central office in Brussels, Belgium. LIKTA is a member of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Latvia, member of The Confederation of Employers of Latvia, as well as member of Pan- European associations. LIKTA holds the status of Educational institution and has a network of 31 E-competence centres around Latvia. Langas į ateitį provides basic ICT training courses for all citizens for free. More than 120.000 people graduated from distance/classroom training courses since 2003. Dedalo Foundation for the Development of the Information Society is a non-profit Foundation located in Tudela, the second most populated city of Navarra region in Spain. The Cyprus Computer Society (CCS) is an independent, professional, scientific, nongovernmental and non–for-profit organization seeking to improve and promote high standards amongst informatics professionals in Cyprus. Fundația EOS – Educating for an Open Society (EOS Romania – www.eos.ro) is a private, non-profit organization. Its main goal is to bridge the digital divide in Romania by helping people realise their full potential through the use of technology.

<< Background >>Telepresence robots (TPRs) are not particularly novel, while their potential for supporting inclusion in the classroom is relatively obvious. For instance, the head of education of one of our school partners assumes that as many as 1-2 children per classroom would greatly benefit from being able to participate with a telepresence robot. Thus, the question arises why this technology does not yet belong to the standard equipment in schools already. One reason, we suspect, is that the obstacles have not been fully understood and that no practices exist to address them; for example, in one US school, researchers report on considerable resistance from some teachers and parents, which could be overcome by introducing the telepresence robot with this resistance in mind (Newhart & Olsen 2017). Now, possible obstacles are culture-specific, and the US model cannot simply be transferred to the EU. Furthermore, while telepresence robots offer social presence in the classroom to children who cannot otherwise participate at all, they do not afford social presence to the same extent as embodied class participation. For instance, Stoll et al. (2018) found the remote participants to be trusted less and to participate less in the joint activities; nevertheless, these problems could be mitigated if simple measures about the distribution of resources in the classroom were taken. Thus, recommendations as to how to organize classroom activities taking the remote participants into account could greatly facilitate their use for inclusion of challenged children in the classroom. A third problem may be that while all telepresence robots provide some autonomy to the child participating remotely in the classroom, the robots themselves differ greatly, and so far it is unclear which features support classroom inclusion. And finally, it is not exactly clear what the benefits are of participation by means of telepresence robots, and hence an evaluation of the effects of introducing this technology on the students' academic performance, as well as their health- and well-being will be carried out.What is missing are therefore concrete guidelines for schools in Europe on how to introduce telepresence robots into a school context, concrete recommendations for teachers on how to include children on telepresence robots into the classroom activities, design recommendations for robot manufacturers and a purchase guide for schools as to what robot functionalities they should pay attention to, and finally concrete teaching materials.<< Objectives >>The current project provides hands-on guidance on how to include children with health challenges remotely into the classroom activities; in order to do this, we first carry out a survey to understand the obstacles better, as well as teachers' and other stakeholders' hopes and fears. The first objective is thus to carry out a needs analysis across a large range of European countries.The second objective is to develop guidelines for schools on how to introduce TPRs into school organizations by taking all stakeholders into account and addressing possible resistance appropriately. The third objective is to develop concrete recommendations for teachers how to organize the inclusion of children who participate remotely using a TPR in their classrooms. These recommendations address how to create a sense of belonging and digital empathy and how to organize classroom activities to support inclusion, but also practical considerations, such as recommendations regarding seating arrangements, distribution of responsibilities etc. The fourth objective is to understand the needs of the children using the telepresence robots better and to inform the design of telepresence robot manufacturers regarding the specific requirements for the use of such robots in class. The fifth objective concerns the further use of such robots for intercultural encounters and collaborative foreign language learning based on joint project work on sustainability projects in different European countries. Such activities will enable children to get acquainted with children in other countries with whom they share an interest in environmental topics, where the collaboration motivates them to increase their foreign language skills and to develop a curiosity for other cultures. The overarching objective is thus to enable schools across Europe to introduce affordable telepresence robots into their classes while ensuring that they are really being used and don't end up in a closet.<< Implementation >>The main procedure in this project will be to develop best practice recommendations in an iterative design process of prototyping and testing, where the prototypes are developed in co-design workshops with stakeholders. We will thus start with participatory design activities in Denmark, which has a strong research tradition in this area, and then test these recommendations on a second set of schools, redesign these recommendations based on the collected feedback and then test and refine again, until the introduction of telepresence robots in new schools is going reliably smoothly. In parallel, we will develop and carry out a survey to reach out to a large range of stakeholders to identify their needs and possible obstacles. The redesign activities will be carried out jointly by all partners during the project meetings. The guidelines for the inclusion of children in the classroom using TRPs will rely on classroom observation, interviews and co-design activities. Simultaneously, we will carry out lab studies and field tests of certain measures to increase a sense of belonging and digital empathy. Furthermore, in lab studies and subsequent field tests, we will identify the technical requirements telepresence robots need to support inclusion in the classroom.Children's use of the TPRs will be investigated using think-aloud usability testing (Krug 2014) of the robots, as well as interviews and diary studies. Furthermore, lab and field studies will be carried out to inform robot manufacturers about the functionalities needed, as well as to support schools in finding the appropriate robot for their needs.We will furthermore develop teaching materials in co-design workshops with teachers and representatives from Youth for Environment Europe (YEE) on how to use the TPRs for intercultural exchange and joint project work on environmental topics across the countries involved. Finally, we will develop methods for measuring the effects of including children into the classroom by means of TPRs to provide parents, teachers and pupils with concrete information on how the use of TPRs in class impacts their performance in class.<< Results >>The general aim of the project is to promote the inclusion of children with health issues while stimulating innovative learning and teaching practices that allow for collaborative online international learning in the classroom. To achieve this, we support teachers and address possible obstacles and reservations by providing best practice recommendations that aim to facilitate the introduction of telepresence robots in the classroom. Furthermore, we aim to encourage intercultural exchange and motivate children to pursue multilinguality by engaging them in cross-cultural environmental project work. Specifically, the results will be:- a publication on our survey results on understanding the obstacles and factors influencing the acceptance of TPRs in school contexts;- a best practice recommendation on how to introduce robots into schools (organization level);- a best practice recommendation on how to put robots into classrooms (classroom level);- a best practice recommendation on increasing belonging & digital empathy;- a best practice recommendation on telepresence robot usability ;- a best practice recommendation on which robot functionalities are relevant for what purpose;- teaching material and a best practice recommendation on using telepresence robots for intercultural exchange and interaction in a foreign language.