<< Background >>With more than 90% of the student population learning partially or fully from home during the last year, there is a stronger need than ever to reform schools and support teachers and students develop digital skills and competences (UNESCO, 2020). According to the 2nd Survey of Schools on ICT in Education, although one third of students in primary and secondary education attend schools that have written statements on the use of ICT for pedagogical purposes and digital technology (European Commission, 2019, p. 98), only a few European education systems refer to school development plans in their digital strategies. In European Education systems, school leadership rarely holds a prominent position in national strategies, and their training and support is even less (EC, 2019). The partners of this consortium have been working for many years together in various initiatives. With the pandemic impacting all aspects of life, they came together with a project, the DigiLEAD, that is based on a very specific need: to upskill the competences of school leadership teams to develop digital strategies. The leader initiated the process, and all 7 partners, from 5 EU countries, conducted detailed analysis of their local context, implementing a needs assessment focus group in each country to examine the challenges faced by schools. One of the key findings was the strong need to train school leaders to understand the complexities of digital transformation and how to implement digital strategies in their schools. This is also justified by the DESI (2020) data. According to the Digital Economy and Society Index (2020) data, with exception the Netherlands, all other partner countries Bulgaria, Cyprus, Portugal, and Greece, are below the EU average, with regards to the basic digital skills of all individuals aged 16-74. Greece and Portugal are also below 25% regarding effective integration of ICT in school education (OECD, 2021). In Bulgaria, the lead applicant country, the Institute for Research in Education conducted a survey, in July 2020, with 135 schools across the country, 4448 students, 5403 parents, 1885 teachers, and 135 school principals, showing that 67% of interviewed principals identify the need for additional training for teachers to develop digital skills and competencies. This highlights the important need for this project to further support digital transformation in the partner countries.As highlighted in a report by European Parliamentary Research Service (2020), modern education should shape and prepare skilled future European citizens, promoting equitable social participation of all in a digitalized age. According to the 2019 EU survey on the ICT usage in households and by individuals, the average percentage of people aged 16-74 that possess basic or above basic digital skills in Europe is only 56% (Eurostat, 2021). Similarly almost all partner countries showcase a low percentage: in Cyprus 45%, in Greece 51%, in Portugal 52%, in Bulgaria 29%. The only partner country exhibiting an above average percentage is the Netherlands, 79%. In line with the partners’ work and objectives for digital transformation and technology-enhanced education, the DigiLEAD project will support the consortium to further develop and improve their capacities to learn, collaborate, and better serve their target groups in their respective countries. Through the project’s results, specific strategies and guidelines will become available to the target groups, namely school leadership teams, teachers, learning designers, educational technologists, support staff and policy makers. Participation in this project will benefit the target groups in terms of improving their skills for strategic digital transformation. This will result in promoting learners’ digital capacities, sustaining the goal of the European Skills Agenda to develop the basic skills of people aged 16 to 74, by 2025.<< Objectives >>The specific objectives of the DigiLEAD are to: -Support School leaders and staff to develop a digital strategy-Develop school leadership teams competencies for leveraging free digital tools and resources for school improvement. -Develop a practical toolkit aligned with the DigCompEdu, with practical, step-by-step guides on how to design and deploy a strategy. -Adapt and use the SELFIE and TET-SAT tools to support the digital strategy development. -Develop the digital skills of school leadership teams and teachers.<< Implementation >>To achieve the objectives set, the implementation includes a series of overlapping phases, aligned with the results and the GANTT chart attached to this proposal:PHASE A-Project Management, Coordination, Communication, Promotion (M1-M24): an ongoing phase to address all the PM and admin aspects.-Project Initiation and Value Propositions (M1) - Following a discussion at the first partner meeting P1 and partners will outline the value propositions for strategic digital transformation, establish clear expectations, timeframes, and templates for all results.PHASE B -Result 1/Digital transformation Strategy Toolkit for School leaders (M1-7): ITD supported by CARDET will prepare the practical toolkit, with the guide and self-assessment tool with all partners' contribution. The first draft will be presented in M4 and the final draft in M8, at the online meetings.-Result 2/Training course for School Leaders on developing digital transformation strategies (M6-14): UNIC will work with partners to develop the training package. The implementation of this result includes a LTTA in M14; four representatives from each partner country will be trained, return to their countries and deliver the training program to 20 school leaders.-Result 3/eLearning platform with mobile app on leading with technology (M9-24): it will begin in M9, led by KMOP. Content for the eLearning platform/mobile app will be developed by all partners. They will consist of interactive learning materials, with gamified characteristics, relevant to the needs of the project.PHASE C -Result 4/Collection of case studies and policy recommendations (M18-24): a concrete EU policy recommendation report will be prepared, led by UNIC and ESHA, to promote the integration of strategies for digital transformation. The goal of this result is to fit the brief practical recommendation reports into policy directions.-Quality Assurance and Evaluation (M1-24): Municipality of Lousada will develop a solid plan and monitor the project, ensuring the quality of project products.Participants of all target groups in BG, CY, GR, PT, and NL will also participate at multiplier events presenting the project outcomes and discussing the relevance of the project topic.<< Results >>The consortium of the project will develop a compendium of learning resources and activities focusing on strategic skills and tools to support the development of a digital policy to be deployed by school leaders, involving school staff, teachers, learning designers, and educational technologists in the process.The expected outcomes of the DigiLEAD project are: -Improved capacity of schools and education systems for digital transformation -Improved competencies for school leadership teams, teachers and school staff to develop digital transformation strategies -Improved capacity of schools and education systems to engage in online education. -Improved understanding of parents on the factors influencing successful online learning and their role -Improved learners’ capacity to learn online The DigiLEAD material results include: -A comprehensive Toolkit for School Leaders consisting of concrete strategies for digital transformation and online education.-School leaders’ training material on developing digital transformation strategies that will be used during the LTTA and which will be made available for participants to use in their own practice with their schools-An e-learning platform where all project’s material will be uploaded and will be freely accessible, along with a mobile app on strategic digital transformation-A collection of case studies and policy recommendations for strategic digital transformation-Detailed project plan with all tasks defined by quantitative and qualitative indicators, as a guideline and monitoring instrument (approx. 20-25 pages in ENG)-Partner contracts that secure all rights and duties of the partners involved, including administrative, financial regulations and payments. (approx. 5p in ENG)-Quality management concept: the QM strategy and evaluation activities, tasks, deadlines, and responsibilities (approx. 30p in ENG).-Promotion and exploitation plan with all evaluation activities, deadlines, and responsibilities (approx. 15p in ENG).-Promotion materials in various formats (e.g., flyers, posters, promotional videos etc.)-Intellectual Property Rights: to ensure that the public has free access to all project results and to settle any kind of further developments and transfers (approx. 3-5 pages in ENG).-Promotion and exploitation reports: they document and evaluate all promotion activities throughout the project’s lifetime.-4 half-yearly reports: every six months each partner will provide a full report about all expenditure, content development and evaluation activities.-4 Peer group evaluation reports: partners will evaluate all levels of the project through four questionnaire-based evaluation reports.-Progress and final report: according to the requirements of the project as well as the documents provided by the NA, the partnership will submit progress and a final report (if appropriate).The DigiLEAD non material results include:-Partners’ active application of the project outcomes in their professional practices after the project’s completion-Promotional activities to inform the target groups, stakeholders, and policy makers about digital strategy in school education-Multiplier events in each partner country and a Final Conference in Sofia BG to coincide with the final transnational meeting (in M24), to share the project’s results with relevant stakeholders. -Increased topic-awareness of primary and secondary education school leaders and decision-makers during the project’s implementation (through active involvement in various phases) and after its completion (the results will be freely accessible through various means, to anyone interested).

Local governments must take responsibility to mitigate, counter, and overcome the impact of the economic crisis COVID-19 is generating, in order to soften the wide destructive effects on social cohesion and risks exacerbating societal tensions for coming. There is a widespread recognition of the need for improvements in governance and in the management of public expenditure, for increasing efficiency across the whole public sector, and for greater collaboration between all stakeholders, central government, and local and regional authorities as well as their associations.Today’s pandemic and its aftermath is demanding a more effective public governance and highlighting the importance of the local public governance schemes. Local governments are responsible for the delivery of essential public services and they represent two-thirds of public investment on average across the OECD area.Given the great diversity of situations and frameworks both across countries and within them, there is no one-size-fits-all solution and policy responses must be tailormade to reflect the fact that, even within countries, different regions face very different challenges and have different assets. Policies to be designed to address the crisis and its consequences have to mobilise local actors, first in support of stimulus and in the consolidation phase. Engaging local authorities will remain a priority. In a context of increasingly volatile and uncertain economic conditions, effective responses by local governments, in harmony with the policies of central governments, are crucial to sustainable growth. Policy co-ordination between the central and local governments is of profound importance to the effectiveness of both.This project based on giving responses to the upcoming new crisis and its consequences paints a picture of today’s situation, which clearly shows that the state of affairs has worsened even further since the previous year.Neverhteless, this situation can be a chance to define a new model of growth based on an endogenous development of territories. We are convinced that it is the municipalities that are best suited to envision their development as they can best use the resources at their disposal, whether they be financial, human or material in nature, thus ensuring the future of our citizens and the wellfare State.The project aims to improve the awareness and training of local elected people from rural communities to become local leaders for social Innovation in rural areas, involving local corporations, civil society organizations, labor market players and service providers in critical times and following the ODS framework. The development and promotion of the implementation of local leadership plans based on local communities will be focused on promoting new emerging services and economies to set population in rural areas and fight against the impact of the economic crisis that COVID-19 pandemic will spread.It is intended to carry out 4 pilot experiences (capacity programs), one in each partner country of the project, to create a toolkit to set local policies for crisis, recovery and sustainable future.General Objective: To develop strategic actions in favor of promoting local rural authorities to lead solutions in order to provide good quality public and private services and set population within the ODS framework throughout:-stabilizing local revenue bases, -improving efficiency and accountability, -combating social deprivation, -“partnershiping” in public services, -promoting economic recovery, -being better resilient communities.Partnership will also focus on service management experiences, so that their partner municipalities be able to continue to provide services despite pressures due to the economic situation. Municipal and regional post-crisis management plans will be drawn up by the municipalities, with the help and expertise of willing local civil society to esure they continue functioning. In this framework, developing such a project which reinforce local institutions gives more weight to local elected officials with their constituents, which means that they are considered the authorities to turn to for crisis management.

The main objective of the project was to create a training tool capable of responding to the need todevelop intercultural interpersonal skills and abilities for operators and professionals who in their daily work do find themselves operating in multicultural contexts and with minority groups. As a result improve the quality of theirs intervention towards beneficiaries, not only in the context of youth organizations, but also in other contextseducational, such as school, and professional in general. This objective was fulfilled with the realization ofMOOC “Union of Minorities. Educational tools for the European Cultural Mosaic ”, a product with characteristicstechniques (its accessibility to a broad audience of learners) and content (theoretical and practical aspects on the topics ofmulticulturalism and the construction of inclusive educational pathways), stands as an instrument of education and trainingshared with an intersectoral approach, which combines methodologies, tools and knowledge typical of educationformal and non-formal education, coming from the public and private sector, and that, addressing the topic ofmulticulturalism in the broad sense (not only with reference to its most evident aspects linked to belonging to an ethnic groupor practicing a different language), offers a space for deepening professional and personal skillsdeemed necessary to understand and operate in European and national social contexts for which it becomes fundamentalpossess an intercultural approach based on recognition and respect for differences.The MOOC was the result of a path that saw the synergistic collaboration between the worlds of formal and non-formal educationformal, private and public and which was built throughout the project life cycle through specific contributionsof the work group and the study visits that took place during the first year, during which they werevisit various realities and it has been possible to observe, learn and evaluate different experiences and ways of working. TheObservation process established during the study visits allowed the collection of data used to identifythe topics found among the most important in the various areas and finalize the modular structure of the course following onepedagogical logic identified by the work group. It is for this reason that the MOOC includes chapters that they offerimportant theoretical ideas to better understand and reflect on topics such as multiculturalism, globalization,colonialism, the concept of minority, stereotypes and processes of stigmatization, whose mastery is fundamentalimportance not only when working with young people but in all those contexts in which different cultures meet andvarious differences, to create a more inclusive society, and at the same time functional. This theoretical basis represents thefoundations on which a pedagogical path was then built starting from the necessary personal skillsto learners to then be able to decline them in their respective professional fields, we continue towards the learning of methodologiesfor the management of groups, specific approaches and methods for working with minorities (applicable to different target groups, andreplicable in different contexts) to provide insights on the importance of implementing systematic and structured actions by workingon the web, and on the importance of evaluation as a tool to reflect on one's own activities / initiatives and then arrange oneselfto learn to increase the quality of their interventions in order to achieve more effective and responsive resultsreal needs of the target with whom you work.Through this project and the production of the online course, and its dissemination to an audience of users that goes beyond thethe world of youth and NGOs, therefore, we wanted to contribute in a concrete way to provide an additional tool forimprove the skills and individual knowledge of professionals engaged in work with cultural minoritiesgenerically intended to improve the quality of the services they offer to the beneficiaries, but also to spreadinterest and attention to the theme of intercultural education and recognition of the other as a source ofmutual enrichment and basis for building solidary relationships within non-monolithic societies and communitiescharacterized by an extreme variety of linguistic, cultural and behavioral codes.

"CONTEXTThe education context is changing progressively, education based on open technology will be ""necessary"" and not only ""desirable""in a short while, and this counts towards all age groups. We need to ensure that especially young people are equipped with the essential digital skills for their future.“Opening up Education” aspire to open minds to new learning methodologies to ensure that people have a better chance of finding work and develop more business skills.Internet is changing the ways in which education is transmitted. It is expected that over the next ten years the e-learning market will increase by fifteen times, representing 30% of the whole education market.The benefits of these developments should be made available to all European citizens.It is important that educators and policymakers shape this transformation rather than endure it passively.The European Commission works with EU countries to develop their school education systems.European Schoolnet is a network made up of 34 European education ministries.It aims to bring about innovation in teaching and learning to their stakeholders: Ministries of Education, schools, teachers, researchers and industrial partners. It strives to demonstrate how ICT can support change in teaching and learning.It is clear that the principal challenge of these years is not only the improvement of the quality education and training system, but the improvement of education through the digitization.NEEDS• More quality in teaching and learning• Expand the knowledge and understanding of the educational practices of the countries involved• Modernization of Schools• Need to Active participation by studentsGOALSFor teachers, students and school system:- Improving the pedagogical skills and the didactic instruments;- Promoting co-operation to ensure the quality of education;- Promoting innovative work practices, learning and discussion;- Create synergy between the active organizations in the field of Education, Local governments and participant organizations toencourage a better quality of education;BENEFICIARIESThe proposed project will implement a series of initiatives aim to different target groups:- Students age 6-15- Teachers of Science, Mathematics, computer experts and innovative teaching methods- Schools- Farmers, designers, creators and nutritionists- Organizations Participants- StakeholdersDURATION24 monthsPROJECTThanks to innovative teaching methods (TEAL), we will be able to experience a didactic that moves away from the traditional method, favoring the attention of the learner, giving space to his need for active participation and demonstration of his opinion.Specifically, the project consists of a path that will lead students to develop knowledge and basic skills, with which they will be able to install and maintain small gardens with a designer and maker.These knowledges will be acquired by students through frontal workshops and lessons held by farmers, designers, nutritionists through education 3.0 (TEAL).These experts will contribute with their different skills to provide students the knowledge and know-how that will enable them to build and manage autonomously their Vegetable Garden.All laboratory works, tutors’expreriences and the students' answers will be used as reference material for the realization of a mobile application.The goal is to design and implement a specific game -app that allows them to build and manage their personal GARDEN independently wherever they live. The role play involves and binds the player's life with that of his garden, starting from its creationuntil the repetition of the seasonal cycle, by means of suggestions, reminders, tutorials, pertinent blogs, etc.EXPECTED RESULTSO1. planning and realisation of an educational path based on the construction of urban gardens for domestic use, with objectives and multidisciplinary methods in theoretical / practical mode, using TEAL methodology.O2. planning and prototyping of a game-app, to be tested during the pilot test."

"Project implementation aims to develop the game software ecosystem in Europe and to bring in new software developers for the need of qualified personnel employment in the software industry. With the implementation of this project, contribution will be made to the goal of ""Increasing Youth Employment"", which is at the center of the EU's employment policy in the context of the European H2020 growth and employment strategy. Supporting young people is one of the leading objectives of the youth work and European H2020 strategy. Experienced young people will have an advantage against possible risks they will encounter in the software industry. In addition, it is aimed to enable young people to market and grow both themselves and the games they develop by increasing their qualifications.It is planned to implement 5 main activities within the scope of the project. The first of these activities, which will be implemented in Turkey ""Script and Story Editing Training"", the second in France ""Animation and Cinematography Training"", the third in Portugal ""Publishing and Software Training"", the fourth in the UK ""Technical and Software Testing Programming Training ""and finally the fifth one will be carried out in Germany as"" Graphic Design and Modeling Training"".Within the scope of these training activities; Participants will be provided with a total of 184 hours of training from professionals of their field, including 40 hours of marketing, 40 hours of programming, 16 hours of C#, 32 hours of Publishing, 40 hours of product design, 16 hours of QA (Quality).In order to increase the effectiveness of the project activities, monthly ""Evaluation Meetings"" will be held within the countries, and information will be shared with international partners about the project workflow in line with the demands of the participants. In addition to this, with the ""Transnational Progress Meetings"", where all partners will participate, the working conditions of the partners will be examined and the success of the project will be increased by providing quick solutions to possible risks.Two important outputs are expected to be accomplished as a result of the project. First of all, it will be ensured that experienced young software developers are introduced to the game software ecosystem in Europe, making international collaborations and helping young software developers who will receive training from professionals in their field to benefit from new employment opportunities.Secondly, the experiences of young people who do not participate in employment by benefiting from the project but who have established game development startups will be shared on the project website, and they will be provided as an example role model in the emergence of new young talents. Thus, young software developers will have the opportunity to measure and evaluate their game software ideas by merging with other technology companies in the game software ecosystem. In this way, the project will provide access to qualified employment in the EU region as well as qualified initiatives."