<< Objectives >>Since the onset of COVID-19, there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of transnational mobility opportunities for learners across all sectors & low-skilled VET trainees in particular. PTMA aims to use digital technologies to prepare & accompany potential mobility participants so they have the confidence to take part safely in transnational mobility &/or in-person/hybrid work-based learning experiences.<< Implementation >>Our research showed that an overwhelming majority of young people aged 16-24 own a smartphone. This is where the idea for the PTMA project was born. We will create a multi-format ‘Personal Transnational Mobility Assistant’ smartphone app with customisable scenarios & solutions, access to key documents & one-touch messaging with identified contacts. We will also design multi-access interactive mobility preparation modules for trainees & a pedagogical guide for educators.<< Results >>All the PTMA results will be digitally based, open-source, available in 8 languages & tested by 48 learners & 16 tutors in the pilot studies across the 8 countries of the partnership. The PTMA results will be adaptable to other sectors, dramatically increasing the potential impact & underlining the cross-sectoral dimension of the project. In this way, the PTMA project provides innovative digital solutions aligned with the technology & needs of today without neglecting the experience of yesterday

<< Background >>Education institutions are among the most influential elements of implementing concepts of sustainability and sustainable development and their decisions affect the economic, social and environmental dimensions of the communities and regions around them. Society expects them to educate the youth and contribute to the society. Still there is no clear understanding how to integrate sustainability into the systems, no guidelines to action, no checklist that would be equally helpful for all VET or could be applied across the board by all. Institutions are too different in terms of their legal form (private or public), location (rural or metropolitan) or size (small and specialised or large offering a full range of faculties).<< Objectives >>The aim of the project is to make the research and overview on the good practices within European VET schools, prepare the guidelines on innovative teaching methods and staff and students' systemic engagement activities and platform for the experience sharing and contribute to the environment and climate change activities in European Union and beyond.The objectives of the project are:1. To motivate and empower people via new training and engagement opportunities in the field of Sustainability.2. To provide innovative solutions , teaching methods, research and practice to target groups, staff, teachers and learners of Vocational and Adults Education;2. To excel and expand the knowledge on the good practices to eductational institutions and key players in the sustainability issues and activities in Europe;The operational objectives of the project are:1. To produce a comparative study on the activities related to these sustainability issues, in each country/region;2. To create a collections of workshops presenting different approaches to the sustainability training and engagement activities of each country;3. To develop a trainer's guide including a collection of recommendations and best practises for the promotion of sustainability issues via training and engagement activities to empower youth;4. To create an online learning platform with on-line learning resources;5. To provide training opportunities for VET staff and learnersThe target groups of the project are:- Staff and students of VET and adult education, organisations active in the field of sustainability projects, organisations active in the field of youth education and training, representatives in the field of social affairs, local, regional and national public authorities and policy makers;- Final beneficiaries<< Implementation >>AimActivities and resultsTo reduce social-ecological impact of educational establishments and widen and deepen their impact on societal development.Experience exchange, online or mobility, surveys and interviews, based on sustainability indexesTo prepare students as leaders for tomorrow and increase engagement, working for greener and sustainable future. To reflect with students and personnel on how we can develop your activities to become more impactfulTo create guidelines, innovative teaching and engagement methods and toolsTo share insightful stories on social media to add to the overview of activities and challenges about successful projects, effective strategies, and learnings from failed attempts to inspire others to develop in the areas mentioned aboveTo ensure communication, webpage, posts and articles published, To create IT platformTo create network and organize online summitTo set up a Green Office<< Results >>-Quantitative results:- Education programme and guideline produced - 1;- On-line learning platform developed – 1;- number of transnational project meetings - 4 ;- number of staff training - 1;- number of educators participating in the trainings - at least 20;- number of local dissemination events - 7;- number of participants of the local dissemination events - 200 persons;- number of persons visiting the on-line learning platform, at least 300 persons by the end of the project;- enhanced cooperation between organisations in the adult education - at least 8 organisations.Qualitative results:1. For the VET educators:- expansion of knowledge and skills in the sustainability issues;- expansion of knowledge and skills in involving and empoweringtarget groups;- wider use of innovative methods and new approaches to the promotion og sustainability in action ;- increased competence in foreign languages;- greater understanding and responsiveness to social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity - improved competences, linked to their professional profiles;- increased opportunities for professional development;- increased capacity to trigger changes in terms of modernisation and internationalisation;- increased motivation and satisfaction in their daily work by using new, efficient methods and approaches.2. For target groups (students, staff, teachers and stakeholders involved):- increased accessibility of trainings and engagement activities in sustainability field;- enhanced opportunities to explore European best practice in sustainability in action;- motivation and empowerment via the extended research, experience exchange and guided instructions on teaching and engagement materials;- raise the quality of living of target groups.3. For the partner organisations:-strengthening of partnerships;-joint activities in sustainability in action, reporting, impact assessment, involvement of stakeholders;-intercultural cooperation;-Cooperation between NG), SME and Educational Institutions - synergy of knowledge, approaches, evaluation practices and involvement practices.

<< Background >>Europe is facing its greatest threat since World War II. The COVID19 outbreak is triggering unprecedented social & economic consequences. We are faced with a ‘new normal’; a previously unfamiliar or ‘atypical situation that has become standard, usual or expected’, bringing established practices into question.The integration of digital tools and immediate transfer to distance training and learning has caught in surprise the centres of Vocational education and training. It is obvious that the VET system has suffered because of not only the improper preparation of the VET providers but also the lack of the materials has played an important role.The pandemic has been accompanied by a rise in nationalist sentiments in EU member countries. It has re-ignited debates about national-versus-European identity.The negative impacts of these changes have had disproportionate effects on professional courses such as Wellness and Cosmetology, with the result that teachers from these courses are facing the real need of digital, interactive and user-friendly materials for better delivering of the courses. As Cedefop reports ‘Digital gap during COVID-19 for VET learners is at risk in Europe. An entire partner organisation of VET learners has seen their education and training being interrupted. This population could suffer severe disruption of their learning if continuity of distance learning is not ensured.These preliminary conclusions raise awareness on the need to develop further the digital competences of teachers and trainers, promoting their participation in continuous professional development, facilitating their mobility, involving them in future policy design and fostering their wellbeing. To test these observations & support the clear need for this project, the project partners undertook a Needs Analysis based on internal survey: More than 50 teachers of Wellness and Cosmetology VET courses replied to the survey from all participating countries: This internal research has shown that 80% of activities in Wellness courses have turned online without proper digital materials. 75% of the teachers from partner and applicant organisations have pointed out the lack of digital materials especially in the field of Wellness and Cosmetology courses and the need of interactive, inclusive and free access online sources for both teacher and learners. Another 95% of the participating teachers have selected the fact that it has been their first experience in distance teaching, and that many of them have never used any European platform or portal for searching teaching materials.44% of them think that teachers don’t have proper preparation to teach online and use distance learning materials. Whereas 90% of them are quite sure that there is a need of a proper methodology, strategy and plan for distance teaching in VET. For 81% of the participating teachers the highest challenge they faced in distance learning was to attract the learners attention and motivate them to participate. For 95% of them the challenges with learners are due to the lack of materials, digital interactive components and the lack of methodology/strategy in distance teaching. Very often learners take the activities for granted and try to foresee the upcoming lessons.These results highlight the transformation that digital materials can bring to Wellness and Cosmetology VET sectors and how these learning materials would create a ‘win-win’ scenario where each partner brings its competences & knowledge that could benefit the others, demonstrating the potential added-value of the project.Our research underlined the urgent need for innovative solutions and digitalization in VET system.<< Objectives >>The primary objective of the project is to facilitate innovative, digital & inter-European collaboration so as to encourage Wellness and Cosmetology VET course providers, teachers and staff to learn from each other & to create new digital materials for distance teaching in VET. By connecting inter-national teachers to the European community, the project aims to improve the digital learning process of VET students through the upskilling of key competences & reinforce the ‘values of supporting development of professional networks across Europe, International dimension, Recognition and validation of skills and qualifications, multilingualism, essential parts of European identity’ (European Parliament Press, March 2021).The partners believe passionately in the concept of community of practice. However, a community of practice model should not be limited to the local area or the regional area or even within member states. The potentially most useful & impactful CoP, is a community built around the entire European Area. Each partner has competences & experiences which if shared with other groups, learning can be maximised & opportunities for fulfilling employment dramatically increased. One of the key themes running through the project is the articulation of local & European dimensions. Thus, the project starts with work at a local level within national organizations & then expands its scope to the European level through work with transnational European partners.The project addresses the 3 strategic issues of digital Erasmus, Internationalisation in VET, & Green Erasmus specified in the ‘Erasmus 2021-2027 Enriching lives, opening minds booklet’.’ These are areas where ‘EU cooperation adds value & delivers results’ (Vassilou). In this way we will ‘create and promote education opportunities & exchanges of experiences for more innovative, inclusive, digital and open access education in VET. The preliminary research undertaken partners has allowed us to prioritise the development of 3 highly pertinent key competences to meet the identified challenges facing our target groups.<< Implementation >>We will design pedagogical modules to counter the negative impacts of the pandemic & the current context identified as priorities in our research to allow VET providers and teachers better prepare for upcoming training years. We will promote digitalization in VET, internalization values and promote an awareness of the added-value of European citizenship & the Erasmus programme through international organisational & pan-European learning , tailored to meet the specific current needs of our target groups. We will take into account cultural differences & educational methodologies and requirements of partner countries to produce an adaptable programme for effective implementation throughout the EU. In this way, the project will feature international organisational groups of teachers, staff members and teaching programme Coordinators working together in a language that is not their native language.We encourage exchanges between different partner organisations and between different countries between VET educators, coordinators & tutors, VET learners; Wellness course managers. The cooperation between partners will facilitate the process of redesigning, refocusing & adapting existing tools & methods to the current rapidly changing environment. This will represent a true vehicle for promoting innovation & quality in learning systems at European level, in line with the European development policies. Situations differ across European countries & research done by partners in the 5 partnership countries before submission plus the continuing research that will be undertaken will be of value here.Teamwork between European partners allows a more comprehensive approach to needs & solutions, as it promotes a greater understanding of different realities, bringing benefits to the project in all stages of implementation in terms of quality of work & results achieved. There is a cross-sectoral element to the project through links to the VET sector, because we aim to improve access to further training & qualifications, thereby facilitating employability.We will undertake 5 pilot studies in 5 European countries involving groups of VET learners from target age-groups and Wellness and Cosmetology companies or centres. A significant number of learners will come from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. We will implement an innovative sharing, promotion & exploitation strategy relevant to the current context in order to maximise the impact of our project.<< Results >>Towards Variable-Access & Digitalization of Wellness Courses (TOVARDIGWELVET) in VET will ‘develop smart thinking ‘tangible results, based on a modular, interactive learning, with peer-to-peer & problem-solving to facilitate both individual, autonomous & group & autonomous remote/blended/face-to-face solutions.Firstly, we will design Smart Varied-Access Pedagogical Programme with adaptable varied-access approaches; Teaching Resources; Learning Resources for Wellness and Cosmetology Course providers (R1). The target groups are VET teachers. The Pedagogical programme will be available in English and in all 5 languages of the participating partner countries.A big percentage of our pedagogical staff needs to learn new technologies and tools (video conferencing, communication software, use of key software, presentations, edit and use images and video clips) in order to work and delivery quality online or blended courses. Secondly, we will design an eBook with 6 inclusive digital didactic modules for initial vet programmes. It will be a variable-access interactive E-book For Initial VET Wellness and Cosmetology courses with 6 learning modules (R2) The eBook modules will cover the following topics: Science and Medicine, Chemistry and Cosmetology, Manicure, Pedicure, Hair removal treatments/epilation, Face treatments.The eBook will be available in English and in all 5 languages of the participating partner countries.Our main focus will be on VET teachers, VET course providers with maximum accent on Wellness and Cosmetology course providers, and VET learners’ groups aged 15-17. The project resources will be digitally-based, open-source, freely downloadable & available in 6 languages. They will empower educators, VET teachers to offer high-quality learning opportunities to their learners. They can be tailored to the needs of specific target groups, adaptable for any type of learners & used in countries not actively involved in the project, thereby dramatically increasing the project impact.As Irene Caratelli said ‘The COVID-19 crisis is an opportunity to reimagine Europe, but the ultimate responsibility will rest on people to redefine what it means to be “European”. The project aims to make a significant contribution to this process.

The European Commission through the Erasmus+ programme aims to develop the level of key competences, enabling adults to secure fulfilling & productive employment in an increasingly competitive work environment. Upskilling Pathways recognises that almost 20% of adult Europeans struggle with basic reading, writing, calculation & use of digital tools in everyday life. The level of these competences is believed to have a direct relationship with quality of life.The development of automation & artificial intelligence is already having a significant impact on working practices. This impact is expected to increase dramatically in the next 10 years with as many as 50% of low-skilled jobs disappearing as workers are replaced by machines. Low-skilled adults are therefore likely to find it increasingly difficult to access the job-market. This is further complicated when one considers the impact of discrimination, ageism & Covid-19.Work is important to an individual. It matters because we need to support ourselves & our families; it formulates social status; it provides opportunities to generate social relationships; it can also inspire creativity & contribute to individual identity.The idea for INTERGEN comes partly from discussions at the ‘Future of VET Conference’, held in Helsinki 11-13 November 2019; partly from the results of an intergenerational pilot study in Iceland & also from observations that low-skilled adult learners at both ends of the age spectrum encounter significant difficulties in developing the necessary skills to access learning opportunities & the job market.There is therefore a gap between the learning required by these target groups for the development of formal &/or non-formal competences & what is currently available.The INTERGEN project brings together 8 partners from 7 EU member states & aims to fill this gap by producing 4 outputs leading to a ‘win-win’ scenario – both young & senior target groups have skills & knowledge that the other needs to become more competitive for job market access.Firstly, we will research & design an INTERGEN BRIDGE MODEL to facilitate social inclusion through intergenerational learning, by allowing young & senior adults not in employment to learn from each other & develop mutual respect. We will design opportunities to acquire key competences, digital skills & entrepreneurship, tailored to meet the needs of our target groups. We will take into account cultural differences & specific needs of partner countries to produce an adaptable programme for effective implementation throughout the EU. We will create pedagogical materials for job centres, career guidance centres, adult educators & institutions based on the Community of Practice model to apply the INTERGEN BRIDGE MODEL in interesting, interactive ways appropriate to both target groups.We will develop training modules in key competence development appropriate to both target groups featuring an innovative peer-leaning-based methodology.Finally, we will produce online tutorials to link learning in the INTERGEN programme with EU tools, such as Europass CV, to best showcase competences to potential employers & access the job market.6 Pilot Studies in 6 partner countries will extensively test the INTERGEN materials, involving 30 participants from each target age group & 10 organisations. A significant number of participants will come from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.These resources will be open-source, available in the 7 project languages & downloadable via the INTERGEN website.The impact of our project will be on 5 levels:+ The number of organisations offering intergenerational key skills & career development for low-skilled adults+ The disparity in learning opportunities for the development of key skills for adult learners of different ages+ Social cohesion & the reduction of age discrimination & ageist stereotypes+ The level of key skills & competences, adding value to participants’ CV & increasing job-market access+ Employer satisfaction due to increased availability of potential employees with the skills that they require, thereby increasing the degree of added-value to companiesOur main focus will be on low-skilled, unemployed adult learners aged 18-30 & 50+, but our resources will be adaptable for other categories of adult learners & for use in countries not actively involved in the project, thereby dramatically increasing the project impact.The INTERGEN partners believe that the problems of adult learners in developing their key competences & securing employment are likely to increase dramatically in the coming years. Hence, the urgent need for innovative solutions, such as those that we plan to design, is clearly demonstrated.In the words of Georg C. Lichtenberg, ‘I cannot say whether things will get better by change; what I can say is that they must change if they are to get better.’ This is what we will address through the INTERGEN project.

The European Commission thorough the Erasmus+ programme aims to develop the quality & benefits of transnational work-based learning (TWBL) across Europe & encourage greater numbers to take part. The idea for ShowValA comes from research & the observation that the learning & achievements of those who undertake a period of TWBL are often not recognised & do not always contribute to any potential certification. Furthermore, learning & achievements are frequently not effectively showcased by c&idates when looking to gain entry to the employment market. This can discourage trainees from taking part in this type of experience. There is therefore a gap between what trainees require, the level of current uptake EU tools & methods & the current situation in regard to the showcasing & valorisation of formal/non-formal learning & achievements. The ShowValA project brings together 7 partners from 5 EU member states & aims to fill this gap by producing a user-friendly & adaptable Guide, Process & Tools for educational institutions & mobility organisers on how to fully integrate a period of TWBL into a vocational pedagogical programme & assess formal & non-formal learning & achievements, leading to a recognition of the achievement of learning outcomes & their contribution to the overall course assessment & certification using ECVET principles & materials as appropriate. The guide & process will be compatible with & complement the already existing materials developed & promoted by the EU, such as Europass CV & the European Skills Passport.It will be linked to a multi-format smartphone/tablet application which will allow trainees to collect, save & organise evidence of their achievements during their TWBL on a day to day basis. It will fit in very well with their current lifestyle habits as young people tend to manage a significant proportion of their activities on their Smart phones. It will have the potential to be a complete record of their experiences, achievements & unlike a traditional diary, the interface will be structured in relation to agreed learning objectives, units of learning outcomes & skills/competences. It will be linked to the European transversal competences frame (AEFA). The stored information will be also to be uploaded into a database or a Mobility Management Platform A Guide for Trainees will also be developed in five languages with an innovative methodology for the online pre-departure preparation of trainees to use the smartphone application to record & organise their learning & achievements during the placement & post-mobility, a structured, online activity-based valorisation programme on how to link their learning during the work placement with Europass CV, Europass Skills Passport & to best showcase their achievements.Five Pilot Studies will take place, one in each of the countries of the project partners leading to facilitate extensive testing of the ShowValA Guides, Processes, Tools, Modules & Smartphone Application through transnational work-based learning of 3-42 weeks in duration. This will involve at least 50 trainees & 45 host companies. Some of these placements will involve young people who would not typically take part in transnational mobility, including those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. These resources will be open-source, consultable & downloadable via the ShowValA web-platform & available in the 5 languages of the project. They can be tailored according to the needs of specific target groups. They will empower schools, universities, training establishment & mobility service providers to reward trainees for high quality work-based learning. The ShowValA outputs will thus develop innovative ways to make the recognition of formal & non-formal learning acquired by trainees during TWBL accessible to smaller institutions by providing a means to collect & present clear evidence of learning whilst re-enforcing the links between ECVET, Europass & the European Skills Passport.The promotion of work-based learning will therefore be on three levels. Firstly, on the number of training institutions that reward trainees for their learning & achievements from a transnational work-placement. Secondly, on the number of trainees who undertake a period of TWBL. Thirdly, this increase in participation & recognition of achievements will improve labour market relevance of learning provision. The ShowValA project will help increase the impact of transnational work placements for the trainee, leading to added value on a CV & thereby improving employability by helping to recognise the skills that have been developed that are required by businesses. This in turn may contribute to improving the quality of the labour force & helping to promote economic development within the European Union. In the words of scientist Thomas Edison ‘There’s a way to do it better….Find it!’ This is what we hope to achieve through the ShowValA project.