<< Objectives >>This project aims to advance digitalization in the field of vocational training. The project is specifically about responding to the changes brought about by the pandemic in the three following areas: technology, soft skills and administrative organization with concrete solutions. Digital competences are one of the key factors, which are particularly important for a successful integration into the labour market. Thus, we intend to support citizens in their personal and professional development.<< Implementation >>A total of four WP were created, three of which include specific activities: Among them: Activities for surveys among VET actors, analysis of results and processing of data, writing of reports as a guideline and assistance in the technical and administrative field, development of training in the field of soft skills, as well as activities for the development of an open source tool.<< Results >>1.Report on which technology has been the most useful in the past years 2.Report as a resource and guide for using technology tools to better digitize learning content 3.Designed preparatory courses for VET Actors to prepare and train them for digitalization in the Vet field regarding soft skills 4.Developed solutions and green practices for the administrative field of digitalization and establish an open source tool to deposit the results and to discuss further digitalization in the VET field.

On the one hand EmBrand is located in the context of attracting youngsters for apprenticeship and training to build up a professional career. On the other hand it is located in the context of Small and Medium sized companies (SMEs) facing diverse obstacles to find, hire and retain apprentices and regular professional staff due to a structural disadvantage because of financial resources in comparison to big companies. Also the retain of qualified working staff within the branch is important, because statistics (SOKA-Bau: https://www.baulinks.de/webplugin/2018/1521.php4) show a big leave from construction to other branches based on several severe reasons. To balance this structural disadvantage by developing instruments is the core of EmBrand; a VET-offer for leading staff in SMEs, who deals with human resource development, should be exchange/development goal of EmBrand. EmBrand is about matching interests between the supply side and the demand side of the labour market by presenting career options in SMEs for youngsters and upskilling options for human resource staff in SMEs to improve the image at the labour market (unique sales position). The objective of EmBrand is a definition of ways for upskilling of human resource staff in SMEs when coping with innovative ways to attract school leavers for apprenticeship and/or to attract skilled workers for qualified work. The particular focus lies on considering in exchange conveying methods and instruments for SMEs how to better compete with large companies on the labour market and the like with competitors for staff from other branches. SME staff should be supported (higher VET) why and how to develop a USP-strategy (USP: unique sales position) for themselves for attracting people as working staff. There will also be an exchange about how the image of the (construction) sector could be improved or at least instrumentalized for SMEs purposes to attract workforce on the VET-level (contrary to academics). Furthermore there will be a project phase, how companies and apprentices/workers can better match; which is or could be a task for VET-centres, since SMEs are often clients of VET-centres. An additional phase in EmBrand will focus on retaining skilled workers in SMEs; this will imply the exchange about current and needed VET-skills for in-company trainers and middle management (foremen, site managers) how to keep qualified staff in the organiation. Not least an exchange should be realised how to attract new groups for construction like girls and women.EmBrand reflects the need to support SMEs in upskilling their human resource staff (VET) in order to be more successful on the labour market or in the phase of attracting (qualified) school leavers for work in their very company. The objective demographic decrease of the number of school leavers, the competition among branches (e.g. white collar and blue collar branches) and not least the competition among big and small companies within the (construction) branch puts a lot of pressure on (construction) SMEs to find appropriate staff for their daily operations.Hence the target groups of EmBrand are entrepreneurs, human resource staff in SMEs, managing/leading staff in companies (foremen, site managers) and in-company trainers and in VET-centres the like.A fraction of the current project consortium has previously taken part in the project Talents4Construction (ERASMUS+ Exchange of Experience 2018-20). There, it turned out that Employer Branding was detected as the most vibrant facette to attract or retain working staff for SMEs; what actually is less necessary for big players, as they are mostly well known from their name. EmBrand has a transnational dimension, because the basic input from several countries leaves the opportunity to address a multi-cultural workforce throughout Europe on the one hand and to make international partners benefit from experiences of other countries. The mobility of labour in construction is quite high compared to other branches.EmBrand is placed in ERASMUS+ (i.e. vocational education and training) because the essence of the project should eventually path the way to VET offers being defined in EmBrand and developed possibly in follow up initiatives. A practical training for company staff will be designed basically by the consortium to enable SMEs to attract youngsters and adult people for sustainable careers in non-academic jobs in companies and also set SMEs in motion to promote the various VET-opportunities in their company as well as in the sector.

"In their daily work, teachers in general education and vocational training are faced with the challenge of conveying teaching content to their students in a way that is appropriate for the target group. Classical teaching methods such as frontal teaching, self-learning and group work are increasingly being supplemented in educational pedagogy by innovative, modern methods in order to make learning more efficient for pupils of different age groups. It is not unusual for playful elements to find their way into the classroom, which can significantly increase the attractiveness of the lessons and thus the learning success.The project is developing an innovative teaching method which, with appropriate professional preparation, can be applied universally in many teaching subjects, initially in an exemplary manner in vocational training. This teaching method is based on the method of station learning and is very closely oriented to the play principle of the real escape room. Real Escape Rooms are about the playing group becoming part of a fictional story, at the end of which there is a disaster scenario if the group does not succeed in averting this scenario. The actors have a limited time window of about 1 hour in which they have to solve different, usually complementary puzzles in an appropriately equipped room in order to successfully complete the game. The actors do not only play to solve the puzzle, but also against the clock and are thus in competition with other groups, so that it is not only important to solve the puzzles, but also to complete these tasks in the shortest possible time. These game principles are applied to the mobile real escape rooms for use in vocational training that are being developed in this project.Since the development of a real Escape Room suitable for mobile use would be a complex and time-consuming task for teachers without subject-specific knowledge, the participating project partners support the dissemination of this innovative teaching method with the following project results:IO1: Digital Tool-Kit as a teaching concept for teachers for the use of mobile real Escape Rooms in vocational education and training with didactic anchoringIO2: Digital tool kit as technical manual for the production of 12 high-quality, technically appealing escape puzzle games. The manual contains material lists and detailed, illustrated building instructions, so that teachers can also reproduce these puzzle games. IO3: Web-App as a toolbox for mobile real Escape Rooms in educational workKey innovative features of this project:Mobile use: When we talk about ""real escape rooms"", we mean physical rooms within buildings with permanently installed puzzle games. However, a fixed installation is hardly suitable for use in classrooms or even outdoors. The preparation of the topic and the puzzle games for the mobile real Escape Room, which is used in the classroom, can already be done elsewhere, such as in the teachers' room or at home, due to the mobile basic concept. The mobile real Escape Room can then be set up in a relatively short time at any location, such as a classroom or demarcated forest. Technical diversity: In order to ensure the mobility of the Escape Room, technically mature, stable puzzle games are developed that are independent of the wired power supply and are in no way inferior in attractiveness to the permanently installed puzzle games in real Escape Rooms. Low effort: Teachers receive detailed guidelines and manuals with the results of the project, so that after studying the documents they are able to create their own mobile real escape rooms with little effort. Once the puzzle games have been constructed or replicated, they can be used variably for several topics within a subject area or even across different subjects or independent of them.Infection prevention and hygiene: When drawing up the room plan, the project partners take into account that all puzzle games can be solved with a minimum distance of 1.5 m between the players (the teacher as game master/operator observes outside the room anyway) and with mouth protection. All puzzle games can be disinfected with surface disinfectants. The group size is limited to a maximum of 6 persons during the game.The project will conclude with an intensive training for project staff and multiplier events in all participating partner countries in order to make the teaching method accessible to as many teachers from different fields as possible."

"When dealing with issues of the education sector, high enrolment figures in the tertiary education sector are one of the most remarkable developments in recent years. Due to demographics and this trend, it had become increasingly obvious that there will be a shortage of skilled workers with vocational training in companies and especially in SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises).High school students are currently more likely to prefer an academic degree to vocational training. This is mainly because, on the one hand, academic careers and studies are massively promoted and, on the other hand, parents and schools - as important stakeholders - value an academic degree much higher than vocational training. Moreover, careers based on an academic degree seem to be more promising on the material side in terms of salaries and prestige. The main thesis of the project ""UniVET - University or Vocational Education and Training"" was that the preference for an academic degree and the lack of alternatives for dropouts are largely due to the scarcity of knowledge about career opportunities based on vocational training that can lead to equal material wealth and social prestige. The project therefore had the task of analysing these trends in detail in all partner countries to create offers in the form of comprehensive information material for the main target groups in this area (students, dropouts, parents, schools, employers). The main objective was to increase career guidance and the attractiveness of vocational education and training. A holistic view of career decisions for different target groups across all partner countries was the innovative approach of this project. The presentation of possibilities of the individual learning systems was also considered.Preliminary studies in the run-up to the project clearly showed that the challenges of the next few years would be equally dramatic in all partner countries due to the high drop-out rates in both university and vocational training programmes. All in all, the economy could lose an enormous amount of human resources. Young people who initially take the less suitable career path for themselves drop out, start something new and are much later available on the labour market. In times of demographic change, this is a circumstance that must be counteracted. Even before the start of the project, this circumstance underlined the great importance of a targeted career choice.The project idea of UniVET consequently dealt with the question of why young people decide in favour of vocational training or a university career. The project started in September 2018 with a comparative study of the most important decision-making and influencing factors of career decisions. In order to gain further insights around the most important factors influencing young people's career orientation and to obtain different opinions, five (inter)national workshops in Germany, Italy, Spain, Lithuania and Poland were also organised. The results obtained through those activities formed the basis for the next workphase, in which a survey was conducted with high school students, drop-outs, parents, schools, employers as well as apprentices.The most important factors influencing the young people’s decisions were derived in direct connection. Following the project goals, the partners were then able to generate the most important factors for career decisions and, based on this, identify content for an analysis method of potentials among pupils and dropouts. Personal strengths and personality traits of high relevance as well as career interests were the focus. After the development and translation of all instruments used in the potential analysis, it was carried out in late 2019 in all partner countries with groups of 15 to about 30 pupils and students. The tests and the subsequent counselling sessions with the young people and their parents provided further insights into how appropriate career guidance should be conducted and what information is relevant for young people in that orientation phase. In this way, all partners learned how more orientation can be provided in the career decision phase and which information should be taken into account in the guidelines to be drawn up in the future.Consequently, at the beginning of 2020, a start was made on compiling all the findings of the project into meaningful guidelines for the target groups in all partner languages. From thereon the use of the guidelines was linked to a subsequent evaluation questionnaire from March 2020 to find out, if it´s a helpful guideline. During this phase, validation and necessary adjustments were made.In December 2020, the final versions of the ""Guidelines for career orientation"" were published and are now available at http://univet-project.eu and https://play.google.com/store/apps to sustainably improve the vocational orientation of young people, to inform all stakeholders about the career possibilities."

"<< Background >>CONTEXTThe NEXT STEPS project is based on the successful ERASMUS+ project STEPS, which was carried out in the period 2018 to 2020.Within the framework of this project, some of the project partners involved have already gained a very good insight into the cooperation of a German sports club with a prison. The sports club not only conducts voluntary training sessions in baseball for inmates in prison, but also enables prisoners to participate in the club's regular training program and accepts former inmates as active members. The association is in direct contact with the inmates while they are still in prison and provides an accompanying stable social structure for the inmates even before they are released into freedom.OBJECTIVESThe goal of the initiative is - based on the very good experiences of the STEPS project - the model development of close cooperation between the central regional actors to be involved in the participating project countries (prisons, companies, vocational training institutions, voluntary support such as sports clubs, other supporting actors such as chamber organizations, etc.) as well as the establishment of a process structure. The process chain is based on close cooperation between these central regional actors and thus, on the one hand, contributes to the integration and resocialization of ex-prisoners and, on the other hand, accompanies and supports these motivated and, in some cases, already well-qualified professionals on their way into the primary labor market.The process chain takes into account both the individual correctional plan of each inmate - as far as available in the individual participating project countries - as well as state and other voluntary regular services such as probationary services, supervision of conduct, charitable and church support, etc., and complements them in a meaningful way.NEEDAccording to a report by Focus Online on 08.01.2020 and according to the NRW Minister of Justice Peter Biesenbach, the placement rate in NRW after successful professional qualification in the penal system is particularly high, especially in the juvenile penal system. This placement rate confirms that those prisoners who receive integration assistance both in preparation for release and in aftercare have a low risk of recidivism. However, this rate does not at the same time mean that this close-meshed care can actually be used by a large number of prisoners or is available for a large number. Rather, Minister Biesenbach also confirms at the same time that around 45 percent of all adult offenders in NRW recidivate. According to a 2016 study by the Ministry of Justice, the recidivism rate for juvenile offenders is as high as almost 70 percent. On the other hand, the economy, and in particular the skilled trades sector, is facing the challenges of demographic change and the increasing need for qualified skilled workers. It is above all the lack of close-meshed support that leads to young, hopeful, former offenders very often returning to their known social environment and committing crimes again - a vicious circle that can still be broken in far too few cases with the existing offers. This situation applies analogously to the other project countries.TARGET GROUPSThe project addresses the target groups of companies, voluntary structures, prison staff and prisoners who are about to be released.EUROPEAN DIMENSIONThe Focus report cited above shows that the general approach of the justice system to prepare prisoners for a life free of punishment and to support them with integration assistance before, during and after release has had undeniable success in NRW. In the other participating project countries, a field study/survey has yielded comparable results.<< Objectives >>The project aims to establish and test a sustainably functioning process chain in the participating European project countries, the elements of which serve to support detainees in their access to work and stable social structures such as sports clubs or other recreational, cultural or sports-oriented organizations and facilities. In order to set this process chain in motion, the project partners analyzed the points at which such a process chain has often failed to date in the run-up to the application. Based on these findings, the partnership is developing the following concrete results: 1. Database-supported systematization of the registration of volunteer organizations and individuals, for example from the fields of sports and charitable institutions, who would like to cooperate with prisons in the future in order to help inmates find their way into a stable social structure following their time in prison. To this end, the project partners will program a volunteer database, advertise it and maintain the contacts thus gained, record them in their networks and, above all, connect them with their associated prisons. It is true that the prisons will also have direct access to the data sets in the sense of sustainable use of the project results. It seems to make sense, especially at the beginning of such a long-term campaign, if the first connections between voluntary work and correctional institutions are made under the moderation of the associated project partners.2. Database-supported systematization of the registration of companies that would like to offer internships, training or jobs for released offenders. These companies also have the opportunity to register in the volunteer database. Particularly for the protection of (former) inmates, it also seems sensible here for the contacts between companies and prisons to be moderated and accompanied by the project partners.3. Observation sheets for prison staff to objectively record key competencies of inmates that can be of crucial importance for working life. The observation sheets can be used especially for group sports in prisons, but also for other activities that allow the observation of social competencies in detainees during their time in prison. These sheets can be used to more specifically identify inmates for use in certain occupations and can be presented to potential employers as a reference to facilitate the hiring process. The basis for use by correctional officers is training for use by associated project partners. 4. Program-based collection of school grades by correctional officers in the area of physical education to objectively assign school grades for inmates that can be reported on vocational school certificates. Correctional officers are enabled to learn about and apply criteria for assigning school grades for performance through this tool and with supplemental training by associated project partners. Inmates benefit from these school grades on report cards, as any evidence of good performance can be an element for successful integration into work and society.5. Establishing and maintaining regional networks of institutions that work together with the correctional facilities and the respective associated project partners to meet the challenge of sustainably improving the integration of released offenders into society and work.It is the declared aim of the project partners that these instruments can be used and continued independently by the participating institutions in line with the project idea even after the project period.<< Implementation >>The main partner responsible for the coordination of all activities is WHKT.A) PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT IN WORKSHOPS (internal and external)Target groups are both employees, managers who will be informed about the status quo of the project progress; in addition, regional stakeholders will be informed.B) PROJECT NEWSLETTERThis will be sent to employees, managing directors and regional, national and international stakeholders; these will be available in DE, ENG, IT and PT.C) PROJECT WEBSITEUsers of this project website, which will be available in the languages of the project partners, will be project partner staff, stakeholder staff (e.g. education experts, teachers, media representatives, justice officials), but also people interested in the project. All users have the possibility to download documents or to inform themselves about the project progress. The documents will be available primarily in ENG, but many relevant documents will also be available in the project partner languages (DE, IT and PT).D) PRESS RELEASES/ARTICLES IN PROFESSIONAL JOURNALSThese mailings are intended to target experts who may also act as multipliers or register in the volunteer database (IO1).E) EDUCATIONAL EVENTS/FAIRSAccording to an already conducted internet research, each project partner has the possibility to present the project and its results in the context of regional educational events. An overview of the respective education-related fairs, congresses, etc. will be prepared by the project partners at the beginning of the project and corresponding evidence will be submitted with the interim reports or the final report.F) SOCIAL MEDIA (FACEBOOK)A Facebook group for application submission has already been established, which will also be available to stakeholders and interested parties from all project partner countries as part of the project.In addition, there are now more than 10 Erasmus+ groups on Facebook; information about the project will also be posted on these.G) EPRP Experience shows that this platform is mostly accessed by the project partners as well as the network partners/stakeholders in addition to the representatives of the National Agency.H) FLYERS/POSTERSFlyers/posters will be produced regionally (by the project partner in each case) to draw attention to project activities (e.g. to announce the regional multiplier events); these will be distributed at the correctional facilities in the partner regions, in educational centers, at universities (with a research focus on ""social inclusion"") and among stakeholders (labor market administration, associations for the integration of prisoners, interested sports clubs).I) MULTIPLIER EVENTSThere will be a multiplier event in all project partner regions, where the project partners will inform about the project results and they can also be tested; target group are stakeholders (staff in prisons, migration counselors, employees of the labor market administration, media).J) CROSS-BORDER NETWORK OF ADVISORSThe participants of this cross-border network of consultants are employees of the project partners, stakeholders and associated project partners.<< Results >>During the aforementioned STEPS predecessor project, it was already evident that sports in particular offer the possibility of reaching young inmates (up to about 25 years of age) in a positive way, even for topics unrelated to sports. During sports, inmates regularly report to the STEPS project partner their desire for qualified employment in the primary labor market. Similarly, various skilled trades have already approached STEPS project partners to inquire about opportunities to employ released offenders.The next step will now be to expand the potential of the structures established in the STEPS project and to involve the business community. For example, the access that the sports club builds up to suitable, pre-selected inmates while they are still in prison can be used in preparation to give these inmates better and more direct access to the labor market after their release, in close cooperation with the other stakeholders involved.At the same time, companies have the opportunity to recruit qualified and highly motivated skilled workers who are not only socially prepared for their release through sports in the correctional facility, but can also train important key skills such as teamwork, willingness to learn and communication skills for subsequent employment in cooperation with the other services offered by the justice system and the correctional facility.During the project period, the project partners implement the following activities and results jointly and in cooperation with regionally based prisons and other regional actors:1. establishment and expansion of regional networks with the aforementioned actors.2. networking of regional networks on European level with the aim of cross-border exchange of experiences and joint development of further products and activities.3. creation of national databases of companies that would like to employ ex-prisoners as trainees, apprentices or qualified specialists, as well as of voluntary structures such as sports and similar associations that would like to build up an accompanying social structure in close cooperation with regional prisons.4. model conception and testing of the process chain as well as documentation and dissemination of the results."