<< Background >>The Cultural and Creative Sector (CCS) have been strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially those sub-sectors most dependent on the presence of public, due to suspended live cultural events, which put more than 7 million jobs at risk in the EU (Morellato et al., 2020). The pandemic accelerated the digitalisation process, transforming the cultural experience (OECD, 2020), but many smaller CCS actors are not properly skilled to benefit from the new opportunities (IDEA Consult et al., 2021). The CCS is essential for socio-economic recovery, as it can encourage people’s wellbeing and resilience and promote a shared sense of European identity (Wahba et al., 2020; EC, 2020). To enable the CCS to continue to fulfill its primary function and support its recovery and resilience, CCS actors need to be urgently equipped with digital skills and capacity to harness digital opportunities. The European VET systems play a central role in preparing people and businesses to undertake the digital transition, and thus need to be modernised in order to close the existing skill gap. Yet, in many EU countries, VET programmes are still unprepared to reflect the current challenges (CEDEFOP, 2020). The pandemic hindered the delivery of VET programmes, revealing scarce ability to use digital tools, motivate learners, ensure the continuity of learning and equal opportunities for all, which increased the risk of drop-out (ILO, 2020). This is alarming as education and training are the true enablers of innovation, contributing to the workforce upskilling, and increasing employability. Unprecedented technological progress brings new business opportunities, creates new jobs, reforms the way we work and, importantly, determinates what, when and how people need to learn (Morellato et al., 2020). Digitalisation is not the only factor of change: demographic, environmental, political and economic challenges require greater emphasis on VET, enabling it to reconcile sustained productivity and adequate distribution of the benefits of growth (CEDEFOP, 2020). To ensure the central role of European VET systems to prepare people and business to the digital transition and overcome the existing skill gap, VET providers need to be agile, resilient and ready to react to skill demand changes. To face these challenges, RestART will address the following target groups:- CCS actors needing to improve their digital and transversal vocational skills: Members of the creative, cultural and artistic organisations, small creative businesses, grassroot cultural organisations, individual creators, artists and freelancers especially from the sub-sector of the performing arts and heritage, including people from disadvantaged groups.- CCS-oriented VET providers: Public and private VET providers offering training related to cultural and creative disciplines, that are not confident and sufficiently skilled in using digital technologies in training and wish to acquire the necessary competences to adapt to the new trends.<< Objectives >>RestART’s main objective is to support the digital transition and resilience of CCS actors by enhancing the ability of VET providers in creative disciplines to adapt their training offer to current and future needs of labour market, economy and society. Thus, the project will pursue the following specific objectives:- to create a transferable ECVET-based framework to support VET providers in designing innovative and flexible training offers for the CCS, leading to the achievement of transferable learning outcomes;- to strengthen key digital and transversal skills of CCS VET learners, helping them to create, manage, promote their products, and successfully participate in the changing markets and societies;- to equip CCS-oriented VET providers with tools and guidance on how to use digital technologies in training, competence assessment and validation, empowering them to support CCS actors’ resilience;- to facilitate the ability of CCS-oriented VET providers to respond to the challenges of the 21st century, becoming more open, inclusive, environmentally-conscious and able to provide training offers meeting the real needs of the labour market;- to upscale the RestART approaches, encouraging policymakers and other stakeholders to support the transformation of European CCS-oriented VET towards digitalisation, inclusivity, and sustainability.<< Implementation >>All project activities work towards increased innovation and digitalisation of CCS-oriented VET and the creation of a flexible upskilling opportunity for CCS learners, by involving them in the following activities in 6 EU countries: - Organisation of co-creative meetings, enabling an exchange between VET providers and learners from the CCS and in-depth transnational need analysis of their training priorities and desired learning outcomes, to create a flexible digital-based training framework, based on ECVET principles (R1).- MOOC-ART piloting with CCS-oriented VET learners and providers (R2): attending the course, CCS actors will strengthen their digital skills and key competences to increase their opportunities for active participation in the changing markets and societies; participating as observers, VET providers will learn about a cutting-edge open course to include in their training offer; by providing individual support to CCS learners lacking appropriate digital skills and/or means, the inclusion of VET learners with disadvantaged background and from vulnerable groups will be increased; piloting the MOOC, project partners will test its efficacy and eventually adapt it accordingly.- Interviews with representatives of national good practices in CCS-oriented VET to collect deeper insights on the selected practices in RestART-kit (R3), a comprehensive toolkit offering guidance on how to upscale the training offer for the CCS. - Organisation of National Validation meetings and the International Validation Forum with CCS-oriented VET providers to discuss the effectiveness of RestART-kit and foster European exchange and mutual enrichment between CCS-oriented VET providers (R3).- Conducting video interviews with members from the CCS and CCS-oriented VET, to analyse their experience within the project (R4).- Roundtable discussions with local/regional/national stakeholders in VET and the CCS, to identify innovative strategies for upscaling RestART approach and contribute to innovation of CCS-oriented VET through tailored, country-specific policy recommendations (R4). - Designing video recommendations for policymakers, highlighting specific and common challenges and needs across the EU, thus calling for their support to contribute to the innovation of CCS-oriented VET and finalising the RestART digital gallery (R4). - Multiplier events (E1-6) reaching out to a wide audience of VET providers and trainers, CCS actors, and key stakeholders and policymakers, fostering the exploitation and sustainability of the project results.<< Results >>The innovation of the CCS and CCS-oriented VET will be enhanced through the following tangible results developed within RestART:- A flexible, ECVET-based framework (R1), supporting CCS-oriented VET providers in designing training offers targeted to CCS actors leading to the achievement of transferable learning outcomes. - The MOOC-ART (R2) based on the R1 framework, equipping CCS actors with a cutting-edge, custom-tailored learning opportunity to strengthen their skills and competences to adapt their work and products to new digital formats of culture and art creation, distribution, consumption, as well as business models, while applying socially and environmentally responsible strategies, according to the 21st century demand. - The RestART-kit (R3), supporting VET providers’ ability to incorporate responses and mitigation measures in their training offer, in line with the digital transformation and with current and future societal and environmental challenges. - The RestART Digital Gallery for upscaling VET in the CCS (R4), encouraging policymakers and key stakeholders to take action for increased innovation of CCS-oriented VET in the EU. Thus, the following outcomes are expected:- Newly-created flexible ECVET-based framework supporting CCS-oriented VET providers in designing training offers targeted to CCS actors leading to the achievement of transferable learning outcomes.- Strengthened digital as well as transversal skills of CCS actors, enabling them to adapt to the progressing digitalisation, and transforming societies and markets, and enhanced business opportunities and competitiveness of the CCS actors involved.- Increased preparedness of CCS-oriented VET providers to use digital technologies and means in training management and delivery, competence assessment and validation, allowing them to improve their training offer tailored to CCS learners and enhance their human capital and resilience.- Enhanced CCS-oriented VET providers’ ability to respond to the challenges of the 21st century, as well as accelerated modernisation and transition towards more inclusive and greener future, and improved ability to swiftly revise VET training offer according to the changing skill demand.- Increased motivation of policymakers and key stakeholders in VET and the CCS to support the overall innovation of CCS-oriented VET in the EU towards digitalisation, inclusivity, and sustainability, confirming and reinforcing VET’s key role in European societies and economies.