CONTEXT: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital transition within VET, leading to a steep rise in online/remote teaching. Despite the many positive aspects of this catalytic change towards digitalization, the speed of the transformation has left little time to address the risks involved. Teachers in particular face a higher risk of digital overload or burnout than ever before. Long hours sitting in front of artificially lit screens, improvised home settings, the challenge of communicating effectively online and the constant flow of communications from bosses, colleagues and students present them with a radically new set of challenges. Growing scientific evidence from workers in digital environments has shown that unconstrained use of devices can have strong negative consequences. Multitasking and constant notifications are associated with lower levels of creativity and concentration, the difficulty of effective interpersonal communication causes higher stress, while heavy screen use is linked to eyesight problems and headaches . Collectively called “technostress” these issues are caused both by the technology AND by organisational expectations, and lead to deterioration in productivity/performance and in employees’ mental and physical health. Our Partner organisations report VET schools suffering staff shortages and increasing levels of absence due to digitally induced stress and it is not surprising that as far back as 2016 the influential JISC framework placed five other digital capabilities within the overarching capability of digital identity and wellbeing. TARGET GROUPS / NEEDS For this reason, Digital Balance targets two groups a)VET teachers. In 2019 only 39% of teachers in the EU felt well prepared for using digital technologies in daily work and the EC’s recent consultation on Digital Education Action Plan showed that more than 50% of respondents plan to further enhance digital skills in response to the Covid crisis.b)VET management and department heads (often teachers themselves). Their work is diverse but they share a common challenge: how to optimise digital teaching and the use of technology without compromising staff’s performance and wellbeing. They need greater awareness and knowledge to lead change in organisational policy and practice.OBJECTIVES & ACTIVITIESWorking with these two groups, our objective is clear: design, develop and implement a new approach to train VET teachers, leaders and managers in digital wellbeing. The end result will be to improve educators’ own digital competences, while also boosting the capacity of VET institutions to manage the digital transition in a way that marries high quality teaching with the wellbeing of those involved. Our specific objectives are: a)Produce 3 new resources that enable the integration of policy and practice to support digital wellbeing for teachers and encourage proactive behaviour at personal level. Namely; IO1 Digital Balance Analysis Report, IO2 Digital Wellbeing Resource Park, IO3 Digital Balance Empowerment Programmeb)Rigorously use, test and refine the resources in collaboration with 72 managers/department heads and 96 teachers, optimising their effectiveness and readying partners for immediate implementation.c)Ensure strong uptake of the resources with a persuasive dissemination campaign so that 840 VET managers, department heads and teachers use the resources in the project lifespan, with hundreds more after completion.IMPACT:Digital Balance will boost the capacity of VET institutions to manage the digital transition in a way that marries high quality teaching with the wellbeing and long-term productivity of those involved.The project makes a clear contribution to targeting organisational level change across a wide range of different types of VET organisations and the dissemination strategy will target regional and national stakeholders and policy makers. For this reason, we are sure that Digital Balance can contribute to substantial change in our wider VET systems at regional and national level AND ensure that VET is not left behind by other sectors which are more digitally competent.At national and international level, Digital balance is a very timely and relevant project in light of the Digital Education Plan, especially components of digital readiness, and in light of the ongoing work to define, build and evaluate digital competences in education. Dig Comp, Dig Comp Edu and Dig Comp Org have been circulating as frameworks for competence development for many years now, but their impact has been limited, especially in VET. Recently digital pedagogical competences have been advanced, but wellbeing and professional digital competences are often left out. Digital balance will address this gap and enhance the practical value of the frameworks to the lives of teachers and VET institutions.