"Every year across Europe hundreds of thousands of individuals attend non-formal VET programmes (e.g. IVET & CVET programmes which do not lead to formal certification) in order to acquire and/or update their knowledge, skills and competences. However, in practice the visibility and transferability of the learning outcomes obtained in such non-formal VET programmes remains quite problematic due to the fact that training that takes place within the non-formal VET system, often does not result in credits that can be accumulated or transferred to other learning contexts. As a result, learning outcomes (i.e. knowledge, skills and competences) obtained within the non-formal VET system, are often not recognized for further studies in the formal VET system (e.g. HE VET) neither within nor outside the national boarders. The lack of permeability and transferability between the non-formal and formal VET systems, at national and European level, results in hundreds of thousands of training and productivity hours being lost when individuals decide to move from the one learning context to the other (i.e. from non-formal to formal), and constitutes a major motivational barrier in the educational path for hundreds of thousands of learners who wish to achieve a formal qualification either for securing a job or moving up the professional ladder. Recognizing the importance of the recognition and transferability of learning outcomes acquired within different learning contexts for enhancing employability and mobility as well as increasing motivation for lifelong learning, the Council of the European Union has adopted in 2012 the Recommendation for the Validation of non-formal and informal learning. The Recommendation instructs the Members States ""to have in place no later than 2018, in accordance with national circumstances and specificities, and as they deem appropriate, arrangements for the validation of non-formal and informal learning."" The overall aim of the ECVET PERMiT project was the implementation of the ECVET methodology in the curricula of VET study programmes within the non- formal and formal VET system, in an effort to increase the permeability and transferability of the learning outcomes achieved from the one learning context to the other. Specifically, the project aimed to apply the ECVET methodology for describing, assessing and validating learning outcomes in a selected number of vocational programmes (focusing primarily in three technical specializations), in three Member States (Cyprus, Malta, and Greece), in order to test the transferability of credits from the non-formal to the formal VET system, firstly within the national boarders and secondly on a transnational level. The project implementation thus involved three specific objectives: (1) To apply the ECVET methodology in a selected number of technical vocation programmes within the non-formal and formal VET systems in three EU countries: Cyprus, Malta and Greece;(2) To test the transferability of learning outcomes from the non-formal to the formal VET system at national and transnational level;(3) To raise awareness within the VET community about the benefits of the implementation of the ECVET system and promote the implementation of ECVET for permeability and transferability within the non-formal and formal VET system at national and European level.In order to ensure the success of the project and validity of results, six (6) key stakeholders from three (3) Member States (Cyprus, Greece, Malta) representing the government, semi-government, and private VET sector, have joined forces for this partnership. Analytically, 4 VET providers from Cyprus, Greece and Malta, all key public and private providers in technical vocation in the non-formal and formal VET system, one national VET policy organization, and one company pioneer in the use and application of ECVET in vocational training, form the core of this partnership and are uniquely positioned to produce high impact results both at national and European level."

The employability of young people is a concern in the many EU Member States, especially in Southern and Eastern Europe. In many countries, including Greece, Bulgaria, Latvia, Spain, and Cyprus, VET graduates are unemployed or are working in jobs irrelevant to their studies. Good quality information about what VET graduates do after leaving education and training, how they use the knowledge, skills, and competences they gained, is essential to understand both the causes of employability problems and the success factors in particular regions, economic sectors, or for graduates from particular VET institutes and disciplines. Tracking VET students and graduates and providing feedback and input to the quality assurance system of the VET provider is also one of the main gaps in the implementation of EQAVET. TUKE, SLOVAKIA, the project applicant is a research and education facility of the Technical University of Košice. Project partners were IDEC (training consulting company with extensive experience in European projects), IEK DELTA (Vocational Training Institute of post-secondary education), NAVET (National VET authority from Bulgaria), Eurofortis (not-for-profit organisation working in training field, personal and professional competence development), 3s (leading educational research organization in Austria), Intercollege (private college offering a wide range of Vocational Educational and Training (VET) study programs (Higher Education/VET) to students in Cyprus), P.I.T. (a subsidized private VET and secondary school in the Basque Region), and ASTRA (non-governmental non-for-profit training and research organization).On Track” project contributed to skills needs identification, gathering relevant data from VET graduates. The project “On Track” developed, evaluated, and put in use a VET graduates tracking system for graduates of VET providers at different levels (from EQF level 2 till EQF level 7). The specific objectives of the project were: -To analyze, in-depth, the context, and need in each country. -To develop a tracking system for VET graduates at the institute level that will feed into the quality assurance system of the VET provider -To pilot test and implement the tracking system, establish a tracking mechanism, and integrate it, in VET monitoring processes. -To support VET providers to establish the tracking mechanism and integrate it into their quality assurance system. The target groups of the project were VET schools and institutes providing secondary, post-secondary and HE levels education as well as institutes providing further VET courses. The main results of the project are: O1. Context study of tracking systems and measures The study was used as a starting point to analyze the national context, to identify indicators that have to be included in the tracking system, specific needs to be addressed, and potential challenges. The context study was performed at the national level and the results were compiled in a transnational study and created the basis for the development of the tracking system. O2. Tracking system for VET graduates At the core of the tracking system was a tracking survey addressed to VET graduates that gathered data related to further education, employment, career paths, skills, and competencies required in the labor market and other relevant information. The model tracking survey was developed and adapted to the specific needs of each VET provider that implemented it or wish to implement it in the future. The tracking survey was developed in two different open-source survey tools (Google Docs and LimeSurvey) so each VET provider can choose the one that can be better integrated within their IT system. The tracking system includes a technical manual on how to implement a survey using Google Docs or LimeSurvey. O3. Guide: Implement a tracking system and integrate it into the organization quality assurance system A guide for VET providers was developed which supports VET providers to implement the tracking system and integrate it into their quality assurance system. The guide addresses VET providers that want to implement the tracking system with their own resources and provides step by step methodological guidance. Apart from the tracking survey, the tracking system includes methodologies and mechanisms for preparing, managing, and administrating the survey, evaluating the results, keeping a registry of graduates which is a part of the Guide. Other outputs that contributed to project objectives and expected results are: C1. Learning activity: Establishing a tracking system for VET graduates. The learning activity prepared project partners to implement the tracking system and organize the pilot runs. 27 persons joined the learning activity.

The joint Cedefop/OECD symposium on apprenticeships in 2019, highlighted the importance of digitalization of apprenticeships (Flake, Meinhard & Werner, 2019). According to the study, one third of the companies providing VET training have not yet addressed the issue of digitalization.The study showed that 32,2% of company trainers need more support concerning digital teaching and learning approaches and 50,1% need further training offers for trainers.Transforming education and facilitating its transition to the digital era, has been a priority in the EU for the past years. The Digital education Action Plan (2020) identified 2 priorities and set out measures to help education institutions address the challenges of digital transformation. It acknowledges that a very high percentage of young people, fail to reach a basic level of digital skills and also that less than 40% of educators and trainers felt ready to use digital technologie. So we can conclude that there is a real need for the modernisation of apprenticeships through digitalisation. The aim of DigiGo is to support the acquisition of digital skill of VET students, during apprenticeships and to decrease the skills mismatch of VET students. The specific objectives of the project are:To enhance the digital competences of company trainers and mentors To support VET teachers/ trainers and company trainers/ mentors to develop apprenticeship programmes (traditional and virtual) for enhancing digital competences to students.To train company trainers and mentors on how to enhance digital competencies of apprentices in the workplace and through smart workingTo raise awareness of VET teachers and trainers, on the possibility to use apprenticeships, for the development of digital skills of VT students To engage more companies in providing quality apprenticeships that enhance digital skills of studentsThe project will produce two intellectual outputs:O1 E-learning programme: Apprenticeships in the digital era The elearning programme will be open and freely accessible and will target company trainers and mentors. The main aim of the programme will be to enhance the digital competences of trainers and mentors and assist them in organising apprenticeships for the development of the digital skills of VET students.O2 Apprenticeships in the digital era: Success stories In this output, a methodology will be developed and will focus on the development of the digital competences of students during the apprenticeships. The methodology will target both VET teachers and company trainers and its main aim will be to assist them in organising apprenticeships in the digital era (face to face or virtual). Additionally, an ebook with successful stories will be created from the organisation of the pilot apprenticeships. In addition to the ebook, a series of videos will be developed and published, presenting the success stories.The above outputs will lead to the achievement of five main results: - Close the gap between digital skills of students and those required by the companies in the workplace. The development of digital skills will be in parallel with the development of the qualification-specific technical skills , following the DigiComp framework. - Capacity building of VET teachers and trainers, in order to develop apprenticeship programmes for enhancing digital competences to students. Capacity building of VET teachers and trainers will be achieved through the elearning programme, the methodology proposed in our project and through the learning activity that will be organised in Malta. - Capacity building of company trainers and mentors to enhance digital competencies of apprentices. This result will be achieved mainly through the development of O1 E-learning programme: Apprenticeships in the digital era for company trainers. - Engagement of companies in providing quality apprenticeships that enhance digital skills of students. The project dissemination activities and the organisation of seven multiplier events will contribute to the awareness of companies of the potential of work-based learning, to develop a digital skilled workforce and will contribute to the engagement of more companies and increase of offer of quality apprenticeships. The organisation of virtual apprenticeships will also be promoted and companies will be introduced to the benefits that these forms of apprenticeships have to offer. - Strengthening the collaboration between Vet institutes and companies in the field of apprenticeship and especially, regarding the development of digital competences of students.Seven Partners from 6 EU countries compose the consortium of DigiGo: CDE PP , SABA, Friesland Inqubator, Eurodimension, IDEC, IEK Delta and CECOA. The competence, the expertise and the resources of each partner will contribute efficiently to the production of the project outputs. The partners have strong project specific competences and skills and dispose qualified staff.

<< Background >>The European Community has a strong commitment to support the development of the “Sustainable Blue Growth”, as a sector working as an engine of human and economic development. This is such a high priority that the United Nations proclaimed 2021-2030 “The Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development”. According to the European Commission, European coasts and seas have potential to deliver sustainable growth and jobs in the coming years and contribute towards the Green Deal objectives. The way to achieve this is investing in new, blue skills and career development. One of the key features for this blue development is the digitalization: Intelligent sensorisation and monitoring, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data analysis, all based on three main skills: electronic, communication and programming. The last Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Ministerial declaration on Sustainable Blue Economy (2 Feb-ruary 2021) reaffirmed “the need to prioritize education, vocational training and scientific capacity, in-cluding technology transfer, to anticipate transformative technological trends and promote just transi-tions”, as well as “the importance of working closely with the private sector to promote innovation and identify and address skills gaps”.The report “Strategy baseline to bridge the skills gap between training offers and industry demands of the Maritime Technologies value chain, 2019” (part of the MATES project, funded by Erasmus+) showed that the main paradigm shifter on the skill requirements is the digitalization and Smart Grid and Sensor, having answered more than the 85% experts from different European institutions and companies related to shipbuilding and marine renewable energy that this skill will become mainstream and more than 75% that it will affect the job situation. It will have an impact on a wide range of occupations, from marine engineer to electronical maintenance and repairing. The main actions proposed in this study were train-ing, reskilling/upskilling workforce in digitalization skills and enhance ocean literacy.The education provided by the Vocational Training centers to their students despite ensuring getting some of these skills and the competence needed to work for example in electronic or equipment mainte-nance, does not cover the marine environment peculiarities, the requirements of the emerging compa-nies related with the Blue Growth or the new job opportunities, losing a wide range of job opportunities. This project will design a specialization online course focused on the students in vocational training cen-ters. It will provide them with the knowledge needed to increase their opportunities to work in the blue economy sector. They will learn how skills learned during their education need to be adapted to an envi-ronment as the ocean, the special requirement that the marine and maritime companies have and what the sustainable blue growth initiative is. Besides, they will be introduced to the blue entrepreneurship opportunities available in this sector. The concrete objectives of this project are:- Follow an in-depth research and analysis at a European level of the demands and needs of the labour market to detect what the requirements of these companies related with the digitalization of their com-panies are.- Design and develop the complete online curriculum for VET, developing a pilot training for the students as well as a training for the trainers. - Launching a professional mentoring program for those students who are interested in entrepreneurship initiatives, as well as providing guidance in order to select mentors.- Design and launch of an online collaborative platform in order to foster the networking among students following the course and the companies where these skills are required and other potential stakeholders.<< Objectives >>This project will design a specialization online course focused on the students in vocational training cen-ters. It will provide them with the knowledge needed to increase their opportunities to work in the blue economy sector. They will learn how skills learned during their education need to be adapted to an envi-ronment as the ocean, the special requirement that the marine and maritime companies have and what the sustainable blue growth initiative is. Besides, they will be introduced to the blue entrepreneurship opportunities available in this sector. The concrete objectives of this project are:- Follow an in-depth research and analysis at a European level of the demands and needs of the labour market to detect what the requirements of these companies related with the digitalization of their com-panies are.- Design and develop the complete online curriculum for VET, developing a pilot training for the students as well as a training for the trainers. - Launching a professional mentoring program for those students who are interested in entrepreneurship initiatives, as well as providing guidance in order to select mentors.- Design and launch of an online collaborative platform in order to foster the networking among students following the course and the companies where these skills are required and other potential stakeholders.<< Implementation >>The main activities to be developed in the frame of BLUEDIVET project are:1) Follow an in-depth research and analysis at a European level of the demands and needs of the labour market to detect what the requirements of these companies related with the digitalization of their com-panies are.2) Design and develop the complete online curriculum for VET, developing a pilot training for the stu-dents as well as a training for the trainers. 3) Launching a professional mentoring program for those students who are interested in entrepreneur-ship initiatives, as well as providing guidance in order to select mentors.4) Design and launch of an online collaborative platform in order to foster the networking among stu-dents following the course and the companies where these skills are required and other potential stake-holders.5) Organization of 4 face-to-face and 3 online Transnational Meetings for the project partners (every five months).6) Organization of a Short-term joint teacher training event to ensure that all mentors are aligned with the strategy of BLUEDIVET using some procedures and approaching for supporting the students.7) Organization of the BLUEDIVET final conference to be held in Cartagena (Spain).<< Results >>OUTCOMES DURING THE PROJECT:- Bringing a common knowledge of: * The level of offer in education provided by the Vocational Training centers to their students in order to acquire the competences required for the blue digitalization based on electronic, communication and programming. * The skills needed by the marine and maritime companies.The aim is to analyze the digital competences demanded by the labour market within the blue growthfield and compare them with those actually acquired by the professionals hired to develop these func-tions. Then, a complete curriculum for vocational training will be proposed to narrow this gap and thus improve the employability levels. This result will contribute to build evidence on the skills needs of the society through skills anticipation.- Design and implementation of an innovative educational package based on the information collected after the finalization of the research followed for the first outcome. All the educational materials will be designed and developed in order to be implemented in an online scheme, using an e-Learning platform. This innovative educational package will be tested on the ground through a pilot experience developed in the four countries involved in the project in order to improve it and obtain a definitive version that could be easily exportable and transferable to other geographical contexts and European countries.- Design and launch of a Mentorship program in order to encourage and accompany those students who are willing to start their own blue businesses. In this way, a complete common and shared methodologi-cal manual will be designed to guide entities to select mentors, fulfilling a set of agreed criteria, who will be accompanying them for taking first steps in their business adventures within the blue sector, not only to those that have participated in the training program. Mentorship will enable these entrepreneurs to gain as much autonomy as possible, thus contributing to the successful implementation of their business ideas.- Create, through a collaborative platform, a European Network of Experts on blue digitalization, blue skills and, all in all, blue growth. This action will be supported with the design and spread of an online collaborative platform in order to foster the networking among students following the course and the companies where these skills are required, as well as key stakeholders and experts from different coun-tries.OUTCOMES ON ITS COMPLETION:- Ensure that VET curricula and training programs are actually meeting blue industry needs in terms of digitalization.- Ensure that students are equipped with blue digitalization skills as well as soft skills enabling them to develop new ideas and products, and possibly launch their own start-ups, updating their skills even for future needs that are still unknown.- Create a network of the workforce being trained on blue digitalization and the entities related to the blue growth in order to cover the job opportunities in the sector with a good specialized knowledge.

In recent years there has been a notable shift in the skills required by employees by privileging soft skills over hard skills. Soft skills are currently described as some of the most important core competences, which represent a dynamic combination of cognitive and meta-cognitive skills, interpersonal, intellectual, emotional and practical skills and which can be applied across employment contexts. EU (2016) classifies soft skills as ‘Key competences for lifelong learning’. Nevertheless, there is no defining list of soft skills, but one can find common elements, which is that soft skills are divided into three main groups:a) Personal skills, i.e. Learning skills, Tolerance to stress, Professional ethics, Self-awareness, Commitment, Life balance, Creativity/Innovationb) Social skills, i.e. Communication, Teamwork, Contact network, Negotiation, Conflict Management, Leadership, Culture Adaptabilityc) Content-reliant/Methodological skills, i.e. Customer/User orientation, Continuous improvement, Adaptability to change, Results orientation, Analytical skills, Decision making, Management skills, Research and info management (Cinque, 2016).The optimum method to approach students and provide them the chance to develop the soft skills needed at work is work-based learning and apprenticeship. The work-based learning and apprenticeships, in fact, offer the shift from transmission models of teaching –learning about- to experiential learning -learning for- and provide the opportunity to integrate hands-on experiences with theory. Different forms of work-based learning have been implemented in Europe and currently provide apprenticeships for 2/3 of young people. However, apprenticeships are focused on the specific vocational skills, required in the specialisation and not on the acquisition of soft skills.Filling this gap, the DESSA project aims to develop an apprenticeship scheme for the acquisition of soft skills by students in upper secondary and higher vocational education and training.The specific objectives of the project are:-To organise focus groups in order to identify and focus on specific soft skills that best address the needs of the project’s stakeholders. -To map best practices and methodologies applied for the development of soft skills in VET apprenticeship education in partner countries. -To develop an apprenticeship scheme for the acquisition of soft skills and competences by upper secondary and higher VET students. -To apply gamification elements in the apprenticeship scheme -To develop a trainers’ guide addressed to trainers in VET schools and companies that will apply the apprenticeship scheme and will design, support and evaluate the apprenticeship programme. -To organize seminars for trainers in VET schools and companies that are interested to apply the apprenticeship scheme. -To create an online tool for self-assessing soft skills, for students to set their own learning agenda by identifying their strengths and areas of improvement.The project will produce three core intellectual outputs that are:IO1 Apprenticeship scheme for the development of soft skills and competencesIO2 Trainers guideIO3 Web platform for the assessment of soft skills The apprenticeship scheme for the development of soft skills and competences will be based on gamification and natural mentoring elements. These two elements, the gamification and natural mentoring methods, will help to keep the apprentice engaged, motivated, involved and comfortable. The apprenticeship scheme will include theoretical foundation and guiding principles for the design, implementation and evaluation of apprenticeship programme for the development of soft skills and competences.The direct target group of the project is VET trainers and companies involved in apprenticeship programmes, yet, the final beneficiaries are students enrolled in upper secondary and higher VET schools and centres. The project is implemented by 6 partners from 5 countries (Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Poland and Lithuania), representing four VET schools, one university and one adult training company.The project is designed to have an impact at local/regional/national and European levels. At local level, the project will contribute to the improvement of students soft skills, the promotion of apprenticeships and the increase of the employability perspective of VET students. At national and European level, the project will contribute to the promotion of apprenticeships, work-based learning and soft skills learning at the workplace.