The new-generation information technologies such as the Internet of Things, robotics, and smart connected objects open new horizons for industry and the energy markets. The experiences of the VET partners involved in the projects points to the fact that the VET providers have to get in line with the new technical competencies required by the smart energy sector and, specifically, the area of energy management. Furthermore, with the experience of homeschooling under the Pandemic, the need for developing high-quality digital learning tools and virtual mobility for VET learners became visible. MAIN OBJECTIVE: to enhance technological skills of VET students and their teachers about using digital tools in energy management SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: to train VET teachers/providers in ECVET principles; to improve problem solving behaviors of VET students through project based learning (PBL), their skills in using digital training material, to improve the competence of teachers in designing transnational online learning materialsPARTICIPANTS: 41 teachers and trainers out of: 3 VET schools (Spain, Sweden, Netherlands), 1 non-profit VET provider in the field of energy efficiency (Spain), 1 technical university experienced in training VET teachers (Germany), 1 web-based service provider specialized in implementing ECVET principles (Norway).; 260 students from 5 European countries; 21 experts from energy related companies. As associated partner was involved 1 NGO related to environmental education and 2 VET schools from Switzerland + 1 VET school from GermanyACTIVITIES in the project were: Training of VET teachers/providers in ECVET principles. Identification of training needs related to Smart Energy Management (SEM) through interviews with companies and experts. Both activities led to the definition of a “SEM-technician” on EQF level 4/5 and the related description of some learning outcomes. Partners worked collaboratively together in order to deliver a training Toolkit covering several LOs and to learn how to use and implement the training tools in a MOOC course based on PBL methodology. 4 partners implemented the training material in a piloting program with their students (partially under the Pandemic). All partners carried out the development of a teachers’ handbook for implementing PBL inside the classroom. Additionally, partners organized a virtual mobility through a competition among VET students that promoted transnational exchange. The tangible results of the project are: ECVET Online Training course for VET teachers in English and Smart Energy Manager qualification description (O1) TOOLKIT ON “SMART ENERGY MANAGEMENT” for VET students (EQF level 4), based on ECVET standards and delivered in a MOOC format in basic English. The Toolkit consists in different modules: introductory online module about digital transformation of the energy sector; smart thermal installations; smart lighting and user experience; Smart Energy Management Systems and energy mapping (O2)VET TEACHER’S HANDBOOK on implementation of PBL methodologies, addressing aspects like organizational arrangements (flexible time management, curricula agenda); adaption of classrooms and workshops; defining the new role of the teacher (trainer vs. assessor) and the student team; case study on implementing PBL; Handbook delivered in English and partner languages: DE, ES, NL, SE (O4)VET student competition among VET providers across Europe about ENERGY EFFICIENCY: During the competition, VET students worked in teams to find innovative solutions for improving the energy consumption of a school building. Access to all results through project webpage: www.energyducation.euIMPACT: Through the Toolkit, VET teachers and students enhanced their competence and knowledge of smart technologies and specially students their problem solving behaviors by working in student groups and resolving given challenges. VET providers gained competence in developing a new qualification description based on ECVET principles and VET teachers enhanced their implementation strategy of PBL. Industry partners/experts got involved in the definition of training needs relevant for smart energy management and the partnership laid the groundwork for developing future training curricula. Through the student competition, partners gained experience in organizing virtual mobilities that can be repeated even in a broader setting with more European VET schools involved. On a LONG TERM view, this project contributes to the European Green Deal by focusing on the necessary future skills of “smart” technicians, who are able to manage smart energy solutions that promote energy efficiency. Besides, the project provided a methodology on how VET providers can cooperate to develop a transnational qualification description and training materials in order to provide transnational learning opportunities for VET students.

"<< Background >>MODERN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEMANDS AN ADAPTED DIDACTICAL approach with digital teaching and learning aids. Digital skills can be professional skills or transversal skills which define how we live and work. THE COVID PANDEMIC HAS ENHANCED the trend of digitalisation of labour markets partly as an integrated element in work processes but similarly also as new ways of cooperation have emerged. Virtual meetings are the “new normal” and with AR/VR implementations cooperation at distance will be facilitated and learner mobility can be organised in blended environments. The ARtemis project recognises the resulting higher demand for digital and related skills, expressed in the revised 2020 EU skills agenda, the Pact of Skills and the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027) which focus on targeted policies that can facilitate the upskilling and reskilling of EU citizens. It supports vocational training staff in dealing with modern, digital tools where there is currently little or no experience with respect to new technologies as AR, VR, 360 ° videos and 3D (bio-) printing. A RECENT CEDEFOP (2021) NEEDS ANALYSIS states that “In modern societies, digital skills function as an enabler of active citizenship and a driver of green and digital transitions. Apart from particular sectors and occupations (e.g. ICT technicians and ICT professionals) which develop and provide digital goods and services, these skills are increasingly becoming a transversal requirement in most occupations and sectors.” A SET OF DIGITAL DIVIDES in Europe are identified in the study: Countries and regions - only three in 10 EU citizens had above basic digital skills in 2019, with significant regional differences. Generations - A generation divide also exists between different age groups. Urbanisation - This third digital divide is determined by the degree of urbanisation, with rural – but often also suburban – areas lagging significantly behind metropolitan areas. IN THIS PROJECT A FOURTH DIVIDE IS ADDED to those identified by Cedefop, the occupational, and where floristry and landscaping represent vocations where new technologies are seldom used, and where mixed realities are of growing importance as professional tools. From an IVET and from an CVET perspective this divide is a relevant area of pedagogical intervention to digitally professionalized teaching personnel. THE REGIONAL DIVIDE is also addressed with DK, NL and NO representing countries where more than 40% having moderate or advanced digital skills, whereas Germany and Cyprus are in the ranges of 30-40% and 20-30%, respectively. With the European umbrella organisations ELCA and Florint a diversity of countries is represented and with several regions involved, including those with a lower uptake of digital skills. VET TEACHERS AND TRAINERS DEMAND ready-made teaching and learning materials for the use of modern technologies, such as AR, VR, 360° videos and 3D (bio-)printing. The results of the online survey showed, that 92% of the teaching personnel is interested in using ARtemis technologies in Work-Based Learning. Almost 2/3 of the teaching personnel request a structured approach, like the qualification in a didactic innovation training hub. 75% request ready-made teaching and learning materials.<< Objectives >>THE MAINSTREAMING OF MODERN DIGITAL MEDIA such as AR, VR, 360° video and 3D (bio-) printing in companies requires a purposeful application in teaching and learning. Current experiences are rare or limited to lighthouse initiatives or selected projects. This results in a lack of tailor-made teaching and learning materials. Trainers and VET teachers are not able to respond to requirements of companies and the labour market to provide professional competence, making their provisions less relevant to competence needs in the labour market. This will reduce the demand for offers to be delivered by training organisations - accelerating the already troubled match between available provisions and rapidly developing workplaces. BRIDGING THAT GAP, teaching personnel needs room for manoeuvre to adapt to relevant work and learning processes in their organisation as well as tailor-made training offers to integrate the new technologies in schools or a WBL training environment. This responds to training regulation reforms in partner countries and links digitalisation activities to green occupations. ARTEMIS DEVELOPS, TESTS, EVALUATES AND transfers selected teaching and learning scenarios s, which are enriched by a combination of technologies. The implementation focus is on floristry, landscaping, and biology. THE INTEGRATION AND SUSTAINING of the ARtemis technologies is a combination of technology, pedagogy, and organisation. The planned didactic innovation training hubs will be anchored in relevant organisations from DE, DK, NL and NO. Training hubs will allow teaching personnel to create and implement modern media in a structured and didactic sound way. The needs are analysed by using the SELFIE tool to develop relevant current and future training offers. The use of modern media with implementation of AR or VR visualisations will foster digital skills among teaching personnel and learners and aim to transform existing teaching and learning forms. This results in a higher motivation among learners and the transition of the trainer’s role from an instructor to a moderator. AN EXPERIMENTAL INCLUSION OF PARTICIPANTS with special needs in this context will be targeted by supporting dyslectic participants with mixed reality experiences as a compensatory measure where visual input can serve as a partial substitute to textual presentations.THE NEED TO USE OF AR, VR, 360° VIDEO AND 3D (BIO-) PRINTING is reflected by the results of an upfront online survey. 91% of teachers/trainers have a high interest on the technology use and the qualification in the didactic innovation training hubs.<< Implementation >>(1): GENERAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT: A core activity in project management is communication between the partners and with the Norwegian NA and other external stakeholders. The project management also needs to deal with problems that may result from unexpected events that may hinder the progress of the project. The creation of a plan for the project implementation will be part of the quality measures for the project implementation. At least monthly online meetings with the core team will also be part of these activities. (2): AN ONLINE COLLABORATION PLATFORM (Microsoft SharePoint/Teams (tbd)) is set up by the coordinator and maintained for the duration of the project. It offers opportunities for communication, file storage and work tracking. Online communication channels have already been defined. (3): SHARING AND PROMOTION OF THE PROJECT RESULTS The sharing and promotion activities will be developed at the beginning of the project (under the direction of FLORINT) with the corresponding visual elements (under the direction of the SBG). The website http://Skillstools.eu/artemis will be created, on which external stakeholders are informed about the project and its development. In addition, a social media presence (e.g. Twitter) will be set up to enable a more interactive type of communication with external stakeholders (under the direction of SBG). A YouTube channel offers decision-makers and vocational training staff insights into the use of modern (3D printing / bioprinting) and immersive (AR, VR, 360 ° video)media in Vocational Education. (4): PROJECT EVALUATION The project management, the development of the WPs and the sharing and promotion plan measures are continuously evaluated. This is covered in the sections on monitoring and evaluation (5): FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL The flow of expenses is considered in a continuous process. The project coordinator will review the planned and spent funding on a quarterly basis in order to ensure that the project funds are used appropriately. Particular attention is paid to the working days for the WPs. For this controlling, the timesheets regularly filled out by the project partners are used. (6) PROJECT REPORTS The interim and final reports are prepared by the NTI-MMM in order to document the progress of the project. In addition, five transnational partner meetings (TPM), two Learning and teaching activities (LTTA) and three sharing and promotion activities (Multiplier events) will be carried out.<< Results >>Artemis will develop, test and evaluate a qualification concept for VET personnel (""Digitalisation expert in VET"", WP1) to acquire the necessary professional, personnel and digital skills for the use of immersive technologies (AR, VR, 360 ° videos) and 3D (bio-) printing in WBL. This pedagogical guidance will be the foundation for the AR, VR; 360° and 3D (bio-) printing enriched teaching and learning scenarios in floristry, landscaping, and biology (lab) (WP 2). The foundation and operation of three different didactic innovation training hubs will enable teaching personnel to obtain as well as to provide relevant training with modern media, such as immersive media. The three hubs for didactic innovations will function as “lighttowers” for attracting interest from the relevant industry as well as to enable participants to create and test further or own AR, VR, 360° and 3D(bio-) printing enriched teaching and learning material."

STEMSOFT launch pad is an integrated digitalised service addressing the development of 21st century SOFT SKILLS and TRANSVERSAL competencies needed in the labour market targeting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) candidates through open and innovative practices to enhance their employability.Due to the increased demand on STEM jobs in a changing European labour market, especially in an Industry 4.0 perspective, employees need a more diverse skills profile comprising both hard skills, core transversal competences like digital skills and soft skills. Recent research (Deming, D. 2017) showed that since 2000, jobs that require “non-cognitive” skills, such as the ability to communicate and work in teams, grew much faster than jobs mainly requiring skills measurable by IQ or achievement tests. Soft skills are much more valued in the labour market than any time before.The project aims at preparing STEM candidates with non-technical skills such as critical thinking, idea generation and interdisciplinary ways of working alongside their technical hard STEM skills. The consortium comprises different work cultures and training traditions and with input from international perspectives through the range of associated partners. This STEM employability skills project aims to address this by defining relevant non-technical soft skills and transversal skills, described in an EQF/ECVET format, targeting the following groups and delivering them in different digitalised forms: - Migrants with a STEM background who are unemployed or underemployed- Mobile workers seeking employment opportunities in another country or region- NEETs (regardless of gender)- Undergraduates or graduates with a STEM background who are finding it hard to get a STEM job due to ethnicity, disability or gender- People in career transitions (people without a formal STEM background wanting to move to a STEM field as an alternative career) facilitating permeability and flexible learning and training pathwaysBased upon a survey to explore to what extent non-technical skills, soft skills and transversal skills are integrated elements in existing STEM provisions, a competence map of STEM-oriented learning outcomes covering these skills will be developed in an EQF/ECVET format. This mapping will correspond to a Skillsbank and ESCO system to secure transferability between existing training provisions and the additional STEMSOFT training. This in turn will boost the employability of candidates and their access to the labour market. The partnership will collate more than 5,000 OERs (including MOOC-type resources) to be made available via a learning environment which will cater for a wide audience and will provide in addition training courses in soft skills tailored to the above target groups. Wider stakeholders will also be addressed such as employment agencies, HR managers, recruiter, trainers/coaches, educational institutions.In order to reach the project’s objectives, the partnership will develop a range of intellectual outputs: I01 “Competence Matrices and recognition of prior learning” will develop EQF and ECVET compatible qualification matrices and align previous learning acquired to transversal skills sought by the industryIO2 “Training programmes based on OERs (Online Educational Resources)” will design a learning environment with a provision of more than 5,000 OERS and training paths for specific target groups. IO3 “Online platform with Skillsbank” will set up a user service combining the OER provisions and recognition of (prior) learning towards a certificate.IO4 “Piloting Training” will prepare a first rollout of training materials aimed at all target groups through MOOCs and other digital channels , including a facilitator handbook. The main areas of impact which we will see through the project are:-A direct impact on the lives of the candidates who directly take part in the project, in terms of boosting their employability through their soft skills development -An improved knowledge among candidates of the importance of soft skills development to secure a job in the labour market in the STEM sector-An improved knowledge among stakeholders of the value and recognition of soft skills in the STEM sector.-Increased knowledge of soft skills accreditation and recognition of prior learning- Improved digital skills through involvement in a diversity of training and upskilling provisions

The situation in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries with stiff international competition requires a highly skilled workforce to secure quality and productivity. The sector represents a major part of the European process industry and where the industrial production employs 3,3 million Europeans in 94.000 enterprises with a multibillion turnover (2014: 1 078 billion €). This turnover is continually challenged by investments in the development of new products, the fact that patents are time limited, down to 10 years, with immediate releases of “copy products” from other parts of the world, intensifies the need for qualified staff rapidly taking on new tasks and challenges.Laboratory functions and process operation are responding to new requirements as concerns complexity and a safe and sustainable production. This is partly due to new methods and technologies, new types of equipment and respective operational procedures, but over the last years also the emphasis on safety and security in the processes and strict environmental and sustainability criteria.To be competitive in a fast developing market, the training quality, the relevance and flexibility of training provision between schools and work based learning is of utmost importance. Laboratory personnel and process operators with their skills and competences– tacit and tangible –represent a core part of the industry’s intellectual capital. This implies also that critical skills and crucial tacit knowledge acquired in workplace settings are central in the project. Video recordings of these performance based competences will be directly linked to the respective learning outcomes in the ECVET based multilingual qualification matrixes in Skillsbank.To meet the requirements linked to the shared responsibility between schools and companies in the securing of compatible standards between the training providers and in the work based learning, the ECVET principles are basis. Using learning outcomes carefully defined and organised in logical units, the core qualification criteria will be operationally defined. For transparency purposes these qualification definitions will be developed transnationally and in multilingual versions. They will be supported by video clips as best practice examples as well as for the documentation of individual learners’ performance towards certification and employability.A standard ECVET implementation is relying on precise definitions of learning outcomes organised in structured units. When the differentiation between Competence / Responsibility and Autonomy), Skills and Knowledge is activated in the description of individual LOs, certain elements of skills and competence documentation may be lacking. These characteristics are technically labelled as tacit knowledge – “silent knowledge” which forms the parts of a learning outcome which can only be seen, experienced and documented through practical performance.In the context of the priorities of the Erasmus+ programme, the horizontal one“Transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications”, is directly mirroring the project ambitions. With the focus on work based learning the idea is to update and develop in-school training through close interaction with the industry itself. This should secure the relevance aspect, and with the video recording of individual learners’ performance as well as best practice examples the quality aspect are covered as well. This is clearly asked for in the European VET priorities “Developing VET business partnerships aimed at promoting work-based learning in all its forms” and “increasing the quality of VET provision, the establishment of feedback loops to adapt VET provision based on outcomes, including by setting up or testing graduate tracking arrangements as part of quality assurance systems in line with the EQAVET recommendation”.This project pursue the following key objectives:• Improvement of training quality and relevance implementing video technology linked to ECVET oriented learning outcomes in the chemical and pharmaceutical sector;• Enhancing the ECVET defined learning outcomes with inclusion of tacit knowledge as documentation of performance of critical skills among process operators and laboratory technicians uploaded in the Skillsbank system;• Develop VET institutions and enhancement of VET-industry cooperation through work based learning;• Promoting recognition of work based learning, including prior learning independent of arena of experience, for permeability, flexible training pathways and alternative career options within the industry.The partnership comprises 10 partners from 7 countries (AT, CZ, DE, FR, IT, NO, SK)

The green sector cover a broad range of occupations from floristry and green production into gardening and landscaping. The emerging effects of climate change, the restructuring of retail and a diversity of new approaches to design, development and delivery of green services are all challenging the involved companies – usually small and medium sizes enterprises – as well as training providers and certification organisations. The EGREEN project is established as a transnational partnership covering three different occupations, floristry, gardening and landscaping, with unexplored overlaps and representing seven different countries (AT, DE, EE, ES, FR, NL, NO). It is an effort to use learning outcome descriptions to describe new qualification definitions across occupations. The benefit of using learning outcomes as the common denominator will allow the climbing through five levels, from 2 to 6, in the EQF ladder. It will also open for transversal moves in the labour market to secure flexibility in learning and training pathways and opening for permeability between the core occupations. One of the objectives is to fully exploit the use of learning outcomes as recommended with EQF and ECVET to develop easily applied mechanisms for validation and recognition of prior learning (VNIL/RPL), regardless of being picked up through formal, non-formal or informal learning. To fill the gaps towards full certificates the developed training programmes with MOOC-type provisions will be deployed through the training providers in the partnership and the associated stakeholder organisations. The validation and recognition of prior learning is also a valuable asset for people in a changing labour market, for migrants and refugees and for the general upskilling of the workforce.he partnership consists of stakeholders from the labour market, training providers and an international umbrella organisation supported by technical expertise on competence analysis and IT solutions. With this composition of the partnership the project itself, as well as the outcomes, are well anchored in a professional environment. To fully support the development, the new qualification matrices will be delivered in multilingual versions for a parallel presentation using the Skillsbank system. This will allow comparable assessments of learning outcomes across language borders and open up for more mobile work and learning. Milestones are: •development of new learning outcome based qualification matrices across occupations•availability of the matrices in different languages•availability of relevant and adequate training programmes with VR/AR and MOOC support•options for VNIL/RPL towards certifications•issuing of green sector craft certificates in a common European format