"As the paradigm of the industry has changed, there is a need to change the paradigm of teaching as well. Teaching has to take into account today's youth (Z-generation) peculiarities to make them difficult subjects more easily obtainable. As the resources are more costly and competition increases in every level, cooperation is important to achieve more with less resources. Therefore development of methodologies, analysing and piloting of the novel teaching methods for modern smart learning and principles for competence and cooperation network in the field of mechatronics is the main objective of the project NEDIA.There are 5 project partners in the project NEDIA: 3 vocational education schools (Tallinna Tööstushariduskeskus from Estonia, Raision seudun koulutuskuntayhtymä from Finland and PIKC ""Liepajas Valsts tehnikums"" from Latvia) and 2 competence centres (Innovative Manufacturing Engineering Competence Centre IMECC from Estonia and KoneteknologiakeskusTurku from Finland).The project helps partner educational institutions to become aware and implement new teaching methodologies that would meet the needs of today’s youth and allow them quickly and easily to acquire knowledge that is needed in today’s industry. Also the project helps to create base to cooperation network that enables to make cooperation in designing courses and adapting new teaching methodologies and change information and knowledge. The project results are possible to broaden outside the project partners, too.Main activity fields and results of the project:1) Analysis about new needs in the industry and needed competences in the field of mechatronics today and in the future up to year 2020. Result: Report ""New needs in the industry and needed competences in the field of mechatronics"". The report gives an overview about the development trends in the mechatronics sector and type of competences (also new, key competences) that are needed in the sector today and in the near future and main bottlenecks in teaching in Estonia, Latvia and Finland. 2) Analysis about new teaching didactics – new teaching methods and possibilities for implementing them to teaching process and composing respective methodological material. The aim of using new teaching methods is to make difficult and complicated topics and subjects of teaching more easily understandable. Different didactic methods of organizing teaching process were analysed, incl. what they are and how to implement them in teaching process. Result: New training methods and their implementation in modern vocational education (methodology)3) Developing pilot lecture plan, pilot lecture materials using obtained knowledge about new teaching methods, conducting respective pilot lecture and collecting feedback by each participating educational institution. Respective report was composed about the process.4) Creating structure and concept for cooperation and competence network between regions for sharing competences and resources for securing higher efficiency and transparency. It was analysed how to realize effectively, consistently and sustainably previously described activities in cooperation network, how in integrated way would be possible to obtain better results with limited resources and how would be possible to expand the network to other institutions. Cooperation network would have an ability to develop continuously a value-added cooperation between countries and educational and supporting institutions in different countries. These main activity fields are contributed by supporting activities as project management, project homepage compilation and composing project dissemination plan.Target groups of the project are vocational education institutions, their students, teachers and other staff, companies of mechatronics field, qualification authorities and other industry associations. The aim is to turn teaching process more open, interesting and attractive, to make difficult technical subjects more easily understandable and available. Therefore students will obtain competences that the industry needs and become more competitive in labour market, companies have workforce in the future that has competences they need and as labour force is one of the most important resources of the company, the competitiveness of the companies and therefore the industries will increase. Also through improved teaching process the competitiveness of the educational institutions increases.The outputs of this project are possible to broaden also to other schools, other subjects and advanced trainings. Through concept and structure of cooperation network, new projects are initiated."

"European Voice of Tomorrow (EVT) is a project that wats to respond to a lack of global economic growth. Through the EVT project, we want to increase young students’ awareness about International Trade with viewpoint of sustainability as one of the strongest points of the project. Based on earlier good experiences of a similar kind of project European Voice of Sales (EVS), the project partners’ states that traditional ways of teaching and learning in a classroom is not the most efficient way to acquire knowledge of vocational studies and lifelong learning. The participants of this project will gain benefits learning by doing using innovative learning environments and methods. This project enhances to take initiative and risk, innovate and engage in further learning. In the future training a student will be less focused on teaching the actual job and more about being able to make transfers, see possibilities and be competent to do them. Key competences of lifelong learning are becoming crucial. The main purpose is to activate the students into learning to learn in a more informal settings, in the EVT weeks and during those weeks we organized 4 semi-finals and a final event and before EVT weeks organized pre-selection phases in each partner organization. Each of the five project partner (Raisio Regional Education and Training Consortium FI, Ole Vig upper secondary school NO, Cometa Formazione IT, Escola de Comércio de Lisboa POR, Breidholt College IS) will pre-select and engaged altogether 20 students in this project. One of the pre-selected students / each EVT-week / country will be a student with economic or social obstacles. Each partner will select and engage 2 teacher per EVT event. Beside those students and teachers, there are students and teachers that can participate and gain key competencies at their own institute when organizing EVT event. A local company or entrepreneurs will give the themes of exported product or service at the EVT event. The participants will look at the future though their inputs and enhance the lifelong learning skills through the whole learning process. The EVT concept based on valuable experiences of the EVS-project. In our previous project, the main idea was to enhance various students’ skills, knowledge and appreciation about sales. Through this project we will exchange best practices to context of International trade stressing out the importance of export and sustainable development. Based on the good experiences of working with our EVS-partner group, EVT will be implemented with same trusted partners. Raisio Regional Education and Training Consortium was a coordinator in EVS, and so it will be in this one.Prior to each EVT week there will be a pre-selection phase at all partner organizations where they will select the participant for the next EVT week. This pre-selection phase is open for all and there is no study field boundaries. The students have to ""earn"" their place into the semi-finals by presenting their own motivation speeches to participate in the EVT-week in a video based self presentation or in front of the classroom. Students learning process is facilitated by the coach/teacher. Participation also gives teachers a chance to get familiar with the innovative learning environment and test one's ability to guide the students on the path of learning to learn. This project allows students to develop their skills and knowledge in a range of the subject, not only their professional field. Participation in the project and methodologies used will give students the right to wonder, ask and understand. The project will enhance its participants’ self-esteem and -reliance and teach them skills to regulate their learning path, take responsibility and be flexible and aware. The learning outcomes will differ from student to student and teacher to teacher, dependent on their individual needs and abilities. The recognition of the learning outcomes will follow the procedures of each participating organization. The project-based learning puts the emphasis on what was learned and what competencies were acquired. Teachers involved in this project will benefit, they will be working with their international counterparts, get knowledge about this type of training and will improve their coaching skills. The success will be assessed within a survey among all participants at the end of each EVT week. There will be separate one for the teachers and students as the impact of the participation varies. The findings and the EVT design are shared by each of the participating organisations in their EU-national agencies forums to share the knowledge on the chosen learning methods. The model used in the planning of the activities can be reused and easily adjusted to be used in a national or international setting with student of any age or background. The methodologies can be implemented to other projects and supports the skills on recognition of learning outcome"

as above

<< Background >>The combination of on-site and distant learning has become a new reality in these times when only 38% of EU teachers feel well prepared for the use of digital technology in their daily work (European Commission, 2020). Vocational education and training (VET), with its unique feature of practical training as an integral part of the education, has proven to be even more fragile in these circumstances. Blended learning is an agile combination of school and online learning that demands the use of different pedagogical approaches in planning, implementation and organization of in-school and online learning in order to take the full advantage of the digital technology benefits (European Union, 2020). In practice, many issues related to the quality of blended learning in VET have not been addressed and VET teachers lack the needed pedagogical and digital competencies to plan and implement training in collaborative and blended learning environments. As drivers and motivators of change, partners in each of their countries are also struggling to improve local practices. International collaboration, local and national capacity building and framework supporting teacher development are needed to drive the change further.The project was developed based on the current situation and development needs of partners. The unifying goal for all CoBle partners is the need to empower teachers in VET to improve their pedagogical and digital practices of the implementation of blended learning and offer students individualized and collaborative online learning activities. The project was developed between partner organizations based on this context and application was first submitted in September 2020 call. After a very good evaluation results, project was on the reserved place, but did not receive funding. Partners have paid attention to the evaluators feedback and improved the application accordingly. During the Spring 2021 information was gathered from participating VET organizations to further describe their current situation and to define more concretely their needs. Similar needs were raised by different project partners focusing on the following issues:-Importance of further developing the approach of individualized learning in collaborative learning environments,-Need to explore methods and tools to support teachers and students, especially in learning delivery and assessment,-Demand to find systematic and flexible ways to build up (in-service) teachers digital and pedagogical competence to facilitate learning in blended learning environments in order to increase the capacity and resilience of vocational education.The project primarily targets the educators in VET which has a direct impact on students. With rapidly changing demands, educators lack support for the development of pedagogical and digital competences to design individualized and collaborative learning in blended learning environments. Project focuses on empowering the students by providing them individualized learning and improved collaborative learning processes in blended environments. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us once how agile and responsive the world of work needs to be to tackle the social and economic changes. Project equips students with skills, attitudes and ability to successfully adjust to changes. VET Schools and management are constantly trying to keep up with the need for the development of a more resilient and flexible VET systems. Introducing new methods to facilitate teaching and learning as well as flexible ways to support teachers’ competence development are much needed. Companies are an integral part of the VET. While the project activities do not assume direct cooperation with companies, whenever possible, the students will work on practical problems given by local/regional companies.<< Objectives >>The project will focus on:• Improving teachers’ pedagogical competence to operate online with their students. • Supplying the teachers with relevant agile and cooperative methods of work and digital tools,• Creating online communities of teachers where they can jointly develop, learn from each other and exchange experiences,• Empowering the students by providing them individualized learning and improved collaborative learning processes online.By implementing the before mentioned project focuses VET teachers achieve better pedagogical and digital competence and therefore they are cable to implement meaningful learning activities in various blended learning settings to their students. Teachers learn how to work in teacher teams and create together learning design to their students. The purpose is that this remains permanent way of working together after the project. In addition, some new tools and modern methods to apply digital micro credentials (open badges) into learning processes are introduced, used and analyzed during the project. Participating teachers get familiar with open badges that is currently much studied research area in Europe.Project provides students individualized learning and improved collaborative blended learning environments which are designed to increase student engagement and motivation. Students have extended possibilities for individualized learning with needed support. These aspects are important as they prevent exclusion and drop-out. Students work collaboratively in blended learning environments. Learning is designed so that students develop skills relevant in fast changing world of work.VET organizations have increased understanding of the needs to facilitate teacher learning and have digital tools, materials and systematic framework (digital badges and teachers learning materials) to support their development efforts. Project produces analyzed view of the development process and recommendations for the implementation of teachers competence development. Therefore, project thrives to build solutions and tools to support VET teachers competence development according to DigCompEdu framework (2021) and through that quality VET education in blended learning environments.<< Implementation >>Open badge-driven learning process for VET teachers starts by defining pedagogical and digital competences which are then supported by training program during the project. Open badge competence objectives and assessment criteria will be created for following VET teachers’ competence dimensions and badges are formulated during production of the project result 1. Open badges are useful not only in this project, but they are transversal directly to other learning processes.• Open badge dimension 1:Individualized assessment of competences in blended learning environments (C1)• Open badge dimension 2:Collaborative online teaching and learning methods based on projects in blended learning environment (C2)• Open badge dimension 3:Planning, implementing and evaluating of individualized cooperative (C3) learning scenarios in blended environments (in teacher teams)• Open badge dimension 4:Technical setup of a blended learning environment (C4)The badge dimensions (4) are main titles under the project result 1 which is a collection of detailed badges and instructions on how to apply and issue them.The Open Badge Factory (OBF) is established and badges are created technically there. Open badge applications are assessed, and guidance is given by the OBF. The landing page for badge applications is established. Webinar recordings (project result 2 training program) are shared in the landing page with open badge application forms.The training program is planned and teaching methods designed by Carpe Diem method. The training program facilitated by the Carpe Diem method (Salmon, 2010) has six phases: 1) blueprint, 2) storyboard, 3) building a prototype online, 4) reality check, 5) review and adjust, and 6) plan your next steps. All phases are facilitated by the nominated project partners during the training program for VET teachers and local teacher groups. Main idea of the carpe diem is that teachers are working in small teams and follow the facilitated phases innovating new ideas together.Training program is lead by CPI and HAMK. Training program phases are presented in detail in Annex II. The work will be done in teacher teams collaboratively (by VET organisations). During the process of Carpe Diem participating teachers will create a learning designs for their own purposes to conduct teaching practices with their students. Peer-assessment as well as self-assessment processes are implemented into the process according to each chosen pedagogical approach studied in the training program.Training program’s main topics are Individualized assessment of competences in blended learning environments, Collaborative online teaching and learning methods based on projects in blended learning environment, Planning of individualized cooperative learning scenarios in blended environments, and Technical setup of blended learning environment.VET teachers’ competences are recognized by the Open Badges by project partners. Feedback from VET teachers is collected after each topic.Participating teachers pilot the new methods, tools and learning designs in their own context with VET students. Teachers work in teams and communicate continuously in order to get support from international partners and to share practices and to evaluate the progress. Parter organisations’ VET teachers recruit also their colleagues to participate in planning learning activities for students. Piloting is mentored and guided by HAMK who gives responsibilities to other partners also.Student feedback is collected. Pilots are analysed within the partner consortium and experts on different key areas give their feedback to further develop learning solutions.“Blended learning in practice” video library is created based on the partners experiences and it’s openly available on the project website.The project is evaluated in order to compose the final project results and recommendations. Results will be reported in an article to further promote project results.<< Results >>Results are related to jointly prepared project results and to positive impact (see also the section on impact) activities will have on the main target groups of the project - teachers, students and school management.PROJECT RESULTS (PRs)Following project results will be developed in international teams and implemented locally. Further, they will be quality assured and disseminated in national as well as European context.PR1 - Definition of VET teachers’ pedagogical and digital competences and establishment of an open badge-driven learning process:Guidelines for the definition of open badges and the use of open badge factory will be prepared. Competence objectives and assessment criteria for open badges will be defined. Also, according to the competence-dimensions, following the Plan-Do-Check-Act circle, a number of determined open badges as basis for the preparation of teacher training in PR2 will be developed. PR2 - Training program for VET teachers:Guidelines and detailed process for teacher training will be prepared and implemented. Training programme webinars will be recorded and uploaded on the project website for further exploitation to support teachers’ competence development.PR3 - Piloting and recommendations:Teachers, who participated in the training program in PR2 and other teachers joining in teacher teams, pilot the new methods, tools and learning designs in their own context with VET students. “Blended learning in practice” video library is created based on the partners experiences and it’s openly available on the project website.The project is evaluated to compose the final project result (“Competence development of teachers’ pedagogical and digital skills”). The project results and recommendations will be reported in an article available to wider audience.IMPACTS ON TEACHERS AND STUDENTS16 teachers, included in PR1 and PR2, will demonstrate their competence development by the digital badges. They will pilot with students and creating videos of their piloting experience. Digital badges are openly available for other teachers from partner institutions and beyond to use the training program materials and demonstrate their competences. Further 100 VET teachers will involve in the project by applying badges, participating in project events and involving in the piloting activities. Besides teachers, also teacher educators (2) and advisors of VET education (3) will participate in production of project results and other project activities.After the project teachers have increased digital and pedagogical competences to implement blended learning.They are able to facilitate and assess individualized learning in blended learning environments. There are motivating tools (digital badges) to support in-service teachers continuous competence development.Students have new possibilities for individualized learning and needed support in different learning environments. They are able to work collaboratively, solve problems and innovate in blended learning environments. Learning is designed so that students develop skills relevant in fast changing world of work .VET organizations have increased understanding of the needs to facilitate teacher learning and have digital tools and materials (digital badges and teachers learning materials) available. Project produces analyzed view of the development process and recommendations for the implementation of teachers competence development.

"<< Objectives >>The project would like to build up a brand-new generation of professional “European Green and Sustainable Food Educators” able to support and educate people to: - become true agents of change in terms of lifestyles, consumption and production - acquire skills and competencies aligned to post-covid19 labour market needs.The project results are going to be distributed as Open Educational Resources to be used by educators in various contexts and to build up a European network of professionals.<< Implementation >>The implementation process of the project is designed consists of the following activities:- Discovering/exploring the green and sustainable approaches across Europe and worldwide- Intensive Training the trainers to become ""European Green and Sustainable Food Educators"": a brand-new professional profile- Equipping the trainers with a toolkit that is relevant and ready-to-use Open Educational Materials- Promotion and Communication via seminars, webinars and by using several different channels<< Results >>PROJECT RESULTS/OUTCOMES:- EVIDENCE-GATHERING REPORT - EUROPEAN DESK RESEARCH REPORT - WORLDWIDE PRACTICE COLLECTION- 3 INTENSIVE STAFF TRAINING EVENTS - DIGITAL TRAINING MODULES- EUROPASS MOBILITY CERTIFICATES- MICRO-CREDENTIALS CURRICULA- MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATIONS- VISUAL MATERIALS booklets, brochures- HOW-TO GUIDE- VIDEOS- 3 TRANSNATIONAL PROJECT MEETINGS - PREPARING MULTIPLIER EVENTS- Physical SEMINARS EVENT- ONLINE WEBINARS- DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION PLAN- 3 NEWSLETTERS"