"Launched in November 2018 and over its 24 months of duration, the project had the priority objective of experimenting in the education chain (secondary and tertiary education and training segments), the application of new training methods and teaching methodologies focused on the use of virtual reality (augmented, extended, mixed), in order to assess the innovation of these technologies and related forms of learning, both in terms of innovation of curricula and benefits for trainees. The constant collaboration between the partners and the direct involvement of stakeholders, first of all, the companies of the aerospace supply chains of the different partner countries (Italy, Spain, Poland, Norway), has allowed to obtain all the expected results. The intellectual products developed, are the following: 1) COMPARED RESEARCH ON KEY COMPETENCE FACTORS IN THE AEROSPACE SECTOR: the output aims to systematize the results of the needs analysis carried out in the field in the different countries of the partnership, through the administration of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to HR managers of companies in the sector. The action of qualitative analysis in the field has involved a total of 14 companies, Poland, 8 Italy, 5 Spain, 3 Norway. 2) REPERTORY OF GOOD PRACTICES ON THE USE OF TECHNICAL COMPETENCES: the digitization of production processes, as well as the innovation of production techniques in the field of advanced mechanics and aerospace, require the availability on the market of skills and profiles able to metabolize and govern these innovations. This also implies the need for the actors of the training system to increase their ability and speed of response in providing training proposals that meet and anchor the demands of economic operators. The repertoire of good practices represents a common and available knowledge base to enhance experiences carried out in different educational contexts, through immersive training that can constitute a methodology capable of reducing the learning time of future ""professionals"" in the sector. 3) GUIDELINES FOR THE DESIGN, MANAGEMENT, EVALUATION OF TECHNICAL CURRICULAR TRAINING INTERVENTIONS THROUGH THE METHODOLOGY OF IMMERSIVE TRAINING: the guidelines will bring to value the results of the pilot training courses carried out by the partners with target groups of students, teachers and trainers in each country and within secondary and tertiary training courses. The output will be a milestone of the project also in a perspective of sharing and debate with operators, companies, institutional actors. In the European panorama, as well as in the Italian context, I-TRACE has been characterized by a strong innovation and originality, aimed at starting a joint reflection between VET providers, industrial leaders, companies, policy makers to assess the extent of innovation of the immersive training methodology and its possible applications in educational contexts at different levels of technical education."

DESCI was aimed at developing a methodological pattern for Alternating Training (AT) in secondary schools:- improving connections between school, research, enterprise and territory- creating a participatory methodology centred on schools developing students’key competences mainly required by the world of work: digital competences, personal, social, citizenship, entrepreneurial and learning competences, and creativity (with reference to the EU Rec. on Key Competences 2006/2018). Moreover, fostering teachers’, student’ and tutors’ engagement and connecting networks of stakeholders actively involved in the improvement, testing and validation of the educational tools provided, DESCI aimed to help the school to become an incubator of innovation and creativity where the students develop deliveries of social utility under the mentorship of research bodies, associations and enterprises.PARTNERS INVOLVEDCNR IRPPS(project coordinator)and UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS (NKUA),have a strong experience in participatory methodologies for the science-society relationship. POLIBIENESTAR has a long and enduring experience in the evaluation of the impact of social policies. FORMASCIENZA and SCIENCE WIEW have experience in designing innovative didactics and practices and in developing training materials. ASSOKNOWLEDGE: is the Italian Association of Confindustria for Training and represented the entrepreneurial and industrial component. 1st EXPERIMENTAL SCHOOL OF ATHENS, ITS E. FERMI and CENTRO DE FORMACION SOMORROSTRO contributed to the design of the toolkits and to organize and implement the testing of the toolkits.ACTIVITIESThe central methodology and the main learning environment adopted within the DESCI project was the Living Lab that was firstly introduced at MIT to develop and test new technologies. DESCI apply the LL to an educational context, in which schools can design, implement and evaluate the DESCI AT paths, through the sharing of ideas and collaboration between the stakeholders involved. The DESCI AT participatory approach is described in 3 different toolkits targeted to Teachers Students and Evaluation. Each toolkit provides the basic elements and tools for planning AT at school and pursue a modular approach showing sets of activities and methodologies that can be adapted to the specific school environment.In order to implement the above mentioned issues, a Comparative analysis of european alternating training systems was realized to systematize a common working framework on AT in the European area. On the basis of this study the DESCI AT approach and the 3 toolkits were realized:Teachers’ and students’ toolkits showing sets of activities and methodologies that teachers, tutors and students can adapt to the specific school environment Evaluation toolkit, developing a system for evaluating the competences acquired by students during the paths of AT (transversal and professional) by means of rubrics, questionnaires and focus groups, integrating the evaluation of the student’s performances and learning process (endogenous evaluation) with the evaluation of the deliveries generated by students during the working process (exogenous evaluation). The testing of the tentative educational toolkits has been designed as a participatory complex process encompassing:•the involvement of schools with societal actors in participative tables during the DESCI 9 OCs intended at the same time as an occasion of: inquiry on methodologies and competences, implementing toolkits and scenarios, building networks to disseminate DESCI;•the testing of the tentative Toolkits in the partner schools (2 testing phases);•the constitution of DESCI NABs in which various social actors from the world of school, business, policy making contributed with comments on the toolkits and the testing process.Polibienestar was the partner in charge of the evaluation of the testing. The evaluation reports gave indications to implement and validate the toolkits.RESULTSThe testing phase demonstrated that DESCIcan improve the connection between school, research, enterprise and territory enhancing the capability of secondary school to become an innovation hub for the local community. In the testing phases the enterprises and the communities came into the school and collaborated with students teachers and tutors in the AT processPERCENTAGE OF REDUCTION OF DROPOUT RATES:the inclusive and participatory approach promoted by DESCI demonstrated to influence positively the school rates of drop out (the rate of drop out detected in the schools before the DESCI testing phase was 3,5% c.ca; after the testing phase the dropout rate in classes involved in DESCI activities was to a 0%)GENERAL IMPROVEMENT OF TRANSVERSAL SKILLS ON DIRECT TARGET:as emerged from the school reports, the DESCI approach to AT helped the students in reinforcing transversal skills classified in DESCI with reference to the EU Commission recommendation on Key competences 2006,revised in 2018

The Consortium of 10 members from 5 different countries (BE, ES, IT, PT, PL) and 4 different sectors (NGOs, educational institutions, research centres and enterprises) has been established to empower youth with AI and entrepreneurial skills in an inclusive way, with emphasis on aspects such as social entrepreneurship, ethics and the EU values.The scope of the project is to develop, test and assess an innovative new blended entrepreneurship and AI program that has the potential to be mainstreamed to improve education and training systems (and the effectiveness of policies and practices in this field). Within the project, it is planned to carry out large-scale piloting of the developed methodology, including the training of 600 students at secondary level education, 30 educators, and 60 mentors in 3 European countries (IT, PT, ES). Following the above, the project is consistent with Priority 1 Supporting high quality and inclusive digital education, in line with the Digital Education Action Plan.Expected main direct results: PoC for an innovative AI readiness training program, pilot curricula and policy paper including recommendations, toolkits and guidelines on digital education, as well as 3 regional ecosystems to support achieving systemic impact at European level. A long-term plan will ensure a sustainable exploitation of project results. The project will generate 31 deliverables in total.The Consortium has structured its activities into 7 work packages (WP), scheduled to run for 36 months: Management and coordination activities, Create high-quality AI curriculum and certification, Train-the-trainers and mentors program, Testing and implementation in schools, Insights to the digital education ecosystem, Quality assurance & evaluation, Impact and dissemination.Target groups: project partners (schools, students, educators, NGOs, research centres, enterprises) and external stakeholders (parents, business / cross-sectoral labour market, policy-makers).