<< Objectives >>The main objectives the partner organisations of this project (AccesVisuel, Empoway, Associação Portuguesa de Surdos and Fondazione Istituto dei Sordi) would like to achieve by implementing the project are: - To empower deafblind participants and their allies coming from France, Portugal and Italy on their identity, community and leadership, and- To develop an innovative deafblind advocacy training aiming at developing skills and competencies as advocates for deafblind people's rights<< Implementation >>After a transnational project meeting in Massy, France, aiming at preparing the project and developing the deafblind advocacy training programme, we will provide this training to 6 deafblind participants and their 3 allies coming from France, Portugal and Italy. The participants will discover different advocacy strategies and, since the training will take place in Brussels, Belgium, be able to put into practice through advocacy actions towards the EU institutions and ENGO's.<< Results >>The main results we expect our project to have are: - Deafblind participants and allies from France, Portugal, and Italy have developed skills and competencies on how to advocate efficiently for deafblind people's rights in their own organisations.- Participating organisations shared their respective expertise, tools, and knowledge in advocacy training and the deafblind participants built a strong transnational/European network of deafblind leaders/advocates.

The gender gap widens: The World Economic Forum predicts that the gender gap in employment will not be closed until the year 2133. There are especially critical sectors, such as the industrial sector, which represents 6,4% of the total EU population occupied and is dominated mainly by men(78.4%). In particular, within the foundry sector, the female occupation is so low that there are not even records in this regard. This means that a very high percentage of the population (women)is not accessing the professional opportunities related to the foundry and are underrepresented in many technological and digital professions.(EC-Gender segregation in the labour market).Increasing labour-force participation and raising the employment rate of women is paramount to meeting the Europe 2020 headline target. In this sense, in order to face this global problem, different organisms and public administrations are implementing different measures that until now have not been effective and do not have the expected result. A positive aspect is that, the foundry sector is starting to promote the technological and creative aspects of their operations. Robots are increasingly doing the heavy lifting and hazardous work, so workers don’t need to be a certain height, a certain weight, or have a certain strength to be able to, say, program a CNC machine. Those jobs are open to anyone, and the skill shortage in manufacturing is yet one more reason to work harder to attract women to those positions.For all this,it is necessary to reinforce and look for initiatives to facilitate the access of more women to traditionally male jobs, to the KET and to technological training to ensure the long-term competitiveness of the EU. The European Union estimates that by 2020 90% of the jobs of the future will require digital skills linked to the KETs, so the incorporation of women into studies related to science and technology is critical. CASTWOMAN project aims to contribute to reduce the gender gap in the foundry industry, by highlighting female role models in this professional field and raise awareness among female VET trainees to approach and mobilize the skills and competencies related to KETs to respond the demands to the new century foundries.The main expected result is to develop a multimedia training platform multimedia training platform to provide place and tools to introducing VET female students to non-traditional foundry job paths, fostering the gender-inclusion. The platform is aimed as a tool to empower young women and exploring the range of skills that are needed for a great variety of jobs within the foundry sector, especially those linked to the technologies 4.0.Another results:-Positive female role models in the foundry sector: 15 female workers of the foundry sector will be interviewed to have a clear picture on what set of skills are important and needed to be improved to ensure the success and sustainability of their jobs-Six Foundry Motivation Hub: a set of new dynamic learning spaces for female VET students and female foundry workers to get together, communicate and rise interest in the foundry sector. More than 125 attendants will participate in these forums.-Digital Toolkit for VET trainers and youth career facilitators: a comprehensive career guidance package of resources and training material to empower VET trainers, counselors and career guidance facilitators to find the right kind of information that will benefit the female students by breaking gender stereotypes and facilitating women’s career planning to entry into the foundry market.Expected impact on the main target group: -The VET trainers, facilitators and career guidance facilitators, will have and be trained on the right kind of information and activities to break the gender stereotypes and training resources that will benefit the young women as well as facilitate women’ career planning and entry into the foundry market. -VET female students and young women trainees of non formal VET will be introduced in non-traditional foundry job paths, fostering the gender-inclusion, by empowering them to explore the range of skills that are needed for a great variety of jobs within the foundry sector.Impact on indirect target groups:-VET organisations will update training regarding the main technological trends within the foundry sector and the future jobs, main occupational profiles in KETs within the foundry sector and the most demanded soft and technical skills and competences fostering gender quality in the labour market. -Career counselors and career guidance services providers will be equipped with working tools and materials for the up-to-date jobs and professions within the foundry sector.-Foundries and industrial companies will meet potential new female employees during contact making sessions in valorization events and to have qualified workers, no matter the gender issue.-Female employees of foundries will be visible feminine referents.

Industry is a key element for country development and for employment quality: it provides more qualified and stable jobs than other economic sectors and it has a big multiplier impact being strictly connected to commerce and service sectors. For this reason economists agree that reindustrialization and innovation in industry are today the main key for economic competitiveness.Synthetically, innovation means go to industry 4.0, which consists in: 1) digitalisation and integration of processes vertically and horizontally across the entire organisation; 2) digitalisation of product and service offerings, using big data to refine products and meet the increasing needs of end-customers; 3) digital business models and customer access, optimising customer interaction. The benefits of these transformations are evident: gains in operational efficiency, cost reduction, quality improvement, optimisation of the manufacturers - consumers’ communication, major competitiveness and profits. In Spain, industry represents 15% of GDP and 11.5% of employee people (INE, 2014). The metal sector, which includes foundry industry, covers 44% of industry and 40% of employment. According with J. Mestres Domènech analysis (Macro economy department, CaixaBank, 2016) digitalisation in Spanish industry is really poor and is expected to be slower in Spain than in other world countries, and one of the main causes is the lack of adequate digital culture and training.The main aim of INNORESOLVE project was to transfer the benefits of the digital revolution within the Foundry industry. Thus, target group is the Foundry industry top and intermediate managers to make them ready to face the Foundry 4.0 challenges, but also sectorial organizations that support management training, policy makers and stakeholders in this field. More than 3.000 members of the primary target group were contacted during the project.The main project results:A) INNORESOLVE PBL collaborative e-learning training: a training program based on problem solving methodology. Such training provides required skills and promptly enable management in Foundry industry to cope with the increasingly demanding industrial environment.Activities carried out:- Definition of contents and pathway- Technical definition of training structure and pedagogical approach. - Development of e-learning training content- Development of the learning environment. - Translation of the Online Collaborative Learning Training (EN, ES, PT, IT and RO)- Design of the Pilot testing (evaluation questionnaires and Focus Group guidelines) - Pilot testing activities with 20 professionals of foundry companies in each country, plus an Expert Committee. Each partner elaborated a national report- Adapting and updating to the results of pilot testingB) INNORESOLVE Support Guide: a guide about the new challenges of Foundry in partners countries and a collection of good practices and case studies of Foundries 4.0.Activities carried out:- Definition of Guide’s contents and structure- Design of the case studies research. - Collection of case studies. 48 case studies of technological innovation in foundry industry- Elaboration of the Guide national contents.- Elaboration of the common guide- Translation of the Guide (EN, ES, PT, IT and RO)- Validation of the guide with 20 professionals in each country, plus an Expert Committee. National reports- Adapting and updating to the validation resultsImpact and benefits:1) On participating organizations: improving their knowledge, skills and experience in this field, to both update their training offer and have new resources for dealing with their companies and their national and international network for innovation. Partners are updating their training programs in this new range of skills and competencies related to (KET) for advanced manufacturing, updating the professional profiles required by industries. 2) Target groups: improving their skills and knowledge concerning Industry 4.0; INNORESOLVE motivated and enabled them to afford digitalisation and acceleration processes in their companies. Most of them considered that the INNORESOLVE training course manages to provide support in understanding the benefits of digitalization, being very easy to study and of use even for persons not so familiarized with this concept, as it provides a very good overview of the Industry 4.0, starting from its origins, then moving on the impact on companies and people (HH.RR.), finally moving to technologies. 3) Other relevant stakeholders (other industry representatives, organisations and institutions at national and international level, managers of other industry sectors, industrial confederations, public or private organisations committed with industry’s innovation and competitiveness, training providers, etc.). They were invited to test and use the final project products to boost innovation and digitalisation of secondary sector at all levels.

"The EU Directive 2012/29 states this principle ""a crime is not only a wrong to society, but also a violation of the individual rights of victims"". Restorative justice starts from the assumption that the crime generates a conflict that causes the breaking of symbolically shared social expectations. The crime becomes an offense that does not only affect those who committed it and those who sanction it with the sentence, but who has suffered the wrong and the laceration: the victim and society. The implementation of restorative justice (when possible) has several benefits in term of reduction of crime recurrence, reduction of post-traumatic stress symptoms and drop of the victim's desire for revenge against the offender. However, according a recent Report commissioned by the European Commission on the implementation status of the Directive EU, restorative justice doesn’t represent yet a founding concept of the justice system since different Member States do not have same approach in its introduction into their own legal systems. Thus, the Report asks to increase cooperation among justice practitioners (bottom-up approach) not only to better share tools, methodologies, good practices, etc. but also to joint search for effective solutions to common problems in Europe (e.g. secondary victimization of the victim).The general objective of PROTECT is to promote the victims’ rights protection (i.e. fostering victims’ social inclusion) through the implementation of restorative practices paths. In doing this, the project intends to improve the skills and competences of the trainers/operators of partners’ organizations working in the field of the restorative justice and of the support to the victims of crime. The objective will be pursued through the creation of a ""peer-learning community"", among some of the EU countries having effectively implemented the Directive, where partners can actively exchange knowledge, develop common training methodologies, foster professional competences and discuss problematic issues.To achieve this objective, PROTECT brings together a very specific partnership made up of adult education organisations coming from Italy, Belgium Spain, Portugal and Germany. Each of the partner organisation will bring to the project its professional expertise, in the field of restorative justice and/or of support to the victims of crime, and it will contribute to the capitalisation of complementary past project experiences (i.e. Erasmus+ project “KINTSUGI” and Justice projects “VictorIIa”, “SupportVoc” and “LetsGoByTalking”) from which is possible to transfer good practices and tools. The working methodology schedules two project phases one for preparation of and one for implementation. Firstly, project partners will set up the peer-learning community by sharing know-how, capitalising tools and practices coming of the projects involved, by jointly organising the capacity building program and the selection system for the personnel who will participate. Then, the 60 hours training programme will be implemented through 3 Short-term joint staff training events to be organised according to the peer-learning principle and non-formal education approach. Participants will be selected among partners’ staff having the following professional profiles: mediators, trainers, lawyers, psychologists, social workers and also external experts, teachers, researches, supervisors working in the partners’ organisations in direct cooperation with the Associated Partners organisations (City of Viterbo Council, Viterbo County and Arnera Social Enterprise from Pisa).Main results achieved by PROTECT will consist of the very creation of a permanent peer-learning community among European experts working in the field of the restorative justice and the protection of victims’ rights; the professional empowerment of staff belonging o the partners’ organisations through the joint training activities; the elaboration of training tools supporting the definition of a European model for training of sector’s operators (as indicated by Directive 2012/29/EU). Thanks to the project, participants will acquire a more specific vision of the potential of the restorative justice paradigm and they will trigger a multiplier effect of project results through their daily work in other contexts in which they use to operate (e.g. penitentiaries, support services for victims, etc.). Finally, PROTECT will set up the right framework for the permanent exchange of European practices between two systems - the restorative justice one and the victims protection one - often operating in parallel when have to manage disputes’ resolution but without any effective operational cooperation between its actors."

The ISOLearn project is in line with the principles stated in main charters and declarations of intention by major international and European institutions and governments (e.g. UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Article 24, Education); Salamanca Statement on Special Needs Education (1994); (European Convention on Human Rights), Article 2 Right to Education; European Social Charter (revised), Articles 15 and 17; Council of Europe Disability Action Plan 2006-2015 (Action Line 4, Education, and cross-cutting aspects); European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 (Area of Action 5, Education and training)). In this project we presented some guidelines to promote the equal opportunities and improve the quality on the HE offers to visual and hearing-impaired persons, thus giving a major step in the implementation of these principles.The project brought together 8 partners from 4 European countries, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden, with long experience on previous European projects aiming at enhancing education, lifelong learning and social inclusion policies and practices in the HE systems. The main themes where Partners are experienced are: education, working with disadvantaged groups, definition of qualifications, validation of prior learning, validation of non-formal and informal learning, certification, and quality assurance.The project employed a quality assurance approach aiming to identify in advance potential risks or failures that could endanger the project’s timely and effective implementation and to mitigate, at an early stage, their impact on the project’s processes and outputs by setting certain quality standards and remedial actions.ISOLearn questionnaire provided crucial information regarding needs and gaps of V/HI students in higher education in Italy, Portugal, Sweden and Slovenia:-10% of inquired selected the study because they couldn’t select anything else because of the impairment. -85,1% of respondents say they need total or partial adaptations of the learning materials and 76,1% of respondents need total or partial adaptations of the lectures. On average the students do not consider the actions of HEI services to be satisfying in terms of elimination of barriers, communication and information about the rights of disabled students and providing services to ensure equal opportunities.Students in general are quite critical with study adaptations received, especially with adjustment of exams, inclusion in the study process, adjustment of study materials, help of counsellor/disabled student services, special resources, help form student association, teaching materials/tools, programmes and exams. This is worrying since 7 out of 11 factors relating to study are below the average scale.Both groups of students with hearing disabilities are not satisfied with adaptations regarding availability of sign language interpreter, classroom note taking and permission to use speech to text devices. Both groups of students with visual disabilities are not satisfied with adaptations especially in terms of availability of large print materials and classroom note taking.Depending on the group considered, students are not satisfied with the impact of some barriers related to their impairment: support and orientation, learning experience in other on-campus classes, use of university library, use of technical facilities, use of learning resources, use of exercises, laboratories, tools and activities and use of interactive tools/experiences.The overall satisfaction with assessment adaptations is less worrying than with study adaptations. However, deaf students are not satisfied with oral presentations adaptations.In terms of perception of success by impairment, 50% of hearing impaired consider that they are less successful due to their specific impairment.Therefore, ISOLearn project aimed to support the accessibility to the HEI innovative learning offer addressed to hearing-impaired and visually-impaired individuals in the participating countries. It defined and piloted the Handbook describing how ICT based learning instruments and tools should be designed and delivered for these target groups. Moreover it developed and tested the Quality Label for measuring the compliance with the ISOLearn quality standards.Therefore, the project addressed several needs of the specific target groups:a. Higher opportunity for tertiary education, therefore for more specialized skills and competencies. This contribute to increasing their employability and quality of life. b. Socially inclusive ICT based learning offer - the aim was to design and deliver education and training programmes that can be accessed by a wide range of beneficiaries, including hearing - impaired and visually - impaired individuals.c. Raise awareness on the need to enhance and value individual capacities especially from hearing - impaired and visually - impaired individuals.