<< Background >>The pandemic has proven that digital competencies are now essential than ever before for how we learn, work, and live. The HEIs need to transform their educational content and methodology which is aligned with the requirements of changing world and maximize the impact of education and training in digital competencies from European learners of different countries. The conventional methods of teachings are proven insufficient and the importance of training for all the stakeholders of HEIs for efficient delivery of education in the digital environment is greater than ever before.<< Objectives >>The E-DRESS project aims to improve the digital readiness of teaching, technical staff, and create course content according to the new challenges of online/blended learning for clothing studies. An open-source online educational platform will be established which will be available in different languages of Europe including English, German, Czech, Polish, and Romanian. By developing effective digital tools in multiple languages by the mutual efforts of cooperation partnership, effective digital learning across the board will be realized. The proposed project will enable effective student-teacher-technology interaction to mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 on traditional education. The physical constraints of conventional education in the new scenarios will be addressed by the optimized use of digital technology by the stakeholders of educational establishments to convert current challenges into opportunities. Innovative methods of immersive technologies can offer the learners a digital learning experience that is not much in practice. The partnership aims to use a cohesive and collaborative approach for the realization of digital transformation for clothing studies in their institutions.<< Implementation >>The project aims to develop an online education portal for clothing studies in multiple languages (English, German, Polish, Czech, Romanian) that should be freely available to students of partner institutions during and after the project’s lifetime. Moodle is an open-source educational portal that will be developed for this purpose. Intensive training will be held for the project responsible person before the actual activities of the project take place. The universities will join their knowledge and expertise to jointly develop courses, suitable for digital and blended learning. The partnership will create four courses of clothing studies for their degree students in assembling machines and technologies, clothing comfort, Digital garment pattern making and product development, production organization, and logistics. During the first year of the project, the Beta version of the Moodle portal will be prepared. The teaching and technical staff will be digitally trained for effective use of the online platform for online and blended modes of learning. The trained staff will later train the staff in their institutions to implement the project results.The interactions planned for online and blended learning will be checked if they work as per the plan. Follow-up training for teaching and the technical staff is planned before the test of the Beta version of the portal with students. The thematic training of project result will also be held for teachers and trainers to discuss and train the staff for state-of-the-art digital course content. The multilingual developed portal (English, German, French, Czech) will help to lift the language barriers to acquiring education. The students of universities will be able to get high-quality education for their degree programs which is a combined effort of leading clothing universities in the world. Students will also be supervised by the combined efforts of partner HEIs. Multiplier events are planned in partner universities to disseminate the project results, increase the impact, and share best practices. The project website, social media platforms will be used to disseminate the project results.<< Results >>The digital competencies of teachers and training staff will be developed and students will get the state-of-the-art course content designed according to the digital transformation requirements of modern education institutions. The result is an open-source platform that offers digital course content for clothing studies in multiple languages. The platform will break the language barriers of its users and bring diversity into the platform where students and teachers of different European backgrounds can interact with each other. The mobility of students and staff between partner institutions will increase and more research collaborations will take place. Due to common course content, the recognition of courses will be easier and the employability of students within partnership countries in particular and in EU countries, in general, will increase.

A strong demand for sustainability in the textile and fashion industry and its global market imposes a continuous implementation of the guiding principle Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in education and in the industry as well as the investment in education and the adaptation of new skills. This is the reason for the need of enhancing the quality and relevance of the learning offer in education towards the latest developments in textile research and innovation. The Fashion DIET project envisages the development of new tools for improving key competences of lecturers, trainers, teachers, students and young textile specialists who will be professionals in the textile and fashion industry.The project's objectives are to enhance the quality and relevance of the learning offer in training by developing an innovative further education module in the context of ESD and an information & e-learning portal supporting the dissemination of the project’s outcomes such as teaching and learning material, which will be elaborated, tested and evaluated. The project's resources are well balanced between the partners, include all costs of the project and will be monitored through a management plan, financial templates, and financial reports. The project partners have planned these main outputs and activities:1. Further Education Module2. Information & E-Learning Portal3. Teaching and Learning Material4. Learning, Teaching and Training Activities (lectures, seminars, workshops, discussions etc.)5. Multiplier Events6. Scientific Papers, Journal Articles, Scientific Events, etc.The didactic content and methodology will be made relevant for the target group through the expertise of the partners: 1 university of education, 1 university of applied sciences and 2 technical universities with textile technology departments from 3 countries - Germany (University of Education Freiburg, Reutlingen University), Bulgaria (Trakia University), and Romania (TUIASI). The university partners will develop, test and evaluate training material, based on state-of-the-art research knowledge in textiles, fashion and sustainability and a long-lasting tradition and experience in textile education.The further education module and the teaching and learning material will be supported and disseminated by the information & e-learning portal, which will be configured and adapted with the adequate tools for learning and implementing ESD as a guiding principle. The project impact on the target group will lead to:- better understanding of ESD in the context of textile and fashion,- better textile and fashion related knowledge in the context of production, market and sustainability,- better quality of education,- better skills for project management and digital competence,- better skills in performing European partnerships,- improved competences linked to professional work,- increased capacity to work at an international level,- increased competence in foreign languages,- greater understanding of cultural diversity,- increased opportunities for professional development.The partnership brings together eastern and western pedagogical experience and points of view and researches on ESD in the textile and fashion sector. The partners are showing large diversity in experiences that can be explored and also identify similarities, moving towards ESD practices and policies that can cross the borders and become ‘European’. With this project we will learn from each other how the managing of ESD education and the use of an information & e-learning portal will be accomplished. In addition, we will have the opportunity to study and know our partners’ universities and educational systems in the occupational field of textiles and clothing and share educational problems of each partner within an intercultural exchange. The collaborative work will create strong friendships, enhance motivation and produce quality work that can be set as examples of good practice in the European community, for others to follow. Inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation and networking are to be initiated with the aim of developing ESD competence, creating fundamental changes and continuing after the end of the project.

The textile industry in Europe faces big challenges for qualified personnel and requires implementation of new research results. In order to keep their competitive advantage, textile enterprises have to focus on innovation. The gap between modern requirements at the workplace and the current skills of young apprentices has to be bridged by up-to-date educational materials. The Knowledge Matrix for Innovation (KMI) is a management instrument for quantifying the intangible assets of an enterprise. It is used to describe the assets of an enterprise. The project’s main aim is to increase the capacity of innovation and training in textile enterprises, by defining and implementing the KMI.Objectives:1. Development of work-based training envisaging key competences both to employers and employees in the textile field;2. Improving the innovation capacity and training methodology of textile enterprises with the support of research providers;3. Fostering use of ICT in innovation process within textile enterprises;4. Improving the strategic cooperation between research providers and enterprises in textiles at transnational level.The consortium of the project tackling these objectives, reflects a very well-balanced distribution of activities and responsibilities. There are two research institutes (INCDTP = coordinator, Centrocot) and two universities (University Maribor, Technical University Iasi) and one training / technology transfer center (TecMinho), from 4 countries with important contribution to the textile industry in Europe: Italy, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia.The project’s consortium undertook the following main activities:1.The KMI was defined, processed and adapted for textile enterprises. The structure of the KMI consists of Elements, Criteria and Factors on one dimension and of Conditions, Resources, Activities and Results on the second dimension. Thus, the project partners carefully prepared and synthesized the 52 Factors of the KMI. 2.The KMI was transformed into a Benchmarking questionnaire (BMQ) and the partners conducted the benchmarking activity by receiving questionnaires from 64 enterprises from the 4 partner countries both in online and written format.3.A Benchmarking report on European / partnership level as well as 4 Benchmarking reports on national level were prepared with the comparative situation to the European average. Moreover, dedicated reports for each participating enterprise were issued with the comparative situation to the European and National average (this outcome was not initially foreseen).4.A SWOT analysis was conducted to the Benchmarking report on European level and based on the identified Opportunities and they provided a number of 35 project’s solutions. The link between Opportunities and Solutions was performed by a cluster table. Moreover, an entire Guide with new solutions was prepared in all partner’s languages (IT, PT, RO and SI) and English, including the modules:Elements specific to innovationInstruments for supporting and promoting innovationInnovation based on scientific results (project solutions)Legislative framework for protecting innovation5.The e-learning tool with all these OER was implemented with the URL address www.advan2tex.eu/portal . The Moodle platform includes special customized e-learning courses in all partner’s languages and 658 user accounts. 6.Five blended courses and five multiplier events (one by each partner) were organized and unfolded for ensuring a proper impact to the envisaged target group, based on the performed outcomes. The results attained were:•199 stakeholders in textiles prepared within multiplier events (instead of 100 initially foreseen);•137 young trainees in textiles prepared within blended courses (instead of 95 initially foreseen);•64 textile enterprises involved within the Benchmarking activity (instead of 50 initially foreseen);•One new Erasmus+ / strategic partnership project proposal won in the 2018 competition. The impact of the project was achieved on five levels:1.Upon participants from the textile industry (stakeholders): a number of 19 textile enterprises interested in the project solutions and improved links research-industry;2.Upon young trainees: 36 trainees counseled for their career path and 16 trainees intending to follow a job in textiles or related fields; 3.Upon participating organizations: improved project management skills and cooperation relationships;4.Upon the dissemination target group: 23 papers in scientific magazines and conference proceedings, 29 PPT presentations at events, 20 poster presentations at fairs, 24 posts in newsletters and press releases, 26 links to social media networks and 44 other presentations at info days, symposia, cluster meetings etc. 5.Upon project’s website visitors (599 different users with 730 sessions) and e-learning tool visitors (620 different users with 1922 sessions).

"For Textiles Sector's companies (especially SMEs), the circular economy provides an opportunity to create new profit streams, increase their resilience to volatile input costs, and support their efforts to become completely sustainable and socially responsible. The market for ""green textiles"" is in an expanding development, reflecting the big change in the consumer behaviour, worldwide, representing a huge opportunity of growth for the Textiles sector in Europe. Global waste and environmental impacts that textiles and apparel production create, can be reduced through the design and manufacturing of products that follow circular economy guidelines or the creation of products with a low carbon impact. That said, a number of barriers will need to be overcome in order for the circular economy in the Textiles sector to become a reality. Skilled and well qualified workers can play a critical role in addressing these barriers and creating opportunities to guide the shift to circularity. Indeed, the Textiles' Sector requires a more qualified workforce to deal with new technologies, stimulate innovation, ensure quality management and develop international strategies and marketing. Therefore, the availability of adequately skilled workers has become one of the major issues for the Textiles industry as the majority of the companies still faced the shortage of trained and qualified personnel in green and circular economy techniques in both design and manufacturing. This segment of textiles is constituted by SMEs without qualified resources in the matter of sustainability, for whom it's important to develop competences and skills in this field. EU Textile industries urgently need a flexible workforce that can respond to the development and the globalized market and the need for sustainable design and manufacturing in order to respond to the global demand for sustainable creative products. Although there is no standardized approach to engage circular economy practices in textiles sector, there are many creative solutions being explored. In this frame the main objective of the project ECO-TEX is to design, develop and piloting a new job qualification profile and correspondent training curricula on the subject of ""How to implement circular economy techniques in Textiles Industry"" able to cope with the visible shortage of vocational skills, potentiating the best use of the outcomes in the field of design patterns, use of recycle materials, machinery, processes, developed in the frame of other EU and non EU funded Research & Development Projects with sustainable purposes, improving competitiveness in Textiles, based on the development of skills and competences of the workforce. As many studies show ""education for a circular economy does not simply bail down to just more time spent on ""economy literacy"" and systems literacy - it's the mindset around why this is important and the vision that underpins this mindset"". The project's specific objectives are the following: - To develop a deep knowledge on occupation and training needs to implement sustainable manufacturing in Textiles Sector and possible already existing learning opportunities; - To develop a new occupation/qualification profile of the expert in sustainability, capable to deal with all the frameworks around sustainability; - To develop a training toolkit able to cope with the identified training needs, according to European Common Framework on Vocation, Educational Training (ECVET); - To develop innovative training units; - To development the e-learning courses; - To develop the digital training platform as an innovative open distance - learning ICT tool - To pilot the results; - To create awareness for the need of a sustainable manufacturing strategy; - To exploit results through European, national and local networks and platforms, enterprises, business organisations, guidance organisations, as well as other relevant media, inside and outside Europe. - To enlarge the networking between the partners."

The strong competition in the textile industry on international level, imposes a better flexibility of the industry as well as the investment in education and the adaptation of new skills for young textile specialists. This is the reason for the need to enhance the quality and relevance of the learning offer in education towards the latest developments in textile research and innovation. The Advan2Tex project envisages the development of new tools for improving key competences for young textile specialists. The project's objectives were:- to enhance the quality and relevance of the learning offer in training by developing of a innovative textile course and e-learning platform and supporting the dissemination of the project’s outcomes; - to improve the level and the assessment of textile competences, including entrepreneurship, languages and digital skills;- to promote take-up of innovative practices by use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), open and flexible learning.- to promote structured inter-regional cooperation- to improve the capacities of organizations in the fields of training of specific textile target group- to promote entrepreneurship education, employability and new business creation and to support the personal and professional development of the target group.The key competences in textiles were made relevant through the expertise of the partners: 3 universities and 2 research institutes from 4 countries - Czech Republic (Textile Testing Institute-TZU), Portugal (University of Minho), Romania (The National R&D Institute for Textiles and Leather - Bucharest and The Technical University - Iasi) and Slovenia (University of Maribor). All the objectives were met by fully accomplishing the main outputs of the project:A. Innovative textile course and manualB. E-learning platformC. Training activities (organization of blended courses, joint staff training events)D. A guide for promoting intercultural partnership, a guide for best practices in the field of the courses, a guide for new business and research ideas and a guide for courses evaluation and upgrading, resulting from the joint staff training eventsE. Articles, events presentations, etc. A. The innovative textile course included relevant state-of-the-art knowledge of the project’s partners within the modules: 1. “Advanced Knitting Technologies” 2. “Virtual prototyping of garments, 3D scanning, clothing for people with special needs”3. “New method for testing textile materials”4. “Standardization of textile testing”5. “New sustainable textile technologies, LCA, Eco-labelling” 6. “Entrepreneurship” 7. “Innovation management”B. The course’s materials were supported by a Moodle e-learning platform, configured and adapted on the INCDTP server with the URL address: www.advan2tex.eu/portal/ . The platform is multi-language and hosts the e-learning course in English, Czech, Portuguese, Romanian and Slovenian. The e-learning course is build in weekly format and includes one module per week, with lessons on the module’s content, multiple choice tests for self-assessment / final exams and online tutoring for the trainees by means of forum and chat. Moreover, the platform hosts the four Guides in e-learning format. User accounts were granted for a number of 425 users, including trainers, trainees and stakeholders for all the partners. C. A number of 6 blended courses were organized by the project’s partners. A blended course consisted of one week of face-to-face training and 7 weeks of online training on the e-learning platform. Agenda and PPT presentations were prepared for the face-to-face course. A total number of 176 trainees were trained, the target group consisting in professionals from the industry, teachers in textile secondary high schools, PhD, master and bachelor students in textiles universities and young entrepreneurs.D. A number of 5 joint staff training events were organized in the project, hosted by each partner. A number of 20 persons from the consortium partners (4 persons / partner) participated to each joint staff event. The outcomes of these training events were the four Guides. E. A large dissemination activity with a considerable impact was accomplished: 12 presentations in conferences; 9 papers in journals and magazines; 15 posters presented.Project impact on the target group led to:- better textile knowledge, better entrepreneurial competencies and ICT skills;- better employability by reaching new competencies;- improved skills to apply at the workplace. The impact on participants from partner’s organizations was expressed by:- a change to better understanding of textile practices and VET policies in European countries;- better skills in performing European partnerships;- greater understanding to cultural diversity;- increased capacity to work at international level.The e-learning platform is ready for new courses in the sustainability phase.