Within the Tourism sector, which employs over 12 million people, many employees and especially young people, work on short term contracts and follow a pattern of intense high season activity followed by low season unemployment. The issue of seasonality in tourism has long been a source of concern expressed in EU publications and it is feared that the intense concentration of touristic activities in a relatively short period of time “may have dramatic negative impact on local economies for the whole year” (Ecorys Study in support of policy measures for maritime and coastal tourism, 2013). This is particularly true with regard to employment prospects of the tourism workers in the areas of a “marked seasonality” that is, those dependent on the “sun and beach” model or winter skiing resorts. Official reports have proved this cross-border trend is evident in most seasonal tourist hot spots. This cycle disproportionately affects young people who resort to seasonal work to escape unemployment, but often become trapped in this cyclical process, where they are unable to follow more sustainable career options. And yet, seasonal workers within the tourism sector have already gained valuable skills that could be utilised for more professional careers. The main objective of the VALITS project was to break this cycle and help young people working in seasonal tourism to find longer term employment opportunities. Five project partners from Spain, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria and Italy cooperated in this project: - Sea Teach (ES) is a VET provider organisation active in tourism 'hot spot' of the Balearic Islands and experienced in the field of validation and comparison of qualifications.- Danmar Computers (PL) contributed its extensive expertise in developing software applications within an educational environment.- Know and Can Association (BG) brought to the project its experience in the field of applying specialized programs to develop social and civil skills using modern methods in non-formal education.- Euro (IT) runs the Alcamo National Park and employs seasonal workers as well as being a training center for the tourism sector.- SMC (AT) is a training centre situated in a winter alpine centre, experienced in offering re-education training and working with seasonal tourism workers.To reach its objectives, the partners undertook the following activities: 1.)The partners identified through extensive desk and field research the 10 most fundamental informal transversal skills and competences, inside and outside of the tourism sector.2.)The consortium developed an assessment methodology that is based on an objective assessment and not self-assessment. From this methodology the partners developed the 'Validation Tool' that assesses the users for their perfomance in all 10 informal transversal skills and provides them after test completion with a meaningful and graded assessment certificate. 3.)Finally the partners created and developed the 'Career Guidance App' that matches the users' identified informal transversal skills to longer term career opportunities that are required by other professional sectors. The VALITS project has provided the two tools, the Validation Tool and the Career Guidance App that have the potential to break the unemployment cycle for short season workers. These VALITS tools have a variety of important impacts and will 1.) provide young seasonal tourism sector workers with new career pathway options that match their informal transversal skills identified in the assessment and are in demand by longer term jobs and careers,2.) help young seasonal tourism sector workers to accelerate their pathways to quality employment in a more linear, less interrupted or detoured way,3.) save employers time and effort firstly in attracting and filtering the right kind of skills in their candidature that can also help them to base their recruitment decision on a transparent and concrete foundation instead of having to rely on subjective assessment and experiences,4.) make employers in the tourism sector more aware of the utilities of their employees’ skills and add new employment plans for them, including job rotation or promotion incentives, and 5.) add complementary tools to the existing EU skills and competency tools like Europass, EURES and ESCO.In the long-term perspective the VALITS Tools can be easily transferred to other target groups and other economic sectors, offering a viable Open Educational Resource (OER) to employees and employers, thereby fostering the recognition and use of informal transversal skills and enabling employees as well as employers to close skills gaps and skills mismatches more efficiently.

"The concept of internationalization in the professional operations of SMEs is often approached by its employees without previous preparation or adequate strategies. Economic and Industrial Chambers, VET providers and institutions are available, but this concept is usually not incorporated in their main operation, and even if they are able to advise in this area they are not equipped with mechanisms or tools that would grasp activities from the beginning to the end to account for sufficient support to their beneficiaries.Thus, the ISO project is addressed to Economic and Industrial Chambers, employees of VET providers and VET trainers who work with and support SMEs (trade and services). The project results will also be beneficial for start-uppers or SMEs that have already guaranteed themselves a recognized position on the national markets, but are interested in introducing their businesses to the international markets (specifically to the EU audience).The project is a response to specific priorities in the VET field:1. Developing partnerships aimed at promoting work-based learning in all its forms, e.g. the development of new training content(including Joint VET qualifications), integrating periods of work-based learning, including opportunities to apply knowledge in practical projects/""real life"" workplace situations, and embedding international experience (mobility) whenever possible;2. Introducing systematic approaches to, and opportunities for, the initial and continuous professional development of VET teachers, trainers and mentors in both school and work-based settings, with a focus on developing effective digital, open and innovative education and pedagogies; as well as to the horizontal priority: transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications.The project will fulfill the priorities, by developing and making available:IO1- Internationalization Service Officer profession manual.The manual will be developed for chambers employees who want to become Internationalization Service Officers and will provide them with the necessary help and advice on how to support for internationalization processes in SMEs. It will support them in promoting work-based learning opportunities among SMEs by striving to internationalize the enterprise in which they work or they are the owners.IO2- Videocasts for SMEs concerning internationalization processes.The videocasts will be prepared by SMEs representatives from every country who have achieved success in internationalization of their businesses. The scenarios will be developed by the partners and they will discuss ""real life"" workplace situations andpossibilities of WBL use for reinforcement and effectiveness of internationalization processes in SMEs realty. IO3- ISO mobile application for startups.The app will ensure personalized training pathways by initially testing the knowledge and awareness of Internationalization processes among startupers. The “ISO for startups” will also elaborate a personalised strategy for the startuper to be able to address the weak points and empower its approach to Internationalization processes. The app will contain: self-assessment panel concerning internationalization processes in SMEs; training pathway on 3 levels of advancement on the results of self-assessment; strategy maker panel.The results will account for competence development, facilitate WBL and assist in internationalization practices that SMEs are or will be participating in. Further speaking, the project's objective is also to promote WBL practices, support professional development of staff in VET institutions, assist companies in providing strategies enabling cross-border sales and promotion of how the cooperation with Chambers (at any level) will advocate business development.The ISO partnership constitutes of representatives from Poland (RIG and Danmar), Portugal (AEVA), Greece (HCCI), Italy (IFEL), Ireland (ITT) and Spain (Cenfim) - organizations experienced in impacting on societies lacking sufficient skills or resources. The partners are well-oriented in mechanisms for fighting market competition and carry out activities for the promotion of brand awareness on national and EU markets."

"The CodeIT project concentrates on programming competence of teachers of non-IT subjects. The huge technological progress has forced the situation in which IT, and in particular, programming become the key competence of the 21st century. Today, digitization and technology development make programming language a language of communication. It is worth pointing out that programming is a method of developing useful competences such as causal thinking, analytics, and teamwork. We must be aware that children who are currently enrolled in school will in future perform professions that do not yet exist, and the only thing we can say about these jobs is that they will be technology based. Ability to programming is recognised by the European authorities. Development of this skill is one of requirements in terms of development of key competencies. EU recommendations in “Developing Key Competences at School in Europe” – Eurydice report [2012], points that it is needed to include ICT competencies in ISCED 1-3. Also authorities of national levels (Ministries) have recognised programming as crucial in the development of children and lots of funding is addressed to teachers of teaching those children that are in classes 1-3. While large amount of money is being directed to train the teachers of initial education, the other teachers – those that teach in higher grades of elementary schools and gymnasiums seem to be omitted as far as programming training is concerned. This causes situation that on one hand children that had good start in the area of programming education in classes 1-3 will not receive the same level of education when they enter grade 4 and on the other, the teachers of higher grades don’t perceive as their professions are as strong as their colleagues and their self-esteem is lower when they compare themselves to those that teach younger children. According to Eurydice report, in project’s partner countries, ICT competencies are intended to be included in core curricula in primary and secondary schools. Countries (except RO & BG) agreed, that this competence has interdisciplinary status, what means that there is a need to implement it cross the curricula. Since that time, the efforts to make it happen have been made, but only IT applied cross curricular approach and implemented computer programming/coding in other subjects, but still, it is not a compulsory requirement at any level of education [European Schoolnet data, Computing our future, 2014, update 2015]. In other partners’ countries programming is not located in other subjects. In order to fill this gap the project aim is to rise programming competences of teachers of non-IT subjects teaching in grades 4 and higher through development of innovative resources: - Virtual Learning Environment for Teachers containing training materials in algorithmic and programming ant its didactic in other than IT subjects, - Model lesson plans incorporating programming for Chemistry, Geography, Maths and Physics, - Handbook entitled ""Advance your teaching skills with the use of algorithmic and programming"", and their wide dissemination and exploitation. Primary target group: non-IT teachers from elementary schools (grades 4 and higher) and gymnasiums with special attention to teachers of Chemistry, Geography, Math and Physics Secondary target group: students of primary schools in grades 4 and higher and gymnasiums (where it applies). The project will directly involve 1007 participants. Teachers will be involved in various project activities: development of materials, providing feedback, evaluation, piloting. Students will be also involved during piloting phase during which models of lessons with incorporated programming will be tested. Stakeholders and decision makers will participate in multiplier events and in specially created stakeholders committees. The methodology that the partnership intends to apply is going to be based on proper, competent management and effective monitoring of the activities, on-going assessment and evaluation of project outcomes, rigorous quality management, appropriate dissemination activities to generate awareness of the aims and objectives of the project. Assurance that the outputs are accomplished with high quality, on time and within the budget will be priority for all partners separately and for the consortium as a whole. It is expected that the impact of the project will be significant at all levels but especially or regional levels in which partners have access to the Centres of teachers training and through them, to practically every school in given region. The project’s desired impact is to influence the decisions about school education referring to incorporating programming into non-IT subjects. It is expected that 250 teachers will enhance their competences at the end of the project and about 1000 after 3 years from the project end."

The problem Industry 4.0 was a hot topic already in 2018 when this project was at the application phase, and it is even more the case today in 2021. The need for robotics and computerization is growing. While this will reduce the number of jobs in assembly and production, a significant number of jobs particularly in IT and data science will be created. However, children have less and less interest in such engineering or technical careers as they believe these subjects are too difficult for them to succeed and not suitable for women. The target groups Main target: STEM teachers Sub target: their students (secondary level) Others: relevant stakeholders, among which career counsellors, educators, trainers, policy makers, representatives of business sector. The solution The DIRECTION 4.0 (D4.0) project has developed a set of didactic materials that will help STEM teachers to introduce and promote the concept of Industry 4.0 among students through a Compendium. A 4.0 Career Roadmap serves as a professional career roadmap, encouraging students to choose more technical fields of study. The project also facilitates the building of a network of teachers through Space 4.0 - toolbox for teachers which contains all deliverables built during the project and helps teachers to meet and share experiences. Main objectives D4.0 aims at promoting the concept of Industry 4.0 and related technologies among secondary school students and encouraging them to choose technical careers. This is achieved by providing teachers with updated didactic materials, researching the 4.0 skills profile and giving the target groups a better understanding of the concept. The partners The partnership comprises 7 partners from 7 countries: a higher education institution focused on training operational engineers, a secondary school, a higher education institution providing courses on robotics, an expert in new technologies related to Industry 4.0, a consulting bureau dedicated to promotion of cutting-edge technological solutions, a consultancy offering services ranging from business development and public funding acquisition to custom implementation, an IT training provider and e-learning solutions developer. Methodology Thorough research has been done by all partners on selected topics of Industry 4.0 in order to prepare the Compendium which gives a good idea of the state of implementation especially in Europe, the economic and social factors, expected trends and challenges. The topics were: Smart Factories, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Cloud Computing, 3D printing, Robotics, Cyber security. For each topic the subjects required for a career in the area have been added (general science, ICT, mathematics, physics, biology and chemistry). An annex was also developed with the methodology to create a workshop. A job market analysis has been conducted next with a field research to determine the Model Skills Set that would be developed. After a skills verification done with students, the 4.0 Career Roadmap report has been prepared. Meanwhile, all deliverables were uploaded in Space 4.0 - toolbox for teachers with the Compendium transformed as e-courses, the Skills verification tool set and pilot testing done to validate all developed content in the project for it to be finalised. Results The outcomes of D4.0 comprise the: - Compendium 4.0 - 4.0 Career Roadmap Report - Skills Verification Tool - Space 4.0 - toolbox for teachers Long-term benefits With the support of the Space 4.0 - toolbox for teachers, a virtual space developed for sustainability of the e-course and deliverables, teachers will be in position to present their students updated content and tools about Industry 4.0 to ensure young people are better aware of what Industry 4.0 is, what kind of skills are needed to work in the fields described, and encourage them to choose technical and engineering careers to be part of Europe’s workforce to build the future. (Even though the course of the project has been affected by the Covid-19 sanitary crisis, partners ensured the high quality of the project, as planned in the application.)

The EU is currently facing a paradox: while the youth employment rate stands at 16.1%, there are around 2 million unfilled vacancies across Europe. It has been elaborated that this paradox might be attributed to the fact that “a high number of employers cannot find the right mix of skills in the job market, especially with regard to e-skills.”(Eurostat, 2017, app.1,pt.5). The explanation has been supported by employers themselves who when recruiting young people, look first and foremost for the right attitude and aptitude to enable young people to be effective in the workplace. In particular, 5 key competences are foreseen: - Communication - Adaptability / flexibility - Creative thinking - Problem Solving - Teamwork In order to overcome this skills mismatch, better VET provision is needed to include those soft skills and better prepare the youth entrance on the labor market. The main objective of STRATAGAME is to support young people in acquiring and developing key soft employability, developing an effective open and innovative education through the use of ICT and contributing to professional development of the VET teachers by including common methodologies for introducing soft employability in curricula. These objectives were achieved by providing VET teachers with specific tools enabling them to include soft skills teaching in their professional activity, by developing an online diagnostic test to assess the soft skills of young people such as communication, adaptability/flexibility, creative thinking, problem solving and teamwork; by creating an online game to let young people and VET leaders develop the above mentioned soft skills and by providing to VET teachers electronic guides, equipping VET teachers with digital guides on didactic methods for incorporating the diagnostic test and the online game on soft skills within wider classroom activities. Partners are 7 entities from 5 European countries including Romania, Spain, Italy, Poland, and Turkey. All of them are educational providers and or stakeholders working for territorial development and labor insertion thanks to better adequation of skills to the market demands. The working team created for the implementation of STRATAGAME work under the leadership of the Romanian partner CDA: Arad Development Center. Then, STRATAGAME involves in the project activities two main target groups: VET teachers, including I-VET and C-VET formal, non-formal, and informal providers from all kinds of subjects and specialization to integrate soft skills among their activities. At least 140 VET teachers were planned to be directly involved in the development of project products. As the second target, STRATAGAME addresses young people understood as VET learners and potential VET learners facing the need for soft skills to facilitate their labor market integration. Again, at least 140 young people were planned to be directly engaged during the development of the project outputs. Finally, STRATAGAME also works with educational stakeholders such as VET institutions and teachers associations, youth associations, business associations, employment services, among others, with the aim of widening the outputs diffusion and impact. Description of activities STRATAGAME developed three main products: 1) A Diagnostic test, made of a set of psychometric questions and which aimed at drawing an evaluation of the youth level of competences in the 5 key soft skills addressed. This tool is helping teachers to assess their students' level of knowledge and provides young people with a deeper self-understanding. 2) An online game, which has the form of one building with 5 rooms, each one presenting a new challenge corresponding to one of the 5 competencies. 3) Electronic guides, which are supporting tools given to the teachers with teaching notes related to the online games, new scenarios for classroom implementation, sources of information and references on soft skills theoretical contents, best practices, etc. The methodology used for the development of STRATAGAME products relies upon educational gamification theory. The idea behind it is that learners are motivated and remind better the knowledge while entertaining. Also, it is participative and interactive, based on real cases and a contextual approach. Results and impact The project brings important impact on VET teachers by providing them with a selection of innovative didactic tools to apply within current methodologies and the daily classroom while getting increased teaching effectiveness, an increased understanding of the employer's’ requirements, and higher overall job satisfaction and motivation for Continuous Professional Development- The project has a positive impact on youth by developing their soft skills with the use of online tools resulting in an increased professional potential, an increased level of awareness of their own soft skills, increased confidence in their employability potential, and higher chances of getting a job. Soft skills are crucial not only in the workplace but also in daily life. By developing soft skills in the classroom, young people increase their chances of success within such fields as completion of assignments (time management), peer relationships (teamwork), and job hunting (networking). As long term benefits, partners expect to contribute to a better-trained youth generation able to be more efficient at the time of answering to employers expectation, thanks to an overcome of soft skills mismatch.