<< Objectives >>Objectives of the program: - Shaping the perception of museums as open learning spaces and experiences for every member and group of society, - Use of technology as means of promoting and highlighting Europe's cultural wealth, - Creating an innovative museum educational program for young adults belonging to the NEETs group, - Promoting museums as means capable of stimulating social cohesion, - Becoming relevant and the transition to the digital age.<< Implementation >>In addition to the necessary management activities already described in the first Working package, we are going to have the following activities.- Results: Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and educational virtual tour for each partner museum (hosted in a common platform).- 2 Transnational project meetings. - 4 Multiplier Events, each per museum partner.- Evaluation and monitoring activities.- Dissemination activities<< Results >>Within the two years of the program life, we are going to create two different Results. The first is a Μassive Open Online Course (MOOC), which will include 4 core modules and two compulsory courses for trainees. The second result is the creation of an educational virtual tour for each partner museum, which will be part of the training, but also will take the form of an independent result available to everyone interested to visit and learn about the collections of the partner museums.

<< Background >>The iNTANGIBLE project aims to support cultural workers and Intangible Cultural Heritage, professionals develop and enhance their digital competencies to match the rapid digital shift consequently aiding the accessibility and innovation of Intangible Cultural Heritage around Europe. Throughout the last decade, digital users in Europe have grown to 89%, with COIVD-19 measures resulting in the fastest digitisation process of both professional and personal life. Starting in 2020, the Digital Agenda of Europe has established the development of a single digital market as the main goal in the contribution towards sustainable and inclusive growth. Along with the impacts that natural disasters, environmental changes, and conflict have put on cultural heritage, the pandemic has placed the digitisation of cultural heritage at the forefront of European heritage formation and preservation. While cultural organisations were closed, museums facilitated a wide variety of digital initiatives and experiences to keep cultural heritage accessible and maintain relationships with their audiences. This phenomenon of heritage digitisation transforms Europe’s cultural resources into crucial stepping stones towards the digital economy and will consequently provide Europe’s Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) with new competitive tools for innovation and usability. Consequently, considering the importance of heritage and culture to European cohesion and economy, CCI’s across Europe requires the relevant digital skills and competencies in order to contend with the rapidly advancing pace of innovation while additionally contributing to sustainable, environmentally-friendly models of education through limiting the use of printed material via ICH digitisation. The project came to light through the consortium cultural organizations (P1) identification of significant gaps in ICH professional's knowledge on the capabilities of digitization as well as their lack of technical competencies. Moreover, through a preliminary needs analysis and research, partners consequently found no model for ICH digitization in the European framework.The partnership is selectively comprised of cultural and research organizations, universities (P1, P2), tech professionals(P3), and VET specialists (P5). This consortium has been brought together to bridge the gap between digital and cultural experts through their input and expertise and the consequent development of relevant Project Results and Training which will encompass the innovative elements needed to match the digital shift in the cultural realm.The Intangible main beneficiaries are: Internal beneficiaries: •Professionals from partner cultural groups that aren't directly involved in the project's implementation•Participants and members from the partnership's educational institutions who have been educated in the presentation, preservation, and propagation of intangible cultural heritage.External Beneficiaries: •Staff from cultural organisations, educational networks, employers' unions, and organizations that are not part of the relationship.•Individuals interested in the digitization of ICH who can use the e-learning platform for educational purposes.<< Objectives >>The Intangible project aims to meet the growing demands of the ICH European sector by developing an innovative framework for heritage digitization, as well as training and Project Results (PRs) concerned with heritage preservation through digitisation, promotion, and accessibility of material, and ICH presentation. Through the implementation of digitization training and the developed PRs, the project will contribute to addressing common obstacles faced due to the rapid digital shift and subsequent need for innovative models in the cultural sector, developing participant’s ability to apply practical skills in digital competencies to their professional domains. Due to the necessity for national culture to become accessible and, as a result, engage the public in new and inventive ways, digitization of cultural heritage has become increasingly vital in today's Europe and its cohesion.As a result, with cultural workers and ICH professionals as the target group, we propose a project with the following goals:-To support ICH professionals match the digital shift -To develop an innovative and comprehensive Framework and Guidebook for ICH digitization-To bring professionals in the cultural sector together with tech specialists archivists and aid the exchange of expertise -To develop Project Results and Training which will aid the accessibility and innovation of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Europe- To create a successful, fruitful and long-lasting partnership which may be transferable to other relevant projects.<< Implementation >>The consortium's key objective is to establish a coherent partnership that will receive the maximum level of engagement feasible. We will strive to accommodate our participant's diverse needs and expectations, working pace, and background through all the project activities and deliverables that strive to meet the project objectives.The following are the activities and project events that are anticipated:1. Project management: It is critical that everything is completed on time and that defined and quantifiable objectives are established for the project as a whole, as well as for each phase and activity. This requires that all project partners have a thorough awareness of the project's goals, objectives, outcomes, actions, and phases. Management, quality monitoring, and evaluation of project activities will be ensured from the onset of the project owing to the guidance provided by the agreed Project Management Plan (P1), Evaluation and Quality Assurance Plan (P2), Dissemination Plan (P4), and Sustainability and Exploitation Plan (P5). To build a solid basis, all materials will be prepared with the help of all partners. These plans will explicitly describe and specify the project's regulations, as well as the partners' roles, task and responsibility allocation, risk mitigation measures, and many other management actions for the partners to follow.2. Project Results: The project's goal is to create an ICH digitalization methodology and educational package that can be used by cultural workers and others who want to train cultural workers in digitizing their meterial. This activity will be completed using an integrated strategy. The partnership will begin by conducting desk research on existing ICH digitization models and theories, followed by field research on the needs of cultural workers at a national level (PR1). Through the study of the preliminary needs was completed during the preparation of this proposal, the partnership revealed significant gaps in information on ICH digitization. Consequently, the PR will investigate deeper the needs of cultural workers and existing models in order to build a solid foundation for all PR and activities. The results of both studies will be used to construct R2: Professional Training Course Curriculum and Handbook, while an e-learning platform and digital map (R3) will be developed to accompany the training course (C1). All produced PR will then be integrated into the project's e-learning platform (R3), which will serve as both an online training platform and a network platform for youth and social professionals. R3 will also have an Open Badge system to assist authenticate the skills learned during the training.3. 1 Blended LTTA: consisting of a 6-hour online course (through R3) and a 7-day face-to-face training event for youth workers (C1) on ICH digitisation. Prior to the C1 mobility, an online webinar will be held to prepare participants for the on-site training course.4. Three Physical TPMs and virtual communication (emails, online meetings) will help to ensure that the project's progress is effectively monitored. The number of TPMs will be minimised in order to achieve environmental sustainability.5.5 multiplier events to deliver “iNTEGRATE” workshops and promote the project, its PR among its target groups and stakeholders (E1-E5)<< Results >>With the rapid digitization of sectors across the globe due to international lockdown measures, came the subsequent increased demand for professionals working in digital sectors. As these shifts into digitization progress steadily, so do the skills required in various professional sectors such as the Cultural Creative Industries, which now require a broader understanding of information technology and technical skills. The digitization of cultural heritage and the development of digital archives has increased the need for appropriate technical strategies to aid access to and effective use of these collections. Consequently, for individuals working in the cultural sector, it is imperative to develop the necessary digital competencies which will allow them to connect with the public in accessible, innovative ways. Creating a learning environment where digital, cultural, and archiving professionals work together to bridge the gap between culture and the IT sector is a pivotal step towards building innovative and accessible professional skills across Europe. With this in mind, there is no specific national/regional policies on the digitization of intangible heritage in a European framework. Although the implementation of the International Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO, 2003) established some strategies surrounding ICH digitization, it stands as the only guidance on the subject.The project outcomes are directly linked to the project results and activities:1. “iNTANGIBLE” educational Package including 3 interconnected educational materials: R1: iNTANGIBLE Desk and Field Research . The research will consequently support the development of R2: iNTANGIBLE Training Course Curriculum and Handbook for professionals. Finally, the training package will be available through an online platform (R3) which will host a digital archiving community map to be used by participants as an example of ICH digitisation. The platform will feature an “Open badges” system which will be automatically linked with the assessment process of the courses for recognition and validation of the learning process. The platform will serve not only as an online training platform but also as a network platform for youth/social workers. During the social circus training and 6-hour online course (C1), the partnership will pilot-test the developed package with a group of youth-at-risk, the final beneficiaries, and produce a report. 2. 15 trained ICH professionals (3 from each partner organization) who will master the theoretical frameworks and practical approaches to ICH digitization through a blended program. The blended training will consist of 6 hours of online training, in the form of webinars, spread into 2 days- through IO3 and 8 days face-to-face training (C1).3. 5 multiplier events to promote the project, its results, and its outcomes among cultural creatives, ICH professionals, and relevant organisation (museums, cultural organizations, galleries, community centers, tech companies, universities ) (E1-E6) Other results of “iNTANGIBLE” project will be:1) The teaching materials developed within the project will be taught to staff and associates of the partner organizations (culture workers, ICH professionals, and archivists). Number expected: 402) Increasing public awareness of the benefits of ICH digitalization. Cultural organizations, museums, galleries, universities, cultural creatives, and others will learn about the project by visiting the project's website and platform, which incorporates all of the teaching materials (R1, R2, R3). expected reach: 1000.Additionally, the project also foresees a set of project management, dissemination, monitoring and evaluation, and coordination results.

"CONTEXT: Museums contain the most precious accumulations of human societies, all over the world. According to the last definition adopted by ICOM (2007, Vienna), ""a museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment"". Although nowadays education occupies the first position in the enumeration of the purposes a museum serves, it has not always been this way. It has only at the beginning of the new millennium that education was officially added among the museum roles. Thus, museums have been recognized as non-formal education providers, having the role to transmit culture and thus educate people, serving as platforms wherefrom knowledge is being absorbed. Museums are cultural repositories where people can find inspiration, delight, where they can feel intrigued, curious, and where people interact, or need to interact with the exhibit. In most cases, this interaction requires mediation, involves the understanding of the other, of the visitor's perspective, which is with very few exception totally different from the one of the specialist, of the insider. There are some university departments which include Museum Studies in their offer. Yet, this is not a common situation. A more frequent case is the one where history, art history, or art pedagogy departments contain in their curriculum museology courses. At undergraduate level, though, the situation is even more critical as there are no such courses included in the curricula of tourism high chools. OBJECTIVES: The SSaNeProMM project promotes cooperation and exchange of good practices in the field of VET with the purpose of building a more inclusive society. Both IVET and CVET are considered in this partnership based on the complementarity between formal and non-formal education and on the societal need of vocational training in museums. The project is also meant to build bridges between the theoretical educational class and the on-the-job training specific to the museum work, thus leading to a reconsideration of the daily practices in the vocational training. To allow the development of their audiences, museums should engage in a dialogue with such audiences. This project aims at creating the premises for facilitating this sort of dialogue in the future, of providing tomorrow's museum specialists with the necessary mediation skills. In short, the project aims at producing a job description of the museum mediator, and at training people for providing them with the necessary skills. RESULTS: SSaNeProMM will provide museum staff and trainees in the process of shaping their vocational educational background with the tools necessary to achieve intercultural behavior and communication. The project will thus contribute to preparing today's museum mediators, anchored in the reality of the society, able to adapt to the multiple challenges that can be brought by the museum visitors, irrespective of their national origin, sex, profession, religion etc. Trainers and trainees will have the opportunity of reflecting on the importance of the own culture in a globalizing world, of communicating it correctly, understanding and respecting the expectation of the other. Culture is an identity mark but it has the power to connect people, to bring people together, to share information and knowledge, and attenuate cultural and societal divide. It attempts to raise awareness among museum professionals as for the significance of reflecting our own cultural identities and act as a catalyst, as a vehicle for mutual understanding, mediating the museum to the eyes and mind of the visitors. In this framework, the project will provide vocational training for prospective future museum specialists - the museum mediators - and for the museum staff, in order to exchange knowledge, experiences, to learn how to adapt to the others' expectations. IMPACT: The impact of the project will be identifiable at three levels: in the short-term, museum staff will be better trained (CVET, prepared to respond to the visitor's needs, to identify differences and act accordingly. In the medium-term, the museum will have the opportunity of selecting its staff from within a pool of ICVET trained young people, while in the long-term, museums will become organizations much better connected to the community in which it evolves. The exchange of experience is an educational model that uses the power that has to the human mind the concept of lived thing/ activity, as opposed to the mere theoretical concept. Therefore, this project is a hands-on, work-based exchange of good practices, as outlined in the activity of cultural organizations and training providers from five countries (RO, IT, SP, GR). It capitalizes learned lessons and turns them into taught concepts."

The applicant taking experience from the “Museum Mediator”, an Empowering programme in the field of art and culture has decided to create a project in which the past experience could be improved and shared. The partnership put into place has been composed of organisations active in the field of art and culture and in the development of empowerment courses and pathways to facilitate learning, empower and employability. The main aim of the project was to work together in order to achieve transparency and recognition of the non-formal skills and qualifications having analysed the variety of pedagogy, methodology and validation systems used. The proposal was built taking in consideration the “Museum Mediator” experience and the UK approach to student-centred learning and work-based learning offering in this way an innovative pedagogical approach to the partner’s organisations. In this way the project has addressed the priority of providing empowerment, promote the use of the work-based technique and provide an occasion to all society groups to keep learning and obtaining a qualification. We have worked together to bring in good/better practices, improve the materials of the Empowering programme and standardise it, with inputs from 6 partners representing 4 EU countries (Italy, Romania, UK and Spain). We are all seeking to enhance the “boost to empowerment” through art and culture to train entrepreneurial skills for IVET students. We wanted to collaborate to design the most appropriate curriculum and pedagogy, using the knowledge and experience of all partners. We acknowledge the different pedagogical approaches of partners/nations, yet also seek to be uniform in our approach.The project has helped strengthen the knowledge, competences and skills of 57 participants who work as trainers or curriculum developers within the partner’s organisation. The objective was to provide them with new and improved skills that would then be used to create new pathways within art and culture to empower young marginalised people, NEETs and unemployed, tackling in this way some of the major issues present in EU. The participants have also better understood the use and value of Europass, ECVET and EQF. The main target groups addressed are: staff of the partner organisations (teacher/trainers/curriculum developer), which will benefit directly from the developments of the project and consequently their target group which is NEETs, Minority groups and students which have shown interest on an empowerment programme.The empowering programme that we desired to share, improve and standardise is based on an empirical approach, offering immediate solutions in work-based learning and to help beneficiaries into active citizenship and consequently into sustainable employment. The partnership has created a creative and innovative activity called “Selfie Hunt” which can be integrated in the empowering courses offering the future participant a new way of acquiring skills and competences. The impact has been the development of a common curriculum which we all own – both as intellectual property and “own” in terms of our commitment to its quality delivery. The project has built and strengthened networks of European providers, enabling them to deliver a standardised empowering through art and culture curriculum, build organisational capacity and collaboratively (there has been further 2 projects created in the KA2 Youth sector/Vet), work towards achieving results that tackle EU's 2020 Strategy and foster CVET learning within the trainers/teachers and create a standardized format of training IVET students to empower them with art and culture (Selfie Hunt Empowement project which develops digital and soft skills).The overall project activities have been broken down into three stage plans representing the collection of collaborative work actions necessary for the achievement of the projected results & outcomes:*1st stage: Preparation & creation of templates, review existing materials, identifying of 4 key to create a useful empowering programme: 1.Team-Building & work2.Problem Solving & Creative thinking3.Student based learning methodology4.Work-based methodology*2nd stage: Improvement phase - Each partner has selected one of the topics which have then been explored and have created guidelines to improve our empowerment courses; *3rd stage: Production of exploration of routes to ECVET certification – identification and selection of ECVET learning outcomes. The identified 4 topics have been explored, the results, skill, competences & knowledge for them were identified in order to create a successful empowerment programme. Our transnational meetings coincided with the deadlines set for the project activities and were vital to complete the project.

"The project ""AACcessible Culture: museums for everyone developing the Alternative Augmentative Communication tools"" [AACC] deals with a theme so far scarcely explored in Europe: the fruition of the artistic and cultural heritage by children and young people with communication deficits due to intellectual disabilities and/or with learning difficulties, including recently immigrated children. In the EU, in the absence of exact data, by adding up the most important types, it is possible to estimate several million children with Special Educational Needs (SEN), including: SLD (Specific Learning Disorders), language and skills deficits non-verbal, deficits in motor coordination, deficits in attention and hyperactivity, and minors under 15 of non-EU origin with little knowledge of the host language.In museums projects related to overcoming architectural barriers and the creation of paths dedicated to people with physical disabilities, facilitating their access to the museum, have already been active for years (e.g. tactile paths, soft areas, openings at dedicated times). Even so, little has been done to allow people with communication deficits to understand the content and encourage active participation. The school has already introduced the strategies of Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC), which allow the use of a potentially universal language by overcoming linguistic, verbal and written barriers. AACC aims to support the learning pathways of minors with SEN by introducing AAC models and tools in the cultural sector.The main innovation of the project is in the objective of building a dedicated AAC model to finally allow to these children the use of cultural and artistic heritage, favoring their development and autonomy, enhancing the emotional, relational and cultural dimensions thanks to art. In this pursuing we can define three fundamental results: 1) The creation of original codes and communication tools in AAC, 2) The creation of digitalized real and virtual cultural paths, for use even at a distance; 3) The creation of an innovative skills profile for the cultural sector: a facilitator of the participation of people with SEN, capable of designing adapted fruition paths and interacting with the world of schools or associations.In 24 months, the project involves the collaboration of 7 partners from 6 European countries where the use of AAC is still not widespread (Italy, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain); each with different and complementary skills to achieve the objectives of AACC, including universities, publishing houses, schools of various degrees, cultural centers and social enterprises; to which is added a network of associated public and third sector partners. It is estimated that 40 cultural operators, 60 teachers and educators, 600 minors with SEN plus at least another 600 peers and families will participate in research, training and experimentation activities with schools.AACC plans to achieve 3 Intellectual Outputs (IO) in 3 phases: A first phase of research for understanding the use and potential of the AAC model in order to create a European model applicable to cultural education (IO1). In the second, it plans to test the Model identified in experimental paths, also remotely, involving cultural operators and schools, validating the AAC tools created and defining the framework of the skills and procedures required of the educational system (IO2). The third phase allows to structure its applicability in cultural systems: definition of guidelines for museums and cultural institutions (IO3). 7 training courses for partner staff and 8 multiplier events and 4 transnational meetings will facilitate the implementation of AACC.At its conclusion it will be possible to spread AAC models for the cultural sector, potentially transferable to other sectors of education for categories with fewer opportunities. The training modules will be accessible, even in e-learning mode, from any organization that requests it. A new branch of professional skills will also be developed for cultural operators and it will be possible to enhance the results achieved, activating the transfer and adaptation to other regions or countries, through the reference networks of each partner, schools, cultural organizations, or associations to support disadvantaged recipients.The new standards will thus make it possible to expand the inclusive dimension of cultural organizations, demonstrating that culture is open to all, without foreclosure."