"Digital VET Upskilling for Trainers and Women Beneficiaries [DIGIVET]European Commission Digital Education Action Plan (DEAP) 2021-27: ""The COVID-19 crisis shed light on the key enabling factors for effective digital education and training: connectivity and suitable digital equipment for learners and educators; teachers and trainers that are confident and skilled in using digital technology to support their teaching and adapted pedagogy; leadership; collaboration and the sharing of good practice and innovative teaching methods.""The DEAP outlines the European Commission’s vision for high-quality, inclusive, and accessible digital education in Europe. It is a call to action for stronger cooperation at the European level with a stated priority of ""Enhancing digital skills and competences for the digital transformation"". The DEAP also refers to the need for: ""advanced digital skills which produce more digital specialists and also ensure that girls and young women are equally represented in digital studies and careers."" There is a recognised gender imbalance regarding women with the level of digital skills necessary to move closer to the labour market. The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey in 2018 showed that only 39% of educators in the EU felt well or very well prepared for using digital technologies in their daily work.The Europe 2020 Strategy recognises entrepreneurship and self-employment as key for achieving smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan: Section 4.2.4. Unemployed, in particular, women: Given the significant number of unemployed people across Europe, entrepreneurship support schemes should be put in place to encourage business creation as a route out of unemployment. Few business development support schemes target unemployed women specifically.Women face a variety of barriers:• Lack of awareness of the potential for entrepreneurship among role models results in a lack of encouragement or even a negative social attitude• Education and training programmes generally do not do enough to nurture entrepreneurial attitudes and skills• Lack of prior work and entrepreneurship experience is detrimental to business start-up and entrepreneurship performance• Limited business networks and business-related social capital have consequences for business start-up and obtaining legitimacy• Gender bias/inequalityWe will:• create a VET digital curriculum focusing on developing entrepreneurial mind-sets (E.G. recognising and acting on an opportunity)• encourage attitudinal changesDIGIVET will promote the following entrepreneurial qualities:• Skills and attitudes: women may have the determination and enthusiasm to run a business but may not have the appropriate skills-set and leadership qualities• Meta-qualities: to be developed through action learning sets; developing the ability of learning-to-learn; and identifying self-weaknesses for subsequent developmentPartners will meet in Month 2 to agree upon a draft curriculum to be presented to local VET stakeholders and women focus groups for feedback and review. Each partner will engage with a minimum of 5 local VET stakeholders and successful entrepreneurs, and engage with women focus groups (minimum of 5 women), and use the Plymouth Development Tool for Vocational Training (PDTVT) to underpin the curriculum development.Target Group: VET educators and trainers who can engage with women who are furthest from the labour market.We will use non-formal education methods to train 24 VET trainers/educators, from the UK, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Romania at a short term staff training event (C1) held in Romania in Month 12. We will use Kolb's Experiential Learning Tool to monitor the 24 VET ""trainees"" as they return to each work with 10 women beneficiaries (240 in total).6 Partners:Germany: AULUK: WSX EnterpriseAustria: VAEVUK: Make A Dream Publishing LtdItaly: CASCRomania: BUCOVINAPartners will meet 6 times during the 24-month project. At project end, each partner will host a local multiplier conference event, to a minimum of 30 attendees, to promote and disseminate the results and outcomes of the project. These events will be live-screened online for those who cannot physically attend these events.We will develop digital training resources that include 6 training webinars hosted on the internet. The project website, training platform, and resources will be available for a minimum of 5 years post-project.We will look at mapping the co-created VET digital curriculum to the EQF at level 3 at the project end.We expect 30%+ of the women to move into further training/employment or self-employment and 60%+ to improve their socio-economic and mental well-being (WEMWBS evaluation) following upskilled VET educator support.In the long term, DIGIVET will provide an innovative solution to the EU's declared challenge of improving levels of digital skills amongst VET educators."

Entrepreneurship education has been on the agenda of pedagogical development in all levels of education for years. Student companies has been one common form of entrepreneurship education. Nevertheless, it seems that sustainability is not so often included in student companies or other entrepreneurship initiatives applied at educational institutions. It would be important that those who are considering starting a business also understand the importance and potential of sustainability. Sustainability – from cultural, social, ecological and economical points of view – offers an opportunity to equip students with more positive expectations and images for the future. From ecological and economical point of view, resource saving in business is necessity.The core idea of the project matches the international and European need to reverse and lessen the effects of the climate change. The recent strikes with 1.3 million people on climate change is just one evidence that the younger generation is concerned about the future and the sustainability of the mother earth. Therefore the consortium partners, monitored by external stakeholders, will develop the concept, the content, and pedagogical methods for the Sustainability-driven Entrepreneurship study unit. This will be done by gathering and analysing learning outcomes from local curriculums and developing new ones to match stakeholders’ needs for creating the concept for the study unit. Learning and teaching material will be produced including case examples from local companies highlighting their current sustainability-driven practices in partner countries. Sustainability-driven Entrepreneurship -project aims to •improve and increase entrepreneurial competence among students, teachers and trainers •increase background knowledge on sustainability and sustainability-driven entrepreneurship•produce learning and teaching material and related pedagogical methods to support the students when acquiring these skills and competences•create and pilot a competition at local and European level, where multi-sectoral student teams solve challenges given by companies. The project partnership consists of four vocational schools (VET), two higher education institutions (HEI), one high school, one enterprise and one regional ministry of education in all seven countries (FI, IT, DE, NL, BE, UK and ES). Each partner has its own network for monitoring and dissemination purposes of the project. These networks will be involved in arranging local competitions and other project activities. In average, five staff members and 20-30 students from each partner will be involved. The key target groups of the project are students, teachers, trainers and local small and medium sized companies. Partners will develop the concept, content and pedagogical methods for the Sustainability-driven Entrepreneurship study unit in close cooperation with local working life representatives. Surveys will be used for situation analysis and evaluating the impact of the training the trainers and the pilot.The activities can be grouped in the following thematic areas:•situation analysis survey•development of learning and teaching material including compilation of best innovative practices in companies in seven countries; innovation with sustainable approach; and service design•development of train-the-trainers material and building-up the capacity of trainers•pilots including local competitions and European level final competition in implementing the sustainability-driven entrepreneurship study unit•quality assurance by the local project group including key stakeholders and representatives of enterprises•impact evaluation to verify the impacts of the implemented study unit among the students and teachers•dissemination activities including website, social media campaigns, joint articles and publications, conference presentations and the multiplier event•project management and coordination including transnational meetings.The project will produce International Sustainability-driven entrepreneurship study unit (15 competence points/ECVET points) with a practical plan with learning outcomes as well as a handbook for trainers including the learning material. Local and international competitions will bring the learning close to practice. Students in multi-sectoral and international teams will strengthen the key competences/transversal skills, which should match the requirements of their future employees better. The partner organizations will include the study unit in their current/future curricula to sustain the results after the project. National level education authorities will be sensitized on the results in order to present the sustainability-driven entrepreneurship unit as a vital option for educational institutions at all levels. European citizens and entrepreneurs should do their best to improve their actions towards long-term sustainability.

"Women are In: Skills and Competences for Work and Entrepreneurship (WOMIN):The current socio-economic context proves the necessity of entrepreneurship development, as being an efficient way of supporting the active measures of the labour market to create new jobs and to stimulate the economy. The European strategies in the field of employment emphasise entrepreneurship because it plays an essential part in employment policy and fighting unemployment.The personal and social costs of unemployment include severe financial hardship and poverty, debt, homelessness and housing stress, family tensions and breakdown, boredom, alienation, shame and stigma, increased social isolation, crime, erosion of confidence and self-esteem, the atrophying of work skills and ill-health. EU Commission ""Women's situation in the labour market"": Women work more part-time are paid less and often still carry out the bulk of private domestic and care responsibilities. Across the EU there is a serious gender inequality where women are under-employed and tend to have low self-confidence, low skills and competences. Partner countries all have the same issue which needs to be tackled - empowering women adults with entrepreneurial skills and competences that move them closer to the labour market and able to have the option of working from home.6 partners:UK: WSX Enterprise & Make A Dream Publishing Ltd; Netherlands: PROWORK; Lithuania: ZISPB - will deliver training to own staff, trainers and associate partners who will deliver workshops and coaching to disadvantaged women furthest from the labour market.Turkey: BOSEV: upskill trainers to improve entrepreneurial skills and competences for migrant women and refugees.Romania: BUCOVINA: will target 5 Roma communities to improve their entrepreneurial skills and competences.Using non-formal education methods we will develop a digital toolkit and entrepreneurial training programme. We will deliver both to 24 educators and trainers from UK, Romania, Turkey, Lithuania and Netherlands during a 5-day short term staff training (C1) event held in Suceava, Romania in Month 12. These trainees will be evaluated using KOLB’s Experiential Learning Cycle. They will then go on to support 240 women across the partnership (10 per trainee) in Months 13 - 19. Impact on the social and mental well-being of women (distance traveled) will be evaluated using the WEMWBS tool with qualitative feedback from trainers, women and stakeholders. A further 60+ trainers will participate in 6 webinars. The training programme and digital toolkit will provide educators/trainers with tools to strengthen their entrepreneurial and digital skills and competences and those of their beneficiaries.We will hold 6 transnational partnership meetings with 2 staff attending from each partner. At the first meeting, we will agree on initial assessment protocols and offline workshop training programme that are user-friendly (for trainers and women learners). These will be evaluated via local women focus group and local stakeholder meetings in Months 3-5. This will be fed back to the partners in Month 6 at the 2nd partnership meeting. At 2nd meeting PROWORK will present a draft digital toolkit to partners; this will be presented to and evaluated by stakeholders and women focus groups Months 7-9. At the 3rd meeting in Month 10 we will have agreed content for a pilot training programme for delivery to 24 educators/trainers at the C1 training event in Suceava Month 12. Trainers will deliver the learning to 240 women beneficiaries between Months 13-19. We will create 6 webinars to support the training programme as part of the digital toolkit. The digital training represents a path for trainers and learners to acquire the digital skills and competences needed for entrepreneurship. We do so by exploiting the resources, videos, games and other content that we present at the 1st partnership meeting before co-creation of the digital toolkit and webinars.Following a review in Month 22 (final meeting) each partner will host a local multiplier conference with a minimum of 30 attendees per event in Months 23/24. All activities will be robustly evaluated, reviewed and re-evaluated during project implementation.C1 workshop training participants will receive recognition in the form of Europass Mobility Certificates, to enhance their CVs and future employability in the field of adult education (evidence of CPD). Through the new methods, techniques and approaches learned, educators, trainers, support staff, volunteers and stakeholders will benefit by being introduced to new skills, new cultures and new outlooks on life as a whole.Projected targets for women:- 60%+ to show improved socio-economic and mental well being- 30%+ to progress on to further training/employment/self-employmentProject results will be available for 5 years after the project completion. They will add to the evidence base of what works, why and for whom."

"The ETHOS proposal has been aimed at promoting and improving new approaches and tools to manage and exploiting – as resources for change - interpersonal, social and organisational conflicts in business environment in order to support quality and innovation in vocational education by fostering the integration of learning with working life, promoting more conducive learning environments at the workplace and work-placed training as a basis for development of vocational skills relevant to the labour market needs.In fact, the project was relateed to specific needs of enterprises – and in particular SMEs - which experienced a hard time because of the economic situation: the acquisition of skills for dealing with organisational conflicts by entrepreneurs and managers could be a means of repositioning and/or getting through the crisis for enterprises, as suggested by various European documents. For this reason, it has been necessary to set up analytical and training tools, methodologies, approaches which could promote and encourage the introduction of specific soft skills within corporate training plans. This can contribute to create in enterprises an environment and a climate favorable to development and innovation.The ETHOS project intended to contribute to the development of actions and strategies aimed at:- elaborating approaches, methodologies and tools for improving quality and innovation in vocational education;- elaborating approaches, methodologies and tools for fostering the integration of learning with working life, promoting more learning conducive environments at the workplace, work-placed training as a basis for the development of vocational skills relevant to the labour market needs;- developing soft skills related to conflicts exploitation among entrepreneurs and managers to improve new innovation-driven role models and management approaches;- creating within enterprises an environment and a climate which lead to social cohesion, development and innovation;- contributing to facilitate processes of repositioning and/or overcoming the crisis for enterprises;- promoting networking between enterprises and VET providers.The partnership of the project has been composed of 8 different representatives of key actors in the fields of social cohesion and vocational education: organisations which deal with vocational learning, adult learning and advisory activities for enterprises; public institutions which play an active role in the definition of policies and keeps strong relations with institutional bodies and social partner organisations; organisations which work for the development of soft skills aimed at enhancing social cohesion.The majority of the ETHOS partners have been involved and worked together in a previous LLP GRUNDTVIG project in the field of adult education, CONTEST - COmmunity experimeNts Through the Exploitation of Social Conflicts.The project realised three key actions:CONFLICTS MAPPING IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT - setting up and testing of a mapping system of cultural, social and organisational conflicts in business environment in the reference areas of the project, in order to define the role models and the contextual factors leading the conflicts. The mapping has been realised thorugh a documental and a field analysis in all project countries a transnational report about the setting up and the testing of the mapping system will be realised. TRAINING FOR CONFLICT EXPLOITATION IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT - realisation and experimentation, through the realisation of 6 national pilot training programmes, of a new specific curriculum which defines competences and skills necessary for SMEs' entrepreneurs and managers to identify, develop and enhance workers' competences and skills for dealing with conflicts in workplace and change them in a resource for improvement and growth with reference to business enviroment. Each programme lasted 36 hours and has been articulated in a study plan including specific didactic modules. The pilot training programmes involved each average 15 participants.ETHOS BUSINESS LABS - planning and implementation in each country participating in the project of specific workshops for SMEs' workers aimed at facilitating the expression, the management and the exploitation of conflict in their own business environment, by learning how to ""argue well"". In each country 3 business labs has been realised and involved average 40 participants.The ETHOS project allowed the acquisition by SMEs workers of skills and competences to facilitate the expression, the management and the exploitation of conflicts in workplace, through different methodological approaches; contributed in setting up a European network between enterprises and VET/training providers to promote and develop new approaches and tools to manage conflicts in workplace; encouraged the introduction of soft skills in corporate training plans through a consultation process among project key stakeholders."