"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."

"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."

ENTREpreneurship Practices in VET [ENTREPVET]EC Digital Education Action Plan 2021-27: 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.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, young people: 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 youth specifically.Supporting Youth in Entrepreneurship report (2014): a variety of barriers:• Lack of awareness of the potential for entrepreneurship among role models results in a lack of encouragement or even 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 legitimacyWe will:• create a VET digital curriculum focusing on developing entrepreneurial mind-sets (E.G. recognising and acting on an opportunity)• encourage attitudinal changesENTREPVET will promote the following entrepreneurial qualities:• Possessing the knowledge and professional practice to run a business: through meetings with banks, trade, successful entrepreneurs, and professionals• Skills and attitudes: Young people 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 development• Enhancing the means to practise entrepreneurship and filling gaps in social and financial capital• Identification of wider cultural and social networks; connecting youth with knowledge networksOur target group are young people, 16-29, who are, or at risk of being, not in education employment or training (NEET).Partners will meet in Month 2 to agree upon a draft curriculum to be presented to local VET stakeholders and NEET focus groups for feedback and review. Each partner will engage with a minimum of 5 local VET stakeholders and successful entrepreneurs, and engage with young NEET focus groups (minimum of 5 youths), and use the Plymouth Development Tool for Vocational Training (PDTVT) to underpin the curriculum development.We will use non-formal education methods to train 28 VET trainers/educators, from the UK, NL, Greece, Turkey, Romania, and Italy, at a short term staff training event (C1) held in the NL in Month 12. The 28 will return to each work with 10 young people (280 in total). Partners will recruit 5 young people to participate in a blended training event (C2) hosted by WSX Enterprise in Fareham (UK) in Month 16. Each partner will create a local community VET entrepreneurial hub to support the 35 young people who will create peer networks and co-create 7 pilot project solutions to address local challenges (IO3). The young NEETs will continue to network with each other during the project. Each partner will support their local hub via the VET stakeholder networks and recruit appropriate support for each locally piloted project. The young NEETs will be prepared and inducted during Months 13-15 before the C2 event. Induction will form part of the blended training curriculum agreed upon at the meeting in Athens, Month 9.7 Partners:UK: WSX Enterprise and Make A Dream Publishing LtdNL: PROWORKGreece: ALLITurkey: MUSEVRomania: BUCOVINAItaly: DMLASPartners 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.We will develop training resources that include 6 training webinars hosted on the internet. The project website and resources will be available for a minimum of 5 years post-project.We will look at mapping the co-created curriculum to the EQF at level 3 at the project end. Partners will also liaise with their local accrediting bodies for possible accreditation.We expect 30%+ of the young people 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.