Young people are still not properly prepared to enter labour market. In spite of many reports listing soft skills and competences mostly required by employers, in spite of closer cooperation between schools and companies, in spite of many tools and method available for young people wanting to gain soft skills. So, where is the problem? Dr Helen Soulé, executive director of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) says ”..these new types of soft skills cannot be taught in isolation but must instead be suffused throughout the curriculum.” Nowadays, universities understand their task in the process of shaping soft skills of students. Soft skills courses are very often part of the study programs. But apparently, this is not enough. Andreas Schleicher, director of the OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills, highlights, that soft skills can be taught through the traditional subject base—often more effectively than when they are self-consciously administered as a separate focus. What can be solution for that? The best solution – to incorporate teaching of soft skills to programs of regular subjects taught by academic teachers. What is the problem with such strategy? Not all teachers are prepared for that. Most of them are researchers busy with research work, and when they started their teaching job – they were not required to be responsible for shaping soft skills of students. We would like our project to contribute to change of this situation. Having the awareness that high quality of teachers’ skills results in high quality of skills and competences of their students, we would like to develop system of tools helping academic teachers to be more successful in shaping of soft skills and competences of their students. Our goals: - Equip academic teachers with skills and knowledge allowing them to shape soft skills of students during regular classes - Change attitude of academic teachers and encourage them to support students in gaining soft skills - Support teachers in the process of making their work more efficient and increase its quality - Create an academic environment friendly with teachers' professional development towards increasing the efficiency of work with young people - Develop tools widely available for academic teachers who want to improve their skills - Initiate, in academic environment, discussion about possibility and advantages of shaping soft skills of young people during regular classes Our outputs: O1 – Publication for academic teachers. Publication containing directions and advices about how to improve quality of teaching O2 – Courses for teachers. We prepared 4 courses for academic teachers. The aim of these courses was help teachers combine standard teaching programs with new, attractive attitudes

Internationalization and increasing the attractiveness and competitiveness of European universities on the world stage is one of the most important goals guiding the creation of the European Higher Education Area.To achieve this goal, however, active and committed participation of the employees of these universities is needed. Meanwhile, unfortunately, employees of many European universities are not interested in participating in this process or are very reluctant to participate in it. Only a small percentage of employees of European universities show initiative in working with foreign students, applying for foreign grants for research and scientific work, publishing the results of work in international magazines, trips to foreign universities to conduct research and work with students, or participation as hosts during study visits from other countries. This is obviously not a problem for all European universities, but unfortunately there are still many.The main goal of the project is to increase the interest of European HEIs employees in participating in international activities implemented by their universities by developing a set of tools and guidelines dedicated to HEI staff until end of project. Materials developed under the project will be directed to HEI authorities on the one hand - giving them real and practical tips on how to motivate employees, and on the other hand to employees - helping to overcome barriers that inhibit their participation in international universities.During the implementation of the project, following activities are planned:1. Surveys among the HEI employees from countries participating in the project. An online survey containing questions about the motivation to participate in various international activities carried out at the HEI where they work, as well as questions about the most important factors preventing individuals from participating in such activities. Based on surveys, a report with results in individual countries will be prepared. Report will also contain a comparative analysis of motivation in individual countries.2. Desk research on the best practices in motivating employees to participate in international activities carried out by their universities. In each project country, experts will select 5 universities where the largest percentage of employees take part in international activities. Then, systems that motivate employees to international activity will be analyzed.3. Preparation of the publication. On the basis of the results of research under O1, a publication will be prepared, which will contain research reports under O1, as well as a set of guidelines for HEIs authorities on how to encourage and motivate employees to actively engage in international activities implemented by the university. Publication in the languages of all partners, available online.4. Preparation of training materials dedicated to employees of universities. On the basis of research on the factors that most often prevent HEI employees from engaging in international activities of the HEI (other than the lack of time and resources), training materials will be developed in order to help overcome these factors.We plan to organize training for people representing universities from each country participating in the project. These will be the persons responsible at their universities for recruiting employees for international activities - training, internships, trips to study visits, binding foreign guests, scientific research, project implementation, etc. During the training, each group (the group is employees of one HEI) will also work on developing a strategy to motivate employees in their institution. A strategy tailored exactly to the situation and conditions at the HEI. After the training they will be available online so that other universities can use them.Main results planned under the project are: • report from the research conducted under the project (report will contain information from survey filled by employees of universities from project countries. They will be asked about reasons for their low interest in international activities, as well as about main obstacles they meet if they want to involve in internationalization if their home universities). • Publication dedicated to HEIs authorities. • set of training materials dedicated to employees of European HEIs. Content of materials will be result of surveys filled by HEIs staff about reasons and obstacles preventing them from active participation in international activities. • One 5-days training for representatives of authorities (or people responsible for recruitment of staff for international activities implemented at given HEI)At the end of the project it is planned to organize international conference.

This project aims to create awareness among European school children about the risks caused by fire, its prevention and the most important measures to put in place in case of emergency and fire. Children are one of the most vulnerable target groups, especially children from underprivileged backgrounds (roma, immigrants, socio-economic problems, etc). Through this project, the partners will develop and implement a European training course for school children and for their teachers that will run in the context of a ‘SOS Fire! Campaign’ week that will be organised in each participating European school. Activities will include the running of a training course, a school project competition, lectures by experts from the fire brigades, hospitals, scientists, etc. The participation of the parents, families, school staff and the local communities will also be promoted. The training programmes and the SOS Fire! Week programme will be designed by the entire project partnership. At the end of the project the children would not only have gained a better understanding about preventing fires and reacting in case of a fire emergency, but will have also improved their social and civic skills. They will feel more confident and responsible towards the society that they live in.By participating in this project, the school establishments will open themselves to new teaching and learning actors and to the local community. They will provide the students a nice, fun and welcoming environment where to learn and the teachers will be able to introduce new methods from the informal and non formal contexts into their regular teaching ones.As such, the project objectives are, among others:- Improve the skills of young children, their teachers and their families in:o Recognize risk situationso Transform a risk situation into a safe situationo Identify sources of dangero How to act, evacuate and leave in a fast mannero Provide good advice in case of accidents - Provide opportunities for schools to open up to their local community, its local organisations (NGOs, fire brigades, hospitals, public authorities, police forces, etc) and work together with them in the implementation of the SOS Fire! Week programme. - Introduce new teaching and learning methods that could be used by teachers in schools during their lessons. - Bring those external stakeholders to the school establishments so that they also contribute to binging up the future generation of responsible Europeans. - Empower young children so that they feel more confident and responsible towards the society where they live. - Facilitate the integration of students from communities at risk of exclusion by providing them with the skills and tools that they need to live in a secured environment. - Make the school environment more attractive. - Promote school visits from one partner country to another and though confronting the students with a different language and cultural environment. - Create an informal network of schools that will exchange experiences, teaching and learning methods and good practices that will continue to exist once the EU funding is over. - Indirectly, students will also receive employment and career advice from the experts that will participate in the SOS Fire! Week (doctors, nurses, policemen, fire brigades, counselors, consultants, social workers, etc)Target public: - Primary school pupils- Secondary school pupils- School staff: teachers, head teachers, administrative staff, pedagogues, etc.- Parents and families- Local communities: local authorities, fire brigades, hospitals, social workers, NGOs working with deprived communities, etc- European community at largeProject Duration: 24 months. The calendar of activities takes into account the school academic year.

<< Background >>During implementation of one of our national projects addressed to seniors (Senior in Action), we had the opportunity to establish contact with a fairly large group of seniors. During the talks with them, it turned out that in Poland there is quite a big problem with professionalism among people who care for seniors, both privately and in nursing homes. By professionalism, we understand soft skills, not specific hard skills. Seniors often emphasized that caregivers lack the appropriate approach, commitment, empathy, and the ability to communicate with an older person.We have consulted this topic with partners with whom we implement other projects. It turned out that the situation is also similar in many other countries.Many EU countries are aging and the process is progressing fairly quickly. This process goes hand in hand with the weakening of family ties, which unfortunately results in the younger generations being reluctant to take care of seniors.The demand for paid care for the elderly will therefore increase in importance in the coming years. Along with this demand, the requirements for people working as carers of seniors will also increase. Today's generations of seniors pay more and more attention to the way they are cared for and to the soft skills possessed by caregivers.We want our project to meet these issues.On the one hand, we want to make all interested parties aware of the importance of having appropriate soft skills for people who care for seniors. In our publication, we want to emphasize the importance of having appropriate soft skills on the professionalism of caregivers. On the other hand, we want to enable the caregivers and the people who train them to develop these competences, which are undoubtedly the most important in the carer's work.One of our results will also be a knowledge base containing basic information on the formal requirements and working conditions of senior caregivers in different countries. The database will be a response to another noticed problem - the lack of sufficient information for people who would like to work as a carer for seniors abroad. Our database will make it easier for them to obtain the information they need to choose the country in which these people would like to work.We hope that our project will contribute to the improvement of the situation on the market of care services for seniors<< Objectives >>The main goal of the project is to increase the knowledge and skills necessary to perform the profession of caregiver for seniors, as well as to increase the interest of young people in this profession, by developing a number of training and information materials targeted at young people in various EU countries.Detailed objectives:•Providing young people who want to work as a caregiver for seniors or who work in this profession with tools enabling them to improve skills useful at work as a carer for seniors•increasing the efficiency and attractiveness of educating caregivers of seniors by indicating good practices in the field of non-standard methods of education and training of carers of seniors•increasing the awareness of young people about the education path and formal requirements regarding work for a caregiver of seniors in various EU countries<< Implementation >>All our activities will be focused on the preparation of planned results. Of course, at the same time, we will carry out all activities related to project management, ensuring the appropriate quality of project activities and the developed results, as well as disseminating information about our work and materials that we will develop.Activities that we plan as part of the preparation of individual results:O1 –Publication. At the beginning of activities aimed at developing this result, the partners will jointly decide on the exact division of responsibilities - i.e. which expert will be responsible for the preparation of specific content. Each of the partners will appoint an expert who will be responsible for the work on a selected part of the publication (as well as for conducting research aimed at preparing the content), evaluating the content prepared by other experts, and translating the finished publication into their native language. At a later date, each partner will also be responsible for disseminating the publication to their respective target groups in their country.O 2 – online courses. The first step will be for the partners to develop a list of questions that will be included in the tests measuring the level of skills before and after the completion of the prepared courses. The package leader will, of course, supervise the work of the experts, however, it is important that all experts actively participate in the preparation of the tests. The lead expert will prepare the final version of the questions and a description of the results and feedback for the people who will use the tests.In the next step, the package leader will present the other experts with the template for the webinar scenario and the sample text for the course. Of course, other experts will also be actively involved in this stage.The partners will also divide the materials to be prepared. Each of the experts will develop the selected part, and the lead expert will be responsible for ensuring that the final shape of the materials is uniform and consistent.In the last step, each of the partners will organize a short testing of selected elements of materials (those prepared by their experts) among a selected group of 10 people. Based on this testing, the final version of the materials will be developed, which each partner will translate into their own language.O3 – Database. At the beginning of the activities leading to the development of materials under O2, the partners share the responsibilities so that each of them will be responsible for analyzing the situation in several countries and preparing some of the materials. After the first version of the materials has been developed, each of the partners will organize a short testing - send a link to the test version of the materials to friendly institutions and experts for evaluation of the prepared content. It is important that people outside the project team can make an independent assessment of the suitability, reliability, attractiveness and understandability of the materials that will be widely available.<< Results >>As part of the project activities, it is planned to develop 3 main intellectual outputs:•O1 – publication/report containing 3 main chapters. 1st one containing information about what soft skills a caregiver of seniors should have and why they are so important. 2nd chapter containing a specific list of soft skills that are most desirable in senior caregivers. 3rd chapter containing a set of good practices in the use of non-standard tools for the development of soft skills among people participating in courses preparing for the profession of caregiver for seniors. •O2 A set of training materials supporting the development of soft skills of people who want to work or work as carers of the elderly. The materials will consist of a series of thematic webinars on individual competences, as well as tests to check the knowledge of people participating in webinars (in the form of pre-tests and post-tests, both to be done by individual people, and to be carried out by training institution)•O3 - materials containing information on the path of education of carers of elderly people in various EU countries, as well as a list of formal requirements in individual EU countries that should be met by people who want to work as carers of the elderly peopleApart from the quantifiable results, we hope that the project will also contribute to:•Change attitudes both training institutions offering training for seniors’ caregivers as well as seniors’ caregivers themselves about importance of having high level of soft skills while working with seniors•increasing professionalism in the performance of professional duties by caregivers of seniors thanks to the possibility of improving their soft skills•increasing the professional mobility of caregivers of seniors by gaining access to information on the formal requirements and working conditions of a caregiver of seniors in various EU countries•increasing the standards of care for seniors thanks to the greater soft skills of the caregivers•making the training offer for carers of seniors more attractive was preceded by adding elements shaping soft competences

"IINTOS main focus was to integrate global education objectives in teachers’ and pupils’ activities in schools, particularly in an international perspective. Thus, the developed project Intellectual Output 1 ""framework for exchange"", brought a methodology to integrate these global objectives in the teacher activities. This implies a paradigm change in what refers to teachers’ and pupils’ education approach, namely bringing internationalization to the centre of schools policy, making them and their communities more international. Having internationalization in their policy and strategy, schools will inevitably multiply their international exchange, being it of teachers, pupils or both. Within this context, the implementation of International Offices in Schools (IOS) emerge as a way to organize Schools’ international activities, as well as to effectively manage resources (human, physical or financial). In this scope, the main objective of the project was to promote and supply these IOS with a framework for their implementation, development and management, namely providing a dedicated online platform (https://iintos.netlify.app), where the materials and resources developed during the project are stored and can be easily accessed.IINTOS objectives were to:- Exchange practices related to the internationalization of schools, as well as to learn with the partners of the involved countries;- Implement global education objectives in schools;- Develop a practical and innovative framework for teachers and pupils to teach/learn within an international approach;- Implement a web-based platform based on a precise curricula analysis;- Improve pupils’ STEM competencies;- Develop IOS to achieve these objectives;- Give teachers and pupils the opportunity to be more creative and innovative;- Increase schools’ international exchanges;- Improve teachers’ and pupils’ ICT and languages skills.The project had three types of activities, with different participants:- 2 online multiplier events, involving a total of 145 participants from outside the partnership (107 teachers and headmasters, 8 researchers and 6 school stakeholders);- An online short-term joint staff training event, with a total of 23 participants (2 researchers from IPS, 2 researchers from UPOL, 3 teachers from ISS Vallauri, 13 teachers fromAEJS, one teacher from a school outside the partnership, and 2 technicians from a municipality);- 2 short-term exchanges of groups of pupils, one in Italy and another in Portugal, with a total of 17 Portuguese and 23 Italian pupils, and 4 Portuguese and 3 Italian teachers.DRAFT Report FormAmong IINTOS main results we can underline:- A framework for curricula analysis;- A framework to build IOS, namely providing users manuals and tutorials;- A web-based platform, where methodologies, resources, materials or tutorials to manage and organize this kind of offices were stored, and can be accessed by interested schools;- A methodology to help international office coordinators to manage their activity, in cooperation with schools stakeholders;- A project e-book, describing the way to implement an IOS, and sharing the experiences of teachers and pupils of the two pilot schools involved.In what refers to the project Impact on participants, we can highlight:-Teachers have acquired a better understanding of the relevance of IOS, of European citizenship, as well as a deeper understanding of EU policies and opportunities in what refers to internationalization. They have also deeply developed their online team work ability and, in terms of language skills, there was not only an improvement of skills, but also an awareness of their capacity. Teachers that participated in the IINTOS training also had increased opportunities for professional development.- Pupils in the pilot exchanges have definitely benefited of the European approach that this project has. They have learnt that the world is quite wide, and that people’s needs and beliefs may dramatically diverge. The impact on AEJS pupils selected for the exchange must be underlined. Being from a context that provides few opportunities, the participation in this project was for them a unique experience, acknowledging also for the first time their European Citizenship.Particularly in what refers to the impact on the partners, we can underline:- Schools were able to understand the general and local context of implementation of International Offices issues, and execute curricula analysis with the IINTOS framework. Also, awareness on the resources available to STEM education was improved;- Schools have officially started IOS;- ISS Vallauri has adjusted its programmes towards promoting Active Citizenship, keeping an eye on European Citizenship;-The participation in the project created a more dynamic, cooperative environment between the schools;- All partners gained a deeper understanding of EU policies, opportunities and funding mechanisms for Internationalization."