<< Objectives >>The INNO4CHANGE project main objectives are 1) to harness the potential of future social entrepreneurs by developing innovation, entrepreneurship, and business skills, to support them to be more business and innovation-oriented, have new ideas and grow their businesses and, at the same time, generate an effective social impact and 2) capacitate VET providers and professionals who work with them to integrate innovation, business & sustainability topics in their programme and curricula.<< Implementation >>To achieve its main objective, the INNO4CHANGE project consortium will 1) identify social entrepreneurship role models that have developed innovative ideas with effective social impact and record their interviews to serve as inspiration for future social entrepreneurs; 2) produce a training curricula and didactic resources offering a learning path based on modular learning and educational resources to address innovation, entrepreneurship, and business skills for the social economy.<< Results >>The main outcome of the INNO4CHANGE project is the digital learning portal for future social entrepreneurs and VET providers and professionals, an ICT-based educative tool that will give free and user-friendly access to the full set of the project’s inspirational video stories and provide, in an interactive and engaging way, the training curricula and educational resources previously created, specifically developed to facilitate practice and application of the selected themes.

Nowadays, low level of digital competence, can leave a person at a disadvantage, not just on the labour market, but also in society at large. As such, there is a clear link between enhancing digital competence and efforts to create more inclusive and cohesive societies. Accordingly, both the adult educators and the job seekers (including the members of disadvantaged groups) need to develop their digital skills. A fundamental skill for any individual to perform well at the workplace and better integrate in the social and economic life of his/her community is also Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Self-awareness, self-management, motivation, empathy and social skills are now recognised as the factor behind personal and professional success. Another skill that, at the moment, is not taught on a large scale concerns effective application of economic principles, which reveals itself in taking the right economic decisions, and being able to maximize everyone’s resources to achieve the personal goals.The aim of JIMINY project is to increase the techniques of emotional Intelligence, digital awareness and entrepreneurship lifestyle among the disadvantaged groups members (low qualified persons, unemployed, adults at poverty risk, etc.) and adult educators from Romania, Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Poland. The project will help to solve the problems of limited possibilities for employment for low skilled adults, their low motivation to learn, and the lack of basic and specific competencies of adult educatorspractitioners.These will be accomplished by development of the following results:IO1- JIMINY Self-help Handbook – “Journey to Increase your techniques of eMotional Intelligence, digital awareNess and entrepreneurship lifestyle”. The Handbook will specifically address the development of different techniques for improving theemotional intelligence, digital awareness and entrepreneurship lifestyleIO2- JIMINY Personal Trainer. This will be an artificial intelligence-driven personal trainer capable of acting as an end-to-end solution securing and supporting the whole learning and upskilling processes. JIMINY Personal Trainer will be able to diagnose individual needs and provide a customized learning path as an instant remedy.The target groups of JIMINY Project and beneficiaries of its results will be members of disadvantaged groups (low qualified persons, unemployed, adults at poverty risk, etc.) and adult educators. The project partners that will assure the effective implementation and quality results are:1. Asociatia de Dezvoltare Economico-Sociala –ADES. (Romania) – project coordinator. It will provide its expertise on effective labour market.2. CWEP (Poland)- has constructed solutions for the disadvantaged groups in previous EU projects and will bring its ICT experienceinto the project.3. SYMPLEXIS (Greece) – will provide its expertise on social inclusion and promotion of lifelong learning.4. Mindshift Talent Advisory (Portugal) – has experience in carrying out job placements and networking.5. Innohub (Spain) – will share its experience from carrying out entrepreneur-related initiatives and closely cooperating with startups, as well as approaching low-skilled adults.6. CCS DIGITAL EDUCATION (Ireland) – will share its techniques for the development of interactive tools. 7. LABC (Italy) - will provide its expertise social inclusion and promotion of lifelong learning among adults.

<< Objectives >>Rural poverty and difficult access to education for vulnerable groups often constitute an added disadvantage of life in rural settings. The FUNGIPRENEURS project is aimed at supporting the social inclusion of vulnerable groups in rural areas through environmental awareness about the importance of fungi for the ecosystems and the marketable value of mycological resources, promoting behaviour change, green skills development and responsible and sustainable social entrepreneurship.<< Implementation >>The project will focus on adult educators (project users) and on vulnerable groups in rural areas (project beneficiaries) by:- Developing the competences of adult educators dealing with project beneficiaries.- Producing ICT-based educational tools and methods that adult educators will use with vulnerable groups in rural areas to develop their skills and guide them to social entrepreneurship based on the use of mycological resources.- Testing the tools developed in real educational contexts.<< Results >>1. ECVET Training Curriculum on social inclusion by environmental awareness and social entrepreneurship through mycology2. Online course for adult educators3. e-Learning platform4. Training Path based on gamification and roadmapping methodologies5. Toolkit to be used by adult educators with vulnerable groups in rural areas6. Pilot trials in Spain, Portugal, Austria and Cyprus7. Intangible outcomes like environmental awareness raising and increased motivation of beneficiaries to learn.

<< Background >>Due to COVID 19 epidemic, tourism industry has been hit extremely hard as restrictions to international travel have caused a decline of the tourism economy at least between 45 and 70% (OCDE). While this can be seen as unprecedented economic crisis of our era, especially to countries that rely on tourism as a drive for economic development, it also represents an opportunity to shift tendencies and to strength economic resilience, especially in local areas.“Blue Tourism” refers to all tourism activities developed around any watercourse (rivers, lakes, seas). If in one hand, tourism is highly dependent on the natural ecosystems to attract visitors, on the other hand, it produces critical environmental and social impacts on natural resources and local communities. The Blue Economy concept must go beyond seeing the water economy only as a mechanism for economic growth, it must improve human wellbeing, social equity and reduce environmental risks and ecological disasters.Sustainable tourism must make appropriate use of environmental resources, respect the socio-cultural authenticity of communities and ensure that economic activities are viable in the long term. It also requires the informed participation of stakeholders, constant monitoring of its impacts, maintaining a high level of satisfaction among tourists (UNMTO).The “BLUE TOURISM – Build a network of local advisors to put small tourism providers in watercourse regions on a more sustainable path” project represents an opportunity to rethink tourism as a whole, by shifting more decisively from over tourism models to existing sustainable tourism models. In this context, watercourses are the common link between the eight countries – Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Romania and Ireland – that integrate the project consortium. The BLUE TOURISM consortium aims at contributing to local sustainable tourism development through the capacity building of small tourism providers.<< Objectives >>The aim is to equip a network of future local advisors with the necessary competences so they can support and advice small tourism providers in watercourse regions to be more sustainable and competitive, with a strategic focus on: 1. Sustainable Tourism and SDGs; 2 Ethics and Social Responsibility; 3. Natural and Cultural Heritage; 4. Competitiveness and Sustainable Local Business Development; 5. Innovation and Digital Transformation; 6. Networking and Local Partnerships. 7. Branding and Digital Marketing; 8. Internationalisation Strategy.<< Implementation >>To achieve this goal, the BLUE TOURISM consortium will:1. develop one methodological framework.2. map eight case studies and eight best practices ofsustainable tourism initiatives in watercourse regions.3. design and produce one a training curriculum in eight competence areas, referencing a new competence model for the profile of the sustainable tourism advisor/provider. This curriculum will comprise an explicit set of learning outcomes aligned with EU frameworks (EQF, ECVET and EQAVET).4. develop a package with a set of tailored e-learning training materials to equip and enhance the BLUE TOURISM advisor green skills.5. deliver a training pilot addressed to train 70 new sustainable tourism advisors and 35 small tourism providers in watercourse regions.6. design and develop an digital portal (in OER format) providing instant and free access to the full suite of learning resources produced.7. produce 14 into-action videos, a set of inspirational and awareness raising short presenting the target groups experience in the project and to also promote these local regions as environmental sustainability promoters and sustainable touristic destinations.<< Results >>During the project life-cycle, partners are expecting to develop the following project results:Result 1 - BLUE TOURISM e-portfolio: methodological framework to map sustainable tourism initiatives in watercourse regions to be used as case studies, strategies and best practices examples in the development of the BLUE TOURISM training curriculum. This conceptual framework will be designed and presented as an interactive e-portfolio (electronic portfolio). Result 2 - BLUE TOURISM advisor profile and resources package: a blended learning training curriculum, mainly addressed at small tourism providers, on sustainable tourism and local development, oriented to promote the sustainable and efficient use of natural, cultural, and economic resources in watercourse regions.Result 3 - BLUE TOURISM digital space and into-action videos: a multilingual digital space as a single window offering open and instant access to the BLUE TOURISM learning materials and into-action a set of inspirational and awareness raising short films emerging from the different implementation phases of the project (reflections, lessons learned, local activities and specific projects, workshops, etc.).

<< Background >>The circular economy is an enormous challenge for developing and emerging countries, in terms of capabilities to ensure efficient treatment of waste, the responsibility over social behaviours. Moreover, what can be observed across the EU, is the struggle of municipals over waste management, which is no longer the management of municipal waste, but industrial waste. The responsibility over this lies on the entrepreneurs themselves, which in most cases is the result of their unawareness on how to tackle the problem. The question is how to foster symbiosis and cooperation between municipalities and entrepreneurs to include their waste into those closed streams represented by the circular economy. Environmental and Fight Against Climate Change: The European “Green Deal” is the new strategy that targets transformation of EU into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource – efficient and competitive economy with zero net emissions of greenhouse gasses by 2050. Under this priority, energy used in EU should derive only from Renewable Energy Resources and carbon footprint of products should be zero. The project proposal is aligned with this priority as it will contribute in minimizing the carbon footprint in the tourism sector. VET: Contributing to innovation in vocational education and training: Within this context, TOUCAN project wants to promote environmental learning in VET establishments, by developing a new curriculum for hotel staff that will address environmental aspects for the tourism industry in line with the European environmental policies<< Objectives >>Circular Economy under the “Green Deal” will set up minimum requirements to prevent environmentally harmful products or services to enter the EU market. As such, the target of climate neutrality will be set up for 2050, however with current legislation will only reduce carbon emissions by 60% by 2050. Tourism plays an important role in global economy and in EU alone, 12 million people work in the tourism industry and inbound tourism generates an annual revenue contribution of 326 billion euros (Overview of EU’s Tourism Policy). Two of the four priorities of actions set up in the EU’s tourism policy are the development of sustainable tourism and the projection of EU’s destinations as sustainable touristic options. The great numbers of touristic influxes cause great environmental burden in local communities, such as overuse of single-use plastics, excess waste, surplus food leftovers and higher carbon dioxide emissions due to extra energy used to cover additional needs.In view of the above, the project aim is to strengthen professional development of SMEs and young entrepreneurs and VET trainers through adoption or improving knowledge and skills in the field of implication Low-emission concept to modern tourism industry reality. This aim will be achieved through development of the following results: PR1 TOUCAN m-learning solution for tourism industry sector to reduce carbon footprint and PR2 TOUCAN Recognition and validation OER.<< Implementation >>The project will train professionals in the touristic sector to promote circular economy solutions in their businesses in order to make the touristic sector more sustainable and in compliance with the environmental goals set up by the EU. The project's transnational dimension will facilitate the exchange of good practices and ideas in all participating countries. Lack of environmental skills amongst tourism industry professionals is a European phenomenon and should be tackled in a transnational manner. The Working Thematic Groups (WTG) will created by project partners in their own countries. Their role will be to work on the content for the foreseen modules. It is expected that WTGs will meet at least 4 times during content preparation phase in order to check the progress and to ensure smooth preparation of the materials. Each WTG will be chaired by a representative from the partner institution, but all decisions need to be taken in agreement with the majority of WTGs.Each of WTGs will have five members. The lead role will have the representative of the partner institution, supported by four additional members: one representative from VET provider (or similar) organisation and three SME from tourism industry. Apart from the member coming from partnering institution, other members will agree to contribute to the development of the content on voluntary basis. These arrangement have already been made at the time of writing this proposal with the associated partners. The first arrangements of this activity are planned to take place even before the start of the project to ensure that the contacts and arrangements are still valid. Such approach will make sure that through WTGs the access to target groups is secured.All six planned modules will be divided across all partners, who with the established WTGs will be responsible for the content preparation. All training materials will follow the template produced by PRz. The six modules will be divided across project partners taking into account the experience in specific areas. The process will be subject to periodic checks to make sure that the development goes smoothly. The m-learning solution will be tested in both virtual and real devices to make sure that the compatibility with different devices is met. Once the first modules are published, all project partners will be invited to take part in the internal testing to enable for early identification of any issues that should be corrected.Once the EN modules are finalised, all project partners will be asked to translate the training content. This approach will ensure that the translated modules correspond to already tested versions of training materials.The innovative character of this PR is based on the fact that there are no similar tools that would validate the competences online in the area of Circular Economy related aspects applied to SMEs form tourism industry. Innovation can also be observed on two main target groups. SMEs will be able to use the tool that will help them engage into non-formal learning by validating their competences, whereas VET teachers/providers will have access to the tool that will enable them to perform validation whenever needed.<< Results >>The main results of the project are its two Project results: PR1: TOUCAN m-learning solution for tourism industry sector to reduce carbon footprint consisting of the following seven training modules:-Green reception basics of low-emission tourism activity,-Low-emission planning of tourist activities and services,-Energy saving at the place of accommodation,-The role of agropreneurs in the low-carbon process,-The role of tour operators and guides in the low-carbon process,-Digital technology for sustainable development,-Rethink the business model for sustainable development.PR2 TOUCAN Recognition and validation OER. The TOUCAN Recognition and validation test could be used independently, but in the framework of prepared training modules within PR1, this will act as a pre- and post- questionnaire to allow for progress comparison. The estimations are that on average the level should increase by about 55-60% when comparing the pre- and post-results.- “SMEs and validation – benefits and importance” user guide.It is of utmost importance for SMEs form tourism industry to be aware of the benefits and importance that validation of skills, knowledge and competences in the entrepreneurship setting can bring. Unfortunately, the available reports state that the general awareness among SMEs form tourism industry and young entrepreneurs is quite low (see European inventory on validation of non-formal and informal learning, 2018). In light of this, the guide will act as an important resource for SMEs form tourism industry to make them aware of possibilities for validation of non-formal learning and will explain in details the benefits of this process. In addition to that, the project will create results in the management area (the plan, project space in AdminProject on-line management system, meeting programs and reports, etc.), in the promotion area (promotion plan, logo, website, social media accounts, leaflets, newsletters, articles, multiplier events’ materials, sustainability plan, etc.), in the evaluation area (evaluation plan, questionnaires, reports, etc.).