The main contexts in which DIST project evolved, are the increase of the Sense of Initiative and Entrepreneurship (SIE) and the Digital Storytelling. In Europe, a serious attention to the development of entrepreneurial skills, in educational and in vocational training areas, is required. This lack can be attributed to many reasons: a learning culture that, only in the last few years has re-discovered the transversal feature of entrepreneurial competence; the shortage of methods and appropriate instruments to promote education towards entrepreneurship; the shortage of competence of teachers, educators, trainers. Today “entrepreneurship is a competence for everyone”: people need it in changing working environments, where they need to equip themselves more and more independently, need to be able to distinguish and select (possibilities, information, opportunities), need to be creative, need to have self-confidence and self-efficacy perception. The other project scope is Digital Storytelling. Storytelling can't just be defined “the need of sharing stories”, it is a real multi-disciplinary field of study, work and action, it is a method for influencing the target public, to learn and to enrich knowledge and skills, it is a tool that allows to effectively share experiences and methods of work, a pathway through which it is possible to define personal and organizational identities, a way of managing the consensus and the power, a way to formulate, check and reformulate political, economic and marketing decisions. Digital Storytelling is the natural progression from oral storytelling to the using of computer based tools to tell stories. The DIST project purpose was to merge SIE and Digital Storytelling with the aim to create innovative educational tools and methods that teaches trainers to enhance the SIE of their students and that trains aspirant entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs to enhance their SIE, to overcome the inadequacy of resources and the insufficiency of trained teachers in the field of entrepreneurship education in Europe.The project have been carried out by 6 organizations, belonging to 4 countries (Italy, Poland, Spanish and Romania), interested, at different levels, in developing entrepreneurship: an organization that promotes innovative means for modernizing the human resources and the development of the professional training. An association of managers providing them services, carrying out studies on entrepreneurship themes, organizing conferences, seminars, workshops. An Entrepreneur's association from several economic sectors whose role is to represent the member guilds and associations interests and extend its influence to the public sector and social institutions.One Faculty of Management researching on: labor market trends, skill needs analysis methodologies, entrepreneurship and development of SME sector, restructuring of industry, innovation , technical, technological and organizational progress. A non-profit Association of social promotion dealing with: educational and vocational guidance, drop out, training of career counsellors, citizenship rights and self-empowerment in professional. A leader in the field of the methodology of Narrative career guidance, based on storytelling, applied also in vocational training . A VET Agency providing VET courses and e-courses for many different target-groups. The DIST main activities can be summarized as follows: in-depth analysis of the target group, collection of information and organisation of first mobility; drafting of version 1 of the project outputs; pilot of the versions 1 of the outputs and organisation of the second mobility; revision of versions 1 of the outputs on the basis of the feedback collected during the pilot; publication of all the version 2 of the project outputs; organisation of the final events. Transversely, have been carried out management and valorisation activities, with the purpose to allow a smooth progress of the project and a proper dissemination of its achievements. Those activities have lead to the creation of: •a Guide about Storytelling for training, •15 Enhanced full Video representing the story and the point of view of young and successfully entrepreneurs, •15 Thematic VET videos on the main entrepreneurship issues, •1 E-course addressed to trainers,•1 E-course addressed to aspirant entrepreneurs,•1 E-course addressed to entrepreneurs.The impact on the target group: 60 young managers interviewed; 653 people involved in the pilot; 9 newsletters sent to around 10.000 addresses, 1.000 leaflet distributed; 500 students enrolled in the DIST platform; 400 attendees of the Final Conferences; 1.600 visitors of the DIST website; 150 followers to the DIST Facebook; around 3.000 views of the DIST you tube channel plus articles about the project on journals, DIST products downloadable by 3 EOR repositories, intellectual output freely downloaded by the DIST project’s website www.diistproject.eu.

Work-based learning is a powerful tool to help trainees to acquire knowledge, skills and competences with direct relevance for the labor market. Numerous training organisation in partners countries routinely organizes VET courses, but their procedures for VET planning, managing, monitoring and assessment are not formalized or, even if formalized need to be improved. The need for better organization of VET courses and related WBL experiences is also stressed by a number of policy documents such as the Riga Conclusions (2015) and the Bruges Communique (2010). This project contribute to improve efficacy of VET courses based on work based learning by: • describing the profile of competence of VET PLANNERS, that is to say instructors and VET trainers involved in planning, monitoring and assessment of VET courses (IO1) • helping VET Planners to identify the strong and weak points of their competence and get their competence validated (IO4) • training VET Planners face to face (IO2) or at a distance (IO3) so to fill their competence gaps. The consortium is composed by VET and research organizations based in FR, ES, IT, DE, RO. Long term benefits will be more effective planning, managing, monitoring and assessment of VET courses.

Digitisation has become more and more important in the last years and we have seen big growth due to the pandemic. This goes hand in hand with trends towards mobile learning. The Erasmus+ project DigI-VET addressed new and innovative ways of learning and teaching in the age of digitisation and Industry 4.0. Not only has the partnership created awareness of the needs to address digitisation and Industry 4.0 in vocational education and training (VET), it has also developed a curriculum and learning resources for digitisation together with an innovative sMOOC for teachers and learners in VET which covers the most crucial aspects on the topic. In addition the DigI-VET book was created to address a broad audience with the current developments and challenges in the world of work and how it is affected by digitisation and what this means for VET and for VET educators. The aim was to create Digital Competence Profiles for VET. To provide direct impressions of digitisation and Industry 4.0 the project offers an online best practice site with showcases which provide insights into enterprises and companies and how they use digitisation today and what they expect for the future. This site provides teaching materials and examples with texts, audios, videos and photos and brings industry 4.0 directly to the learners in the classroom. Current Industry 4.0 approaches focus on a symbiosis between production and new IT technologies to enhance industry and gather adequate data. Here, digitisation is a key to handle these approaches. But this does not only mean changes in industry and production, this also means change and challenges in the field of VET. Digitisation and Industry 4.0 usually stands for the fourth industrial revolution. This means digitisation of products as end-to-end digitisation. This includes the expansion of existing products but also requirements for new competences. For VET teachers the core challenge is to gather information about the rapidly changing environment and to find adequate ways to deliver this new information to the learners.Therefore, DigI-VET started with an acceptance study in the partner countries to get a European view on acceptance, experience, problems and opportunities in the fields of digitisation and industry 4.0. Target groups were teachers, trainers, learners and VET educators. The survey examined what these target groups in VET think about digitisation and how they integrate it in their teaching. Moreover, the surveys focused on the challenges of industry 4.0 in a VET environment and gathered information on how the aspect of creating a digital economy influences teaching and learning. In additional desktop research the partners also gathered information about mobile learning in their national contexts and the EU.The partners created a book in English on digitisation and Industry 4.0 and the influences on VET, where the survey results and the results of the desktop research as well as additional checklists and hints for teachers and trainers are provided. Due to several requests and high demand this book was also translated to German, even though it wasn’t originally planned.The project focused on the quantitative and qualitative research on the topic and the design of the DigI-VET book. Most of the work concerning matching of approaches and data planned for the meetings of the partners. The pandemic made this challenging and required the partners to find new ways of working together in a digital environment. The results of the surveys were presented in the book and together with the best practices and the DigI-VET sMOOC at the multiplier events.DigI-VET offers the innovative new world of work and IT to VET educational contexts and the curriculum helps teachers to integrate these new challenges into their daily teaching. The fifteen core results of the project DigI-VET are:(1) the DigI-VET Curriculum(2) the DigI-VET Learning and Teaching Resources(3) the DigI-VET Online Observatory with best practice information and videos(4) the DigI-VET Book on Digitisation and Industry 4.0 in European VET(5) the DigI-VET sMOOC(6) the DigI-VET research report(7) the DigI-VET dissemination materials (posters, leaflets, brochure, cards, pens, flyer)(8) the DigI-VET Website with Blog(9) the DigI-VET Checklist for VET educators and teachers(10) the DigI-VET videos (integrated in the website and the online observatory)(11) the DigI-VET OER strategy(12) the DigI-VET digitisation concept for VET(13) the DigI-VET publications, newsletter and press articles(14) the DigI-VET sMOOC Concept(15) the DigI-VET evaluation report

At the heart of the SYNERGY Project was the belief that when SMEs succeed, Europe succeeds. Support measures for SMEs across Europe remain unbalanced with a substantial number of member states neglecting to take account of the needs and unique characteristics of small businesses, in particular micro-enterprises. This is the gap in services, particularly VET services, that the SYNERGY project team elected to address. Since September 2014, the team has been developing, delivering and disseminating the project and its innovative outputs aiming to bridge the gap between the current offering of VET support for micro-enterprises and the increasing need for specialized training among Europe's SMEs. There is a significant 'real-world distance' between vocational education professionals/providers and owner-managers of micro-enterprises in all partner countries. This 'distance' has many facets and attributes, many of which are deeply embedded on both sides of the equation. This was the background against which the SYNERGY project was set. The aim of SYNERGY was to “improve the quality and relevance of VET provision to micro-enterprises to support the transformation of the European economy into a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy by developing and implementing a bespoke learning environment for vocational education professionals and micro-enterprise owners to ensure the development of micro-enterprises and to enable this dynamic sector realize its true potential”. The defined project objectives included to: 1.) support a culture of learning within SMEs; 2.) support the continuous professional development of VET trainers building their knowledge and understanding of the business world; 3.) create a sense of community between micro-enterprise owners and VET providers; 4.) design and implement a series of cost-effective, flexible, bespoke peer-to-peer learning micro-social networks to increase the range and accessibility of educational services and supports; and 5.) to provide a suite of media-rich learning resources that address specific skill needs within the SME sector. In addition, a transversal objective across all of our activities was to promote intercultural awareness and grow the potential for international business development across our target groups and local stakeholders. The SYNERGY partnership comprised 7 partners as follows: Meath Partnership (Ireland) led the consortium and managed the overall implementation. It supported the work of all other partners to ensure a successful and timely completion of project tasks, hosted the transnational in-service training event and led the dissemination and exploitation actions. ARES from Campobasso, Italy - a VET Centre that led the development of curriculum resources for micro-enterprises including the mini-learning resources. AOA ARGES from Pitesti, Romania - a business network organisation led the testing and implementation phase of the project. CARDET from Lefkosia, Cyprus - an academic research and development organisation designed the research and quality assurance elements of the project and implemented the internal evaluation exercises. University of Peloponnese from Tripoli, Greece developed the in-service training for the VET professionals. University of Paderborn from Germany designed the pedagogic strategy and induction programmes for micro-enterprise owners and commissioned the policy paper. Innoventum from Joensuu, Finland as the technical partner developed the micro-social networks and the project website.The consortium brought together an appropriate blend of skills, expertise and experience required to deliver this project. Central to the development and implementation of the project was the continual cycle of validation of project outputs informed by feedback from local sub-groups, ensuring they had a direct and active role in designing and influencing the learning content developed. In adopting this approach, over the project lifetime, the consortium worked in partnership with the target groups to ensure that appropriate learning opportunities and exchanges were created and supported. The main activities undertaken by the consortium included: 1.) production of national state-of-the-art and best practices research and audit reports documenting the learning needs and preferences of SMEs, which acted as the evidence-base for the project 2.) development of a bespoke Train-the-Trainer curriculum with accompanying tutor manuals and learner workbooks, accredited at QQI Level 6 on the Irish NFQ supporting the CPD of VET practitioners; 3.) development of online social networking and e-learning platform that provides the target groups with opportunities to network and exchange knowledge, experiences and information; 4. ) design of a new Induction to Pedagogy programme for micro-enterprise owners using synergyexchange.eu and 5.) and a suite of online mini-learning resources developed using best practice in micro-learning and e-didactics.

<< Background >>The recent pandemic has speeded up the processes of adaptation of mHealth solutions, or the implementation of the digital tools in many healthcare and social care (HC&SC) areas, but it also uncovered several obstacles that exist on the demand side of it. It includes, among others lack of overall digital competencies and specific eHealth knowledge within the healthcare and social care workforce, as well as a lack of VET adaptation to the increasing sectoral needs. On top of that, between-country differences expose even more gaps in this respect. In some countries like Poland, or Romania, the digital transformation of HC&SC services is still severely underdeveloped, while other countries (like France) for almost a decade have national strategies implementing the process.As a result of the pandemic shocks for the HC&SC sectors, the majority of funds devoted to these sectors, are aimed at rebuilding the system, strengthening the basic services, preparing for future pandemic turbulences, and much fewer funds is being devoted to the reskilling and upskilling of the HC&SC workforce. Adapting the HC&SC workforce to the new digital reality is a key VET activity, especially now, with the implementation of the new digital care tools.The aim of this project is to address the needs of HC&SC workforce and to equip the VET system with innovative educational tools and materials, that can help and support digital transformation in the HC&SC sectors through securing digital readiness and resilience of their workforce.<< Objectives >>The e4CARE project’s aim is to provide a one-of-a-kind innovative didactic inventory, which will fill the EU and national gaps in terms of digital competence shortages among healthcare and social care professionals in innovating the care model. The objective of e4CARE is also to immediately respond to the new EC priorities with the NextGenerationEU strategy towards the stronger European Health Union. The concrete objectives are to:- identify and map the digital care tools being created (but not necessarily used) in the healthcare and social care services during the last couple of years;- Identify and list the digital skills needed for the effective use of the digital tools, as well as assess the skills gap of the healthcare workforce in this respect;- create an educational innovative tools that would secure and increase healthcare and social care (potential) workforces’ digital competencies;- provide an online space for local, regional, and national healthcare and social care stakeholders to exchange best practices, build knowledge, gain educational materials and increase their awareness in this respect;- to provide policymakers at the national and regional level with the solutions, best practices, and recommendations that can help them speed up the digitalization process of care provision more effectively without using unnecessary costs.<< Implementation >>Project ResultsPR1: e4CARE Training Hub will provide a well-structured approach to the progressive digitalisation of the healthcare (HC) and social care (SC) sector process covered by this project.PR2: e4CARE Didactic Inventory will answer the needs of the sector and stakeholders, by preparing a truly innovative Inventory, that will serve as a starting point for the preparation of training materials in the next part of the project.PR3: e4CARE Stock of e-learning materials is the sustainable response to the challenges presented in the first part of this proposal, and it will lead to the creation of the truly innovative stock of e-learning materials within the VET system to support HC&SC workforce in their daily activity.Each project result will contain testing and validation phases led by the project coordinator (AOA) and with the involvement of all partners.Multiplier Events1.How to speed up the process of healthcare and social care digitalisation in Poland? - e4Health solutions.2.Transforming health care and social care models for efficient digital absorption - e4CARE results.3.The influence of digitalization on health care and social care in Romania.4.Transforming health care and social care models for efficient digital absorption in Greece.5.Digital education in the field of health and social assistance, as a result of the Erasmus + e4CARE Project.Four project meetings are envisioned during the implementation of e4CARE.Meeting 1: the Kick-Off Meeting will be held in month 1 in Romania at the location of the Coordinator AOA. The purpose of the meeting is to ensure a shared vision of the project and a thorough consensus and understanding of PM tools and requirements (report format, costs tracking tools, internal communication procedures, relations with the Agency, etc)Meeting 2 in month 6 will be held in France at the premises of Aksantys in conjunction with the launch of PR2 so that partners are all on the same page and have a shared vision of the results of PR1 and a common approach towards PR2.Meeting 3 in month 12 will be held in Poland at the premises of CASE. The meeting will be held halfway through the implementation of PR3 so that partners can adjust the validation process depending on interim results.Meeting 4: Final Closing Meeting will be held in month 23 online or in Greece at the premises of IDEC. The final meeting will be held in month 23 to close the project and prepare for dissemination and valorisation activities for the 2 years after the end of the project and to develop future activities among partners.<< Results >>The e4CARE project is aimed at achieving significant learning outcomes, not only in terms of the tangible project results but also in terms of the intangible learning outcomes. It directly responds to the local and regional needs in the partnering countries, and indirectly to the EU4Health Program priorities.The tangible results are the direct outputs obtained from the project implementation, while intangible outcomes consist of the indirect outcomes obtained from the unique way the challenges are approached, the partnership is constructed, the project is implemented, and the results and information about the e4CARE results are promoted and shared.Tangible resultsResult 1: e4CARE Learning Hub: available in 5 languages (English, French, Greek, Polish, and Romanian). The Hub will (1) guarantee open and free access to all interested groups; (2) collect ALL the information and outputs from the project and present them in a user-friendly, easy to understand way; and (3) include new e-learning stock for policy-maker, as well as will constitute an interactive place of exchange of information.Result 2: e4CARE Didactic Inventory – Under this activity partners will map and present innovative digital tools being created (and not necessarily used) within healthcare and social care. The results will be gathered at the country and regional level and we will report the status quo of practices combined into one systemic online didactic inventory. The information will be used to set of the necessary digital skills for end-users of the healthcare sector and will serve as an element for the creation of the training materials in the Result 3.Result 3: e4CARE stock of e-learning materials, will be a truly innovative combination of didactic materials describing the functioning of the digital care tools, as well as fit-for-purposematerials teaching digital competencies needed for the effective usage of these tools. The catalogue of e-learning materials will combine most up-to-date courses about new digitalopportunities and tools used by healthcare and social care professionals.Additionally, e4CARE will produce a final Green policy paper to stimulate the debate around the necessity of innovating the healthcare and social care VET systems and processes.The other set of tangible results within e4CARE are:- Five Multiplier Events, where each of them will provide impact and sustainability of the project results for a broad range of stakeholders;- e4CARE Management Plan, that will be produced at the inception phase of the project;- e4CARE Promotion, sharing and effective use strategy, which is extremely relevant for this particular project due to a broad range of stakeholders willing to learn more about potential advantages of the digital transformation of care model.- e4CARE Quality Assurance plan.All the results are aimed to have a long-term sustainability effect on the healthcare and social care sectors, support systemic digital transformation, and be the first type of such a rich source of information and comprehensive e-learning courses in response to rapidly transforming economy and society.Intangible outcomes- 400 learners, whose digital competencies have been increased;- Augmented relevance of the VET transformation into more digital-oriented and innovative courses;- Enhanced professional path for VET adult students thanks to the networking effects of e4CARE project. It will establish working collaborations among organisations from different domains, sectors, and countries (IT sector, healthcare sectors stakeholders, public authorities);- Improved project management and intercultural communication competencies among the implementation teams of the partner organisations.