“The COVID-19 pandemic has affected and put unprecedented pressure on education and training systems worldwide and across the Union. It has brought major changes to how we learn, teach, communicate and collaborate within and between our education and training communities. This has had an impact on learners, their families, teachers, trainers, institution leaders, as well as on the broader society. ” This introduction to the Council conclusions on countering the COVID-19 crisis in education and training was the starting point for the consortium to plan an initiative that combined contemporary digital advances in learning technologies that can be implemented in a remote context, designed to provide trainees with a supportive and responsive learning environment that takes into account the “new” challenges that a rudimentary transfer of traditional classroom-based resources to the home or other context was not as effective as it could have been.In this context, STAY+ is a project to gamify positive behaviours of young people during the pandemic and beyond. It seeks to provide an innovative solution for VET professionals that have found it challenging to engage young people (aged 15-21 years old) through the transition to online/distance learning. It specifically looks to promote positive behaviours that protect learner wellbeing and have an overall improvement on retention rates. STAY+ will be unique in its approach as it seeks to:•gamify health and wellbeing best practice into an educational/training digital platform•use leading digital marketing and engagement techniques in an educational/training setting•use location-based data to tailor the mobile-experience to where you are in the worldThe project will be based on the ‘Stay’ mobile interactive site that has piloted a rewards scheme for young people adhering to the COVID-19 UK government guidelines (and those also seen across Europe) to #StayAtHome, driving positive action and behaviours. The current platform allows users to earn unique digital merchandise (badges) based on their activity and utilises GPS technology to reward them for staying at home. The STAY+ project will build upon this innovative model to embed rewards into VET digital learning environments with a sustainable, flexible and long term view beyond the current pandemic. It will develop the initial concept further through transnational cooperation and a range of reports, resources and tools targeting the specific needs of VET organisations. Outputs are based on best practice, research and development, and sustainability including:- 10 Best Practices that highlight the positive role VET providers can play in helping to protect learner wellbeing- Research on VET learner engagement and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic- the STAY+ Platform- practical guide on using the STAY+ platform - A short self assessment checklist on the readiness of VET organisations to start the co-creation process of badges, and subsequently to promote transnational co-creation at the same time- Co-creation guidelines for digital agencies working with VET organisations and learners to create their own badges- Guidelines on monitoring student engagement and promoting wellbeing in digital learning - how the two are interlinked- Ethical guidelines for digital inclusion - how to avoid widening the gap for disadvantaged learnersThe STAY+ Platform will be developed with the overarching objective of empowering young people to become advocates of digital vocational training; with increased awareness of a subject area,health and wellbeing, and how to maintain their own motivation, manage their time and complete tasks. The desired impact of this objective is to improve engagement and retention levels of learners on vocational training courses

Metropolis looks to explore post-industrial areas in order to enthuse young people about the career opportunities which are developing in these locations. The need for such an approach can be seen in the fact that, following the decline of many traditional industries across Europe during the last half a century, countless urban areas have struggled to free themselves from an image of a stagnating location with poorly performing economies. Indeed, this decline, and the negative stereotypes which are generated by this, has come to define these locations. The problem is that such stereotypes usurp any previous positive associations, and so the population at large both forgets the success of the past and fails to acknowledge the potential for the future. This can have a particularly great impact on young people considering their options for further education and future careers. They have grown up since the decline set in, which means that they are all too quick to dismiss their local area as one with little going for it. As a result, they fail to properly understand the potential and opportunities which exist for career development and growth in the regeneration which many of these post-industrial locations are now starting to embrace. The Metropolis project used the European Year of Cultural Heritage as a catalyst to begin to challenge these negative stereotypes found amongst young people around areas of industrial decline. This was done through an approach which both celebrates the impact of these locations’ rich industrial heritage and champions their regeneration. To achieve the project’s aims, Metropolis engaged with two main target groups; education and guidance professionals and the young people they work with. In terms of young people, the project developed resources for them to use independently which both provide a new, challenging dimension to their learning and helps them to better understand the potential local career options open to them in the future. Alongside this, the project developed support tools for education and guidance professionals which help to improve these practitioners’ skills and confidence when it comes to engaging with digital resources and promoting the local labour market. This have a positive impact on the quality of teaching, helping to improve the impact of guidance sessions on students’ overall aspirations and learning outcomes. Partners harnessed digital advancements in the use of geo-mapping, to develop an interactive city map which allows young people to immerse themselves in their city in a way they never have before. This allowed stakeholders to engage with hidden aspects of industrial heritage, with this fresh perspective being used as an entry point into discussions around how an area’s industrial heritage is helping the local labour market to develop – either by building on the legacy of the past (e.g. through repurposing old brown field sites) or looking to harness traditional skills for new activities. The project has produced an approach that can be used in a variety of cities across Europe, with each partner having used a local region as a test case to pilot the project. These interactive city maps are complemented by a series of offline resources, which add value to the learning process and make sure that project resources can be used in a variety of contexts. The experiences of developing these tools feed into a practitioner toolkit, which has been designed to allow advisors from across Europe to both make the most of the project’s outputs in their work with young people, and understand how they can develop similar resources in their own city. The focus of project outputs is on positively engaging with urban landscapes as an educational resource, in order to highlight employment and skills opportunities. As a result, young people are more enthused about employment opportunities in their home regions and better informed to make career and education decisions aligned to the needs of the labour market. Consequently, the project should challenge stereotypes, address issues around brain drain, and help to curb the growing skills mismatches seen amongst young people.