There is a notable increase of cases of people with ASD and, accordingly, higher number of adults and elderly with ASD. So, there is an urgent need of disposing professionals with enough knowledge, skills and competences to provide a quality and efficient service to these persons and their families. In this regard, IPA+ project responds to these needs to better prepare different kind of professionals for competent care or attention in order to respond to the demands of this population. Thus, the project aims to strengthening skills of professionals working (presently or expected in the future) with people with autism through the development, at European level, of a course that will be based on basic and specific and real curricular requirements. So, the project entails the development, implementation, transfer and dissemination of an innovative training focused on a minimum package of theoretical contents, intervention strategies as well as professional competences and attitudes enabling professionals dispose a basic background to deal with autism in different labour settings. Moreover, the specific objectives of IPA+ are: - To know the curricular and training requirements of a course of this nature addressed to professionals working with people with ASD.- To define the basic knowledge and competences about autism that every professional must have for a competent and satisfactory care based on the research about curricular requirements.- To design a new training and work based learning for the development of competent professionals from different fields.- To implement this training in a sample of professionals in the different countries participating in the project.- To evaluate the quality of the course.- To make freely available all project outputs for potential users and stakeholders through the development of a toolkit.- To hold national and international conferences for disseminating the project outputs. - To establish a network of people working on ASD projects for knowledge exchange and co-creation.IPA+ involves 5 entities from 4 different countries: - Polibienestar Research Institute from the University of Valencia, Spain (coordinator of the project).- Autismo Burgos, Spain.- Portuguese Federation for Autism, Portugal.- Serbian Society of Autism, Serbia.- Autism Europe, Belgium.The coordinator is a research institute at a public university with a large know-how on ASD, research and methodologies. The three involved autism associations will be involved in the different activities in a close contact with our target users. And, an international association with strategic alliances with a large number of partners will be in charge of the project dissemination and evaluation.The project will begin with a research on curricular and training requirements for professionals in the field of ASD through a mixed methodology: review of the literature and the organisation of focus groups with relevant stakeholders. The results of this research will be crucial for the development of the subsequent phases of the project. Secondly, the curriculum will be developed on the basis of the curricular research and will be validated with experts through a Delphi study. Once the curriculum will be ready, partners will develop the associated learning units. Through a complementary learning activity, these learning units will be piloted among key persons from each partner organisation and also validated by the whole consortium. This learning activity will be very relevant to train the future trainers of the course which will be implemented in Spain, Portugal and Serbia by a blended format. Finally, the main findings and outputs developed in the project will be compiled in an attractive, useful and easy-to-use format through a Toolkit which will be available at the IPA+ website.IPA+ will deliver a research, a curriculum and associated learning units, a validated course and a toolkit for a wide kind of professionals working with people with ASD or interested in this labour sector. These outputs will be supported by a comprehensive and integrative assessment along the different activities framed in the project, as well as by a complete package of dissemination activities, such as multiplier events, a project website, eNewsletters, etc. So, IPA+ is expected mainly to:1. Raise awareness and increase knowledge of ASD for different profiles of professionals.2. Increase background, motivation, willingness and confidence of professionals to work with people with ASD. 3. Increase collaboration and cooperation between service providers in the field of autism and other organisations from different fields: education, healthcare, social services, etc.4. Generate a good practice at European level regarding training of professionals working with people with ASD agreed by experts from different countries.5. Create open-access resources and outputs for a wide and relevant audience of stakeholders.

<< Background >>The core initial group merged University of Burgos as well as Fundación Miradas (Spain), Fondacija hiljadu želja (Serbia) and FPDA-Portuguese Federation for Autism (Portugal) as assistance, protection and VET providers of people with autism spectrum disorder and their families. These organizations carried out a research study oriented to the needs identification and analysis of the target group, and the results showed the difficulties in relation to the confinement situation and the challenge faced by autistic people and their families, highlighting greater difficulties in managing daily life activities, increased levels of family stress and an increase in behavior problems. In relation to positive aspects, the role of online support received and its potential was remarked upon. In the same line it revealed the lack of support and the feeling of helplessness while many of them were capable before the pandemic. Conclusions of the mentioned research showed that the pathway to digital readiness of autistic people, their families and education professionals demands, on one hand, accessible digital technologies (training platforms) that facilitate training, learning and personal development for people with lower cognitive levels. On the other hand, specialized training for education professionals in the use of these technologies.The conclusions and perspectives of this research and the solid background (research activity related to practical application of intervention programs and on the ground permanent contact with organizations and VET providers) of University of Burgos, paved the way to set under the spotlight the Vocational and Educational training framework, the need of purposeful use of digital technologies in that educational scheme and development of digital skills and competences of people with autism spectrum disorder through appropriate programmes and initiatives, as underrepresented group in the digital scene.Together with the core initial group, Tady to mám rád, z.s. TTMR (Czech Republic) VET provider as project partner and the Associated Partners (see Associated Partners section) highlighted the following needs and challenges, which were compiled and shared during scheduled meetings in the project preparation phase:•Lack of accessible tools.•Lack of competences (teachers, students with disabilities and their families). •Lack of adapted training for professionals in the use and management of digital technologies. •Poorly adapted educational methodologies and few technological resources. As a second step, the mentioned needs analysis on the digital divide, lead to a broader vision by reviewing and ranking the Learning Management System LMS platforms that exist, selecting an educational platform of free and open source software, according to objetive criteria.IDEAL Project aims at addressing the mentioned needs through the provision of an adapted Learning Management System (LMS) following accessibility requirements for autistic people within VET contexts, the integration of educational methodologies that allows evaluating different digital tools according to their usefulness for people with autism, in a personalized manner for each individual development; and finally the provision of a methodology for digital training of people with ASD, families and education professionals.<< Objectives >>According to most research studies on the negative effects on the collective of autistic people, and in anticipation of the pandemic extending over time (or new similar situations arising in the near future),it is urgent to address the need of designing /reinventing educational services delivery using on line/virtual tools. First observations (Narzisi, 2020) on already developed online attention initiatives showed up that communication and cognitive difficulties of people with greater support needs, is an extra barrier towards an effective online support implementation.These barriers in accessing digital technologies are mainly caused by a lack of accessible tools; lack of competences (teachers, people with disabilities and their families); poorly adapted educational methodologies; and few technological resources. More specifically, digital tools are often designed for the general population without taking into account the needs of autistic people with lower cognitive levels (levels 1 and 2, according to the American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Tools adapted to the cognitive needs of such individuals through the incorporation of easily readable texts, and use of pictograms and graphic resources are strongly required.Such needs are similar to in relation to training, capacity building and online care methodologies. Another important obstacle is the lack of skills for the use and management of digital technologies by the professionals who attend them, for which adapted training is also required. In this sense, autistic students with lower cognitive levels need to improve their digital skills in order to bridge this gap and successfully use digital resources and technologies. Likewise, support and training for families is also essential. In addition, many autistic people and their families lack from the technological resources to autonomously access digital services such as online training and care.GENERAL OBJECTIVEThe objective of the project is to eliminate the digital divide suffered by autistic people with lower cognitive levels in VET contexts, facilitating autonomous equal access to digital technologies that would guarantee the continuity of their educational processes and their social and personal development, even in situations of lockdown.OPERATIONAL OBJECTIVES1. To adapt a Learning Management System (LMS) following accessibility requirements for autistic students within VET contexts.2. To design educational methodologies that allows evaluating different digital tools according to their usefulness for students with autism, in a personalized manner for each individual development. 3. To deliver a methodology for digital training<< Implementation >>The project methodology follows the 3 phases organizing the development of the Project Results and all complementary activities which are:PHASE I,PREPARATIONEach of the four VET organizations working with autistic people, will set up a mixed work group, made up of people with ASD with lower cognitive levels who are the final target group of the actions (5 students), education professionals (5 people) and families or caregivers (5 people). This group will participate as a discussion group for the definition of development areas and in the design and development of adaptations, methodology, tools, etc., validating the results obtained.PHASE II,DEVELOPMENTIn this phase, the educational platform of free and open source software selected by all partners will be adapted within the framework of the project. A schedule for the implementation of the adaptation and subsequent validation works will be drawn up. Adaptation at cognitive level, usability (attractive) and flexibility (adaptable to the profile and needs of each individual). The already identified needs will be categorized and an intervention proposal will be delivered, including the definition of the areas .This intervention proposal will be the basis for the compiling of virtual educational resources (technological applications) for online capacity building purposes of people with cognitive difficulties/ASD. These virtual educational resources will be validated by people with autism who are one of the target groups of the project in order to form this repository of accessible virtual educational resources. The intervention proposal will also be the basis for one of the methodological guides, aimed at autistic people, in which objectives, methodologies, and proposals for activities will be defined in each of the areas. A general proposal on the educational platform would also serve as the basis for designing individualized itineraries or educational processes, containing a combination of different activities and proposals so that the person with ASD will be able to achieve the different objectives of each area of development.Each application (virtual educational resource) will be analyzed to find out the required level of the individual: cognitive, functional, social and attitudinal levels.The evaluation (and the virtual matchmaking of both figures) of the cognitive level of each person and the required level of each resource bring up a new methodology that will be materialized as a tool, that will allow evaluating the adequacy of different virtual educational resources according to the abilities of autistic people, thus selecting those with the greatest relevance in terms of accessibility, usability and educational value to meet the needs of each user. PHASE III,VALIDATION AND DISSEMINATION<< Results >>The proposal faces two specific challenges that will be materialised:- Usability of the Learning Management System so that the main results will combine cognitive accessibility and appealing design, leading to (not only understandable but also) captivate and motivate the whole range of VET students with ASD even those facing stronger barriers.- Custom-made solutions, so that the main results will match/filter already existing technological applications in regard to autistic student cognitive level, among other criteria.The tangible results that will be obtained through the project and that will facilitate the access and use of digital technologies by autistic students are:2 Project Results will be developed during the project:R1. An educational friendly LMS usable autonomously by students with ADS with lower cognitive levels (level 1 and 2) adjustable to each individual. It will include an online repository of adapted and appropriate digital educational resources selected by a methodology framework (R2) that allows filtering which educational software would be the most appropriate one for students with autism and intellectual disabilities, taking into account their cognitive level and the characteristics of the software themselves.R2. A methodology for digital training of people with autism, their families, and VET professionals in the use of the educational platform.In regard to the Project Results workflow, the completion of R1 will sequentially lead the development of R2.Likewise, an extract on the lessons learnt and recommendations to face lockdown situations in the format of a protocol guide will be producedIn addition, one Learning, Teaching, Training Activity LTTA and 4 Multiplier Events will be conducted:• C1: Training exchange: To train and support in the use of R1 and R2 Project Results. • E1, E2, E3 and E4: Multiplier events in each partner country (Spain, Serbia, Czech Republic and Portugal) at local level.• E5: Final conference in Brussels (Belgium), organized by Autism Europe.The project will be developed with the involvement from the beginning of professionals, families and students (co-creation): A mixed work group will be set up by each of the four VET providers organizations working with autistic people (Czech Republic, Portugal, Serbia and Spain). This group, hereinafter Validation Group, will participate in the design and development of adaptations, methodology, tools, etc., validating the results obtained.

"People with autism are ""the most excluded population among the excluded."" In Portugal, there are many specific employment measures for people with disabilities and there is a growing awareness about the need to enable and include people in the society. Within social interaction, people with autism may not understand the unwritten social rules that others usually pick up without thinking. Thus, people with ASD can experience difficulties interacting with managers and colleagues, which can hinder their inclusion in the workplace. Sometimes its difficult to find a job and to keep it. The IVEA Project, Innovative Vocational Educational for Autism (partnership Hungary, Spain, Greece, Autism-Europe, Catholic University coordinated by Portugal, Federação Portuguesa de Autismo) intends to foster the employment for people with autism creating a European Guide for the effective vocational training of people with ASD. This Guide will contain the transversal competences that lack in their usual training courses and will be available in an application for smart phones, besides other devices. The objectives of the IVEA project are: - Inclusion of people with ASD through employment;- Increase the work opportunities of people with ASD; - Foster the development of transversal competences introducing them in the training and testing them in real context; - Conceive an innovative European Guide for the effective vocational training of people with ASD; - Raise awareness in people with ASD, their families, professionals and the population, by and large, on inclusive employment. The guide will be the result of two different training courses tested in two pilot tests: one for people with ASD and the other for representatives of potential employers (stakeholders, staff from NGO’S, administrative departments, shops). The tests will take place in 3 European countries , partners of the project, Hungary, Spain and Portugal. The pilot test will be tested by 12 participants with ASD from each country and 15 representatives of future employers. To design and structure the courses, the partnership of the project put in practice 3 Focus groups (1 for people with ASD, other for families and the other for future employers) in Hungary, Spain and Portugal; a survey near the stakeholders and a review of literature on the employment."

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are one of the most common childhood neurodevelopmental disorders which have increased over time. People with ASD have mainly difficulties in social communication and interaction, and repetitive behaviours. At school level, students with ASD have specific needs in different educational stages since difficulties derived from the disorder itself are heightened by the demands at school. It is during the transition from primary to secondary school when the new school demands can produce more stress, depression and anxiety symptoms in students with ASD. These consequences can affect their academic performance leading to school failure or even school dropout or absenteeism. Therefore, these facts show the need to introduce changes in the educational context by providing more training actions focused on teachers and classmates in order to improve the interaction with ASD students based on the support, empathy and comprehension of their needs and requirements. In this sense, IPA2 is aimed at decreasing scholar vulnerability of students with ASD in the transition from primary to secondary school. To this end, IPA2 is focused on the following specific objectives: • Decrease early school leaving in students with ASD.• Improvement relationships in school between students with ASD and their peers and classmates. • Training teachers from primary and secondary schools working with people with ASD in order to provide them with strategies to improve the academic performance of people with ASD and to reduce their anxiety/stress symptoms associated with scholar issues. • Taking advantage of the ASD families experience in order to develop tailored materials and training. • Promotion self-defense strategies in people with ASD to help them to deal with scholar issues.In order to achieve the aforementioned objectives, IPA2 project is focused on developing and implementing a training course for teachers from primary and secondary schools that will be made up of several learning modules, which will be developed by a co-created methodology involving end-users in order to identify and validate the curricular and training requirements. The school vulnerability of students with ASD during this particular transition will be also tackled by developing guidelines for teachers and video guidelines for students so that they can learn how to interact with pupils with ASD, helping them to face school demands. All the materials and products created under this project will be hosted in the e-learning IPA2 platform so that it can be accessible for potential target groups and stakeholders. In order to cover the competences needed for the project, IPA2 partnership is made up of 6 entities from 5 European countries: - 3 NGO’s related to autism: Autismo Burgos (Spain); A Thousand Wishes Foundation (Serbia); Federação Portuguesa de Autismo (Portugal).- 1 organization related to Autism at European level: Autism Europe (Belgium).- 1 research institute as a scientific partner: Polibienestar Research Institute from the University of Valencia (Spain).- 1 enterprise related to the development of innovative ICT in the socio-sanitary field: Social IT (Italy).All the partners involved in this project have experience in carrying out projects related to autism and intellectual disabilities.IPA2 will develop different dissemination actions (i.e. project website, project newsletters, social media, multiplier events, among others) in order to exploit results obtained and reach potential stakeholders as well as to promote the sustainability of the products achieved. Consequently, IPA2 is expected to have the following impact: - Raised awareness among all agents in the field of education (including teachers, students/classmates, tutors, etc.) and also in the general population, of the difficulties that students with ASD have to face, especially during the transition from primary to secondary school. It is expected to reach at least 170 people in a direct way.- Improved competences of the educational community on tackling with the needs of students with ASD. - Easy transferable outputs and products to different schools and contexts to cover the real needs and requirements of students with ASD, teachers and ASD people peers. - Increased teacher’s knowledge and competences by training them on how to interact with students with ASD to reduce their difficulties associated with the demands at school. Hence, at least 30 teachers will be trained in the pilot training actions.- Improved relationships between pupils with ASD and their classmates. At least two videos will be developed involving 2 people with ASD and 2 students without ASD. These video guidelines will be uploaded into the IPA2 e-learning platform permitting their visualization to a great quantity of people.

<< Background >>One in every 59 children born is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) revealed that less than 10% of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are employed. Those employed are often in low-wage jobs. Key barriers to their employment are lack of access to vocational training, communication difficulties, denial of reasonable accommodation and prejudices about autism.During a discussion on employment of autistic people at the European Parliament in 2019, the Director of Autism-Europe, Aurélie Baranger, emphasized that many strengths are associated with autism and that it is key to build on these individual strengths to foster successful employment. She described the possible types of employment and support methods, giving as good practice job coaching and hiring programmes in the field of new technology. 42% of autistic adults in employment say they require support, but only 12% receive any. The ASES project will focus on the development of a training material and tools for SME management to increase workplace inclusion of adults with ASD. It will develop VET digital training resources to train employers and HR staff to recruit, mentor and empower staff with ASD throughout their employment cycle. The training resources will be designed to be used for distance learning and will embed gamification elements to facilitate learning process. Additionally, the training resources and curriculum will be pilot-tested over the course of 6 months, in the third year of project implementation. The pilot test will serve as an opportunity to see the effectiveness of project results and their short and long-term impact on:a) SMEs who to apply inclusive employment practicesb) The performance and well-being of Individuals with ASD who will be employed by SMEs in the context of the Pilot test.TARGET GROUPS1. SMEs & SME management2. People with Autistic Spectrum Disorders3. Business and employment stakeholders4. Stakeholders for people with disabilities5. Economy authorities at local, regional, national and European levels<< Objectives >>ASES Project Objectives:1. To furnish management with a recruitment and career development methodology suitable for staff with ASD2. To offer a distance learning solution for training SME management staff in exploiting the qualities of staff with ASD3. To increase the productivity of employees with ASD at the workplace4. To increase the recruitment and retention rate of staff with ASD5. To reduce employment gap between people with and without disabilties by increasing employment opportunities for people with ASD6. To eliminate exclusion of people with ASD in the workplace7. To enhance the role of VET in the career development of staff with ASD8. To benefit the European economy through increased productivity and employment levels of people with ASD<< Implementation >>The ASES Project Main Activity AgendaProject Management main Activities:- Four transnational project meetings in Portugal, Greece, Denmark and Latvia- Monthly online meetings- A Project Management and Implementation Interim Report to the NA- Interim and Final reporting to the Portuguese NAQuality Assurance Monitoring and Evaluation Activities:- Drafting and implementation of a Quality Evaluation Plan- Evaluation of consortium meetings- Gathering and processing feedback from participants of project activities- Monitoring of project indicators and ensuring high quality of project resultsDissemination Activities:- Preparation and implementation of a Dissemination Plan- Development of the ASES project visual identity- Development of a project website and promotional material- Creation of project social media pageC1 - Training of Trainers:The Training of Trainers event will take place in Latvia and will also include an online delivery part. For this activity, the partner organisations will designate trainer learners from the VET Training and Education field in order to satisfy the necessary education needs they require to carry out training for SME managersProject Result 2 SurveyPartners will carry out a survey in order to gather data from 10 SME managers from 6 partner countries. The surveys will indicate the learning needs of the SME management target group and will influence the devleopment of PR1 Serious Game, PR2 Curriculum and Training Material and PR3 e-Guide and Toolkit.Multiplier Events:Multiplier Event invitations will be sent through the consortium contact networks. The ASES Multiplier Events will take place in all 6 partner countries; Portugal, Latvia, Greece, Cyprus, North Macedonia and Denmark.Invitees will be members of the following groups:- SME management- Recruitment and HR stakeholders- VET representatives and stakeholders- VET providers; trainers and organisations- Local authorities- Representatives from the ASD Community<< Results >>The ASES consortium expects the following Project Results and Outcomes:- The ASES PR1 Serious Game- The ASES PR2 Training Curriculum and Training Material- The ASES PR3 e-Guide and Toolkit- The ASES Project Management Handbook- The ASES Quality Assurance Handbook- The ASES Dissemination Strategy Handbook- Six National Findings Reports with research findings, learning needs data and conclusions- The ASES C1 Activity- The ASES project website, social media page and other dissemination material- 6 Multiplier Events in Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Latvia, North Macedonia and Denmark