"By signing the commitment to take into account existing projects, good practices, new trends and possible scenarios that are emerging, the project responds to the request for a change in education and focuses its mission on improving the ecosystem of VET as a tool for social and cultural change.The project responds to two priorities that are closely intertwined: the professional development of teachers, trainers and tutors in the field of vocational training and social inclusion, in a perspective that considers the professionalism and growth of awareness of the staff teacher indispensable condition for an inclusive educational system for all.The general reference context of the project is the one outlined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the one established by the European Accessibility Act. From a more specific point of view, the project context refers to the principles promoted by the Agency for Inclusive Education Systems and to the specific activities carried out by the Agency in this area.Enhancing, in particular, the results of two initiatives carried out by the Agency (""Education and vocational training: policies and practices in the field of education for special needs"" and ""ICT4IAL"" - Guidelines for accessible information) the project is to identify and implement - starting from the reference context that characterises each single partner organisation - strategies and concrete methods for the application of the principles of accessible information and training.The project has the primary purpose of compiling, evaluating and putting into practice, in a process of co-construction of content that will involve both the main target group and the final beneficiaries, a Declaration of intent on accessibility, as a reference document for the promotion and application of accessibility policies in the educational context and, above all, in the production of information and educational materials.The concept of the project stems from the particular attention of the leader in relation to the issues related to accessibility of communication, from a collective reflection on these issues and from an internal self-evaluation research conducted by each individual partner. Through the self-assessment process, we have analysed the following elements characterising the information and training profile - regarding the digital materials available online - of the partner organisations:1. standard of accessibility of the website of each organisation (the websites have been evaluated using the WAVE Web Accessibility evaluation tool);2. standard of accessibility of a sample of documents issued on the website by each partner (pdf, word, PowerPoint, video, etc.)The collected data provided an updated profile on the accessibility level of the online educational materials of each organisation and, even if not exhaustive, show that most of the tools presented are not accessible or only partially accessible. Furthermore, the self-assessment has shown that none of the partner organisations has an official Accessibility Statement or a Declaration of Commitment. In line with priorities and objectives, the project affirms a ""user-involved"" and ""user-centred"" approach and includes the direct involvement of people belonging to the priority target group, and of people with disabilities and special educational needs, in their role of end users.the entire staff of each organisation will be asked to respond to a questionnaire for the precise definition of the status quo on the subject within the individual organisations. Some, among these people, selected on the basis of criteria such as: competence, interest, previous experiences, etc. they will participate in a series of transversal meetings aimed at co-designing and implementing the final document. These meetings will also include a representation of people with disabilities and special educational needsIn summary, the applied methodology consists of the following phases:design and implementation of an internal questionnaire,analysis of collected data and implementation of a final reportplanning and implementation of a series of co-planning meetingsprocessing of the final documentevaluation of the documentcreation of a specific medium-term follow-up documentpromotion of the document within each organisationpresentation of the document to political decision-makers with a local and regional profile.After the closure of the project, after about six months the partners will measure the results achieved: the data collected will be analysed collectively to verify their strengths and weaknesses in a perspective of strengthening and widening the activities."

Tourism impacts on a wide range of policy areas - including competitiveness, social policy and inclusion (tourism for all) - while the continued globalisation opens new opportunities and creates increased competition. The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs has focused efforts on encouraging the diversification of the European tourism offer through initiatives in different areas. As declared by the European Commission: evidence shows that making basic adjustments to a facility, providing accurate information, and understanding the needs of disabled people can result in increased visitor numbers. Improving the accessibility of tourism services increases their quality and the enjoyment of all tourists. It also improves the quality of life in local communities. Although important steps have been made in recent years, much remains to do: research and surveys on this field demonstrate that improper attitude of staff towards disability and poor customer service are two of the main problems tourists with disabilities face in carrying on their touristic experiences.According to this background and according to the European Commission definition of Accessible Tourism - the set of services and facilities that can allow people with specific needs the enjoyment of the holiday and leisure without obstacles and difficulties - the project aimed to contribute to make Europe an accessible destination, by training people on a market field that have both a social and an economic value.The main project goals were to: design, implement, promote and test, starting from a transversal focus on the field, the profile of a professional able to match the training offer and the market needs: an Ability Advisor operating in supporting SMEs to face successfully the increasing tourism for all market; to generate new job opportunities for trained people; to tackle the topic by a cross-sectoral approach matching the needs of VET providers, VET learners and SMEs; to develop a cross-sectoral partnership to look at the topic by an European perspective. The project objectives and the needs it intended to fulfill were strictly related to the target group identified and to the key stakeholders needs.The main target audience was made of VET learners or graduates aged 20 to 35, currently unemployed or underemployed, graduates from specific University courses or High School graduates with specialized diplomas (including post-school diplomas) and/or people having previous experiences in tourism services’ fields, while the key stakeholders are VET providers, SMEs operating in the tourism sector, public bodies and associations dealing with disability. To reach its objectives and the selected target groups, the project implemented, as IO1, a comprehensive document of the local framework - a starting point on which the following project steps was built - and a training course model which was tested and released as an OER in in English, Lithuanian, Italian, Portuguese languages. The training course has an average length of 80 hours. It was implemented with the support of people representing associations dealing with disability and trainers with specific skills, was evaluated by a transversal team of 27 persons representing VET providers, SMEs, public entities, associations and was delivered in its pilot version in Lithuania, Italy and Portugal in a blended mode: 40 hours of traditional classroom-based learning, 20 hours of e-learning and 20 hours of work-based learning. The WBL activities enabled learners to get a real WBL experience and the selected SMEs improved their knowledge on how to welcome better people with specific access requirements, improving their business as well. The number of people applying the course, in its testing phase was 43; also 30 SMEs. All the project activities were carried out by five partners - organizations coming from Lithuania, Italy, Portugal and Belgium, belonging to different business and social sectors and dealing with different topics (training, labour market, disability, social communication).The project was designed to become sustainable: the sustainability plan included a direct dissemination activity - a serie of small events at local level targeted to 390 persons and four Multiplier Events involving a total amount of 270 persons - to promote the course among VET providers, SMEs, public bodies, associations and a set of activities to start a collaborative dialogue with public bodies. The project was developed at transnational level, as it offers to participants opportunities to understand better foreign and European contexts, take part and be supported by an European stable network: all key assets in the touristic sector and a positive trigger for work quality and employment opportunities.

Education is the force for the future because it is one of the most powerful instruments of change. One of the greatest problems we face is how to adjust our way of thinking to meet the challenge of an increasingly complex world. We must rethink our way of organizing knowledge. This means breaking down the traditional barriers between disciplines. We have to redesign our educational policies and programs. And as we put these reforms into effect we have to keep our sights on the long term and honor our tremendous responsibility for future generations. From: Seven complex lessons in education for the future - Edgar Morin - UNESCO. Project context is outlined by the key words in the quoted text: education as a powerful instrument of change and responsibility for future generations, in a perspective that takes into account the increasing complexity of our time. When we put these words together we got the framework of our project: an experience that mixes crucial elements for the educational system, for society and people. Going deeply the project explores one specific topic (Circular Economy) and one methodology (integrated teaching and learning) mixing them with the aim to foster a new topic by a new approach reinforcing, at the same time, the learners’ key competences, as required by the main flagship initiatives of the European Union in this field. The European Commission has recently adopted an ambitious new Circular Economy Package to help European businesses and consumers to make the transition to a stronger CE where resources are used in a more sustainable way. CE represents an opportunity for economic growth and employment, able to reduce skills mismatches between training offer and enterprises needs, with the benefit of all of us. The key words of the CE: share, repair, recycle, reuse and remanufacturing should become familiar to all of us and reshape our way of thinking. In this context education plays a crucial role: by the VET system and by the medium of the professionals operating within the system, it is possible to contribute to mainstream the principles of the CE and help people to reshape their way of living and working. Within this framework, the project aims to create a serie of tool kits for teachers, trainers, mentors and other professionals operating within the VET system to support them in promoting the CE knowledge among learners, spreading the CE principles from bottom to top and from top to bottom. The project goal is to approach the topic breaking down the traditional barriers between disciplines, integrating the topic of CE into existing VET curricula (the project will target the following sectors: tourism related services and other economic activities, agriculture and transport) and making it a mainstreaming element widely testing the strategy in five countries in Europe. To get this goal with objective to design and disseminate a replicable format, project intends to build up a transversal group of people (VET teachers, trainers, mentors, representatives of the business sector and learners, for a total amount of about 330 people) working together at transnational level during the whole project life. They will contribute to the implementation of the project intellectual output and will act as testimonial, in their working place, during the multiplier events - that will involve 300 participants - and further on. Sharing European Commission assessments on CE and on education, the project, in its effort towards the mainstreaming of a new topic and a new educational approach responds to the needs of the VET system to promote its quality and attractiveness; to forecast the future, to better understand the nature of trends and deep drivers of change and their likely future impacts. On the other hand it responds to the need of the final beneficiaries (VET learners) to be equipped to face the challenge of a increasingly complex world. Project targets, in a transversal way, VET system by different perspectives: it targets VET teachers, trainers, mentors and other professionals as it it proposes them a new methodology to face a crucial topic of interest for all the VET providers and offers them three specific kits of tools to better their knowledge and effectiveness; it targets, indirectly, the final beneficiaries as it gives them the chance to improve their competences and skills.The coverage of the project is extensive: it outlines a circle path that crosses Europe reflecting its diversity: starting from Lithuania (VET provider), passing through Turkey (Chamber of Commerce), Italy (social communication and training research SME) and Spain (language training SME) it arrives to UK (Higher Education Institute). The project context, the participants people profile and the project priorities are naturally European: when we look at the mainstreaming of a circular approach to life and at the fostering of new educational methodologies we can't put apart a meta-nation perspective.

"The project’s context was formed from the European Commission's contribution to the Leader´s meeting in Gothenburg, 17 November 2017 “Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture “-is that one of a Europe with deep cultural diversities at the basis of its strength and, at the same time, a common ground that makes up the distinct feature of the European way of life. Within this framework, we started from the valorisation of CLIL “Content and Language Integrated Learning” methodology experiences now capillary in Europe, as testified by the Eurydice Key data Report on Languages at school in Europe, in line with the updated European Reference Framework of Key Competences for Lifelong Learning and in line with the Communication of the European Commission ""Towards an integrated approach to cultural heritage for Europe"", our goal is to approach and explore one specific topic, the European cultural heritage, and one methodology -the integrated teaching and learning one -mixing them together we aimed to foster a new and crucial topic for VET and offered a new approach, breaking down the traditional barriers between disciplines and integrating the topic in some existing training paths within the VET provider offer in Europe. In other words, the project wanted to create a connectedness between disciplines that otherwise might have seemed unrelated to many learners. We wanted to introduce and fully implement the integrated teaching and learning methodology, through the European cultural heritage topic, in the VET system. The main target group was represented by VET trainers and the project designed, implemented, tested and disseminated a kit of didactic-educational tools tailored made on VET trainers because: -it exploited the cultural heritage topic within, and in connection with, different conventional subjects (such as economy, history, sciences); -it resorted to alternative and multimedia sources, exploiting the strengths of the ludic methodology and ICT tools learning strategy: an online team quiz game and an app for mobile use were part of the kit. -it offered an attractive material to be directly used within the classroom: the kit is available for free for all the VET teachers and trainers that want to use the kit within their lessons. In a consequent cascade flow, the second main target group was represented by VET learners, as the final beneficiaries. The benefits for them were an enhancement of their learning motivation, real opportunities to study the same content from different perspectives and development of crucial key competences, such as social and civic competence, cultural awareness and expression. The kit was released as an OER and this action was considered to be crucial in order to get long term benefits and let the project results be heavily promoted among VET providers and their stakeholders. The project activities took place over 34 months, in four countries, from north to south Europe: from Sweden to Lithuania, passing through Italy and Spain. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, our project was extended to allow us the time and opportunity to complete all necessary activities and outputs. Even though Covid impacted the duration of our project, we didn't allow it to affect the results of the project and still realised our final transnational meeting online. The partnership was built on a heterogeneous team made by complementary competences and expertise, background and missions that valorised a widespread network and the importance of a high quality and attractive VET system. The participants in the project, during its whole cycle, Lithuania reached 242 persons, 110 reached by Spain, 500 were reached by Engim, 150 were reached by Bluebook and 200 were reached by MEXPERT. Totally across the whole project cycle and the project partnership we have reached 1444 persons. This number was reached by focus groups in each country, testing exercises by teachers, testing final activities by students, participants in multiplier events and some of these in direct dissemination activities. These also included people with fewer opportunities and special needs. The participants actively took part in the preparation and testing phase of the intellectual output. All multiplier events were realised but smaller number of participants were involved. Lithuania did the event totally online. Across the partnership 88 were reached face to face and 75 were reached online. In facing the European cultural heritage topic and the mainstreaming of an integrated approach, the partnership pursued a transnational approach to look at the main framework within plural dimension, valorising the inputs, feedbacks and suggestions coming from different contexts and exploiting a dense network of stakeholders."

The Vocational Education and Training sector is crucial to Europe’s economy, both for the development of our workforce and for our industry. To fulfill its mission, as stressed in the “Conclusions of the Council and of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council, on the future priorities for enhanced European cooperation in vocational education and training”, the VET system has actually the mission to establish a permanent connection and a preferential way of dialogue with the world of work. In line with these premises, the project aims to promote work-based learning in an innovative way by creating a digital platform, on the model of the Business to Business platforms, both for VET providers and for companies. The VET system, through its regular educational and training programmes, daily implement a huge amount of activities (services of catering, web-design, marketing projects, lab tests, 3D printing, etc.) proposed to learners as exercises or as a simulation of real job. The idea of the project is to turn these activities in real and effective services, good and professional consulting ready on market to be sold to small and medium enterprises, through a digital platform where one business (in this case VET providers) serves the needs and requirements of another business (in this case SMEs). In detail, the main project goals are: to design, implement, test and promote, within a local and regional economical contest, a methodology to mainstream the work-based learning methodology within the VET educational system by the medium of a digital platform; to increase job opportunities for learners; to tackle the topic by a cross-sectoral approach matching the needs of VET providers, enterprises, VET trainers and learners; to develop a cross-sectoral partnership to look at the topic by a transversal European perspective. The project objectives and the needs it intends to fulfill are strictly related to the target groups identified and to the key stakeholders needs. The main target groups are VET providers and SMEs at local and regional level while the project stakeholders are: VET trainers and learners together with local and regional public bodies, other public bodies working for the promotion and management of activities in the field of labor market policies and employment. Selected teams of people, out of the above mentioned, in each country, will actively contribute to the platform implementation. These teams will work together and with the partners by the medium of working tables at local level (35 people in total). In a minimum scenario, the project goal is to involve as subscribers of the platform 100 organizations, but the number of reached organizations can be much higher considering the outreach range of such a tool. After its implementation and after a testing and finalizing phase, the platform will be promoted exploiting the partners’ networks, the dissemination tool aimed at the promotion of the project as a whole and by a serie of small events at local and regional level: the “VET2B: an alliance to grow smart” events (200 stakeholders in total in all countries) and the “VET2B: an opportunity to grow smart” events, exclusively designed for VET trainers and learners (300 people in total). All the project activities will be carried out by six partners coming from Latvia, Italy (two partners), Lithuania, Portugal and Poland, belonging to different business and social sectors and dealing with different topics (training, marketing, labour market, economy, social issues): together they will cooperate to provide a range of wide, real job opportunities, both to organizations and individuals. Five transnational meeting and five multiplier events involving 250 people in total will be part of the project activities. The project is designed to become sustainable: the sustainability plan includes a direct dissemination activity to promote the platform among VET providers, SMEs and public bodies, and a set of activities to start a collaborative dialogue with these organizations to be continued after the project closure. The contents of the platform itself are designed to be transferable to other contests and to be used by organization from European countries other than those of the partners. The project is developed at transnational level, as it will offer to participants opportunities to better understand foreign contexts, take part and be supported by an European stable network: all key assets in the labour market sector and a positive trigger for work quality and employment opportunities.