<< Background >>A key tool for achieving green transformation in the EU is reaching the widest possible audience of the socio-economic and environmental problems we face, as well as the means to address them. Education in the areas of sustainable and regenerative development and the circular economy is a key priority in the Circular Economy Action Plan, which is a key pillar of the European Green Pact (Green Deal). There is a complete lack of information in the society on these topics. In the media space, materials related to green economic development are very limited. Educational programs in schools anduniversities also lack adequate reflection of these fundamental priorities for the future development of the EU. The systematic integrated approach to the training / retraining of current and future staff needed for the green future of the country remains in the background. The Sustainable Development Goals are not abstract, but they might be perceived as very big, world-wide problems. Youngsters might not always be able to relate to these problems. However, these SDGs can also be translated to more local issues and goals. SUPER HEROES wants to use this step to create more awarenessof what the SDGs are and what youngsters themselves can do to contribute to these goals. First, zooming in on local issues related to the SDGs and then zooming out: by both a) presenting the local challenges to an international audience and b) finding solutions for local challenges from other countries.<< Objectives >>This project has the following objectives: •Increase awareness on environmental and issues in your own region •Increase awareness on environmental and social issues across Europe •Increase the active citizenship among students between 12 and 16 years old •Develop/improve intercultural skills among students between 12 and 16 years old •Increase level of English speaking among students between 12 and 16 years old •Develop innovative learning approach towards challenge identification and problem solving in the field of the SDGs<< Implementation >>During the project we will implement the following activities:- Development and testing/implementation of the SUPER HEROES Methodology - Development of the SUPER HEROES E-book - Development and testing/implementation of the SUPER HEROES Web application - Development of the SUPER HEROES Action Plans- Organisation of the SUPER HEROES International training in Spain- Actively building the SUPER HEROES International network<< Results >>The four main project results are the following: 1. SUPER HEROES Methodology (coordinated by AERES & INQ) 2. SUPER HEROES E-book (coordinated by GRUND) 3. SUPER HEROES App (coordinated by LAPTIFY)4. SUPER HEROES Action Plans (coordinated by EOLAS) These main project results will be produced in English and translated into the partner languages (Dutch, Bulgarian, Spanish and Latvian), thus allowing their promotion among a larger public and facilitating their adoption by stakeholder organisations in partner countries. The project results will be OER, in (interactive) PDF format and in editable format, and freely available.Expected intangible outcomes: -Increased awareness of SDGs amongst students and teachers in school education-Increased consciousness of challenges in the field of the SDGs in the student’s and teacher’s own region, but also beyond borders-Improved knowledge in partner organisations how to increase the awareness of students and teachers on the SDGs -Expansion and strengthening of the networks of the partner organisations-Broadened horizons and perspectives of the partner organisations and involved stakeholders

The project target groups are science teachers in STEM and ICT and students (age 14-19), studying science in high schools or professional schools. The project aims to increase the interest and understanding of STEM disciplines by students using new innovative methods and approaches. The main needs of the target groups addressed by the current proposal are: difficulties in understanding the scientific material and lack of comprehension about science concepts in students; teachers need to influence the students’ processes of problem understanding by structuring the objective task environment as clearly as possible. Studies in the field of science education show an increase in students' negative attitude towards science, lack of understanding of the material, scientific illiteracy. Students work without comprehension, just writing down what the teacher says, and have difficulties to imagine the discussed processes in real life.Lack of comprehension is the main problem of underachievement in schools, especially when it comes to science subjects. For students it hinders their ability to use the knowledge in everyday life, decreases their functional literacy and as a result it limits their abilities to work on their transversal competences, since they are mainly a passive side in the education process. For teachers lack of comprehension lowers their motivation to work and introduce new pedagogical tools and instruments.The problems in science education lead to the declining interest in science studies, which leads to decline in innovations and this is already creating serious problems for the European economy.The project aims to raise the interest and understanding of the students by new innovative methods. The project will enable students to be included in interdisciplinary training through specially developed lessons and to participate in annual projects with developments including the application of concepts and dependencies on boring science lessons.The new Z generation have different perceptual skills because of the digital environment in which they grow. This also requires new methods in their training. In support of our findings is the COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION of 22 May 2018. International surveys such as the OECD, PISA or the OECD, PIAAC indicate a constant high share of teenagers and adults with insufficient basic skills. In 2015 one in five pupils had serious difficulties in developing sufficient reading, mathematic or science skills. 44 % of the Union population have low or no (19 %) digital skills. Consequently, investing in basic skills has become more relevant than ever. High quality education, including extra-curricular activities and a broad approach to competence development, improves achievement levels in basic skills. In addition, new ways of learning need to be explored for a society that is becoming increasingly mobile and digital. Digital technologies have an impact on education, training and learning by developing more flexible learning environments adapted to the needs of a highly mobile society. Skills, such as problem solving, critical thinking, ability to cooperate, creativity, computational thinking, self-regulation are more essential than ever before in our quickly changing society. They are the tools to make what has been learned work in real time, in order to generate new ideas, new theories, new products, and new knowledge.Our project, building on the above-mentioned conclusions and experiences, aims to build on the next level of understanding science through the formation of key competences. The final goal of the project is to prepare 12 interdisciplinary key competences lessons (2 per country), 30 STEM projects for project-based learning that use real-world problems, as well as a system for evaluating them. These products will be distributed to all schools in partner countries and will be available on the project site. Through their application, the following key competences will be acquired: Digital competence, Mathematical competence and competence in science, technology and engineering; with the solution of real problems set in the projects - Citizenship competence, Entrepreneurship competence; for participants in international meetings - Multilingual competence, Cultural awareness and expression competence. Through these products and their dissemination, we will achieve our goal of open education and the creation of innovative practices in the digital era, which will be a sustainable investment in quality and effective education and training. The proposed project is a direct response to the EU strategic framework ET 2020 addressing comprehension as an ability to be developed in students as a corner stone for developing their creativity, adaptability, complex communication/social skills, non-routine problem-solving skills, self-management/self-development, and systems thinking.

The project STEPS4Schools deals with aspects of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) that should be introduced and promoted in the course of the project. In a first step, the aspect of sustainable tourism shall form the general topic for implementing aspects of learning business English, improving entrepreneurial skills (as marketing, tourism and project management), applying ICTtools and cooperating in an international group. In a second stage, the range of topics will be enlarged by dealing with further Sustainable Development Goals that will be chosen by individual schools on the basis of local requirements and topical interests. The 6 schools involved all have a vocational background although their profiles differ. By means of that, each school can contribute a specific approach to the topic and take care of a particular field of interest. Most of the teachers involved have a lot of experience in carrying out international projects and can contribute a lot of knowledge in various fields.The main aims of the project are to teach students about the UN SDGs. They should be made aware of the problems facing our planet but also that there are solutions to these problems. By pursuing these Sustainable Development Goals students should be enabled to make a valuable contribution to improving environmental, social and economic aspects of our societies and to pursue practicable solutions to challenges on different levels. Already as students they should be put in a position to assess information, evaluate reports and take responsible decisions for our future.Devising concepts in one concrete field - sustainable tourism - they should come up with practicable soultions that can be tried out and implemented in practice. The project shall empower them to gain the necessary skills and knowledge in order to be able to act as responsible citizens and take fact-based decisions. These are qualities that will also be important in their future professionsl lives.Furthermore, this project will also demonstrate that nowadays occurences have a far wider scope beyond the borders of the European Union. In an ever more interdependent world it is necessary to look beyond boundaries and be open for worldwide developments.To reach these goals of the project students will be invoved in various learning processes. They will increase their language proficiency in English, but will also be challenged to translate brochures and other content material into other languages or seek help from people capoble of that. This is necessary because of the internationalisation of toursim which calls for addressing touriists in their mother tongue.They will gain enhanced IT knowledge that will be needed for sourcing information, implementing tasks and disseminating project results. One special aspect in connection therewith will be the documentation of certain steps of the project, filmed material about the final results and the appropriate provision of this material for further use by stakeholders and other people interested. This will take the usual dissemination process one step further than previous projects and calls for speciel equipment and knowledge about application of videotaped media and related productions.On top of that, they will have to build up cooperations with stakeholders like travel and tourism representatives and other stakeholders involved in the field.They will have to learn how to organise and market events and projects and finally evaluate the outcome of these.Working with people not known to each other before and with disabled and disadvantaged people will pose a challenge, but also a great chance of learning both on an emotianal level and on an intercultural level. Finetuning touristic concepts to customers´ needs requires a lot of knowledge about certain aspects of culture and habits, therefore the exchange of knowledge and ideas on an international level between students is of utmost importance. The experience of working in an international group on a level of strong cooperation will provide invaluable experience for the students´ future lives and put them in position to act in an appropriate way. (We know about this aspect from previous project, where the compulsion to work together on an international level has proved very vital for the project.)All in all, the project will offer a valuable contribution to societies in Europe and supply workable solutions to various problems.

<< Background >>The linear economy model (take – make – waste) currently in use is showing all its limitations over time. For this reason, the EU is promoting an alternative economic system designed to regenerate itself and ensure its eco-sustainability (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Financing the Circular Economy, 2020), called circular economy (CE). In fact, CE can help countries to reach the global climate goals, changing the way they produce and consume goods.Companies have started to consider the fight against waste as their priority, adopting more sustainable practices. This will also affect the job market because, as stated in the EU Green Deal (2019), “the circular economy offers great potential for new activities and jobs”, connected with low-emission production processes and sustainable products. Thus, it is essential that future workers acquire knowledge related to the CE and sustainability, strengthening their green skills (EC, Education for Climate Action). This is particularly urgent in the economic sectors identified as priorities in “The new circular economy action plan” (2020) of the European Commission (EC, A New Circular Economy Action Plan for a Cleaner and More Competitive Europe, 2020), such as wood, plastics and agrifood. A fundamental role in this changing process will be played by VET institutions, particularly those active in the priority fields identified by the EC, in order to “engage with pupils, parents, and the wider community on the changes needed for a successful transition”(EU, Green Deal, 2019). Including in their learning and training programs courses of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) related to the CE and its principles (recycle, reuse, avoid wasting, eco-design, etc.), would enable educational institutions not only to disseminate knowledge and skills in line with global priorities on the environmental protection and with the labour market, but also to make students aware consumers and, potentially, future aware producers. Sustainability must be conceived as a transversal theme in the courses of schools and VET institutions, that is, as a lens through which we can reconsider the other subjects that are taught (ACR+ & Zero Waste Scotland, Circular Economy and Lifelong Learning - scenarios, methodologies, in action, 2019).In this context, the UN’s International Labour Office (ILO) identified the main challenges affecting the establishment of a CE and the role of green skills in supporting this transition (ILO, 2011):1- A lack of skills is hindering green economic development. In this skills shortage, it is reported that “many countries lack sufficient teachers and trainers in environmental awareness”;2- Many countries did not put in place development strategies for “green skills”;3- Green skills have not been sufficiently identified;4- Appropriate training has to be put in place to respond to this skills shortage. In particular, VET, which represents the bulk of training for green occupation, has been reacting more slowly than other educational sectors;5- The CE will have a profound negative effect on high carbon emitting sectors, such as petrochemical, manufacturing and agricultural industries. In all these sectors, workers, trainees and students need training in “green skills”.TREE project was designed to effectively respond to the context and the challenges listed above. In particular, TREE project will address the following needs:Provision of common definitions of “green skills” for the plastics, wood and agrifood sector;Provision of training for teachers to implement ESD in VET institutions;Increase of VET students environmental awareness and “green skills”;Integrating the teaching of ESD in VET institutions to provide “green skills”;Harmonization of educational policies for promotion of the green transition and the CE;Establishing closer cooperation between businesses and VET institutions.<< Objectives >>“Micro and project-based learning for Teaching ciRcular Economy and Ecological awareness in VET” (TREE project) aims to increase the employability of VET students through the creation of an innovative course on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and promote the CE through the infusion of new “green skills”. Drawing on Micro- and Project-based learning practices, TREE project will aim to provide a programme that can readily be adopted in VET’s curricula. The above goals will be reached, through the attainment of the following 7 specific objectives:Provide definitions of relevant “green skills” for the plastics, wood and agrifood sector: The project will aim to fight the skills mismatch hindering the development of the CE by identifying, selecting, and defining the “green skills” that workers of the plastics, wood and agrifood sector will need to participate in the green economy. In order to ensure the direct applicability of these skills in the job market, their definition will be established through a cooperation between education experts, VET teachers, job and HR consultants working in green companies of the three sectors identified.Integrate the teaching of ESD and the CE into VET institutions’ curricula:In order to contribute to the green transition, VET institutions all over Europe need to teach ESD as a transversal theme, integrating it in their current curricula. The TREE project will aim to do so, by establishing a training course based on micro- and project-based learning, to maximize its transferability and simplify its adoption in regular teaching activities of VET institutions.Promote collaboration between VET institutions and companies that adopt sustainable practices:The TREE project will aim to foster collaboration between green companies of the plastics, wood, and agrifood sector and VET institutions, in order to reduce the gap between education and the job market. In particular, companies will provide relevant support in defining the “green skills” needed by their workers, ensuring the effectiveness of TREE project training course.Increase VET teachers’ competences to teach ESD for the CE:As VET teachers are lacking the relevant competencies to teach ESD, notions of the CE and transfer “green skills” on their students, TREE project will aim to establish relevant training for them. The training will aim to increase their teaching competences, knowledge of sustainability and ecological awareness, making them active participants of the green transition.Promote the infusion of relevant “green skills” for the job market in VET students:Through the training course developed within the TREE project, students will obtain new “green skills” that will increase their employability and help them contribute to the green transition. The usefulness of the “green skills” identified within the project will be guaranteed by the direct involvement of green companies.Increase the ecological awareness of VET students and teachers, as well as promote the adoption of “green habits”:Within the TREE project, both teachers and students will gain relevant knowledge about ecological awareness and sustainable behaviors. In this way, the project aims to support the diffusion of “green habits” at the local level.Support policy harmonization at national and EU level for teaching ESD:The training courses will be based on extensive and comprehensive researches about national and EU policy relating to ecology, CE and ESD. These researches will be completed with the development of policy suggestions that will be presented to relevant institutions with the aim to foster harmonization of educational policies at national and EU level.<< Implementation >>The activities planned to reach the objectives mentioned above may be divided into three steps:Step 1 - Knowledge building: All partners will conduct researches to define:The appropriate “green skills” that VET trainees will need to participate in the green economy;The partner countries and European contexts in relation to current practices and methodologies for teaching ESD in VET institutions and their connection to the job market and the CE;How to integrate Micro- and Project-based learning to teach ESD and infuse “green skills” in VET students;Instructions on how to effectively teach ESD within VET institutions.This step will be mainly carried out through the integration of primary and secondary research activities. Primary research will consist in the administration of questionnaires, the conducting of semi-structured interviews and/or focus groups with VET teachers, VET staff and green companies, to better understand their opinions, expectations, wishes and challenges in relation to ESD, “green skills”, CE and the needs of the job market. Primary research will be mainly used to identify, select and define the appropriate “green skills” for the plastics, wood and agrifood sectors, as well as ensure that project’s results will answer to the needs of the target groups. On the other hand, secondary research will comprise a desk review aimed at collecting useful information on (i) national and EU policies, (ii) best practices for teaching ESD in VET institutions, (iii) knowledge on how to adopt micro- and project-based learning to teach ESD and “green skills”, and (iv) how to integrate the teaching of ESD in VET institutions. Step 2 - Training Course design and testing:Step 2 will be devoted to the creation of the project teaching material, the training of teachers and the testing in VET institutions. All partners will collaborate to create the modules of the course and define the methodologies that will be used in the training activities for teachers. Then, after completing the training of VET teachers, teachers will be asked to test the project’s course in their institutions. To verify the effectiveness of the teaching methodologies and the training course, all partners will carry out monitoring activities through the administration of questionnaires among teachers and students. The results of the monitoring activities will be collected to develop a final report on the testing of the training course.Step 3 - Digitalization:Finally, during Step 3, the material produced in the previous phases will be collected, digitized and uploaded on an online Open Educational Resource (OER) platform. Partners will cooperate to determine the technical solutions that are more appropriate to answer the needs of the target groups and develop multimedia material (such as videos, slides, texts, audios, etc.) to upload on the OER platform. The platform will provide both training materials for teachers, as well as pre-made lessons to be readily adopted in classes. Moreover, the platform will also include a section dedicated to the presentation of different green companies contacted to share information about their processes, products and in what way they contribute to the green transition, presenting relevant and concrete examples of sustainable industrial practices. Partners will contact these companies and involve them in the project as associated partners.<< Results >>Within TREE project three main Results (R) are foreseen:R1 - TREE Methodological Material (e-book)A comprehensive review of ESD, CE topics and educational policies related to sustainability in partner countries and at EU level, that will include:- A definition of the main topics and green skills addressed by TREE project course;- A description of how micro- and project-based learning will be adopted to successfully instill the green skills identified in - students;- A list of instructions on how to implement ESD in VET institutions - Good practices for teaching ESD in VET institutions- Policy recommendations on how to foster the teaching of ESD at national and EU level.Main deliverables: National and Transnational AnalysesMethodological Material (e-book)R2 - TREE Training ProgrammeA complete training programme on ESD and the CE, divided in two macro-sections, one devoted to the teaching of more general ESD and CE topics through “micro-learning modules”, addressing also sustainable behaviors that can be adopted on a daily basis, and a second one that will explain to students how CE and sustainability are declined in specific economic sectors (wood, plastics and agrifood), through the adoption of “project-based learning” practices. This result will also include a testing phase in VET institutions. Teachers will be trained to learn the methodologies adopted in course and update their knowledge about sustainability and the CE. After their training, they will adopt the TREE Training Programme in their institutions for a period of 12 weeks, during which partners will collect data to monitor the process and analyze the effectiveness of the content and the teaching practices. The data collected will be used to develop an analysis report on the impact of the training programme. Main deliverables:TREE Training ProgrammeTesting reportR3 - TREE Open Educational Resource (OER) platformA web-based online repository comprising all the materials developed throughout the project. The OER will be freely accessible and it will allow the dissemination of TREE results at EU level. The OER platform and TREE progrmme will be tested by external experts, in order to obtain data on their effectiveness, as well as relevant feedback and suggestions for their implementation in VET. Moreover, it will also include a specific section, called TREE Network Database, which will include information about companies of the plastics, wood and agrifood sectors that adopt relevant green practices, as well as international opportunities for VET students, such as internships, jobs or other relevant offers for them.Main deliverables:TREE OER platformReport on platform testingTREE network databaseIn terms of impact, the project will generate:- Increased knowledge and awareness about ecology and circular economy of VET students and VET teachers;- Establishment of a closer link between VET institutions and business;- Strengthening of VET’s institutions curricula towards ecological issues;- Increased adoption of eco-friendly habits in all target groups involved;- Infusion of “green skills” in VET students directly involved in the project's activities.Long-term benefits envisaged are:- Increased employability of VET’s students;- Diffusion of ecological habits at local, regional and EU level;- Increased awareness and diffusion of “green skills” at local, regional and EU level.

The project VET4SCAPE was a project for Higher Vocational Schools and wanted to improve the quality of that education. The title of the project refers to Vocational Educational Training for Skills, Competence and The Practice for the Economy. A similar project has preceded this one, the experiences from that project were implemented in this project. We implemented aspects laid down in the Declaration of the EU Ministers in charge of Vocational Education and Training for the period 2015 - 2020. (Riga conclusions 2015)There were basically 3 pillars on which this project was built. 1)The central part was to form junior companies in order to get hands-on experience with economic activities. The students gained experience with JA firms by planning and running these firms and exchanged their experiences with junior firms from the partner schools. Thus we will stimulated creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship for their further careers. They got a certificate for participation in the junior achievement scheme. The firms were presented during a short term training event at the end of the project period. The goal was to strengthen entrepreneurship, especially in countries where it is difficult to set up a start-up company. 2) A second aspect dealt with enhancing the competence in Business English. Students trained certain topics to go in for an LCCI (London Chamber of Commerce and Industry) certificate. On these topics the students went in for mock exams, which improved their abilities to communicate, negotiate and act in a confident way in an international business environment.3) The third pillar was to strenghten the students' transcultural competence and ability to cooperate in an international team. For that they compiled a list of advice about do´s and don´ts for particular countries for which they needed to cooperate internationally. To be successful in business you must know the mentality and the background of a culture of a country to be able to succeed.In a globalised world it is necessary to prepare our students for international activities as soon as possible. In this project students and teachers had the opportunity to get in contact with people from 6 other schools both directly and online.The project targeted students and teachers from 7 VET schools in the project countries and stakeholders in connection with the schools (companies, local communities, parents, supporting organisztions like LCCI and Junior Achievement). The teachers involved in the project had the opportunity to obtain further knowledge and competence through professional development. As economic activities are no longer limited to the national level, it is necessary to prepare the students for these activities on an international level and, therefore, we cooperated across borders (comparison of legal aspects for starting a business, salaries, educational systems, cross-border trade, etc.) The results were made available to any interested stakeholders both on the VET4SCAPE eTwinning platform,and on the project website https://vet4scape.wixsite.com/erasmusplus. Furthermore, we offered the results in teacher´s groups on etwinning (English as a second Language, CLIL) to gain as much publicity as possible.The main aim of the project was to get graduates who have undergone hands-on practical experience in the running of a real company and who have learned to cooperate in an international team. Furthermore their knowledge of business English has improved above average knowledge and the transnational competence has enabled them to behave and act in an appropriate way in business and regular day-to-day situations in project partner countries.