<< Objectives >>The project’s objectives are to develop and promote a green culture in VET education and apprenticeships and foster collaboration between academia and the private sector for the development of green skills of students during apprenticeships.GO GREEN will facilitate the implementation of WBL concentrated on green skills and support EU policies and recommendations, such as the Green Deal, the Sustainable development goals and the new skills agenda.<< Implementation >>5 Work Packages are going to be implemented:WP1 Project management WP2 Platform for the acquisition of green skills during work-based learningWP3 Capacity building of VET trainers to support the acquisition of Green skills during work-based learningWP4 Application of GO GREEN apprenticeshipsWP5 Sustainability and impact<< Results >>Project results are:- Organisation of 2 study visits to VET schools- Online platform for green skills- Online assessment tool for green skills- GO GREEN apprenticeship framework- Trainers guide- Trainees guide- Orientation guide- Transnational workshop- Seminars for trainers- Pilot GO GREEN apprenticeships- Good practices compendium- 4 National conferences, 1 transnational- An online transnational event- Social media campaigns

Every year across Europe hundreds of thousands of individuals take part in several work-based learning activities in order to acquire and/or update their knowledge, skills and competences. However, in practice the visibility and transferability of the learning outcomes obtained in such activities remains quite problematic due to the fact that learning that takes place at the workplace, does not result in credits that can be accumulated or transferred to other learning contexts. As a result, learning outcomes (i.e. knowledge, skills and competences) obtained within the apprenticeship and other forms of work-based learning, are often not recognized for further studies in the formal VET system (e.g. HE VET) neither within nor outside the national boarders. The lack of permeability and transferability between the several forms of work-based learning at national and European level, results in hundreds of thousands of productivity hours being lost when individuals decide to move from the one learning context to the other (i.e. from non-formal to formal), and constitutes a major motivational barrier in work-based learning for hundreds of thousands of students and unemployed people who wish to achieve a formal qualification either for securing a job or moving up the professional ladder.In ECWORK project, we developed a bottom-up approach for credit transfer of learning outcomes acquired through transnational work-based learning mobility. The project was implemented in electromechanics field, involving qualifications at EQF levels 4/5, across Southern European countries using ECVET methodology. The general objective of the project was to facilitate validation, recognition and transfer of learning outcomes in electromechanics sector, acquired through transnational work-based learning using ECVET methodology. The specific objectives of the project were: • To map European qualifications on electromechanics of countries of South Europe and identify transferable units of learning outcomes for transnational mobility of students• To develop a teachers’ guide for organisation of transnational work-based learning mobility• To develop an employers’ guide for designing work-based learning in companies• To develop a toolkit for students, to facilitate and support them in transnational mobility and work-based learning. • To organise a learning activity for VET organisations on ECVET methodology• To pilot test the work-based learning modules and the credit transfer methodology, through limited mobilities.Following the above prerequisites, a high impact partnership has been formed, comprising of a total of 6 partners from 5 Member States (Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Portugal), representing VET schools and VET centres offering electromechanics at different EQF levels and an organisation expert in ECVET:• ESS, FORAVE: VET schools• IEK DELTA, Intercollege: VET colleges – EQF level 5• FFE: VET school and VET centre• IDEC: expert in ECVETThe results achieved during project implementation were:1. Common Study – identification of national qualifications on electromechanics at levels 4/5 of EQF. Language: EN, EL, HR, ES, PT.2. Training of nine (9) VET trainers on ECVET methodology and application in work-based learning. Language: EN.3. Teachers guide for immediate use by the VET trainers in the consortium countries and across Europe. Language: EN, EL, HR, ES, PT.4. Employers guide for immediate use by the employers providing work-based learning in the consortium countries and across Europe. Language: EN, EL, HR, ES, PT.5. Students toolkit for supporting students in organising their work-placement abroad. Language: EN, EL, HR, ES, PT.6. Mobility eight (8) VET students in 4 EU countries, for work-placements. The mobilities served as pilot testing for the other project outputs. 7. Report on ECVET implementation – recommendations based on the results from the pilots, the policy recommendations and the recommendations for VET schools / employers. Language: EN, EL, HR, ES, PT.8. Project's leaflet (electronic/downladable copy) & project web presence incorporated within the partner's websites – with downloadable copies of all key project outputs in the identified languages9. Five (5) National Project/Stakeholder Multiplier Events for presenting the project and its main activities to the national stakeholders and target groups10. Participation and Project/Results presentation in EFVET COM, during the conference. Dissemination of project and results is a critical aspect of this project and has been given significant attention & equal priority with all other implementation activities. Special attention has been paid in linking the project with national ECVET activities for maximum penetration such as National Team of ECVET Experts being run by the National Agencies in the consortium countries, as well as utilizing existing links with prominent government VET policy institutions.

In recent years there has been a notable shift in the skills required by employees by privileging soft skills over hard skills. Soft skills are currently described as some of the most important core competences, which represent a dynamic combination of cognitive and meta-cognitive skills, interpersonal, intellectual, emotional and practical skills and which can be applied across employment contexts. EU (2016) classifies soft skills as ‘Key competences for lifelong learning’. Nevertheless, there is no defining list of soft skills, but one can find common elements, which is that soft skills are divided into three main groups:a) Personal skills, i.e. Learning skills, Tolerance to stress, Professional ethics, Self-awareness, Commitment, Life balance, Creativity/Innovationb) Social skills, i.e. Communication, Teamwork, Contact network, Negotiation, Conflict Management, Leadership, Culture Adaptabilityc) Content-reliant/Methodological skills, i.e. Customer/User orientation, Continuous improvement, Adaptability to change, Results orientation, Analytical skills, Decision making, Management skills, Research and info management (Cinque, 2016).The optimum method to approach students and provide them the chance to develop the soft skills needed at work is work-based learning and apprenticeship. The work-based learning and apprenticeships, in fact, offer the shift from transmission models of teaching –learning about- to experiential learning -learning for- and provide the opportunity to integrate hands-on experiences with theory. Different forms of work-based learning have been implemented in Europe and currently provide apprenticeships for 2/3 of young people. However, apprenticeships are focused on the specific vocational skills, required in the specialisation and not on the acquisition of soft skills.Filling this gap, the DESSA project aims to develop an apprenticeship scheme for the acquisition of soft skills by students in upper secondary and higher vocational education and training.The specific objectives of the project are:-To organise focus groups in order to identify and focus on specific soft skills that best address the needs of the project’s stakeholders. -To map best practices and methodologies applied for the development of soft skills in VET apprenticeship education in partner countries. -To develop an apprenticeship scheme for the acquisition of soft skills and competences by upper secondary and higher VET students. -To apply gamification elements in the apprenticeship scheme -To develop a trainers’ guide addressed to trainers in VET schools and companies that will apply the apprenticeship scheme and will design, support and evaluate the apprenticeship programme. -To organize seminars for trainers in VET schools and companies that are interested to apply the apprenticeship scheme. -To create an online tool for self-assessing soft skills, for students to set their own learning agenda by identifying their strengths and areas of improvement.The project will produce three core intellectual outputs that are:IO1 Apprenticeship scheme for the development of soft skills and competencesIO2 Trainers guideIO3 Web platform for the assessment of soft skills The apprenticeship scheme for the development of soft skills and competences will be based on gamification and natural mentoring elements. These two elements, the gamification and natural mentoring methods, will help to keep the apprentice engaged, motivated, involved and comfortable. The apprenticeship scheme will include theoretical foundation and guiding principles for the design, implementation and evaluation of apprenticeship programme for the development of soft skills and competences.The direct target group of the project is VET trainers and companies involved in apprenticeship programmes, yet, the final beneficiaries are students enrolled in upper secondary and higher VET schools and centres. The project is implemented by 6 partners from 5 countries (Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Poland and Lithuania), representing four VET schools, one university and one adult training company.The project is designed to have an impact at local/regional/national and European levels. At local level, the project will contribute to the improvement of students soft skills, the promotion of apprenticeships and the increase of the employability perspective of VET students. At national and European level, the project will contribute to the promotion of apprenticeships, work-based learning and soft skills learning at the workplace.

"Every year across Europe hundreds of thousands of individuals attend non-formal VET programmes (e.g. IVET & CVET programmes which do not lead to formal certification) in order to acquire and/or update their knowledge, skills and competences. However, in practice the visibility and transferability of the learning outcomes obtained in such non-formal VET programmes remains quite problematic due to the fact that training that takes place within the non-formal VET system, often does not result in credits that can be accumulated or transferred to other learning contexts. As a result, learning outcomes (i.e. knowledge, skills and competences) obtained within the non-formal VET system, are often not recognized for further studies in the formal VET system (e.g. HE VET) neither within nor outside the national boarders. The lack of permeability and transferability between the non-formal and formal VET systems, at national and European level, results in hundreds of thousands of training and productivity hours being lost when individuals decide to move from the one learning context to the other (i.e. from non-formal to formal), and constitutes a major motivational barrier in the educational path for hundreds of thousands of learners who wish to achieve a formal qualification either for securing a job or moving up the professional ladder. Recognizing the importance of the recognition and transferability of learning outcomes acquired within different learning contexts for enhancing employability and mobility as well as increasing motivation for lifelong learning, the Council of the European Union has adopted in 2012 the Recommendation for the Validation of non-formal and informal learning. The Recommendation instructs the Members States ""to have in place no later than 2018, in accordance with national circumstances and specificities, and as they deem appropriate, arrangements for the validation of non-formal and informal learning."" The overall aim of the ECVET PERMiT project was the implementation of the ECVET methodology in the curricula of VET study programmes within the non- formal and formal VET system, in an effort to increase the permeability and transferability of the learning outcomes achieved from the one learning context to the other. Specifically, the project aimed to apply the ECVET methodology for describing, assessing and validating learning outcomes in a selected number of vocational programmes (focusing primarily in three technical specializations), in three Member States (Cyprus, Malta, and Greece), in order to test the transferability of credits from the non-formal to the formal VET system, firstly within the national boarders and secondly on a transnational level. The project implementation thus involved three specific objectives: (1) To apply the ECVET methodology in a selected number of technical vocation programmes within the non-formal and formal VET systems in three EU countries: Cyprus, Malta and Greece;(2) To test the transferability of learning outcomes from the non-formal to the formal VET system at national and transnational level;(3) To raise awareness within the VET community about the benefits of the implementation of the ECVET system and promote the implementation of ECVET for permeability and transferability within the non-formal and formal VET system at national and European level.In order to ensure the success of the project and validity of results, six (6) key stakeholders from three (3) Member States (Cyprus, Greece, Malta) representing the government, semi-government, and private VET sector, have joined forces for this partnership. Analytically, 4 VET providers from Cyprus, Greece and Malta, all key public and private providers in technical vocation in the non-formal and formal VET system, one national VET policy organization, and one company pioneer in the use and application of ECVET in vocational training, form the core of this partnership and are uniquely positioned to produce high impact results both at national and European level."

It is true that Europe had to quickly adjust to the new reality in education, that the COVID-19 pandemic brought. To cope with this situation, schools had to quickly adapt and deliver courses and training remotely, something that was not always executed successfully, since neither teachers nor students were prepared for the transition.The main reason why Carcraft project was formed was to provide a response to the COVID-19 situation, which has affected VET education mostly. VET education relies more on hands on experience and WBL than theoretical education. COVID-19 has caused temporary lock downs in March, for the majority of European countries, which meant that schools had to be closed and student’s had to rely on digital resources to follow classes. The project CarCraft comes to fulfill the above identified needs, by assisting the modernisation and digital transformation of VET education, through the creation of a virtual game based on the minecraft world, especially designed for automotive mechanics VET courses.The specific objectives of the project are:-To increase the digital education readiness of the VET schools involved in the project-To train the trainers on how to utilize simulation games to enhance their teaching-To help VET students, who can not attend face to face classes (eg. due to COVID 19 infection), continue with their education, so that they do not feel excluded or left behind-To raise awareness about the future of digital education The target groups of the project are VET organisations, VET students and VET educators. CarCraft project will be implemented by 6 organisations, from 5 different countries: UK, Greece, Netherlands, Cyprus and Hungary. Partners participating in this project, wanted to equip their education institutions and training systems, in order to face challenges presented by COVID and the sudden shift to online and distance learning. Our goal thus, is to modernise the education provided in VET education, by providing high quality, engaging and inclusive digital education. The means to do so, will be by providing an online simulation game, for car mechanics, based on the popular game Minecraft. The CarCraft project will produce a simulation game for VET learners. The game will be based on the minecraft world (education edition), an already existing and popular online game. The Carcraft simulation game will be enhanced with car tuning challenges, especially designed for the students who follow automotive mechanics classes. The students will have to identify problems, build their own cars and implement corrective measures. To achieve this, a learning methodology will be created and learning outcomes will be applied in the car tuning challenges that will be described and transferred into the simulation game. Resource packs and modifications software programmes will be created, which will be then uploaded on the minecraft game. Furthermore, a manual and lesson plans will be created, addressed to VET teachers, on how to integrate the game into their classes. General results of the project are:Capacity building of VET teachers on using innovative digital tools in their classrooms, to teach classes that usually require practical exercises. Awareness raising on the benefits of utilising digital education tools, to engage the students and provide alternative solutions for teaching and learning, in crisis situations like COVID. Contribution to the digital education readiness of VET schools, which are going to be equipped with alternative solutions in case of a new lock down. Contribution to the general development of digital skills of students and teachers.Engagement of students to continue their education and training through digital tools even in periods of lockdown. The project is expected to have major impact on participants, the target group, participating organisation, stakeholders as well as impact at local, regional, national and European level. The project will facilitate the implementation of the digital education action plan (2021-2027), for the provision of high quality, inclusive and accessible digital education in Europe, since it will support the digital transformation plans at VET education and training through an Erasmus cooperation project. In particular, it will facilitate the 1st priority (Fostering the development a high-performing digital education ecosystem) by creating digitally by creating competent and confident teachers and education and training staff offering high-quality learning content, user-friendly tools and secure platforms which respect privacy and ethical standards. It will also support eh 2nd priority (Enhancing digital skills and competences for the digital transformation) by building basic and advanced digital skills to participants, which also ensures that girls and young women are equally presented.