<< Background >>The context from which the idea for the project EupTrain emerged, came from common identified needs of European organizations in the field of adult education in terms of personnel development. Trainers of low-skilled adults (EQF level 1&2) are confronted with various issues working with this target group across Europe. This was identified through a series of surveys which were developed and conducted in the participating educational organizations and was based on qualitative interviews. The interviewees were qualified trainers of low skilled adults, who shared their experiences working with this target group in terms of their daily personal and professional struggles they experience during the training. From this a questionnaire was developed and completed by 85 trainers for adult education (working in the partner organizations) in order to assess the situation in the participating countries. The questionnaire results showed the need for transnational knowledge exchange of methods especially suitable for the group of low-skilled adults as for example in terms of group dynamics or conflict management.<< Objectives >>The objective of EUpTrain was to create a transnational network between Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal, Greece and Romania in order to share Europe-wide knowledge between organizations specialized in adult education through exchange of experts and the development of a sustainable handbook comprising transnational good practices and methods for trainers working with low-skilled adults. The target group of this project were trainers of low-skilled adults, with at least 2 years of working experience (certified language trainers AND a) trainers in adult education OR b) trainers in cultural integration and orientation OR c) trainers for basic skills). EUpTrain implementation was carried out in a spirit of professionalism, open communication and trust between partners, with a strong commitment to cooperation, knowledge-exchange, well-defined roles and responsibilities related to the division of tasks. All requirements for monitoring, evaluation and feedback were taken care of to ensure the quality of the final results and partnership.<< Implementation >>EUpTrain activities included:= 3 transnational project meetings (first 1 online due to COVID 19, 2 on site) attended by a total of 23 experts (up to 15 trainers (possible as it was online) and 8 project managers)= one knowledge exchange workshop with the main goal to filter out examples of good practices from all participating organizations and to show international differences, new opportunities, new ways of work and different methodologies in training of low-skilled adults (19 trainers and 8 project managers with pedagogical background)= based on the workshop results: creation of a handbook (translated to all partner languages and English) containing 16 best practices, 2 from each country, and 8 methodologies<< Results >>The results of EUpTrain are a 40-page long handbook (translated into 8 languages, 7 national languages and English) containing the results of knowledge-exchange activities, specifically a collection of concrete examples of international best practice examples and methodologies for trainers working with low-skilled adults. This varied collection of best practices and methodologies is making the project results valuable for other European countries as well. The handbook is accessible online and free of charge for all partners and other organizations. Through the dissemination of the handbook, trainers who work with low-skilled adults in all of Europe who are not participating in this project, also benefit from the project results and are be able to increase their knowledge and expertise. Additionally, the creation of a transnational network between the partner organizations ensures the sustainability of the project results. The overall aim of the project was to promote networking and synergy-creation on European level and to increase the knowledge exchange and the collaboration of trainers working with low-skilled adults and of organizations in the field of adult education in Europe. The mid-term impact was to establish synergies and to build bridges between these different organizations with the resulting long-term impact to contribute in this way to increase the education level and therefore lower the unemployment rates of low-skilled adults in Europe.

Eldicare 2.0, as the continuation of the Project Eldicare: Matching Skills in a growing European Silver Economy, aims to strengthen the cooperation among sectoral partners on elderly care and educational providers in healthcare, as well as to update the occupational profiles and competencies of professionals in the elderly caregiving sector, by providing a sectoral skills long-term strategy that will tackle skills gaps on the labor market and anticipate future skills. In parallel, its specific objectives include the a) up/reskilling of the elderly care professionals, b) upgrade the existing and emerging Occupational Profiles with up-to-date and essential skills for the elderly care practitioners, c) establishment of a joint methodology for addressing future skills needs, d) enhancement of the quality and the attractiveness of training in the health care sector at a European, National, Regional and Local Level. In order to achieve these objectives, the following activities will be implemented:-Definition of a forward-looking Upskilling and Reskilling Strategy for the elderly care sector-Development of a set of up-to-date Occupational Skills Profiles for elderly care practitioners-Design of modular competence-based training curricula for the reskilling and upskilling of elderly care practitioners based on the new Occupational Profiles-Pilot delivery of Trainings-Offering hands-on solutions to generate long-term impact and sustainability in the elderly care sectorIn the consortium, we are going to involve Educational Providers of Healthcare Trainings (VET & HEI), Market Representatives (elderly care nursing homes, EU Associations) and Partners that provide specific expertise. We are going to train 850 learners, while 60 mobility flows will be implemented. Inter alia, the following results are expected: Blueprint Report on the future Elderly Care Providers, 6 Competence Based Curricula, Policy Recommendations, updated Occupational Profiles in caregiving sector.

The growing demand for skilled employees within the European Software Sector cannot be met by current education and training programmes. Europe needs an innovative new Software Skills Strategy that can fast-track the upskilling and reskilling of Europe’s workforce to address this ever-increasing skills gap. Technology innovation has changed the paradigm of the way software and IT infrastructure are being designed, delivered and managed (vide: automation, instant availability of services, growing software support functions), allowing for shorter and more efficient education cycles. Vocational education is considered as an applicable format, which enables better alignment with industry and employers real time needs and more flexible learning pathways.The European Software Skills Alliance led by DIGITALEUROPE brings together key Industry and Education stakeholders from across the domain to design and implement a highly innovative, effective and sustainable Software Skills Strategy for Europe that will ensure the skills needs of the rapidly expanding and evolving Software Sector can be met in the short, medium and long term. The Alliance will work together to develop, implement and disseminate a new Software Skills Strategy that will tackle the current and future skills shortages in the European Software Sector, enabling continuous development, innovation and competitiveness within the industry.The project includes:- the establishment of a long-term partnership between The European Software Skills Alliance members; - the design of an innovative and sustainable Software Skills Strategy;- development, testing and roll-out of VET training curricula for VET and higher VET;- VET training programmes and qualifications in line with latest market needs and consistently linked with EU instruments and tools enabling professional skills and career development in general and empowering ICT Professionalism and digital competences in particular.

"<< Background >>Despite a recent decrease in the relevant rate in the EU, combatting youth unemployment remains one of the priorities of national and European agendas since in February 2020 the EU youth unemployment rate was 14.8% as compared to 24.1% in February 2013. However, there are still great differences between the EU Member States, and the share of long-term unemployed among the unemployed is still about 45%.The youth unemployment rate is only partially a reflection of the situation among young Europeans, as it is limited to people between 15 and 24 who are conventionally unemployed. The various groups within the NEET category have different characteristics and needs, but all NEETs share the common feature of not accumulating human capital through the labour market or education and training. There are great variations between the EU Member States regarding NEET rates, with Italy having the highest rate among the youngest age group, followed by Bulgaria, Romania and Greece.The most important European policy incentive has been the Youth Guarantee Council Recommendation on ensuring that, within four months of leaving school or losing a job, young people under 25 could either find a quality job suited to their background or acquire the education, skills and experience required to find a job in the future through an apprenticeship, traineeship or continued education. However, a 2016 report indicated that the policy initiative has been successful, but maintained that more effort was needed to support ""hard-to-reach"" young people. These findings were reiterated in 2018, when a report from the European Commission stated: “Youth Guarantee interventions are often not sufficiently adapted to the needs of those facing multiple barriers, such as poverty, social exclusion, disability and discrimination. This is the result of a number of factors, including a limited knowledge of the specific needs of different NEET groups, lack of low-threshold offers, insufficient geographical coverage (often in rural areas) and complexity of registration procedures.DG-VET project partners recognize the important contribution of the Digital and Green economy (DaGE) sectors to creating job opportunities for young people living in rural areas. According to the OECD's report ""Employment implications of Green Growth: Linking jobs, growth and green policies"":- Green policies can achieve job creation in a number of ‘green’ economic sectors and through a transition of the economy towards more labor-intensive services sectors, while job destruction especially occurs in ‘brown’ sectors whose activities get replaced by green sectors.- Existing labour market policy tools are largely sufficient, but can be applied more effectively. Education and training systems that prepare workers for future labour demand needs are especially important to smooth the transition.- The digital economy has the potential to enhance productivity, income and social well-being. It is creating job opportunities in new markets and increasing employment in some existing occupations.<< Objectives >>The main objective of the DG-VET project will be to develop a new innovative form of training material along with a gamified e-learning platform and a methodology for designing and implementing acceleration programs for potential young entrepreneurs and apprentices that will empower VET organizations/trainers throughout Europe by enabling them to support:- young/women NEETs living in rural areas in developing and enhancing their digital and green skills;- their (self) employment in the two rapidly developing sectors of Digital and Green economy.Furthermore, the project will aim to tackle:- The digital divide phenomenon: the gap between those living in rural areas and those living in cities in access to ICT;- The skills mismatch between job requirements and workers’ skills within DaGE sectors;- The lack of policy engagement in the promotion and implementation of supportive youth-oriented VET programs.<< Implementation >>Following the official ERASMUS+ guidelines, DG-VET project partners will adopt an innovative methodology for the successful overall implementation of the project as well as of the specific tasks and activities.PROJECT MANAGEMENT & IMPLEMENTATIONManagement Handbook is foreseen to be the main document in which all relevant guidelines for the project’s overall administrative, technical and financial management will provided to project partners. Specifically, the Management Handbook will describe and provide:- The tools and methodology for the project’s overall and financial management, implementation and monitoring- The official templates, timeline and procedure for the project’s reporting activities- The tools and methodology for the internal communication among project partners- The project’s Risk Management Plan- The project’s monitoring bodies along with their roles and responsibilities- The detailed action plan & timeline for the implementation of the project’s tasks and activities. TRANSNATIONAL PROJECT MEETINGS4 transnational meetings will form an integral part of the strategic partnership. Each one will address key project deliverables, project management and monitoring activity. This will include budget management, progress and timesheet reporting, workplan and risk register review, project results progress update etc. The face-to-face meetings will be complemented by monthly meetings (online) to ensure the project KPIs remain on-track and within the proposed timeframes.PROJECT RESULTSWithin DG-VET project, partners will develop the following project results:- PR1: Data collection for the profiling of NEETs and the DaGE sectors at national & European level- PR2: Agriculture 4.0: Equipping young NEETs with basic & advanced digital and green skills- PR3: DG-VET gamified e-learning platform & online community- PR4: DG-VET Toolbox for VET teachers / trainers and policy makersMULTIPLIER EVENTS“A more Digital & Green European VET Education” Campaigns will be organized and implemented in each partner countries in the form of a multiplier event. The main aim of these events will be to present and disseminate the project’s achieved results to the relevant target groups.QUALITY ASSURANCE & MONITORINGThe Quality Assurance & Evaluation Plan will include all relevant key actions, tools and methodology that will ensure the achievement of high-quality outputs and results. Moreover, it will describe the procedure and provide relevant templates for the evaluation of the project’s transversal and specific activities (project management, transnational meetings, project results, multiplier events, etc.). Following the project’s Quality Assurance & Evaluation Plan, concrete activities will be also implemented:- Evaluation of the project's TMs, PRs and multiplier events- Development of the Interim & Final Quality Assurance & Evaluation ReportDISSEMINATION & EXPLOITATIONConcrete dissemination activities that will be implemented will be:- Development of the project’s logo (M1-M2), website (M1-M3), social media profiles (M1-M3) and brochure in all partners' languages (M1-M6).- Development of the project’s visual identity, including templates with a transversal use by all project partners (ppt presentations, a template for the development of PRs, etc.) (M1-M6)- Sending out project’s newsletters periodically throughout the duration of the project’s lifetime, promoting the main outputs and results of the project (M6, 12, 18, 24)SUSTAINABILITYMIITR will develop the project’s Sustainability and Exploitation Plan aiming to:1. Clearly identify the project’s Key Exploitable Results (KERs) and their direct and indirect value and impact for the different stakeholders;2. Design a concrete strategy and methodology that will ensure the successful post-project exploitation of these results;3. Shape and transform the project partnership into a permanent ecosystem with the purpose of maintaining and promoting the PRs.<< Results >>DG-VET project’s tangible results will be:- The detailed profiling of NEETs and of the Digital and Green economy sectors at national and European level through the use of open-source profiling software- The development of a methodology and a best practice ‘manual’ which will standardize the following aspects for the areas of:Profiling the main NEETs in a given area on how to identify the most vulnerable sub-groups for intervention measures such as VET training and education;Identifying the best methods of reaching and engaging target NEETs and monitoring success of engagement.These activities will also provide guidelines for VET organizations and trainers on how to establish which sector of the economy to target at any given time or area, involving:Profiling the local economy to identify sectors with greatest potential for development and economic growth, and, therefore, with the greatest potential to provide new job opportunities/absorb trainees;Determining the needs of the target sector in terms of specific skills for targeted training courses.- An innovative micro-learning training material on Digital and Green skills and competences that will enhance the capacity of VET trainers and organizations for developing learners’ digital and green skills;- A widely recognized online platform that supports the training of various target groups for developing their digital and green skills and competences - An interactive Toolbox for VET teachers/trainers that shall include all aforementioned tools and materials and ensuring a high level of accessibility and transferability of the project’s outputs and outcomes.Moreover, DG-VET project is expected to have significant intangible results:(i) For the project’s direct target group:- Increased capacity of VET teachers/trainers to develop and assess the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of citizens and in particular young NEET people from rural areas on the emerging sectors of Digital and Green economy;- Increased self-awareness and critical thinking relating to- Self-reflection and ownership of personal and professional development;- Understanding of the problem-solving process which can be applied to better connect VET with the actual market needs;- Attainment across education modules;- Attainment of European key competences.(ii) For the project’s partners:- Improved portfolio of innovative training material and resources;- Broadened network and areas of general knowledge amongst project staff and wider organization staff members;- Behavior change towards elements of supporting various target groups for the development of digital and green skills.(iii) For the project’s other target groups:- Empower youth and other citizens with specialized digital and green skills with the aim to enhance their employability with these two emerging and vastly developing economy sectors;- Improved understanding of their own role as drivers and catalysts of change towards a successful transition to a greener and more digital European economy;- Attainment across education modules;- Attainment of European key competences."

"<< Background >>According to Steve Jobs: ""Everyone in this country should learn to program a computer because it teaches you to think."" With this sentence, Steve Jobs was trying to emphasize the benefits of coding, not only for programmers but for every field discipline. The ""Everyone should learn to code"" doesn't mean that everyone should be a programmer; it's all about developing problem-solving skills. Programming covers a whole range of applicable skills in real life, like critical thinking, problem analysis, problem-solving, logic, etc., which are essential for the labor market. Knowing how to program or ""code"" will be more and more necessary in the coming years, and you don't need to be in the technology area to get started!An interesting and innovative methodology to teach coding is educational escape rooms. In recent years, escape rooms have become one of the leading leisure and educational activities worldwide. Some educational institutions have started to integrate escape room activities into their programs due to their ability to foster valuable teamwork, leadership, creative thinking, and communication skills. Many studies have shown successful uses of educational escape rooms in various disciplines, especially in STEAM courses (Karageorgiou et al.,2019; Ho, 2018; Arnal et al., 2019). However, few of them targeted the most valuable skills of the 21st century: programming and microcontrollers. Escape rooms (ERs) would help better understand programming, especially considering the difficulties young people face in this field and the high failure rates in programming. ERs using a wide range of puzzles, incorporating programming challenges, and combining both digital and physical resources, will create a multitudinous hybrid experience and increase young people's motivation. The educational ERs will include riddles directly connected to the studying subjects (programming and microcontrollers).<< Objectives >>This project will enable youth workers to gain basic knowledge in programming and microcontrollers and then transfer this knowledge to young people through non-formal education and using innovative methods like escape room creation. It is proven that educational escape rooms create new learning environments and help young people foster knowledge and skills more effectively. CodER also aims to address youth unemployment by giving them access to training relevant to the labor market's needs. Basic programming knowledge is a skill needed in every field discipline nowadays, from social sciences to business and entrepreneurship.The objective is to use escape rooms appropriately to positively impact young people's engagement and learning in programming and microcontrollers. Within this project, full exploitation of all the gamified processes' possibilities is expected, especially through the big trend of 'Escape Rooms.' The aim is ERs to be converted into effective and efficient educational tools, which take into consideration the validated results of the already existing research, and which simultaneously employ various synchronous digital tools, such as online courses and interactive platforms, digital gamified processes, digital media, VR Elements, apps, QR codes, etc.<< Implementation >>(i) Transnational Meetings:For the purposes of our project’s management and coordination of the research activity, we have planned four official transnational meetings. For the Kick-off meeting and the final meeting, each partner organization will select two persons, amongst its employees; one coordinator/project manager and one researcher-trainer with a background either in programming, microcontrollers or educational escape rooms to participate in such meetings [In total: 12 persons; partner orgs’ staff](ii)Multiplier Events: 4 Multiplier Events have been scheduled for the end of the project, thus reaching a total of 105 participants (25+25+25+30) (minimum). This target group will experience all the project results and will be composed of youth workers dealing with programming, microcontrollers, educational escape rooms, IT experts, representatives of ICT start-ups, scientists, researchers, University Staff, opinion makers, influential multipliers such us youth organizations, coding associations, innovation centres, representatives of state bodies, SMEs, social and sectoral bodies, product marketing experts, local municipal employees and generally young people falling in the indirect target groups.(iii) Desk research and analysis to align the learning objectives with the skills needed in the labor market.(iv) Pilot testing and evaluation questionnaires of the CodER module with a minimum number of 8-10 participants (youth workers) and one trainer [Total no: 40 youth workers and young people].(v)Round table discussions with programming and design technology experts and practitioners so as to align the gained skills with the skills needed for the labor market.(vi) Local pilot testing and evaluation survey of the tailor-made ER scenarios, with at least 2 youth organisations (members of the partner organizations interested in STEM).<< Results >>Through the evolution of this project and its intellectual outputs, the main results on the project's completion are the following:-Increase youth workers' knowledge of programming and microcontrollers by providing them with The Code to escape Module. The module's objective will be to align the learning objectives with the labor market's skills, and the suggested chapters are the following: PART A: The Code to Escape coding module.*Introduction: According to the PYPL Popularity of Programming Language Index, the most popular programming language is Python*The Basics: Small Program*Data Types and operations*Functions and Conditionals*Loops*How to build a programPART B: The Code to Escape microcontrollers module *Introduction*Communications*Arduino boards*Programming with Arduino IDE*Measuring temperature, humidity, pressure, light, and color-Creating a methodological guide for the pedagogical use of Escape Rooms for coding, appealing to the Youth Sector. A round table discussion with programming and design technology experts and practitioners will be organized to align the gained skills with the labor market's skills. The suggested structure for this guide is:*What are the escape rooms?*Why are gamification and Escape Rooms used for educational purposes?*Focusing on ERs for programming and microcontrollers*Learn programming and microcontrollers through gamification*Escape Rooms as a pedagogical tool*The methodology for creating Escape Rooms for programming and microcontrollers-Increase youth organizations' knowledge of different scenarios that could teach young people programming and microcontrollers and give them a chance to be rewarded for their ERs scenarios to enhance their programming and microcontrollers expertise. A Handbook with ER scenarios will be created to guide youth organizations to develop their own ER scenarios. Three vouchers of 200eu will be given to the three best ER scenarios in the project's final conference. -The final result of this project will be the Digital Escape Room Generator. The project aims to give youth organizations from all over the world a very useful tool that will help raise the level of young peoples' knowledge in programming, microcontrollers. Those are disciplines in which young people consistently show limited competency and are essential in our CVs nowadays to find a job."