“The COVID-19 pandemic has affected and put unprecedented pressure on education and training systems worldwide and across the Union. It has brought major changes to how we learn, teach, communicate and collaborate within and between our education and training communities. This has had an impact on learners, their families, teachers, trainers, institution leaders, as well as on the broader society. ” This introduction to the Council conclusions on countering the COVID-19 crisis in education and training was the starting point for the consortium to plan an initiative that combined contemporary digital advances in learning technologies that can be implemented in a remote context, designed to provide trainees with a supportive and responsive learning environment that takes into account the “new” challenges that a rudimentary transfer of traditional classroom-based resources to the home or other context was not as effective as it could have been.In this context, STAY+ is a project to gamify positive behaviours of young people during the pandemic and beyond. It seeks to provide an innovative solution for VET professionals that have found it challenging to engage young people (aged 15-21 years old) through the transition to online/distance learning. It specifically looks to promote positive behaviours that protect learner wellbeing and have an overall improvement on retention rates. STAY+ will be unique in its approach as it seeks to:•gamify health and wellbeing best practice into an educational/training digital platform•use leading digital marketing and engagement techniques in an educational/training setting•use location-based data to tailor the mobile-experience to where you are in the worldThe project will be based on the ‘Stay’ mobile interactive site that has piloted a rewards scheme for young people adhering to the COVID-19 UK government guidelines (and those also seen across Europe) to #StayAtHome, driving positive action and behaviours. The current platform allows users to earn unique digital merchandise (badges) based on their activity and utilises GPS technology to reward them for staying at home. The STAY+ project will build upon this innovative model to embed rewards into VET digital learning environments with a sustainable, flexible and long term view beyond the current pandemic. It will develop the initial concept further through transnational cooperation and a range of reports, resources and tools targeting the specific needs of VET organisations. Outputs are based on best practice, research and development, and sustainability including:- 10 Best Practices that highlight the positive role VET providers can play in helping to protect learner wellbeing- Research on VET learner engagement and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic- the STAY+ Platform- practical guide on using the STAY+ platform - A short self assessment checklist on the readiness of VET organisations to start the co-creation process of badges, and subsequently to promote transnational co-creation at the same time- Co-creation guidelines for digital agencies working with VET organisations and learners to create their own badges- Guidelines on monitoring student engagement and promoting wellbeing in digital learning - how the two are interlinked- Ethical guidelines for digital inclusion - how to avoid widening the gap for disadvantaged learnersThe STAY+ Platform will be developed with the overarching objective of empowering young people to become advocates of digital vocational training; with increased awareness of a subject area,health and wellbeing, and how to maintain their own motivation, manage their time and complete tasks. The desired impact of this objective is to improve engagement and retention levels of learners on vocational training courses

ACCenT aims at supporting career counselors, guidance practitioners and coaches working with “hard-to-reach groups” by an innovative online learning environment offering support, training and a peer-community. Europe struggles for adequate approaches for preparing and integrating hard-to-reach groups in the European labor market. One the one side European societies are struggling with the lack of qualified workforce on the other side the long-term unemployed are not (re)-entering the labor market. Additionally over the past years millions of migrants came to Europe that could enter the European society and fill-in the labor market gaps if adequate support via counseling, guidance and coaching is provided. Therefore counseling and coaching practitioners need being supported for developing new skills and competences in order to cope with the multiple challenges European societies are facing. The challenge is a European one. Since Europe’s labor market is an open and mobile one, solutions need to be developed from a European perspective. And they need to integrate innovative concepts in terms of training provision (e.g. online) and counseling approaches (e.g. using e-tools). Counseling practitioners working with hard-to-reach groups face three main challenges: 1. increasing number of migrants entering Europe. Counselors and coaches are keystones in the process of integration in order to provide opportunities to migrants to prove their competences develop new ones and increase their chances into the labor market. 2. Long-term unemployed persons that due to multiple biographies can only be supported at a very individual level and 3. high number of young people facing difficulties moving into a first job. For a better help on both sides – counselors and beneficiaries- it is crucial to provide these career counselors and coaches with motivating further training, information, knowledge, peer-community and support. And that is the motivation of the project ACCenT! It seems crucial that European countries collaborate, accomplish shared learning progresses and gain competences to cope with this very topical subject. Countries can learn from the approaches and solutions of others in order to reach a common higher standard in counseling for challenging target groups. The main output of the project will be an online training seminar, presented in a user-friendly online learning environment, for counseling practitioners. The online training respects the need of the target group for flexible training in term of time and customizable in term of contents, comprising four main topical areas: 1. Information: The main aim of this area of the online seminar is to enable the career practitioners to accelerate and facilitate the integration process in to the labor market and thus: support long-term unemployed to re-enter, help young people to get first access and to prepare the newcomers for a successful long-term integration. 2. Social-communicative and intercultural competence: This part of the seminar supports counseling practitioners in getting aware of communication processes and cultural barriers and helps them to handle difficult cultural situations. Which are the most common cultural challenges a specific group has to face? How can the work of counseling practitioners be influenced by cultural barriers? How communication skills and styles influence motivation? How to detect cultural and social barriers? And how to overcome those barriers? Social-communicative and intercultural competence is a key factor for working successfully with hard to reach people. This area of the online course aims at providing counseling practitioners with the necessary sensitivity and awareness for their work with people from different backgrounds. They get enabled to act as mediators between different cultures and social groups, understanding the background, thinking and acting patterns of a person. 3. Coaching skills & competences: “hard-to-reach groups” of becoming & staying unemployed build a very heterogeneous group. Support is very demanding and challenging and must be provided very individually and often only be fulfilled by individual coaching. Therefore the training will be focusing on the development of coaching competences, especially technical-methodical competences: targeted restatements, identifying, listening, questioning, clarifying to help individuals shift their perspectives and thereby discover different approaches to achieve their goals 4. Using e-Tools in counseling and communication processes: The training approach will use a set of e-Tools (online meeting tools, video-chat, video, social media, scheduling, self-reflection and self-assessment, online cooperation tools, etc. for the communication and counseling process. The tools are both learning tools and learning content. All experiences and outcomes of the project will be compiled in an interactive eBook that will accessible and free to use (cc-license).

Many VET organisations and their teachers did not feel well prepared for online learning when Covid-19 struck Europe (OECD, 2020). The OECD15 reports a recent TALIS 2018 survey has shown that the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for teaching was the second highest area of professional development that teachers (18%) report a high need for. However, only 56% of teachers across the OECD countries had participated in training in the use of ICT for teaching as part of their initial education or training, and only 43% of teachers felt well or very well prepared for this element when they began teaching. These weaknesses have been exposed since early 2020 when Covid-19 arrived in Europe.Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic’s call for online distanced learning as a solution to the lockdown, is far from the realities of most VET courses which focus on the learner being physically present at the VET centre, particularly vulnerable groups of learners such as low-skilled, upskilling and job seeking adult learners, NEET youths. The pandemic has had a greater impact on VET teachers as many VET courses focuses on work-based learning, which cannot be transferred as easily to an online contact as academic learning. To support learners at risk, teachers/schools: ensured learners had access to internet and equipment; translated / sourced materials in native languages for refugees and migrants; offer training opportunities for learners on digital skills; monitored engagement during online classes; and provided individual support where possible; but this was not always possible (CEDEFOP, 2020).The main concerns for VET teachers and trainers regarding distance learning are the use of equipment / reliability of internet connection, their own lack of digital skills / competence, poor experience in creating digital content, lack of e-learning experience, in particular around teaching practical components; and concerns over privacy, copyright and data protection (CEDEFOP, 2020). For learners, there is no digital inclusion without social inclusion’ marginalised and vulnerable learners are less likely to be involved in distance learning, which in turn, increases their chances of dropping out of VET (OECD 2020).Objectives:1. Facilitate European VET centres to embed digital technologies into teaching, learning and assessment2. Provide VET centres with bespoke analysis and insight to support learners, teachers and trainers in adapting to online/distance learningTarget Group:Vocational Education and Training Centres which provide initial vocational training to vulnerable learnersThe project will produce the following intellectual outputs:IO1. DigiVET Integration HandbookIO2. Interactive Digital Strategy Benchmarking ToolIO3. Modular Framework for a VET Digital StrategyIO4. “Learn Digitally” Guide

ContextEuropean labour markets and societies face various challenges and transitions such as the refugee crises, demographic change and future jobs, having a big priority e.g. in the EU Horizon 2020. Guidance practitioners play a key role in adressing these challenges successfully. Their tasks comprise individual career guidance and client counselling for unemployed as well as employed persons who want or need to reorient themselves, profiling, skills assessment and training delivery. Furthermore, they match people to job profiles, and offer services to employers, as well as care catering for those furthest removed from the labour market. To perform this range of tasks competently, a high-level qualification and transnational training as well as state-of-the-art information on effective concepts and approaches and networking of practitioners on a Europe-wide level is essential.ObjectivesOn this basis, the Academia+ project supported the exchange of experiences and transnational trainings of counsellors in Europe. To do so, the project partners developed, piloted and evaluated 3 research-based online Counsellors Study and Training Exchange Programs (C-STEPs) for qualified career counsellors that reflect a transnational, European perspective and meet the needs of the target groups.Each of the C-STEPs focused on a current key challenge, and combined theory, research and practice of guidance: Counselling migrants and refugees, Future jobs, Demographic change.Through the trainings and a learning environment, the project supported provision of better services and guidance on competencies and qualifications and helped to raise the profile of international cooperation within guidance.Undertaken activitiesThe topics of the C-STEPs and their units built on literature and resources reviews from all partner countries, a transnational synthesis with recommendations, online questionnaires answered by counsellors, practitioners and experts regarding the topic from several European countries as well as reviews of the unit structure plans. All C-STEPs were transnational online trainings integrating the knowledge and experiences from a variety of experts and speakers, coming from different European countries with different personal and professional background, providing specific knowledge about several approaches, perspectives and innovation on career guidance.The project developed an innovative and detailed media centre and learning environment based on course units containing all presentations, videorecordings, group work tasks and results, discussion protocols and further material. The project also created a website in four different languages for course participants and trainers including different outputs from the C-STEPs.To promote and disseminate the project and to support international networking the projectteam connected to several networks with the focus on counselling/guidance, published information in frequent newsletters, on websites and in journals, hosted a LinkedIn-group for discussion throughout the project timeline and organized a multiplier event at the end of the project timeline.ParticipantsIn total 257 persons from 22 different European countries (Belgium, Czech, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain) and 13 Non-European countries (Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijani, Australia, Egypt, Georgia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Russia, Uganda, UK) participated in the trainings. The project partners acquired 47 participants for C-STEP1 (EU-countries: 11; Non-EU: 3), 89 participants for C-STEP2 (EU-countries: 16, Non-EU: 10) and 70 participants for C-STEP3 (EU-countries: 12, Non-EU: 5).The participants had a wide variety of professional backgrounds e.g. professional career guides from local, governmental and non-govermental organisations, local private businesses or freelancers, psychological institutions, universities and higher education departments, refugee organisations and small NGO’s, but also students and some unemployed persons with a professional background rooted in Career Guidance.Results/benefitsThe C-STEPs reached 257 participants and involved over 40 speakers. The learning environment and media centre functions as a stand-alone resource for non-participants and trainers who like to multiply the event. Email, newsletter, website information and articles in journals addressed more than 10.000 persons.Professionals directly participating in the training or recreating it from the learning environment benefit from the training, so they can better advise and integrate the workforce, unemployed and jobseekers. This enables their counselling organisations to focus strongly on the problems of the respective countries.This has a positive effect on the national labor market, which strengthens the EU.

CONTEXTWing in 2006 recognized Computational Thinking as a fundamental competency that all literate citizens should develop through compulsory education, to complement the three other core skills, that is, reading, writing and mathematics. Computational Thinking (CT) is a thought process (or a human thinking skill) that uses analytic and algorithmic approaches to formulate, analyse and solve problems. In recent years, Computational Thinking (CT) have also been promoted by most educational stakeholders as a skill that is as fundamental for all as numeracy and literacy and is considered a universal competence, which should be added to every child’s analytical ability as a vital ingredient of their school learning.PROJECT OBJECTIVESThe goal of the project CTApp is to spread the learning of Computational Thinking Skills. Specifically the project has three aims:a) A State of the Art on Serious Gaming & Computational Thinking.b) The Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Mobile Serious Game in Computational Thinking (CTApp)c) Teacher Training Courses & Materials development on using the CTApp mobile game (e.g. handbooks & insturctive videos) TRAINING TEACHERSWe will train teachers through an LTT event in Poland with 15 teachers from 5 project countries (PL, IT, CY, UK + GR) into teaching Computational Thinking skills with the CTApp mobile serious game. Trained teachers from each country will serve as multipliers and will train teachers in their own countries through training sessions all partners will organize.SERIOUS GAME EVALUATIONOnce the software development is finished we will run a large scale trial in which we will involve at least 200 students and observe their learning success with our mobile game. We will then finilize our mobile game and share it on an EU-wide scale. Scientific publications will be published to renowned international scientific journals & conferences with the results of the evaluation.The OPEN SOURCE ACCESS to all project outputs will be guaranteed for at least 5 years after project end.A TRANSFERABILITY of the results is guaranteed since all information gathered and developed can be transferred to primary and secondary schools as well as to Universities.PARTNER ORGANISATIONSThis initiative gathers 5 partners from Poland, Cyprus, Italy, UK and Greece.WYZSZA SZKOLA EKONOMII I INNOWACJI W LUBLINIE (Poland): A non-state higher education institution offering full university degree programmes in a range of academic disciplines with over 6 000 students.CENTRE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY LTD-CARDET(Cyprus): A leading research and development center in the Mediterranean region with global expertise in project design and implementation, capacity building, and e-learning being independently affiliated with universities and institutions from around the world, such as the Yale University, the University of Nicosia and the International Council of Educational Media. INNOVA SRL (Italy): A private technology and business accelerator offering incubation and acceleration services to startups and innovative companies operating in cutting edge disruptive technologies in ICT (AI, IoT, machine learning, Industry 4.0 technologies).ASPIRE-IGEN GROUP LIMITED (UK): A vocational and training organisation with 22 years great experience of supporting young people into employmentINNOVATION FRONTIERS (Greece): An educational technology & research company expert in the design, implementation and evaluation of educational software.