MakeApp Club project is a strategic partnership of two organisations from Poland and the UK: Education Centre EST from Wadowice (www.est.edu.pl) and Wavemaker from Stoke-on-Trent (www.wavemaker.org.uk).Our world is getting increasingly digital and it is those who can manipulate and create technology who are able to shape it. For most young people digital technology is an everyday part of life and many of them are eager to learn how to creatively engage with it. In view of this fact it is surprising that there are so few learning opportunities for this group of young enthusiasts who are usually left alone when they venture into authoring their own ‘apps’. In Poland there are very few learning spaces for young digital makers and none in the region of Wadowice. The UK is leading developments in this field, still the learning experiences on offer are much below demand. Wavemaker is the only such initiative in their area. Our main aim was to engage young people in collaborative digital making and foster their technical and social competences relevant for employment. We were addressing two priorities of the 2016 call for proposals.- Horizontal priority: open and innovative education, training and youth work, embedded in the digital era- Youth field priority: promoting high-quality youth work Our main target group were young people with fewer opportunities, particularly those who:- Go to school but have very few opportunities to get involved in extracurricular learning activities due to their location, accessibility, price, etc.- Finished school but neither continue education nor work, still are deeply submerged in the digital world We provided a range of new learning experiences for the young people. We gave open access to a social learning space with an informal workshop atmosphere distinct from school environment. The young participants could manipulate both hardware and software to co-create their digital laboratory. They co-authored an online platform testing various plug-ins to customise it to their needs and preferences. They created apps with support of qualified staff and colleagues who had already started work in the industry. This direct contact with professionals helped them better understand career routes in this field and their own progression. The support was thus complementary and innovative at the same time: usually ICT learning opportunities for young people, if available, include onsite computer workshops teaching specific technical skills and online materials for self-teaching. We aimed at a much wider range of benefits than those gained from (self) development of technical expertise. Our baseline research findings highlighted this point: progression into digital creativity with prospects to real jobs means not only mastering a set of specific technical skills but also developing social competences in a community of practice. Besides offering digital making activities in both our centres we developed the following results.- Online platform: the platform has been serving as a learning and communication tool for young digital makers and facilitators from Poland and the UK thus bridging the two sites. Sample digital objects developed by the participants are shown on the platform as well as links to external resources supporting the learning.- Community of practice: face-to-face and online communication around a set of shared interests led to emergence of an authentic community of practice. Through the process of collaborative learning the young people had an opportunity to develop themselves both professionally and socially.- Digital stories: we encouraged young creative and successful people to share their career experiences in the form of digital stories.- Digital Makerspace Toolkit: we distilled effective approaches from our initiative and other good practices on how to set up a social learning environment for young digital makers and presented the concept of such a makerspace to educators and youth workers.- Research report: we explored young people’s progression into digital creativity and jobs in Poland, where there are very few datasets on this, and presented conclusions to stakeholders in the field of youth work and education. The report is based on an analysis of biographical interviews with Polish young digital makers at the threshold of their career in different sectors of IT industry with an aim to examine how they developed competences needed for work in this sector.

The project explored the potential of an approach to education called “connected learning”. This pedagogy advocates for broadened access to learning that is socially connected, interest-driven, production-centred and oriented toward educational opportunity. Our main objective was to foster engagement of school students in connected learning experiences across the curriculum. We focused on the subjects where we saw the potential to enhance students’ learning through creative use of digital media, taking into account our pedagogical expertise in teaching native and foreign languages, social sciences, science, IT and entrepreneurship. We developed new educational scenarios with a view to:- Encouraging experimentation and play- Implementing cross-curricular learning activities- Favouring experiential learning- Sharing class projects with authentic audiences- Making students active users of technology in the process of learning rather than passive receivers of digitally mediated instructionMain target groups- School teachers and youth workers- School students in middle/high schools- Decision makers in the field of educationOutputs- Methodical publication consisting of 3 parts: current theory and practice of connected learning, new learning scenarios and outcomes/experiences of their implementation; issued in 4 languages (EN, HR, PL, PT)- Pilot learning activities based on the scenarios in the partners’ schools- Online platform: an environment supporting the project community of interest and sharing project results with a wider audience - Dissemination tools: database of contacts, information leaflets and posters, newsletters, multiplier events in each partner countryOutcomes/impact- For school students: better engagement in learning with digital media connecting their formal and informal spheres of learning; better mastery of subjects in focus of the project, i.e. language arts, social studies, science, IT and entrepreneurship as well as increased digital competence, more positive attitudes to school as opening to their interests and peer cultures as well as European projects. - For school teachers: improvement of their teaching and youth practice through acquaintance with connected learning approach, enrichment of their classes with cross-curricular themes and use of digital media, creation of more inclusive learning environment taking into account the varied students’ competences, experiences and interests, better understanding of young people’s learning lives in the digital age; new opportunities for professional development raising appreciation of EU projects.- For partner organisations: introduction of innovative teaching approaches fostering better student engagement in learning across the curriculum including learners with different abilities, talents and disadvantages, more effective use of ICT for this purpose, more openness to out-of-school environments in which students pursue their interests and hobbies, reinforced capacity for European cooperation, willingness to integrate good practices from other contexts - At systemic level: new input to the educational reform debate, strengthened argumentation for interdisciplinary learning paths across the curriculum, use of digital media for project-based experiential learning extending beyond the traditional classroom and the need to target competences essential in the 21st century

<< Objectives >>We intend:- Improve employability through the action of non-formal education that we offer.- Generate synergies with expert partners that allow us to achieve intangibles that improve our training as trainers.- Generate an e-learning platform that collects the main topics so that young people can train.- Work with a target group that allows, on the one hand, to improve our action thanks to their feedback and, on the other, to measure the increase in their knowledge.<< Implementation >>Six activities have been planned, the first three correspond to the three modules of 6 topics each and a workload of 30 hours per module. The three modules will make up the STARTKNOW e-elearning platform that will be presented in SPOOC format (online courseopen at your own pace).The other three activities are management and implementation, dissemination activities, and a final seminar, which will be replicated by each partner in their country and for a minimum of 30 participants.<< Results >>Tangible results:- The STARTKNOW Platform.- All the tutorials created downloadable from the project website.- The improvement of the skills of the “focus groups” with whom we will work during the project.The intangible results will be produced in the participants who develop the project since they will improve their own skills by being able to learn from the tasks carried out by the other partners, thanks to the complementarity of the three partners.

<< Objectives >>1. Engage young people in arranging a venue for collaborative arts projects, presentation of their artwork and social encounters around art2. Provide informal learning opportunities for young artists to share their techniques and develop multidisciplinary projects3. Organise exchange events that connect young artists from different European countries4. Facilitate experiences in which young artists learn how to use digital media to promote their artwork<< Implementation >>1. Setting up workshop and exhibition space2. Digital promotion of artwork - workshops3. Study visit in Funchal4. Glimpses of Madeira - workshops and exhibition5. Multidisciplinary arts projects - workshops6. Study visit in Wadowice7. Glimpses of Poland - workshops and exhibition8. Management<< Results >>OUTPUTS- A new arts space where to organise workshops, exhibitions and social encounters around art- A website with an online youth art exhibitions- Workshop programmes shared with other organisations- Artworks produced by the participants- Youth art exhibitions displayed to the publicOUTCOMES- Participants’ raised skills in arts-related fields- Improved social and intercultural competences of young participants- Raised interest in youth art projects in local communities

Project MILE (My Informal Learning Experience) engages with European mobility of people with low formal qualifications but valuable informal experience which can become their biggest asset in successful integration in the country in which they want to settle. Our aim is to support them in making their knowledge, skills and competences recognised and thus raise their chances of finding satisfactory employment. To this end we developed Guide for educators working with people in mobility facilitating the process of recognition of informal learning experience in a range of contexts exemplified by the different environments in which the project partners work. Pilot learning activities to develop and test learning paths proposed in the MILE Guide for educators involved participants sharing certain characteristics which make our initiative focus on concrete, well defined needs:- They are all people in mobility, i.e. those who move from one country to another in search for better living and working conditions.The reasons for migration are different but they all face a challenge of adaptation. Their work-related skills and experience condition their prospects for employment in the country where they want to settle.- They have the right to work in Europe, either as citizens of an EU country, refugees or migrants granted a work permit, still unable to find employment because of difficulties to prove their competences in diplomas, certificates, etc. Our aim is to help them document and communicate their experience in a convincing way.Project objectives directly refer to the following call priorities:- Inclusive education, training and youth- Improving and extending the offer of high quality learning opportunities that are tailored to individual adult learners’ needs, including through innovative ways of validation, guidance and delivery to groups most in need- Designing and implementing effective provision for enhancing the basic skills and key competences of specific adult target groups that are currently not well servedThe main outcomes of the project- MILE Guide: open educational resource for educators supporting people in mobility to document and present their informal learning experience- MILE Platform: providing necessary tools for collaborative development of the resources and their use by stakeholdersImpact on participants of learning activities designed in the MILE Guide- new skills in documenting their valuable experience acquired outside formal education- learning how to communicate it effectively to potential employers in a new cultural environment- improvement of their language and digital skills through building their portfolios with the use of online materials and tools- better adaptation to a new cultural and work environment in EuropeImpact on adult educators using the MILE Guide to support people in mobility- access to a practical resource of educational scenarios validated in practice- their effective use in work with different groups of people in mobility- benefit from the social learning opportunities on the MILE online platformImpact on policy makers in the field of recognition of knowledge, skills and competences acquired outside formal education- further evidence of the challenges faced by people with lower levels of qualifications and literacy when they want to document and present their experience as well as evidence of validated approaches to addressing this challenge- new research data for further developments of the instruments at system levelThe project was implemented by three organisations: Education Centre EST from Wadowice, Poland (www.est.edu.pl), Key & Key Communications from Deruta, Italy (http://www.keyandkey.it) and IASIS from Athens, Greece (http://www.iasismed.eu/en).