ENGENDERING STEM Project Across the European Union there is a widening skills and employment gap in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) sector. However, female participation in the labour market is consistently low across the region. In order to develop a skilled STEM workforce to meet industrial demands, it is necessary to increase and engage the female population by overcoming perceived and/or realised barriers to entry. A key aspect of achieving this involves empowering employers and educators to make positive changes to their workplace environments and practices with a view to creating a more inclusive and attractive sector. The aim of the ENGENDERING STEM project was to identify the factors that distinguish between small to medium sized (SMEs) STEM employers that have embraced equality and diversity in the workplace and those who have not. Specifically, the project aimed to identify the interventional strategies that have proven to be most effective for improving gender equality in organisations at various stages of engagement. In order to achieve this, we developed a Self-Assessment Toolkit and best practice guides for increasing gender equality engagement that then led to the development and delivery of a bespoke blended learning training programme. The project aimed to positively impact on the flow of female recruits into (and through) the STEM sector pipeline, with a focus on SMEs, and to support unbiased recruitment and retention processes to be mainstreamed into employment and education sectors. It also provided educational resources for participants to improve their awareness and understandings of key issues through engagement in relevant, specific programmes with currency within the sector. This approach was proposed in response to an established need for low or no cost flexible educational content. In order to address these key issues the project delivered three key outputs: • Publication of Gender Equality Research and Associated Best Practice Guides • Online Self-Assessment Gender Equality Diagnostic Toolkit • Blended Learning Training Programme Application of these outputs led to the realisation of the project objectives: 1. Improved stakeholder knowledge and awareness of gender equality issues within the STEM sector by enrolling 1,191 participants onto a bespoke training programme. 2. Engaged 2,587 stakeholders in web based activity over the lifespan of the project including website access, social media interactions, engagement with best practice guides and other project outputs. 3. Supported 56 SME employers in using the Gender Equality Self-Assessment Diagnostic Toolkit to assess their progress with respect to recruitment, retention and advancement policies and practice, and produce a bespoke assessment report that is tailored to their individual needs.The 4th objective: 4. To increase the average number of females recruited by participating employers by 10% (relative to baseline) by the end of the project.This proved difficult to measure but 47% of the participating employers increased the number of women in their organisaions. The project partners were City of Glasgow College (Scotland), VHTO (Netherlands), Miguel Altuna Instituta (Spain) and EQUATE Scotland (Scotland). All project partners were chosen in response to a demonstrated track record of promoting gender equality within the STEM and associated sectors as well as experience of working in large externally funded collaborative projects. Participants were primarily drawn from the employer networks of participating organisations although additional employers were engaged by the project team throughout the lifespan of the project. Additional participants included educators, policy makers, employer representatives, third sector and charitable workers and young people. Aspiring and current female STEM professionals are considered indirect participants as they will benefit from improved workplace practices as a result of employer and educator engagement with the project. The ENGENDERING STEM project aligned to the horizontal priorities; • Social inclusion; and • Open and innovative practices in a digital era It also mapped to a range of supporting EU policies, frameworks and agendas including Europe 2020, ET 2020, Erasmus+, Riga Conclusions, Yerevan Communiqué, EU Skills Agenda and a number of local education and labour market policies and strategies. The longer term sustainability of the project will be ensured through the development of employer/educator/research networks and integration of project outputs into project partners core functions.

The complexity of the new components being manufactured by different forging processes has generated the need to design advanced and very complex processes, making the forging process conditions reach extreme limits.In this context, extensive research are being carried out to analyze the different parameters and variables and their influence. Research that make us able to overcome these difficulties and to produce highly complex parts in a more efficient way.In previous projects developed by partners a strategic interest was detected within SMEs in research and testing lubricant’s capabilities to improve their forming process. In parallel, there is a significant lack of numerical models to include the effect of lubricants in finite element simulations, technology which are making great strides in facilitating the process design phase.The main objective of the project was to develop a decision support system (DSS) to decide the most appropriate test to describe lubrication conditions as well as to choose the most appropriate numerical models to include lubrication in simulation. The DSS is also complemented with educational materials describing different aspects of both the tribological tests that can be performed to describe tribology systems and numerical models available in commercial codes.The ICT web-based DSS platform supports technician, students and expert in the selection of tribological testing procedures and models for forging processes. Through a web interface the user is interfaced to a Decision Support System (DSS) that supports the decision process thanks to:a) available testing procedures: experimental procedures and laboratory facilities for the investigation of the tribological conditions typical of forging processes (both cold- and hot-forging) are collected to provide a comprehensive database;b) available tribological models: analytical, numerical as well as experimental models to describe the tribological conditions typical of forging processes (both cold- and hot-forging) are collected to provide a comprehensive database;c) development of the decision support system: it has to support the decision approach of technicians, linking the parameters of industrial processes to (i) the laboratory tests for the characterization of the tribological conditions and (ii) to the models for their description and, eventually, implementation in FEM codes.d) Collection of technical specifications of lubricants used for different operation in industrial processes (both cold- and hot-forging).One of the most important part of the project will be to support the features of the DSS with appropriate training material which will be developed describing the processes in terms of i) the general characteristics, the influencing parameters and the typical lubrication policies that are used in industry; ii) the laboratory tests iii) the tribological models. All the project is carried out in collaboration with forging companies which lead to create synergies between industry and education. This collaboration brings together four entities from the regions of Spain, France, Germany and Italy, where the industrial sectors with forging manufacturing have a strong presence. For this reason the partners will contact forging and fastener associations in their countries to involve as much companies as possible in the project. The partnership includes 3 universities and a VET institute, all of them with wide experience in R&D projects.The leader and coordinator of the project, MAI, is a public vocational training institution, working in the metal machining area, PtU has a strong experience in tribology matters , University of Padova, with a strong tradition in manufacturing technology,and University of Valenciennes and Hainaut-Cambrasis will contribute with their strong experience and expertise. Forging companies and industrial associations and potential users of the DSS triblogy platform has been invited to join the network.

Cooperation between different stakeholders to provide high quality human recourses for business sector is crucial. The lack of practical skills and competences of youth leaving the school is not always a teacher’s fault, sometimes companies don’t want to cooperate and organize the internships, and sometimes the law is not elastic and not adjusted to sill changing market. That is why cooperation of various stakeholders, representing schools, companies, different levels authorities, intermediary organizations is necessary to identify the barriers, solve the problems and promote the WBL methods. That is why the VETriangle project goal is to promote a high quality vocational education system, development of an innovative model in which employers and decision-makers actively participate, supported by non-governmental organizations and vocational education and training centres, thus create the title triangle of knowledge exchange between units from Poland, Germany, Spain, Turkey and Lithuania. The mentioned about groups are the project targets groups. Thanks to the project activities international ecosystem supporting VETriangle was established. The short training to Spain, study visit to Germany and 4 documents introducing concrete WBL practices and learning elements from partner countries were produced, presented and recommended to adoption. The modern curricula were prepared based on Spanish case, and the methods of teaching were presented in train-the trainer handbook to teachers and trainers. Summary of the process, comparison of cases from different countries and recommendation to decision makers were the final results.The project was promoted and its results were disseminated by various channels and tools ensuring interest and involvement of proper groups and wide audience. All results are available on project website vetriangle.eu.

Digital transformation could be defined as “anything from IT modernization (for example, cloud computing), to digital optimization and the invention of new digital business models. The Global Edtech Landscape 3.0 report states that “schools, colleges, universities and institutions are now enterprises with increasingly complex and sophisticated needs”.Furthermore, “this area of transformation supports the management of the three dimensions of education as an operational business: the institution itself, students and staff”.EU VET institutions face challenges in developing approaches to deliver quality and inclusive education through virtual means, whilst ensuring support for learners, teachers and trainers is in place to help them adapt to online/distance learning.The ADMiC project aims to support colleges, across the EU, adapt to new ways of digital working. This may require adaptations and/or enhancements to; digital strategy, digital culture and the digital resources and infrastructure required to enhance their digital maturity, accelerate digital transformation and increase the quality of online/distance learning.The objectives of the project are to:1.Enhance the digitally maturity of 50 VET institutes within partner countries by March 2023; 2.Increase the knowledge & skills of 300 VET staff on how digital transformation can improve education delivery and support for learners, teachers and trainers by March 2023; 3.Develop and disseminate a suite of open online educational resources that support VET institutes in adopting systematic and robust actions that enable and accelerate digital transformation and enhance their digital maturity by March 2023.6 partners from 4 EU states will work together to produce a self-assessment tool for assessing approaches to creating or optimising digital strategy, digital culture and the resources and infrastructure required to accelerate the pace of digital transformation. The project team will develop joint curricula to upskill VET staff in the skills and competences required to accelerate digital transformation and also develop admic.eu, an open educational resource (OER) that will increase the accessibility to digital resources in the key areas of development required for this transformation. These include; Digital Strategy & Leadership, Developing a Digital First Culture, Optimising Digital Skills and Capabilities, Data and Decision Making and Developing Collaborative Ecosystems. These resources will include a Best Practice Guide and case studies.Participants in the project will mainly be VET staff across the EU. These will include VET Practitioners, VET Managers, VET Senior Managers/Executives and VET Support Staff. The project team will also engage with VET policy makers, digital professionals working in the fields of the technologies applied in the project, Government agencies (with a focus on Digital Transformation, VET and/or skills), Skills Agencies and Industry to realise our project objectives.The project will have a range of quantitative and qualitative measures to assess impact. We hope that these impacts will be felt at local, regional, national and EU/international levels. These include; an upskilled, more knowledgeable and competent workforce, an enhanced capacity to accelerate digital transformation to improve education delivery and a more inclusive culture in embracing digital technologies as part of learning.The project will have a strong project management governance structure to implement the project activities using a proper budget control and time management process.The outcomes/outputs of this project will support the creation of an environment encouraging digital transformation in VET institutes across the EU and bring digital transformation to all levels of VET education and training. The project will enhance the learning experience of students by “fostering the development of a high-performing digital education ecosystem” and will have a positive impact on Europe’s digital ambitions, as well as its productivity, competitiveness and position in global education.

"A crisis like the COVID-19 outbreak has led to the drastic questioning of many things, including the mainstream forms of thinking, the application of teaching and learning, the duration and structure of teaching. With the interruption of education in all arund Europe and the world, distance learning has begun. Still it has not taken the place of face to face education.With the development of information technology in education, it is possible to access many digital learning resources, such as videos, e-books, simulations, graphics, games, e-activities, e-tests. However, it is very difficult for students to choose suitable resources from this pile. While making a selection many criteria must be taken into consideration. For the students, out of so many different learning tools, not only the use of appropriate learning tools, to access or create information and to collaborate with their peers, but also to manage learning is very important.Particully in Vocational Education which requires application, teacher-student interaction, and the traditional master-apprentice relationship, distance learning is far from being a solution to this situation. However, when we leave the COVID 19 Pandemic behind, many teachers and students will have used new distance learning tools as they have never used them before, and will have gained new experiences and skills.In order to realize a complete learning; both the source of learning and the method of learning need to be diversified according to the training steps and the learner himself. The vocatinal students who has been attending to vocational schools should be provided with e learning resources enabling them to take a more active role in their learning process.In order for distance learning to be successfully used in vocational education, the training must be conveyed in a structural way that is unique to each student by discovering how the individual learns.LRTRO is a teaching method that detecs how an individual learns with different learning activities as well as social learning exercises; it drives the learning process accordingly, and supports a structural approach.Love: It starts with making the student love the subject. The basic logic is, ""If you do what you love, you won't work for life.""Read: With small research projects, one is directed to research, then by talking to him we will understand what he has read, that means we will listen to himTry: The student will be able to recognize the equipment he will use with the simulations prepared for distance learning and will be able to apply it in an interractive way. The Vocational education which is the basis of the professional training, can be effectively used in this phase of our method. Review: By giving certain amount of time to the student it is provided to review the acquisitions of the subject over various examples. The topics and timing are distributed in a mixed way. Thus, individuals with different learning and application speeds will be able to review the subject at different speeds. Multiple project-based samples will be prepared for the same subject, these samples will be transferred to each student by different methods, and students’ feedback will be used to determine which method is suitable for each student.Observe: In this process, the individual will be monitored continuously and will be subject to evaluation. At the end of the training period, the goal is to achieve the same acquisitions acquired in face to face workshop.The digital training content to be developed will be prepared with a structural approach and LRTRO teaching method. With the use of these training content, the aim is to contribute to the continuity of professional training in the process of distance learning. The training program to be offered will be provided along with individual observing and coaching support. The interactive simulation environment supported by the experimental and applicable projects to be prepared with this project will support the student-centered learning process in distance learning.As a result of the needs analysis and literature scan in our region,In the scope of this Project; it is planned to prepare the training content of the Smart Home Systems courses in the field of Electrical-Electronic Technology with the support of simulation.With this project, the central control unit of Smart Home Automation systems, numerical input sensing units, numerical output units, model input sensing units, key units, model output units and electromagnets related to electromechanics Controls, Panel Design and Installation, Hydraulic and Pneumatic Systems will be the simulations(virtual labs) that will achieve the learning acquisations of the courses and also a student-centered LMS will be set up to follow this process."