Create Future: Creating support models for participation in future work lifePeople with special needs and disadvantaged do face far fewer options for employment than non-disabled candidates. Fewer than 1 in 2 disabled adults were in employment in the EU28 in 2011 and almost a third at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2013 (Eurostat Dec 14). For example across the UK only 6% of young people with learning difficulties are in employment, and according to Disability Rights employees with disabilities earn nearly £1 an hour less than non-disabled workers.Thus new networks, more sharing of experience and involving the end users to the development is needed for example to avoid the prejudices regarding people with disabilities ability to work productively. At this project we will create a diversity toolkit for employers and train the support workers/ career guidance professionals with the latest tools, so that they can support both their clients and the employers they work with. To complete these objectives we are going to implement and develop: •Collaboration model of user-centered design prosess•Toolkit for diversity training for employers •Multidisciplinary cooperation to support diversity At this project we will create a diversity toolkit for employers and train the support workers/ career guidance professionals with the latest tool, so that they can support both their clients and the employers they work with.The main objective of the project is to train support workers/career advisors who support people with special needs or disadvantaged with the latest coaching models tools which have the most impact with regard to career progression and problem solving. In one hand, support workers often face a lot of pressure with regard to the variables faced in the workplace such as the discrimination that still prevails against special needs workers and the pressure they have as career professionals to meet specific work placement targets. On the other hand, there is a need to find the latest tools in coaching to support special needs workers to gain their confidence and improve their self- efficacy. The project will invest in a multi professional cooperation between education and support services as well as companies and working life representatives to develop meaningful interventions in coaching tools in the field of career guidance. This transnational partnership brings a multidisciplinary approach to coaching and will be able to develop methods and tools for the professional development of coaches; for the employers to use for the workers and clients with special needs. A Diversity handbook for Employers will also be developed to provide them with all the necessary tools and guidance to address their needs while employing disabled workers.The Learning training and teaching activities will allow the partners to get to know and understand better the delivery of interventions at special centres who support people with special needs and disadvantaged employability across Europe and bring back home best practices to later apply such practices in their career guidance. The project will have a clear impact in the knowledge and development of skills amongst the staff and clients of partner organisations dealing with employment of people with special needs or disadvantaged. In particular, the project will develop 3 main coaching models and training programmes using: Neurolinguistic Programming; Strengths Based Coaching and Mentoring Circles to equip the staff to use practical tools to support their clients in their transition from unemployment to employment. These models will be used in current housing and day services, both in individual and group situations in order to ensure that there will be a bridge to support disabled workers to achieve and create a better and more promising future working life.

We believe that it is possible to have an impact on key skills of lifelong learning through new innovative and creative pedagogical methods. We want to focus especially on supporting social inclusion and abilities to participate in the society, work toward equality and enhance abilities in the working life for learners with special needs or disabilities and individuals who are otherwise in a vulnerable position in life. The main goal is to increase capacity to use creative pedagogical methods for professionals who are working with the target group. Indirect beneficiaries are learners with disabilities and special needs or other marginalized groups. The project group consist of organisations working in the field of vocational education, special education, research, circus arts and organisations working with young people and various vulnerable groups. The partner organisations will join forces to disseminate best practices and develop practical tools for using creative pedagogical methods with the target group. The project is coordinated by Invalidisäätiö´s vocational special education center Vocational College Live based in Helsinki, Finland. Sirkus Magenta, a non-profit association working in the field of social circus, also based in Helsinki, will offer their expertise on social circus. Vocational College Live and Sirkus Magenta have worked together in a previous social circus project, where the benefits of creative pedagogical methods were noticed and the idea for a transnational project was born. Haapsalu Vocational Education and Training Center from Estonia will share their knowledge on creative use of digital environments and Move and Develop Foundation based in Wrocław, Poland, will offer viewpoints to gamification. Institute of Technology Tralee from Ireland and especially their UNESCO Chair Research Centre will conduct a scientific literature review and offer their expertise in outdoor activities. Friesland College from the Netherlands is a specialist in the field of dance and theatre. Six transnational meetings will be organized to ensure the smooth proceeding of the project. Three intellectual outputs will be produced during the project. IO1 will be a scientific literature review which aims to develop a comprehensive review of existing policy and best practice of social circus methodologies, outdoor learning, dance and theatre, creative use of digital methods, gamification and the links with social inclusion. The IO2 will be a guidebook on these methodologies and it is meant as a practical manual for professionals working with the target group, such as teachers, counsellors, other educators and study and job coaches. The IO3 will be a toolkit for practical use in a form of a cardpack of the creative pedagogical methods with pictures and qr-codes for video instructions. The project activities include five short-term joint staff training events - one in each country. These learning, teaching and training activities cover all the creative pedagogical methods represented in the project. New creative pedagogical methods are disseminated through the training events for the members of the project group and the staff of the participating organisations. Activities consist of workshops and reflection on how to adapt the methods to each organisation´s field of work and clientele. An acitivity based multiplier event will be hosted in each country, where the outcomes of the intellectual outputs and project activities will be disseminated to associated organisations outside the project group. The outcomes will also be disseminated via various networks and channels including social media and the project blog. As a result of the project, the knowledge, tools and usage of creative pedagogical methods will increase. The participants will gain a wide knowledge of creative pedagogical methods. They will disseminate the knowledge and practical tools they gain in their own organisations and in their networks. Activities will also increase the key competences of lifelong learning, especially the personal, social and learning to learn skills of the target group. The increasing of basic skills will result in improvement in their social inclusion. This will also be a long-term result when the methods gained in the project will transform into continual practices.

<< Background >>The urgent need to enhance the digital skills of both teachers and learners has been widely identified and it is even more vital in the COVID-19 situation.National and European policies acknowledge the need to equip all citizens with the necessary competences to use digital technologies critically and creatively. The European Digital Competence Framework (DigComp), which was updated in 2016/17, responds to this need, by providing a structure which allows European citizens to better understand what it means to be digitally competent and to assess and further develop their own digital competence.Digital skills have moved from ‘optional’ to ‘critical’ and need to be complemented with transversal ‘soft skills’ such as the ability to communicate effectively in both online and offline mediums. Entry-level digital skills, meaning basic functional skills required to make basic use of digital devices and online applications, are widely considered a critical component of a new set of literacy skills in the digital era, with traditional reading, writing, and numeracy skills.The indirect target groups (disabled and people in vulnerable situations) that the consortium organisations work with, are in danger of being excluded from the society also due to the lack of sufficient digital skills. The project aims at developing and enhancing the basic digital skills of the teaching staff (DigiComp skills for everybody). The project wants to enhance our teaching staff’s proficiency especially in the areas of digital resources, teaching and learning and empowering learners. Digi Teachers Working Online project aims actively at equipping teaching staff engaged in special education with digital skills they can utilize when teaching and instructing the disabled (secondary) target groups both online and face-to-face.<< Objectives >>The expected impact will vary according to the categories of actors involved in the action- participants will gain a wide and valuable knowledge to improve and enhance their digital skills and competences with a strong link to pedagogy.- participating organisations will gain new digital and pedagogical methods to benefit the students and enhance the quality of online learning and teaching. Organisations will get new tools, ideas and practices. The level of competence on the organisational level will increase.- the project will impact the indirect target group’s possibilities to develop and enhance their key competences of lifelong learning. Their learning will get recognition and validated.- other relevant stakeholders will get new ideas and concrete tools to utilise digital tools and methods in various environments, for example, with their clients. They also see the importance of mastering at least some of digital skills in order to better manage in society.<< Implementation >>The concept of the project is to create and test new digital training content and methods to develop digital key competences of VET teaching staff working with students with special needs or in otherwise vulnerable positions. The structure of the project builds on the surveys that are done during the design phase of the project and the more profound surveys that will be done in the beginning and in the end phase of the project. The surveys identifies the digital and pedagogical skills that teachers need to improve in their current and future distance learning.The surveys, carried out during the project, provide more detailed information on the level of competence of the teaching staff at the beginning and end of the project (result 1). With this information, we can assess the impact of the outputs developed and implemented in the project, such as syllabus, training material and toolkit, on the development of the competence level of the teaching staff.The pedagogical, digital skills needs are transferred into a training course syllabus (result 2) and the actual online training course (result 3) supported by a model of open badge constellation (R2).During the piloting phase (result 4) the content, usability and quality of the training course is validated. The good practice methods and tools are collected on the way to the Digi teachers toolbox (R5).´The project timeline has been planned meticulously. Each result has been split into tasks that are also placed in the timeline. The consortium is able to follow the progress of each result and the tasks within and quickly address the deviations from the plan. The budget planning is based on the results and the timeline, allocating a realistic amount of working days for each IOand the tasks within.The project has five transnational meetings that are planned so that they contribute to the progress of the project as much as possible. The scheduling of the meetings and the meeting programs have been planned already in the application phase in order to monitor and promote the implementation of the project activities.The Multiplier events have been scheduled to the end of the project in order to have the outputs ready and during that stage we are already starting to see the impact of the project in our organisations that we can pass on to the audience.<< Results >>The digital skills and competences of staff in the participating organisations have improved to be better able to carry out engaging online teaching to enhance the students’ learning experiences.- results for the students: better quality online teaching - results for the students: blended learning- results for the students: individual learning paths The participating organisations have shared good practices, methods and tools working with persons with special needs. They have also created a long-lasting network to develop their activities, to share knowledge and expertise and to work together in both mobility projects and strategic partnership projects. There’s a training module and a model of open badge constellation, both based on the DigCompEdu-framework but also strongly taking into consideration the survey’s results, adjusted to better fit the requirements of special needs education. The training module is built on the principles of competence based learning: all the skills learned are transparent.

<< Background >>Marketing 4 Artists is addressed to work on issues that undermine the attractiveness of VET and improve the quality assurance in vocational education and training by adapting its educational curricula to reduce the mismatch between formal education and labour market needs. A detailed analysis made by the partners in their own countries has revealed that only in Spain and Latvia art students acquire some entrepreneurial concepts, but they are general and linked to business administration, and not supporting their need of marketing skills in the artistic sector. InItaly, Finland, Slovenia and Belgium art students don’t have any lessons that can teach them basic marketing skills. This approach doesn't support recently graduated students in Art in becoming successful entrepreneurs or appealing attractive employees. Even if artists have talent related to their art-skills, this is not supported by an effective self-promotion crucial to draw the attention of clients and talent scouts. This lack is also present in the HEI study-cycles. It's not possible to find art-marketing programs in VET and HEI curricula, if not for some initiative set and taken as an individual educational body.The research carried out within the Knowledge Alliance project “Arts & Humanities Entrepreneurship Hubs”, conducted by our partner MateraHub, underlines the lack of attention to Entrepreneurship Education in the arts and humanities sector; the consequence is that these students often consider entrepreneurship as something divergent from their creativity, and are subsequently less likely to consider setting up their own business or view employment as a means to support art practices via a portfolio career, a working style where they can combine multiple streams of income and mix different kind of employments.M4A designs specific contents related to the marketing skills needed by art students with the aim to empower their professional career once they have finished the VET school. The need of this development is underlined by the numbers: according to the briefing “Employment in the cultural sector” of the EC, in the last decade cultural employment has grown by more than 800.000 people. The “Cultural Employment” in 2019 was 4,9% of the total in Slovenia, 3,6% in Italy, 3,6% in Spain, 3,5% in Latvia and 5,1% in Finland.In addition, the Cultural and Creative sector includes a variety of professions (media, culture, architecture and design, etc.) that contribute to the economic growth in Europe. According to the EUROSTAT, in 2019, 7.4 million people in the EU-27 were employed in the cultural sector (3.7 % of the total employment), but the majority had a tertiary level of educational attainment (EQF6 and 7).Still, the report “Arts & Humanities Entrepreneurship Hubs” states that 80% of people employed in the Creative and Cultural sector work in SMEs, many of which start-up precariously and need to adopt a ‘business savvy’ approach to upgrade their career. According to “Employment in the cultural and creative sectors” by the EPRS, despite the growing importance given to the artistic sectors and the opportunities it offers, recent-graduate students in Art struggle at finding ways to use their talent as a source of income, especially as self-employment. Self-employment and atypical working patterns are common among artists; the percentage of self-employed is around 32%, atypical work can include up to 40% of the workers in some sectors, and artists often choose to be freelancers, and often take on secondary jobs in other fields to survive. So, as artists often can’t count on a stable contract, they need to possess the right marketing skills to continuously be able to find their place in the labour market.<< Objectives >>Marketing 4 Artists is a concrete and extremely feasible proposal to adapt the vocational education in the art field to the labour market needs. This will improve the quality assurance in the art sector of vocational education with the consequence to increase the attractiveness of the art curricula in the VET field.M4A will design a training methodology and contents related to the specific marketing skills needed by art students, with the final aim to empower their future professional career, after the end of their studies. The project identifies 2 target groups:1) the teachers (direct beneficiaries), who will acquire the necessary marketing knowledge & skills to be able to adopt the Marketing 4 Artists approach, and to teach it at schools; M4A will beforehand level their marketing knowledge on the needs identified.2) the students (indirect beneficiaries).For these target groups, M4A develops a learning module divided into 4 Didactic Units & Didactic Unit 5 for Practical Work. The project creates an additional Didactic Unit 0 addressed only to the teachers, in order to train them with the basic general marketing Knowledge & Skills that they need to acquire for becoming able to teach to students.Didactic Units 1-4 are elaborated as teaching material for art students that teachers can use during their lessons, but they have another use: they are also learning modules for art teachers once they start the training for adopting M4A. The contents of the Didactic Units 1-4 will then be new for the teachers as well. The 4 Didactic Units are so divided:Unit 0: Training of the teachers on basic general marketing KnowledgeUnit 1: Analysis and study of the needs and the supply and demand of cultural services;Unit 2: Identification and activation of external relations with organizations, institutions and various stakeholders;Unit 3: Design of cultural heritage promotional services; Definition of the marketing plan; Care of the organizational aspects of services and promotional activities; Preparation of products for communication and promotion of cultural goods and services;Unit 4: Monitoring and evaluation of cultural heritage promotion activities;Unit 5: Exploitation tools, focused on the Challenge Based Learning (as Practical-Work) and the use of ESCO by students.Therefore, M4A creates a sustainable and effective solution for the VET schools in the Art field that can be easily adopted in other European countries. The 4 Didactic Units can be easily integrated into the school subjects required by the National Educational Ministries because they are proposed as a cooperative work of different art teachers (1 DU for 1 teacher), instead of overcharging only one teacher or looking for extra-hours at school. This cooperative approach means to lead a limited nr. of hours of theoretical class for each teacher, while the students receive the whole preparation on the topic “Marketing 4 Artists” + the Practical Work on concrete challenges given to students for implementing the knowledge acquired and useful for their learning outcomes’ evaluation.<< Implementation >>M4A final methodology will be made of the results obtained through the activities carried out in the duration of the project, divided in:PR1: M4A State-Of-Art Transnational Report PR2: M4A Training Content and Evaluation SystemPR3: M4A Recommendation PolicyThese activities will be carried out by the project partners according to their own potentialities and expertise.More in details:1) To realize the M4A State-Of-Art Transnational Report, the project partners will research the concrete lack of marketing knowledge & skills of both VET art students, who need them for their working future, and teachers, who will hinder the adoption of M4A training contents. The research will also analyze the different EU Art schools curricula, to investigate the best ways to integrate the 4 M4A Didactic Units in the already existing timetable.This result will be obtained through:- an Online Desk Research- Questionnaires (quantitative interviews)- Focus Groups (qualitative interviews)2) The M4A Training Content and Evaluation System will be based on the results obtained in PR1. Having identified for each Didactic Unit the skills teachers and students need to work on, the partnership will create a methodology for the art schools teachers to adopt, in order to teach marketing to their students. The evaluation of the teachers’ Learning Outcomes is related to the UD 1-4 contents and based on the ECVET system, and will be organized using 3 evaluating-dimensions: Knowledge, Skills and Attitude. This methodology will be formalized in 3 parts:- online, to acquire the contents of all the 6 Didactic Units;- face-to-face (1 week session), to evaluate the learning outcomes of the participating teachers in the LTT-C1 and to implement the practical contents of the Unit 5;- on the job, with a Methodology Test period of 6 months applied in the VET institutions that participated in C1. Linked to the training contents, PR2 also develops the related Evaluation System: the evaluation criteria is going to be set on a specific scale with reference to the ECVET system.3) The goal of PR3 is to realize the M4A Recommendation Policy, written following the structure of a policy recommendation, that basically represents a process of problem solving. It is needed in order to make M4A methodology transferable and therefore used in other European contexts and other schools.The PR target groups are:- European art VET schools;- National/regional policy makers in the field of education;- European policy makers in the field of education.Thanks to the EfVET network, already established and active, the expected impact is to reach at least 229 members in 35 countries. This result will be then exploited by using the wide networks of each partner, and the European dedicated platforms, like School Education Gateway.<< Results >>All the project partners believe a lot in the effectiveness of M4A methodology. They all are passionate supporters of the Cultural & Creative Industries, and strongly believe that Art is the highest expression of the richness and diversity of our European culture and we have to support and reinforce its potentiality. The European Commission itself has created a specific program for it, “Creative Europe”, and the current VET students will be the new generation of artists, the future expression of European Art.M4A contributes to make visible this support through the creation of a specific educational pathway addressed to teachers, but with a strong impact on students’ learning outcomes, which are extremely needed in the labour market of our era. M4A contributes to gaining the result of creating VET art graduates equipped with the necessary skills to answer to this new challenge by creating an innovative training for art teachers that will support them to get closer to the objectives of the VET agenda.M4A creates a new educational approach that will turn into an increased attractiveness of recent-graduate VET students in the field of Art. The adoption of M4A doesn't require any extra-expenditures for the schools, neither outside school hours and the curricula timetable remains the same, just the subjects-content will be upgraded. M4A methodology is a result that will be achieved by working on 3 main Project Results (PRs) that will drive the partnership to:1) Upgrade the analysis of the state-of-art of marketing Knowledge & Skills of VET art students and teachers; find out the most appropriate way to implement and integrate M4A methodology into VET-school curricula;2) Create the M4A Training Contents and its Evaluation System;3) Propose the M4A methodology to be adopted by Art VET Schools in Europe as an effective methodology for improving their quality assurance in order to close the gap between VET educational offer and the market needs by increasing at the same time attractiveness of their VET Institute and the VET sector in general (Policy). In addition, M4A will awaken the importance of marketing among the art teachers community, and of becoming more aware about the importance of some specific marketing skills for the future of their students’ career, and at the same time to empower their ones. That will originate new VET graduate students specialized in art and equipped with marketing skills ready to exploit the labour market. Thanks to the Dissemination and Exploitation Activities, the Project Results obtained will be spreaded at national and European level: this will ensure territorial and geographical transferability of the model to any EU country.

<< Background >>The main objective of the project is to develop mechanisms and tools for the recognition and validation of prior learning. The developed methods and tools are target especially at adult learners in vulnerable situations and adult trainers working with vulnerable groups of learners. A large proportion of people face severe challenges in getting decent jobs, whether they are migrants trying to access education or to enter the labour market or they may be disabled or otherwise in a vulnerable situation. They may have the necessary skills and competences to do the job but they lack the recognition and validation of their skills. Or they may have skills gaps that could be filled with some specified learning tasks in order to be employed. The recognition of prior learning processes can help these individuals acquire microcredentials, a certification or even a formal qualification that matches their knowledge and skills, and thereby contribute to improving their employability, mobility, lifelong learning, social inclusion and self-esteem.The project aims also at supporting the green and digital transformation on the grass root level. There is a need to enable a profound change in peoples’ behaviour and skills, starting in the training systems and institutions as catalysts. Actions should be geared towards changing behaviour, developing and boosting skills for the green economy through fostering new sustainable education and training. As stated in the European Pillar of Social Rights a strong Social Europe is the foundation not only of our citizens’ prosperity and well-being but also of a competitive economy. A skilled innovative workforce, capable of shaping and adapting to the green and digital transitions will be key to this. Education is the foundation for personal fulfilment, employability, and active and responsible citizenship. The right to quality and inclusive education, training and lifelong learning is proclaimed in the European Pillar of Social Rights as its first principle. The Union has reset its growth strategy, based on sustainability, with green and digital transitions as its transformative drivers. Education is at the heart of the European way of life, strengthening social market economy and democracy with freedom, diversity, human rights and social justice.In December 2020, 16 million people were out of work. Low-skilled, low-paid workers, and temporary workers were the first to be laid-off due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Migrants’ participation in the labour market was also disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Although skills are essential to equip people for the new green and digital jobs and help shield workers from unemployment, under 40% of adults participate in any form of training every year and still too many young people have only a low level of skills or do not reach upper secondary education level (European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan | European Commission (europa.eu)) At the Eu level, adult participation in learning has not reached 15% target but has risen to 10.8% in 2019, with large differences between EU countries.<< Objectives >>There is a need for more flexible and inclusive learning paths since the learner population is becoming more diverse and the learning needs including up-skilling and reskilling more dynamic. The guidance and validation of skills play an important role. Innovative instruments like micro-credentials can facilitate flexible learning pathways and support learners to get employed or during professional transitions. More emphasis on training in collective agreements between social partners can improve access to quality training opportunities at the workplace, including for apprenticeships.The light pre-survey on the issue showed us that there is a need for easy-to-use methods and tools for both adult learners in need for support (eg. migrants, disabled, long term unemployed, people without formal secondary level education or otherwise in a vulnerable situation in the society and esp. in the labour market) as well as employers and staff working with adult learners. We want to develop easy-to-use, user-friendly tools for adult learners to assess their own skills and competencies gained through prior learning in formal, informal and non-formal settings in order to see the emerging needs and to find ways to up-skill and re-skill the competences to meet the needs of the labour market. For the companies and staff working with adult adult learners, the learning environment identification tool will offer an easy way to identify the tasks and the skills needed to successfully complete the tasks.<< Implementation >>1) Preparation and planning - preparation and planning phase has been commenced already in the application phase and it will continue the two first project months. All the plans, scheduling, timelines, milestones, templates, agreements etc. will be finalized so that the actual implementaation is ready to start in the beginning of 2022. 2) Transnational project meetingsThere will be five transnational project meetings and the preliminary agenda has been prepared already in the application phase. Each meeting will last one to two days depending on the planned agenda. 3) Production of the project resultsThe production of four project results has been planned and the tasks within the work packages has been distributed. The project results are all closely connected to each other and they form a usable entity within adult learning context. 4) LTT activityThe planned LTT activity is connected to the project results and gives the participants a possibility to familiarize themselves with the produced tools and methods more in depth. Thus enabling their role as facilitators in their own organisations. 5) Multiplier eventsThe project plans to arrange five multiplier events - one in each partner country. The objective of the MEs is to disseminate the project results to a wider audience interested in adult learning. . 6) EvaluationEvaluation is an ongoing process throughout the whole project. 7) DisseminationDissemination activities take place during the whole project to reach maximum visibility to the project and its results in order to create long lasting impact.<< Results >>The project builds upon the following key elements that create the project results: 1) The first refers to the processes related to identifying skills and competences of the learner including non-formal and informal learning (digital, simple and visual self-evaluation tool)2) the identification and definition of learning environment (what kind of skills can be gained in the learning environment) - digital tool3) the training module for trainers and working life representatives - how to recognise and evaluate the skills of the learner/ what is the recognition and validation process like; who are the actors4) the collection and presentation of evidence of learning; the assessment and validation of the evidence; and issuing recognized microcredentials, certification or even qualification if claims are validThe whole recognition and validation of prior learning process will be visualised including all the project results (1 to 4) .The project and its results will benefit the adult learners, adult trainers, organisations offering adult training, companies and employers. The recognition and validation process of learning is made visible and easy to comprehend by all active parties thus improving the situation of adult learners in the world of work and also education and training.