<< Background >>Education institutions are among the most influential elements of implementing concepts of sustainability and sustainable development and their decisions affect the economic, social and environmental dimensions of the communities and regions around them. Society expects them to educate the youth and contribute to the society. Still there is no clear understanding how to integrate sustainability into the systems, no guidelines to action, no checklist that would be equally helpful for all VET or could be applied across the board by all. Institutions are too different in terms of their legal form (private or public), location (rural or metropolitan) or size (small and specialised or large offering a full range of faculties).<< Objectives >>The aim of the project is to make the research and overview on the good practices within European VET schools, prepare the guidelines on innovative teaching methods and staff and students' systemic engagement activities and platform for the experience sharing and contribute to the environment and climate change activities in European Union and beyond.The objectives of the project are:1. To motivate and empower people via new training and engagement opportunities in the field of Sustainability.2. To provide innovative solutions , teaching methods, research and practice to target groups, staff, teachers and learners of Vocational and Adults Education;2. To excel and expand the knowledge on the good practices to eductational institutions and key players in the sustainability issues and activities in Europe;The operational objectives of the project are:1. To produce a comparative study on the activities related to these sustainability issues, in each country/region;2. To create a collections of workshops presenting different approaches to the sustainability training and engagement activities of each country;3. To develop a trainer's guide including a collection of recommendations and best practises for the promotion of sustainability issues via training and engagement activities to empower youth;4. To create an online learning platform with on-line learning resources;5. To provide training opportunities for VET staff and learnersThe target groups of the project are:- Staff and students of VET and adult education, organisations active in the field of sustainability projects, organisations active in the field of youth education and training, representatives in the field of social affairs, local, regional and national public authorities and policy makers;- Final beneficiaries<< Implementation >>AimActivities and resultsTo reduce social-ecological impact of educational establishments and widen and deepen their impact on societal development.Experience exchange, online or mobility, surveys and interviews, based on sustainability indexesTo prepare students as leaders for tomorrow and increase engagement, working for greener and sustainable future. To reflect with students and personnel on how we can develop your activities to become more impactfulTo create guidelines, innovative teaching and engagement methods and toolsTo share insightful stories on social media to add to the overview of activities and challenges about successful projects, effective strategies, and learnings from failed attempts to inspire others to develop in the areas mentioned aboveTo ensure communication, webpage, posts and articles published, To create IT platformTo create network and organize online summitTo set up a Green Office<< Results >>-Quantitative results:- Education programme and guideline produced - 1;- On-line learning platform developed – 1;- number of transnational project meetings - 4 ;- number of staff training - 1;- number of educators participating in the trainings - at least 20;- number of local dissemination events - 7;- number of participants of the local dissemination events - 200 persons;- number of persons visiting the on-line learning platform, at least 300 persons by the end of the project;- enhanced cooperation between organisations in the adult education - at least 8 organisations.Qualitative results:1. For the VET educators:- expansion of knowledge and skills in the sustainability issues;- expansion of knowledge and skills in involving and empoweringtarget groups;- wider use of innovative methods and new approaches to the promotion og sustainability in action ;- increased competence in foreign languages;- greater understanding and responsiveness to social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity - improved competences, linked to their professional profiles;- increased opportunities for professional development;- increased capacity to trigger changes in terms of modernisation and internationalisation;- increased motivation and satisfaction in their daily work by using new, efficient methods and approaches.2. For target groups (students, staff, teachers and stakeholders involved):- increased accessibility of trainings and engagement activities in sustainability field;- enhanced opportunities to explore European best practice in sustainability in action;- motivation and empowerment via the extended research, experience exchange and guided instructions on teaching and engagement materials;- raise the quality of living of target groups.3. For the partner organisations:-strengthening of partnerships;-joint activities in sustainability in action, reporting, impact assessment, involvement of stakeholders;-intercultural cooperation;-Cooperation between NG), SME and Educational Institutions - synergy of knowledge, approaches, evaluation practices and involvement practices.

"As teachers in public Secondary and Vocational Schools we have noticed the urgent need to pay attention to our younger students with special needs to learn efficiently, as they are constantly kicked off from the oficial educational system, just because of their special requirements. They are usually sent to Initial VET programmes, but although our laws mention ""inclusion"", these programmes are not really inclusive. They are not useful, as they do not offer our students the possibility of a real learning, to remain for longer periods within the system. Unfortunately, they are neither prepared to access our current labour market. From our teaching perspective, the curricular materials we have for these students do not fit their needs. They are usually motivated to minpulative activities , but not really for passive, rote learning. However, the publishing companies provide schools with useless books which are not useful with these students within the classroom. This situation causes frustration and continuous worries for teachers. Some of them have recently shared this feeling with other teaching professionals from different European countries during KA1 mobility projects. Moreover, from companies perspective, having agreements with our schools for internship programmes, they are really worried about the fact that our curricular materiales are not updated to allow our students to get the required abilities to work at their companies. Once again, these books do not fulfill the companies requirements for qualified workers.For all these reasons, we consider ourselves ready to take action and try to change this situation. We suggest designing and manufacture inclusive curricular materials for these students. They have to be as simple, interactive and attractive as possible, so they can contribute to cause the required motivation for them to finish their Inicial VET programmes. At the same time, they help their teachers to get motivated aswell. Among teachers, we usually share some individual activities which are successful within the classroom with these students. Now we propose to gather all of them, coming up from different schools and different countries, as our main objective is to help the development of high quality skills and competences for our teachers and students. Moreover, We want to offer them all to the rest of the society, where there are some professional groups clearly not updated to fulfill their jobs, and not ready to start a traditional training. We want to offer our inclusive materials to them in an open learning format (SPOOC) . On the basis of this common need, shared with hundreds of teachers from our association, we have chosen to make a proporsal for a first try of designing inclusive materials focusing on the Automotive branch of Car Maintenance.We detail here our open learning format proposal, which has to be plural, inclusive and offering constant updating, by means of ICT, manufacturing inclusive materials on a digital basis, designing a digital book (including 3D patterns, and models to be printed on 3D to favour ""learning by doing"")We assume that the option of ICT complements the topic itself: the electric vehicle."

<< Background >>Europe is facing its greatest threat since World War II. The COVID19 outbreak is triggering unprecedented social & economic consequences. We are faced with a ‘new normal’; a previously unfamiliar or ‘atypical situation that has become standard, usual or expected’, bringing established practices into question.The integration of digital tools and immediate transfer to distance training and learning has caught in surprise the centres of Vocational education and training. It is obvious that the VET system has suffered because of not only the improper preparation of the VET providers but also the lack of the materials has played an important role.The pandemic has been accompanied by a rise in nationalist sentiments in EU member countries. It has re-ignited debates about national-versus-European identity.The negative impacts of these changes have had disproportionate effects on professional courses such as Wellness and Cosmetology, with the result that teachers from these courses are facing the real need of digital, interactive and user-friendly materials for better delivering of the courses. As Cedefop reports ‘Digital gap during COVID-19 for VET learners is at risk in Europe. An entire partner organisation of VET learners has seen their education and training being interrupted. This population could suffer severe disruption of their learning if continuity of distance learning is not ensured.These preliminary conclusions raise awareness on the need to develop further the digital competences of teachers and trainers, promoting their participation in continuous professional development, facilitating their mobility, involving them in future policy design and fostering their wellbeing. To test these observations & support the clear need for this project, the project partners undertook a Needs Analysis based on internal survey: More than 50 teachers of Wellness and Cosmetology VET courses replied to the survey from all participating countries: This internal research has shown that 80% of activities in Wellness courses have turned online without proper digital materials. 75% of the teachers from partner and applicant organisations have pointed out the lack of digital materials especially in the field of Wellness and Cosmetology courses and the need of interactive, inclusive and free access online sources for both teacher and learners. Another 95% of the participating teachers have selected the fact that it has been their first experience in distance teaching, and that many of them have never used any European platform or portal for searching teaching materials.44% of them think that teachers don’t have proper preparation to teach online and use distance learning materials. Whereas 90% of them are quite sure that there is a need of a proper methodology, strategy and plan for distance teaching in VET. For 81% of the participating teachers the highest challenge they faced in distance learning was to attract the learners attention and motivate them to participate. For 95% of them the challenges with learners are due to the lack of materials, digital interactive components and the lack of methodology/strategy in distance teaching. Very often learners take the activities for granted and try to foresee the upcoming lessons.These results highlight the transformation that digital materials can bring to Wellness and Cosmetology VET sectors and how these learning materials would create a ‘win-win’ scenario where each partner brings its competences & knowledge that could benefit the others, demonstrating the potential added-value of the project.Our research underlined the urgent need for innovative solutions and digitalization in VET system.<< Objectives >>The primary objective of the project is to facilitate innovative, digital & inter-European collaboration so as to encourage Wellness and Cosmetology VET course providers, teachers and staff to learn from each other & to create new digital materials for distance teaching in VET. By connecting inter-national teachers to the European community, the project aims to improve the digital learning process of VET students through the upskilling of key competences & reinforce the ‘values of supporting development of professional networks across Europe, International dimension, Recognition and validation of skills and qualifications, multilingualism, essential parts of European identity’ (European Parliament Press, March 2021).The partners believe passionately in the concept of community of practice. However, a community of practice model should not be limited to the local area or the regional area or even within member states. The potentially most useful & impactful CoP, is a community built around the entire European Area. Each partner has competences & experiences which if shared with other groups, learning can be maximised & opportunities for fulfilling employment dramatically increased. One of the key themes running through the project is the articulation of local & European dimensions. Thus, the project starts with work at a local level within national organizations & then expands its scope to the European level through work with transnational European partners.The project addresses the 3 strategic issues of digital Erasmus, Internationalisation in VET, & Green Erasmus specified in the ‘Erasmus 2021-2027 Enriching lives, opening minds booklet’.’ These are areas where ‘EU cooperation adds value & delivers results’ (Vassilou). In this way we will ‘create and promote education opportunities & exchanges of experiences for more innovative, inclusive, digital and open access education in VET. The preliminary research undertaken partners has allowed us to prioritise the development of 3 highly pertinent key competences to meet the identified challenges facing our target groups.<< Implementation >>We will design pedagogical modules to counter the negative impacts of the pandemic & the current context identified as priorities in our research to allow VET providers and teachers better prepare for upcoming training years. We will promote digitalization in VET, internalization values and promote an awareness of the added-value of European citizenship & the Erasmus programme through international organisational & pan-European learning , tailored to meet the specific current needs of our target groups. We will take into account cultural differences & educational methodologies and requirements of partner countries to produce an adaptable programme for effective implementation throughout the EU. In this way, the project will feature international organisational groups of teachers, staff members and teaching programme Coordinators working together in a language that is not their native language.We encourage exchanges between different partner organisations and between different countries between VET educators, coordinators & tutors, VET learners; Wellness course managers. The cooperation between partners will facilitate the process of redesigning, refocusing & adapting existing tools & methods to the current rapidly changing environment. This will represent a true vehicle for promoting innovation & quality in learning systems at European level, in line with the European development policies. Situations differ across European countries & research done by partners in the 5 partnership countries before submission plus the continuing research that will be undertaken will be of value here.Teamwork between European partners allows a more comprehensive approach to needs & solutions, as it promotes a greater understanding of different realities, bringing benefits to the project in all stages of implementation in terms of quality of work & results achieved. There is a cross-sectoral element to the project through links to the VET sector, because we aim to improve access to further training & qualifications, thereby facilitating employability.We will undertake 5 pilot studies in 5 European countries involving groups of VET learners from target age-groups and Wellness and Cosmetology companies or centres. A significant number of learners will come from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. We will implement an innovative sharing, promotion & exploitation strategy relevant to the current context in order to maximise the impact of our project.<< Results >>Towards Variable-Access & Digitalization of Wellness Courses (TOVARDIGWELVET) in VET will ‘develop smart thinking ‘tangible results, based on a modular, interactive learning, with peer-to-peer & problem-solving to facilitate both individual, autonomous & group & autonomous remote/blended/face-to-face solutions.Firstly, we will design Smart Varied-Access Pedagogical Programme with adaptable varied-access approaches; Teaching Resources; Learning Resources for Wellness and Cosmetology Course providers (R1). The target groups are VET teachers. The Pedagogical programme will be available in English and in all 5 languages of the participating partner countries.A big percentage of our pedagogical staff needs to learn new technologies and tools (video conferencing, communication software, use of key software, presentations, edit and use images and video clips) in order to work and delivery quality online or blended courses. Secondly, we will design an eBook with 6 inclusive digital didactic modules for initial vet programmes. It will be a variable-access interactive E-book For Initial VET Wellness and Cosmetology courses with 6 learning modules (R2) The eBook modules will cover the following topics: Science and Medicine, Chemistry and Cosmetology, Manicure, Pedicure, Hair removal treatments/epilation, Face treatments.The eBook will be available in English and in all 5 languages of the participating partner countries.Our main focus will be on VET teachers, VET course providers with maximum accent on Wellness and Cosmetology course providers, and VET learners’ groups aged 15-17. The project resources will be digitally-based, open-source, freely downloadable & available in 6 languages. They will empower educators, VET teachers to offer high-quality learning opportunities to their learners. They can be tailored to the needs of specific target groups, adaptable for any type of learners & used in countries not actively involved in the project, thereby dramatically increasing the project impact.As Irene Caratelli said ‘The COVID-19 crisis is an opportunity to reimagine Europe, but the ultimate responsibility will rest on people to redefine what it means to be “European”. The project aims to make a significant contribution to this process.

Aims fo the project:- Make up a digital guide on good practices for training apprentinces considering both formal and informal training institutions. The idea is to benefit both employers and students, strenghtening the link between teaching, training and working. We want to establish high quality rules to avoid apprendices training to focus on low skill jobs or on a poor training process causing a damage to their reputation. In addition, we want to offer a way to excellence as qualiting training processes can also contriute to foster active citizenship and social inclusion by integrating people from different social and personal origins within th labour market. - To create a network of good practices as apprentices training is concerned by including the participation of all partners in the project and any other institutions who apply for being a part of it. The lenth of the project is thought for two years. Within it we will include three transnational meetings and three training activities. The working team is formed by the coordinator Asociación de Profesores Técnicos y de Enseñanza Secundaria de Automoción de Galicia and the following partners:IEK Kavalas (Greece)Ortakoy 80. Yil Mesleki Ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi from Ankara- (Turkey)ISIS D'Aronco from Gemona del Friuli -( Italy)Centro Formativo Provinciale G. Zanardelli from Brescia - (Italy)Jelgavas Tehnikums from Jelgava - Latvia.1.2.- Reserach on the following aspects of apprentices training:17 fields of work are established to produce the good practices guide about apprentices training process. - Legislation - Companies and schools agreements.- Learning outcomes in the training process.- Pedagogical Support- working place- Remuneration or compensation- Social protection.- Working, health and safety conditions.- Regulatory framework- Companies support - tutors training- Flexible pathways and mobility- Career guidance and .- Career guidance and self-awareness.- Transparency- Quality assurance and apprentices monitoring- To ensure equal access- Support services to implement apprentices training systems- Self-awareness.The dissemination plan of the project includes social networks, employers, apprentices and social agents meetings, written media. By means of the European network of good practices on apprentices training we will establish the sustainability of the project. We will continuo working with this tool after the project finishes by incorporating any other new institutions which will strengthen its usefulness. We will also add new working fields on it such as the apprentices mobilities and the teaching staff mobilities within the UE.

This project found its origin when PTS Boom, Belgium went onto the eTwinning Live partner forum asking for interest in a European power tool race, the simple but alluring idea being to have students build their own electric power tool drag racer from an everyday hand power tool and organise an international power tool race with it. Three schools from across the continent were not only enthusiastic to take part but were also similar IVET and STEM schools with students aged 16 to 19 of whom a considerable number are considered to be students with fewer possibilities: ZSP Ornontowice, Poland, CFP Zanardelli Bergamo, Italy and 1st EPAL Piraeus, Greece. All four schools very quickly felt they were “on track”: the central idea of the project was clear, they had the necessary capacity on board, the project would challenge both their STEM as their IVET students and it would create the right circumstances to involve students with fewer opportunities in a European project.The main objective of the project is to engage the learners of our schools in an appealing and innovative challenge so as to boost certain key competences: learning by doing and working together to make a power tool drag racer in mixed VET/STEM teams in which everyone’s contribution is equally important, using English for real life communication (on eTwinning and on international mobilities) and improving digital skills to produce video reports of their work in progress and of the power tool races.For the schools the project means an opportunity to share an experience of STEM domain education and explore an engaged form of learning where IVET learners feel just as valued as STEM learners. The core activity of this project is to turn an everyday hand power tool such as a drill or grinder into a fully functioning power tool drag racer that can run along a wooden track. Students will need to work in teams and be creative. They will need to present their work in progress via video and conference calls on Twinspace before taking their racer abroad on a mobility to race similar power tools made by other teams. On one occasion they will build extra drag racers during the mobility in mixed international teams. After receiving an introduction and the rules and regulations of a power tool drag race, students will use their creativity and learn by doing in a team of mixed VET and STEM students where everyone has an equally valuable input. For language support they will make their own multilingual technical glossary to be published on Twinspace. For technical support they will receive feedback from fellow students and teachers in their school and from the other schools when they present their racer to the other teams on the eTwinning platform. Every mobility will also have targeted STEM input sessions that will help to improve on the existing racers or help to build better ones by the next mobility.A high number of STEM and IVET students will be involved in (parts of) the project: STEM input sessions, construction work in workshops and English tasks related to the project will be part of the regular school curriculum and whole class groups will perform them.At the discretion of the school a smaller number will form a mixed VET/STEM team to build a power tool drag racer. Different students will be chosen at four different stages over the two years.Five students per school, of whom minimum two with fewer opportunities, will be designated to participate in mobilities and perform the power tool race and the other proposed activities. Different students will be chosen for every mobility. They will be accompanied by two teachers involved in building the power tool or the organisation of the project.Hosting a mobility will require the help and input of the school’s internationalisation teams and/or general staff. Two teachers who are to benefit most from the proposed activities on the two teacher mobilities will be designated to take part in these.The palpable results we envisage are a glossary of technical terms and proof of regular interaction between schools on Twinspace, successful power tool races with fully functioning drag racers in all four countries and video records of the building and racing for dissemination purposes.The important outcomes we envisage are to improve basic skills, social, multilingual and digital competences of IVET learners and STEM learners alike, to empower IVET learners and to deliver a challenging and innovative STEM domain project that engages the students but also proves key in the schools’ internationalisation strategies. The potential mid and long term benefits are that our IVET learners experience a boost in self-esteem, that our schools incorporate the building of a power tool drag racer into their curricula, that they get a better understanding of STEM domain education and that European cooperation gets further embedded in the organisations, possibly leading to further projects in the future.