Restarting adult learning skills through new teaching methods. The topic of the project is trending today and will be of great importance tomorrow as we are all living in the world where IT plays important role in every level study process/activity; the same is with teacher interaction with students and methods used for teaching. Educators should know latest trends in ICT usage and know how to use/adopt them effectively daily, taking into account that technologies and teaching methods are developing rapidly. Students as target group who has to use ICT tools for study purposes have to understand and be able to learn through new approach, they have to adapt. Both students and teachers have to get explanation and proper training before they start to use new tools and methods. The learning process and subject delivery at schools are of a high standard, from the very first days of school onward, unleashes the abilities and skills, and prepares the young generation to be competitive in the labour market in the future. The big European issue that unites all the project partners is the question about the provision of education and training, especially for adults with no secondary education, different social backgrounds, young parents, people working full time, living abroad, etc., but most of them have no previous experience in self-education or have had negative prior experience in education, system, methods, etc. The problem with distance learning in schools is that not only students but also teachers need to be encouraged to learn new technologies and new learning habits. Trends show that the learning process is increasingly transformed into a virtual environment, but this does not mean that the on-the-spot effects at school will disappear. We are convinced by hearing that students want to combine face-to-face study and counselling where they can ask about the unknown and work in a virtual environment.The key issue of the project was not only to promote learning by improving the quality and efficiency of education services, but also to make education methods more attractive. Thus project has developed methodological material through the project partners joint research, experience and learning activities. The elaborated Material is available for free usage to everybody who is interested in the topic and find it valuable in 4 languages - English, Latvian, Estonian and Italian.Target group who already use methods are adult learners at project partner organisations and educators/teachers, leading to more than thousand learners.The goal of the project was to build a strong European network of three educational institutions with ICT expertise, enabling adults to learn at school, to study, develop and exchange methodological materials for distance learning, to structure the work of teachers using the various privileges offered by information technologies in order to promote work system with adult learners and learn new methods for individualized approach to each learner. The goal has been reached and there are further plans to be announced within the same project partners as key organisations and inviting extra participants, who are able to contribute with their experience and share the knowledge in ICT for joint achievements.The idea of partnership was to find joint solutions that add value to all project partners and lead to joint positive results, as the project participants are teachers, who attended structured course about integrating ICT in teaching and education. The project was serving as a good start to offer qualitative, better and varied education to its residents. Project has clearly defined roles of each and every partner in terms of cooperation, project management, dissemination, impact and sustainability.There are several benefits of the project to the educators, adult learners, schools - a close friendship and exchange of experience in adult education among three European countries - Latvia, Estonia and Italy - have been established; methodological material for better use of distance learning environment using various IT tools has been developed during the project; physical Moodle environment for distance learning has been improved; educators have been trained to work with the new distance learning Moodle environment and its capabilities; new cooperation contacts have been established to develop and improve adult learning methods; the issue of promoting the opportunities offered by the school in the e-environment has been raised.

“The digital age is expanding into all areas of our lives, and it is not just those who work in IT that will need to be alert of the digital transformation,” said Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society (January, 2018). Although we live in an increasingly online world, a significant part of the population remains digitally excluded. A recent report, “The Digital Skills Gap in Europe”, released by the European Commission on October 2017 has revealed that 44% of Europeans aged 16-74 do not have basic digital skills so near half of European adults lack basic digital skills. Adults without basic digital skills are less likely to manage their finances, access government services and cheaper products and are more likely to suffer from isolation, have lower incomes, be disenfranchised and have children who underachieve at school. In addition, the EU estimates that 90% of all jobs in the future will require at least basic digital skills, meaning that Europe could be facing a digital skills gap among European adults. It is therefore more important than ever that adult educators develop their own digital and pedagogical skills. At the same time, it is widely acknowledged that adult educators and trainers face many challenges as they deal with increasingly complex and diverse learning situations and meet competence demands in a constantly changing work environment with the evolvement of new technologies. As a result, there is an urgent need to provide adult educators/trainers a comprehensive professional development programme for upgrading and up-skilling their digital skills. Having all this in mind, “Digital skills 4 All” project aimed to provide guidance and training for adult educators across Europe on how to use ICT tools and digital methods to better deliver basic skills adult education. Beyond the project participants to the training event (C1) and the other participants to the Multiplier event (E1) other people were reached by project activities. In fact, people not receiving a specific grant also benefited from the project and approximately through physical and online dissemination activities more than 3,000 people were reached and get aware of the project outcomes and activities. The project was managed in a collaborative way, based on collective intelligence and regular communication. This methodology also meant that steps were realized in time bound manner as any lateness or missing parts could have direct influence on other partner work. The following methodology was applied: Plan, Do, Check, Act. This aims to constantly monitor the project advancement and to ensure permanent quality improvement. Feedbacks from participants, partner staff, adult educators and any parties involved in project activities were used for the continuous improvement of the project, using the PDCA method (plan, do, check, act). The project seen the realization of four transnational meetings (Final meeting was online due to COVID-19), one final multiplier event (realized online due to COVID-19), one transnational training event for staff and three Intellectual Outputs: IO1-E-learning modules. IO2 -Training Materials handbook. IO3 -Digital Guide of best practices. The project had direct, positive effects on the different participants as they acquired more specialized knowledge on digital skills and understand the importance of having digital skills for transferring them to low skilled adults, and through the peer-learning among adult educators there was concrete opportunities of intercultural contact as well as upskilling professional competences, adding comparative assessment and rating of the results, the perception of a professional growth and greater social recognition of educational mission by stakeholders. Target groups and other stakeholders included international bodies, adult centres, non-profit organization working with disadvantaged adults, willing to add non-formal activities to their formal curriculum; local and regional administrative bodies looking for support for fostering adult initiatives in their area, and at large organizations interested in ICT education for their workers. These will benefit from the positive outcome achieved, in terms of their replicability and dissemination, improving their visibility and their impact within their own community.

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The financial crisis of 2008 devastated national economies around the world. European countries are still recovering. But the spotlight is only now beginning to shine on one issue that could fracture national economies again, the youth unemployment crisis. Many 15- to 24-year-olds are struggling to find jobs, to further their education and to cope with a new world order in which they perceive they have no role. Indeed, while the Eurozone overall unemployment rate came in at 8.9% for September 2017, the lowest rate since February 2009, the region's youth unemployment for those aged 15-24 remains high. According to recent Eurostat data, 3.722 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in 2017 in the EU28, a decrease of 380,000 as compared with October 2016. The lowest youth unemployment rates were observed in Germany (6.6 %) and the Czech Republic (7,2 %), while the highest were recorded in Greece (40.2 % in August 2017), Spain (38.2 %) and Italy (34.7 %). These figures demonstrate that youth unemployment still remains high across the EU. So, with a large proportion of young people unemployed and not having any defined role in society, there is a high risk of social cohesion and of trust in public institutions being undermined, with harm for medium-term growth prospects. Thus, promoting youth entrepreneurship is considered by many one of the main solution to European youth unemployment and societal challenges. Following this line and based on the necessity to bring Europe back to growth, European Commission adopted several initiatives within the context of the Europe 2020 growth and jobs strategy. One of the star initiatives adopted by EU is the Erasmus+ programme (2014-20) which has a strong focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly in the Key Action 2 through strategic partnerships and transnational youth initiatives. In this sense, Erasmus+ confirms the value and the impact of youth work in working with young people in areas including entrepreneurship and culture, by developing transversal skills, exercising skills in practice and increasing cultural activities which allow youth empowerment. In other words, youth work appears to offer untapped potentials for developing the resources of young Europeans unemployed through activities conducted by youth workers in a supportive setting. Nevertheless, often youth workers do not contribute in entrepreneurial learning in young people as much they could because of the lack of knowledge of what constitutes entrepreneurial learning and the lack of awareness of youth work contribution to entrepreneurial learning. Considering all that, the main objective of “Entrepreneurship Plus” was to provide to youth workers all the necessary skills and competencies in order to be able to understand and deliver entrepreneurial education and learning. The project has been designed over 20 months to happen in 3 major consecutive phases. Feedbacks from participants was used for the continuous improvement of the project, using the PDCA method (plan, do, check, act): Phase one - Setting up the project, Planning & Research phase (Month 1 to Month 6). Phase two - Project activities implementation phase and realisation of IO1 (Month 7 to Month 13).Phase three - Design of Digital Guide of Best practices (IO2), local activities, project evaluation phase, closure (Month 14 to Month 20).The project had the following main activities: -Two Intellectual Outputs (e-learning modules & Digital Guide). -Three International meetings. -One survey and one survey report. -One Training event. - Local workshops and dissemination activities The project impact was the following: -The project was directly aimed to youth workers and youth leaders of youth organisations so they mainly benefited from educational content to improve their entrepreneurial skills that will favour youth empowerment. -The youth workers benefited in terms of motivation, commitment, tools and methods. They had a greater satisfaction in their volunteer commitment and perform better quality of youth work. Their level of skills improved and these skills are also transferable to other youth workers in other organisations. - Youth organisations involved in learning activities benefited from improved youth work: more committed and motivated youth workers, more consistency between regardless of youth workers involved in learning activities. This results in creating more impact in the awareness raising activities, improve learning impact, extended learning opportunities in the field of youth entrepreneurship and eventually more sustainable results and impact of the activities. -Organisations involved benefited from improve processes and results, therefore optimize available resources for new activities such as empowering youth through entrepreneurship. The project aimed to contribute to sustainability and capacity building of the organisations.

"Основната идея на проект ""Иновативни подходи и неформални методи за насърчаване на творческия потенциал и предприемачески умения сред младите хора"" е насочена към стимулиране на младите хора за развитие на новаторско мислене, кариерно ориентиране и намиране на възможности за реализиране на собствените им идеи и потенциал. По време на изпълнение на дейностите по проекта се включиха представители на различни НПО, експерти, специалисти, учители и ученици, представители на местната власт в регионите на участниците. Осъществиха се голям брой инициативи - неформални обучения и семинари, кръгли маси, презентации, интервюта, благотворителни събития и онлайн тренинги, като се акцентира върху обучението по предприемачество и развитието на предприемачески нагласи и умения.Специфичните цели на проекта включват стратегически обмен на добри практики на равнище ЕС, между три партньорски организации – България, Испания и Италия и насърчаване на предприемаческото поведение сред младите хора. Развитието на предприемачески умения се благоприятства от съвместното създаване и използване на дигитален One Note бележник с „Модули по предприемачество“ и дисково пространство в Google Drive, което създаде подходящи условия за получаване на нови знания, онлайн сътрудничество и работа в екип. Имайки предвид факта, че средствата на информационните и комуникационни технологии се използват навсякъде в нашата дигитална ера и експертите в тази област със сигурност са увеличили възможностите си за намиране на работа, проектът предостави много информация и практически умения в това отношение. Чрез участието си младежите бяха насърчавани да развиват своите комуникационни умения, с използване на английски език в мултикултурна среда, да споделят идеи и знания, когато участват в краткосрочно съвместно обучение на международно ниво. Проектът се изпълни в два основни етапа - подготвителен и практичен. По време на първия етап младежите-участници проведоха проучване на пазара на труда в своите региони, срещнаха се с представители на различни местни компании, научиха се да събират и анализират данни. В проекта се включиха ученици, младежки работници, експерти и представители на бизнеса, както и местните власти. Проведените инициативи дадоха възможност те да работят заедно и на практика да получат знания как може да се развива и насърчава предприемаческия подход сред младите хора.Дейностите, които планирахме, организирахме и проведохме, следваха модела на разбиране на същността на предприемачеството, като обединиха теоретичния принос и експерименталното обучение. Младежите от различните държави сформираха екипи, ръботиха върху съвместни задачи онлайн, обмениха идеи и създадоха международна младежка „Креативна Агенция“, където споделиха визуални материали и концепции по разгледаните теми, имайки предвид спецификата на техните регион и държави. Опитни ментори обучаваха и координираха младежите – участници в проекта през цялото време на неговото изпълнение. В блога, сайта и фейсбук групата на проекта бяха публикувани различни материали, които да ги подпомагат в тяхната ефективна работа. Иновативни практики бяха интегрирани и във формалното обучение на учениците. Младежите взеха участия в организирането на социални инициативи с различни благотворителни каузи.По време на втория етап от изпълнението на проекта младежите от всяка партньорска страна работиха върху идеята, свързана със създаването на „Креативна Агенция“. Основните дейности на Агенцията бяха насочени към провеждането на маркетингови проучвания. Младежите успяха да разпределят ролите си в младежката компания: за търсене на информация, обобщение и анализ, обмен на информация с партньорите, създаване на мултимедийни материали, администриране на облачни платформи, организиране на събития и връзки със заинтересувани лица. По този начин участниците успяха да развият индивидуалните си способности и умения. Те приложиха на практика своето предприемаческо знание и креативно мислене, докато управляваха младежката компания. „Креативната агенция“ получи лого, което съвпада с логото на проекта. На платформата, специално създадена, за да демонстрира младежкито предприемачество в този проект има публикувана разнообразна информация – рекламни клипове, презентации и хипервръзки към съответни места в глобалната мрежа и споделеното дисково пространство. Това ни помогна от своя страна да се популяризираме и позиционираме по-добре и да установим контакти с местния бизнес. По време на проекта се проведоха две мобилности – в Испания и България, като знанията бяха валидирани с YouthPass сертификати. Всички експерти и ментори, които се включиха в проекта дадоха насоки и подкрепа на сформираните младежки екипи, повишавайки нивото на техните компетенции, самостоятелност и увереност."