The ACTIVE-ATS project’s objective is strengthening TVET teachers’ and trainers’ capacity to work in competence-based TVET, which is implemented in a cooperation with the world of work. The project will enhance the teachers’ and trainers’ competencies in pedagogy, student-centered approach and technical specialist work-based learning. This is done by a) clarifying the teachers’ and trainers’ roles in the new learning culture, b) piloting a pedagogical enhancement programme and c) implementing new kind of collaboration between schools and companies to support technical specialist competence of teachers through work-based learning in TVET. The actions will support both the pedagogical and technical competencies of teachers.The project will be piloted in cooperation with Applied Technology Schools (ATS). The ATS private sector partners will be involved in the activities in several work packages. ATS are the Flagship Brand of Schools by the Ministry of Education and Technical Education (MoETE), which is the biggest TVET provider in Egypt and partner in the project. 5 out of 27 ATS are associate partners in the project. 50 teachers and trainers will take part into pilot activities of the projects. There are altogether 1300 students and 175 staff in these five schools. ATS have competence-based curriculum and implement work-based learning for TVET learners. ATS are included in Egypt’s educational TVET strategy and identified to have potential in other African countries. The commitment of MoETE and ATS enables the grounds for genuine medium and long-term impacts of the project’s outputs.Based on the activities in the project, the partners will prepare guidelines for in-service teachers’ and trainers’ competence development and implementation of work-based TVET for both authority- and school-level use. Guidelines will include the aspects to carry out the engagement of the private sector to promote the relevance of technical and vocational education.

More than 20 million European jobs are already linked to the environment in some way and as the EU gears up for a greener future that figure is only going to increase. The EU is committed to growing the economy while protecting the earth and its precious resources. Among the priorities laid down in Europe 2020, the EU’s new economic strategy, stress the need for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. That means building a competitive, low-carbon, resource-efficient economy and safeguarding the environment by preventing degradation, biodiversity loss and the unsustainable use of resources. It is important to stress that green jobs are not just hi-tech jobs for the educated elite. For sure Europe needs scientists, researchers and engineers to develop cutting-edge technologies that will save energy and resources. However, the work is also carried out by people with intermediate level training: Vocational Education and Training, VET. It is essential therefore that these workers get the training they need to exploit the latest green technologies and applications.But according to the Communication from the Commission (COM (2010) 682 final), “An Agenda for new skills and jobs: A European contribution towards full employment”, the problem is not the lack of training, but the need of matching skills supply with labour market needs.In the Commission Staff Working Document (SWD) 2012 92 final, “Exploiting the employment potential of green growth” it is appointed that special attention has to be paid to SMEs and their needs. Often, SMEs are not aware of training schemes offered by private and public training providers and/ or are skeptical about such programs, however, are open to in-house informal training (e.g. tutorship, mentorship, apprenticeship, work-based learning, etc) as a preferential way of recruiting skilled workers.To reach this objective of bridging the gap between green education and green work, it seems more efficient working in a partnership way in order to cooperate, innovate and share good practices. And according to the programme’s guide, as regards vocational education and training, priority will be given to projects developing partnerships between education and employment. That is why we have chosen organizations linked to education (FEUZ in Spain), as training providers (INOVA+ and EEO Group in Portugal and Greece), and organizations linked to employment, as chambers of commerce and industry (COCI Zaragoza and IHK-Projekt in Spain and Germany).The work plan was structured into 8 WPs:WP.1. Management and coordinationWP.2. State of the artWP.3. Mapping green labour market needsWP.4. Mapping green skills WP.5. Strategic benchmarkingWP.6. Bridging the gap between green market labour needs and green skills supply WP.7. Quality control and monitoringWP.8. Communication, valorization and project transfer First step of the implementation phase was the definition of the state of art of policies and measures implemented by the States involved in the project towards the development of the green economy to design the conceptual framework of the same one.The second step wias to identify and gather the current green market labour needs of the companies located in the regions involved in the project. 15 green occupations from the recycling & waste management, transportation & logistics, vehicle manufacturing and agro food industry, wiere selected and their skill profile identified. The third step was to identify and gather the main courses and trainings related to green skills that are being run in each region involved in the project. Afterwards, partners exchanged experiences and identified and gather the best practices to bridge the gap between existing green skills (WP4) and green labour market needs (WP3). These practices were related to traditional training schemes or other more “informal” schemes as e-training, in-house training, a work experience, a work placement, a work-based learning, etc. And the final step was the definition and description of 15 roadmaps, which match the specific company green need with the specific green skill supply.Partnership believes that this project has certainly cotribubuted to promote mutual learning among partners and key stakeholders and enhanced transferability of the most effective strategies to match the green market labour needs with the green skills supply, as well as to support the growth of the green economy by means of adequate and effective training policies and strategies ensuring their continuous adaptation to the changing requirements of SMEs anticipating skills mismatches.

"VET towards ECVET covers the consideration of ECVET in trainings related to tourism. We notably focus on 2 sectors : hotel receptionist and seller in touristic areas. This project involves French, Northern Irish, German, Portuguese and Italian partners to implement a certifying mobility of 45 days in order to validate learning units of the professional titles ""Seller in touristic areas"" and of ""Hotel receptionist"". The project meets the needs in both sectors to prove mastery of a foreign language and cross-cultural approach to customer service.In 2009, the European Parliament and the Council recommended that member states ""create the necessary conditions and adopt measures so that, as from 2012 [...], it is possible for ECVET to be gradually applied to VET qualifications at all levels of the EQF, and used for the purpose of the transfer, recognition and accumulation of individuals' learning outcomes achieved in formal and, where appropriate, non-formal and informal contexts"" (cf. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2009:155:0011:0018:EN:PDF)The target audience consists of people in VET, unemployed or low level qualifications, seeking to maximize their employment opportunities in the tourism sector. Participants will do a 45-day professional internship in one of our partner countries. This period spent abroad will be certified in the learning of the ECVET system defined in advance with our European partners through units.Developing an ECVET project for VET providers with agreed learning outcomes and assessment criteria allows all stakeholders to see the development of professional competences and transversal skills which takes place during the mobility and training period. This gives an added value to the Mobility. Tools are developed, modified and agreed upon which suit the individual learning needs of the participant - they are put at the centre of the mobility. Such a project also helps focus the efforts of the host companies and the participants providing a more meaningful placement with tasks that would help develop the skills required by the sending companies. It creates a win-win situation for all.With quality mobilities being offered we hope that more participants from across Europe in the field of sales and tourism would elect to take a mobility abroad within the partnership and if the project aims and tools created were adopted by other sending and hosting companies and VET provideres then there is an even greater potential that the number of Mobilities in Europe would increase."

"The project follows the core objectives of the ""Riga Conclusion on VET"" (2015): to promote job-related learning in partnership and make it more attractive; and to improve access to vocational education and training through efficient guidance and occupational orientation. The biggest challenge facing VET is the public perception that it is the final resort for dropouts. But in reality employment prospects and vocational careers for learners, who have completed a vocational training programme, are very good. For example in Germany around two thirds of all trainees get a permanent job with their companies after completing vocational training. Professionals with a vocational qualification are in high demand on the labour market. In some fields, candidates with a vocational qualification are even more sought after than university graduates. In view of the shortage of skilled labour and the trend towards academization and VET as 2nd choice, there is a need in all partner countries to inform young people even better about the very good career opportunities offered by work-based learning (WBL) as an alternative to university studies. Improving the image of Vocational Education and Training is our priority in this project. Here the consortium will test and establish an innovative challenge-based approach that starts with the learner and arouses curiosity for VET and work-based learning (WBL). This includes, among other things, Escape games which can provide vocational orientation in an appealingly way. Educational Escape rooms have drawn the interest of educators due to their ability to foster valuable skills such as teamwork, leadership, creative thinking, and communication. As a consequence, educational Escape rooms are emerging as a new type of learning activity under the promise of enhancing students learning through highly engaging experiences. The partnership will be composed of chambers, companies, schools and innovative VET providers. So a good balance between VET and business is guaranteed. Together they will answer the question of how to unlock the potential of Educational Escape games to improve the image of VET. This new type of ""learning activity"" has decisive advantages: it is playful (arousing curiosity), it simulates ""problems"" from the real working world and makes young people aware of their strengths. It is an effective intervention that can be applied by lots of different actors in VET to attract additional target groups as potential VET students and later on skilled workers: school leavers with an educationally distant background, girls, university drop-outs, etc. Partners will create flexible Escape room settings including methodological and didactical recommendations, that can be used or adapted afterwards to the end-users' needs. Those will be piloted with at least 80 students and their respective educators/vocational counsellors of the target group. By providing appealing and playful opportunities to get to know specific occupations, students will become aware about ""challenges"" and ""benefits"" of the attractive world of work. In summary the partnership seeks to reduce misconceptions about certain VET profiles, arousing an interest in those profiles and considerations to choose a VET learning path among students, teachers and parents. We will enhance graduate employability through attractive work-based learning and vocational training and support companies in the daily ""war of talents"" to attract future skilled workers."

"The DC4Work project focused on the necessary digital skills that a workplace 4.0 needs. A digitally well-set company needs employees who have professional specific digital knowledge and competences. Studies presented those to be the decisive factor for companies' performance and success in the so-called digital age - especially in sectors with high priority on communiation and customer orientation (tourism & commerce). For this purpose the project suggested to appoint a “Digital competence promoter” in companies (SMEs) or organizations in these 2 sectors. His/her job is to guide colleagues on digital competences improvement integrated into their work and raise awareness for digital changes. In order to support SMEs on their way and establish a promoter for digital competences of staff (from apprentices to seniors) the project achieved 3 main results: 1) After having detected a general need for digital upskilling in SMEs prior to the project proposal the consortium carried out an online survey addressed to SMEs in the pre-defined sectors as well as interviews with experts from research, administration and practice. Their aim was to better understand the awareness and concrete practices existent in SMEs in the participating partner countries concerning measurement, promotion and development of employees’ digital competences at their workplace. The output, a White paper on learning in the digital age, summarized key-study results leading to a qualified foundation for the subsequent output and provided business benefits in terms of recommendations for SMEs on how and why to promote digital competences of their employees.2) The second project results were guidelines basically for executives in SMEs and trainers of digital competences. By defining learning outcomes and describing concrete learning activities at the work place, they facilitated the training of DC promoters but also deepened the understanding of what the DC promoter should know, e.g. for self-study approaches. Picking up the topics detected during the consultation of the target groups in the study phase, these guidelines addressed competences and topics most in need but also added an innovative component by complementing concepts such as learning organisations, open badges, collaborative learning which were new to many enterprise staff in the given sectors. This way the guidelines contributed to an increasing level of digital competence in SMEs and deepened trainers’, managers’ and developers’ understanding and knowledge of how to transform SMEs in the digital age by focussing on staff and their digital skills. Although the project placed an emphasis on the tourism and commerce sectors, the guideline could also be re-used to train promoters in companies of other sectors or scope. 3) In order to translate the guidelines into practice and make the DC promoter working effectively an online toolbox 4.0 was created. It explained the role of the DC promoter, provided training material and tools´s for him/her and was completed by a section on the DigitalCompetence Framework 2.1. The toolbox 4.0 combined different ways of facilitating learning, e.g.short texts, prezis, explanation videos, reports, graphs etc. structured in a way from more general knowledge to more specific topics regarding the two sectors in focus. The guidelines and the toolbox 4.0 have been tested with about 70 people during a learning & training activity and with a MOOC to ensure their quality and workability for the target group. The participants feedback confirmed a high potential of transferability of the two training modules No. 3 ""Methods how to improve digital competences in my company"" and No. 6 ""Basics for digital competences development in SMEs (cross sectors)"" to SMEs of other sectors, different types of companies from digital novices to the more advanced and further target groups such as consultants, business trainers or students of other educational sectors. This was because of their transversal approach and relevance also for other contexts."