As a matter of fact the digital revolution has an increasing impact on both professionals working in lifelong career guidance and citizens while building-up their career path. In order to prevent on the the digital device of their clients, in particular those mostly affected by unemployment and geographically isolated, public and private organisations working in the fields of education, training and employment have decided to set up a partnership for the project “e-skills development in lifelong career guidance centres”. The project will cover 6 European countries: France, Germany, Lithuania, Romania, Spain and Italy. The overall objective of this project is to share experience in digital and inclusive mediation in the view to strengthen the quality of service offer. It will focus on the up-skilling of professionals with formal and non- formal experience in the field based on a mutual learning process. It is also important to mention the prospects regarding the development of digital skills on the labour market and how to contribute to a better matching with needs of companies. The project is structured on an empirical approach. During the 2 years of the project, 4 training sessions will be organised in order develop a pilot programme of activities focused on three main areas: basic skills, e-administration and e-reputation. The last training will be the opportunity to formalise a repository of competences in digital and inclusive mediation in lifelong career guidance. 68 participants are expected among partners such as career counsellors, multimedia expert, ICT expert, documentalists, project manager, etc.

ENDING is a strategic partnership that gathers five organisations from three European member states to jointly develop, test and implement a methodology based in peer learning to prevent the abuse of ICT´s and reduce early school leaving .The project will develop innovative educational tools that will serve the school community as an instrument to promote the good use of ICT´s, to identify relevant sources of information, appropriate to the age of the minors and that, at the same time, promote positive relationships between peers, encourage critical thinking, awareness of existing risks and at the same time promote respect for others. The developed methodology will be tested in six schools in Portugal and Spain that have joined our consortium as associated partners. The project outcomes will be available as Open Education Resources and freely accessible through the website of each partner institution and the project social media. The project is expected to produce three intellectual outputs: IO1: Design and development of a methodological E-Guide for educators, containing five thematic modules and implementation guidelines IO2: Design and development of an E-Guide for Parents, containing five thematic modules and recommendations IO3: Design and development of an E-Guide for students (produced by students)ENDING will involve at least 2 teachers, 5-10 parents, 2-3 role model students per participating school and at least two classes per associated school to test the developed methodology and resources. In total, the project expects to involve 12 teachers, 30 parents, 12 role model students and 300 students aged 11 to 14 years. The partnerships will organize six multiplier events engaging 285 participants.

Introducing Online collaboration methods and tools in education (Online4EDU) project addresses the education and labor market needs of teachers in primary and secondary schools, VET specialists and e-Facilitators working at telecentres, libraries and adult education centers. The project will design, develop and implement an up-to-date curriculum, training materials, blended learning environment, and Pan–European certification system „Online collaboration methods and tools”.There are 2 kind of results expected within the Project: Intellectual and dissemination outputs.The main intellectual outputs are related to the „Online collaboration Tools and methods „ training and testing system and they nclude: Beneficiaries’ skills gap and training needs analysis study Curriculum development and localization Online learning environment Courseware for e-course and automated testing Pan-European certification system and tools Methodological guidelines for implementation of “Online collaboration methods and tools „training and testing system The dissemination outputs nclude following results: 1. Online entry point to all project resources and products- website and digital social media 2. Five multiplier events in partners’ countries: Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Latvia and Lithuania.3. Dissemination and exploitation plan and report.4. National strategies for social and formal recognition of the „Online collaboration methods and tools „program in partners countries (There are 2 level of beneficiaries which will be impacted by the project: The primary target group includes : 1) Teachers in primary and secondary schools 2) VET specialists3) E-facilitators working at telecentres, libraries, adult education centres etc.This target group will benefit from the project by participating in training and certification, which will improve their knowledge and competencies in labor market.The secondary target group are organizations responsible for teachers skills upgrade and raising of qualification,: schools, adult education centres, state education agencies and offices, Ministries of education. Another secondary target group who will benefit from project outputs are students- both from formal education system and adult education centers.The partnership is composed by 5 members; all active in the fields of ICT related training and program development, adult education and ICT skills certification.Partner 1- LIKTA –Latvian Information and Communication Association (the applicant) - has a wide experience in designing ICT based training programs for adult learners: starting from ICT specialists, to SMEs managers and employees, Young adults, job seekers, as well as teachers and facilitators. Many ICT training programs designed by LIKTA are officially accepted by the State Employment Agency in Latvia. LIKTA is the official partner of ECDL in Latvia. Partner 2 – ECDL Foundation- is a not-for-profit organization established by the informatics societies of Europe through CEPIS. It promotes digital literacy through strategic partnerships with governments, European Institutions and International NGOs, to deliver its certification programmes to individuals and organizations.Partner 3 - Public institution Information Technologies Institute- has strong experience in IT training/testing courseware design and development. ITI is involved in development of Learning/Testing solutions for ECDL, e-Citizen, CAD, security and children safety subjects in Lithuanian, Latvian, Russian, Kyrgyz, Azeri and English languages and will bring this expertise to consortium to achieve Project goals.Partner 4 - BCS Koolitus - is ICT training and consulting company established in 1993 in Estonia, offering a full training process, from assessment of needs, till measuring the training results. BCS has been the awarding body of the professional qualifications in the field of IT since 2010.Partner 5 - SDC (Digital Opportunities Foundation)- is a non-profit organisation established in Berlin, Germany. Within many European projects SDC gathered experience in developing curricula and training materials.

"<< Background >>Along with the tourism sector, cultural and creative sectors (CCS) are among the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The crisis has had its toll with major disruptions in visitation, being the hardest hit by social distancing measures, described as a culture shock (OECD 2020); this resulted in an undeniable financial impact on the running of small and medium sized arts and culture institutions. This turnaround of events, led to the sector needing to innovate rapidly, notably with accelerated digitalisation (OECD 2020). The response from the vast majority of these institutions in Europe, included a rapid shift towards digital visitation and digital curation. This ‘forced’ shift for cultural organisations to focus on their ""virtual museum resources, e-learning, and online collections"", exposed some of the pre-existing vulnerabilities in the cultural sector, especially in relation to digital curation and the lack of digital skills among cultural professionals. To tackle these challenges, online training workshops were organised for the museum sector—in digital strategy, in copyright, planning for ""post-crisis"", and for the public. Still, these are scarce initiatives and a sustainable approach is needed for creating upskilling pathways and improving accessibility of high quality digital learning for adult cultural workers. To develop a fuller understanding of digital readiness and innovation maturity in the cultural sector, Knight Foundation commissioned HG&Co, a leading cultural sector strategy and research firm, to conduct a field survey. As these data were collected prior to the spread of COVID-19, findings shine a light on the status of digital innovation in the field prior to the crisis, but also identify both challenges and opportunities that might exist in building capacity for resiliency as the cultural landscape changes. Key takeaways included the realisation that dedicated digital staffing is severely limited: Half of the institutions who responded, including 43% of art museums, had either no dedicated digital staff or this department was represented by a single individual. Medium-size institutions ($5–20 million annual budget) were twice as likely to report in- house digital development teams than smaller institutions. The BoostDigiCulture project addresses the aforementioned challenges and some of the stated needs reported in the NEMO Final Report (2021). While the provision of free and digitally mediated cultural content is not sustainable over time, it has opened the door to many future innovations. To capitalise on them, there is a need to address the digital skills shortages within the sector and improve digital access beyond large metropolitan areas, with the additional consideration that digital access does not replace alive cultural experience or all the jobs that go with it (OECD, 2020). These include:-The increased need of support for digital transition, in small and medium sized cultural organisations (37% respectively 39%), compared to large museums with more than 100 employees, which show a low (9%) need of support for digital transition.-The identified need for continued development and support of digital services, given the persistent future importance of digital cultural offerings; this was claimed by 40% of the museums as the most successful strategy during the pandemic and as the most-discussed topic both internally and with stakeholders in the context of new measures of success.-The importance of addressing continued investment and support with regard to the general and sometimes basic development of digital skills and infrastructure of cultural organisations.-The need for specific attention and support for small and mid-sized cultural organisations (museums/galleries/art galleries, libraries, theatres) in their digital transformation, as findings indicate that they are challenged most with a lack of resources, knowledge and skills, to take steps towards a comprehensive digital transition.<< Objectives >>The BoostDigiCulture project hopes to set the foundation for a sustainable and inclusive professional development framework of open educational resources and practices, designed to enhance the digital competences of cultural professionals with low digital skills, especially those working in small and medium sized cultural institutions in the partner countries and beyond.The BoostDigiCulture project works in line with the Digital Education Action Plan for 2021-2027 and the recommendations made by NEMO in the Final Report 2021, for development and support of digital services. NEMO recommends investing in and developing cultural organisations’ skills and knowledge to access and open new sources of funding outside state support through dedicated programmes and initiatives.A large share of cultural organisations do not have the capacity or resources necessary to seek out new, innovative funding schemes and opportunities; the BoostDigiCulture project seeks to tackle these challenges and aims to:- Enhance the capacity of adult cultural professionals in implementing digital culture in their institutional agenda- Promote awareness on the importance of digital readiness and training for adult cultural professionals for institutional resilience and sustainability- To design, implement and validate a sustainable professional development framework for digital upskilling of these adult learners- Support adult cultural professionals to safeguard the inclusive nature of digital culture through their online institutional offerings- To provide evidence about online audience engagement and interaction with digital culture<< Implementation >>The intention through the BoostDigiCulture project is to reach over four hundred (400) adult cultural professionals, who will participate in pilot and implementation phases of the systemic design framework research pursued; this includes attendance in virtual workshops between experts and novices in digital cultural heritage, with interaction between large scale and small and medium sized cultural institutions at a transnational level; completion of the BoostDigiCulture online self-assessment tool, designed to evaluate adult cultural professionals’ readiness in integration of digital cultural in their institutional agenda. Over sixty (60) cultural professionals will complete the microlearning upskilling programme; a tailored course for the targeted adult cultural professionals, to enhance their competences in inclusive digital content creation and curation and institutional digital strategy. Of these professionals, twelve (12), will participate in the learning activity of the project. At least 500 policy makers and cultural professionals and stakeholders will be informed about the project’s scope, methodology and products through local events and seminars. Indirectly,it is anticipated that at least one thousand (1000) cultural professionals will be informed about the project’s scope, methodology and products, through dissemination campaigns and social media outlets and more than 2000 organisations at national and EU level, involved in school education, will be informed about the project’s scope.The project will unfold through a design-based research, adapted to the needs of the cultural sector and the digital competences addressed in the DigComp 2.1 Framework. Design thinking principles and formative evaluation will facilitate the project success.<< Results >>The anticipated results from the project include:* BoostDigiCulture e-learning mentoring platform: Digital cultural affinity spaces Establish digital cultural affinity spaces with: an interactive map feature to display profiles for peer-to-peer mentoring among cultural professionals - and their institutionsvirtual workshops between experts and novices in digital culture, with interaction between large scale and small and medium sized cultural institutions at a transnational level*BoostDigiCulture Self-assessment tool: an online evaluation rubric, designed to assess adult cultural professionals’ readiness in integration of digital cultural in their institutional agenda. Point of reference: DigComp Framework indicators and levels of competence.*BoostDigiCulture Microlearning upskilling programme: A sustainable professional development framework with a tailored course for the targeted adult cultural professionals, to enhance their competences in inclusive digital content creation and curation and institutional digital strategy. Includes provision for open digital badges and accreditation in digital cultural heritage.*BoostDigiCulture Professional Digital competence Profile (PDP): defining the digital competences needed for adult cultural professionals in small and medium sized cultural institutionsIt is expected that the BoostDigiCulture project will offer small and medium sized cultural institutions, with a sustainable professional development framework for digital upskilling of their staff and increase their capacity to respond to digital transformation and transition to digital offerings in the cultural sector.The intention is to boost the digital literacy competences of the adult cultural professionals who work in these small and medium sized institutions, so that they feel confident and competent to develop digital strategies, incorporate digital services in their daily museum operations and address digital social innovation and inclusion, through their online cultural agenda.The professionals involved will be equipped with practical scenarios and digital competences relevant to their practice, through undertaking a self-paced open access microlearning training programme and improving their skills. Furthermore, adult cultural professionals will be able to self-assess their readiness in development and delivery of digital services and their digital competences.The digital upskilling of cultural professionals will strengthen their position in their organisations, and enhance their value and contribution to their institutions’ operations, so that the risk of their careers being compromised is minimal; over 7 million jobs were lost in the cultural and creative sector during the pandemic.Inevitably, through their staff, small and medium sized cultural institutions will improve in their level of digital readiness and make use of the much needed professional development resources for how to develop digital strategy and digitise their collections, in order to create relevant online content, without worrying about financial restraints for digital upskilling of their staff. In the long run, online visitors can benefit from exposure and engagement with digital cultural collections, designed by the adult cultural professionals and their institutional efforts, following participation in the programme. It is thought that participation in the project, will increase the visibility of the cultural institutions represented, through showcasing their staff’s profile."

"The project aimed at enhancing the digital skills of the elderly, by creating awareness on Internet use among the elderly, and their communities. This project aimed to create networking and capacity-building between project partners and stakeholders involved, from 5 different countries. Consequently, the objective of this project was to facilitate a pathway for up-skilling individuals between the ages of 55 and 75 years in their digital competences and to make them aware of some of the many opportunities and benefits that the Internet has to offer. This project was carried out transnationally to make sure there is a solid ‘exchange of practices’. This strategic partnership project brought together countries from different levels of the digital gap spectrum. Taking a look at Eurostat statistics of individuals who have never used the Internet between the ages of 55 and 74 years of age, sees Malta and Slovenia in the same level of digital gap of 45%, while Germany's stands at 20%, Belgium 24% and Switzerland at only 11% at the time of application. Through this project's outputs we offered a catching-up opportunity to target what has come to be called “online ageing” by offering different possibilities on how the Internet can play an important role in improving the quality of life through on-line social interaction.This project took into account issues that come along with ageing. These are problems that the elderly have to overcome when interacting with a computer. For this purpose, a session was also held during Piloting 2 with all participants called ""Rethinking Pedagogy"" with Dr. Maria Cutajar on the preparation of teaching material taking into account all the difficulties that seniors might suffer to be able to follow. This project featured Life Long Learning covering formal, non-formal and informal learning, which can become the most effective and efficient instrument for combating social exclusion by empowering individual empowerment especially in the last 2 years where many people, mostly seniors and people living alone, were isolated during lockdown. This situation created a particular sadness amongst the elderly, as it continued to seclude them not only from the outside world but also from their immediate families. The results achieved through this project were to reach and increase a more digitally inclusive elderly society and they in turn, as project participants themselves, further continue to reach other seniors through the dissemination of the project, thanks to their successful following and completion of training received. This created a ripple effect of learning within society on making use of the Internet and its benefits. These project results are meant to be beneficial for other organisations, researchers and training providers working with older adults seeking to improve their digital skills and increase further their awareness on the benefits gained by accessing technology. The Training Manual and Online Academy have been designed in English which made it easier for other countries to use and translate. Participants, also referred to as ambassadors, were chosen through a public call, requesting the possession of the following criteria, in order be eligible:- Ability to speak, read and writing of the English language;- Be between the ages of 55 and 74 years of age;- Willing to take part in dissemination activities;- Be involved in the community in a such a way to be beneficial to act as an ambassador for the project to disseminate its results.Consequently, the consortium of this project worked to bring together:- A set of best practices and Open Educational Resources (OERs) (Output 1) (30 face to face hours);- Development of a training manual, with a supporting Online Academy available online for the public (Output 2), to keep practicing at the leisure of their home and as much as they like;- Choose eligible participants, also called ambassadors, through a public call (24 participants in total for both piloting phases);- Transnational Partners Meetings and other online meetings during the worldwide lockdown;- Learning, Teaching and Training Activities1 (LTTAs) and LTTA2;- Production of Golden Rules to all modules produced;- Log book written and collated by the participating ambassadors;- Production of a set of recommendations for stakeholders and policy makers (Output 3);- Multiplier Events, as part of dissemination;- An exploitation plan on how to best sustain the project a year from its closure; and - Conclusions that came out following the implementation of the project."