<< Background >>The GamingDRV consortium has decided to apply for this project because we have experienced how the long-standing need for better, more inclusive and more innovative virtual training and the recognition and formalisation thereof has been exacerbated over the past year in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. For many years, the European transport industry has suffered from a major skills shortage and, according to the International Road Union, the demand for skilled professional drivers will continue to rise in the future. At the same time, it is anticipated that the occupation profile of professional drivers will undergo major changes in the context of digitalisation, autonomous driving and the increasing internationalisation and automation of the sector. Road transport has long been a fundamental driver of economic and social growth in Europe, and, during the corona crisis, the sector and its professional drivers, have proven to be systemically relevant. The pandemic has also been a driver of virtual training, not only in the road sector but beyond. The crisis has highlighted the advantages of digital forms of learning but also the shortfalls that still exist in spite of the political will to redress them, specifically at European level. It has become apparent that not only is there a lack of infrastructure and resources for the promotion of digital training offers but also a lack of competence of all actors involved when it comes to the development and implementation of high-quality, didactically sound, innovative and integrative digital training offers. For the group of professional drivers, who are legally compelled to partake in regular further training, this has been exacerbated by the fact that regulatory frameworks do not provide for the recognition of virtual training. In addition, this group is characterised by a socially and educationally disadvantaged make-up that makes it even more difficult to cater for in digitalsied training. The relatively low participation rates in further training programmes, the high share of migrant workers, a high share of semi-skilled workers, relatively low levels of self-learning competence as well as the obligatory nature of driver CPC training result in a complex set of learning needs requiring more didactically sound approaches than mere frontal training. This is exacerbated in digital training formats. This target group thus has an increased need for scaffolded training programmes, exhibiting high degrees of trainer support, special support in the sense of inclusive training, social learning, and interactive training methods which can be achieved by our concept of inclusive gamified training approaches. The GamingDRV project aims at addressing these shortfalls by developing a holistic and innovative approach to gamified virtual classroom (VC) training for professional driver certificate of professional competence (CPC) training.<< Objectives >>GamingDRV responds to the goals laid out in the European Skills Agenda, the Osnabruck Declaration on promoting TVET in the EU as well as to the new Digital Education Action Plan’s strategic priorities to develop a high-performing digital VET system and enhance digital skills and competences for the digital transformation. Our overall goal is to support the promotion of inclusive digital CVET programmes in professional driver training and beyond in the sense of a pan-European just, inclusive, innovative and competitive VET landscape that incorporates the creation of digital VET systems and programmes as well as the support of digital skills, both among our main target group of professional drivers as well as among the crucial group of VET personnel. GamingDRV aims to create greater diversity and access to further training for low qualified workers and other disadvantaged groups, such as migrant workers in the driving profession. The GamingDRV project shares the guiding principles of high quality and inclusive digital education being a strategic goal which necessitates the endowment of VET personnel with the skills and competence needed in order to provide high-quality, integrative and innovative digital training. GamingDRV aims at increasing interactivity and interaction between learners and trainers in the virtual classroom as well as at supporting trainers in effectively designing, implementing and deploying gamification as an innovative approach to learning, thus enriching VC-based training for professional drivers. GamingDRV's notion of gamification assumes that human nature is inclined to play games and that the paramount goal of education is to ensure that learning is a fun and a worthy endeavour. Nothing compares to the effectiveness of doing something while being entertained. We are convinced that gamification represents a real opportunity for learners in professional driver CPC, especially those among them, who have so far been disadvantaged in education and training, by improving the quality and effectiveness of the training and raising learners’ motivation. Aside from improving the quality, accessibility and recognition of virtual training for learners, GamingDRV will develop approaches to supporting VET personnel in applying innovative and integrative gamified training methods in the VC. The development of a train-the-trainers module as well as an online pool of resources for organising and implementing innovative and engaging gamified VC training will contribute in a major way to the much-needed improvement of digital-didactical competences of trainers.<< Implementation >>The project will undertake all the necessary activities in order to achieve its goals and planned results. These activities will follow the four project phases outlined in the project management planthat affect all project results and transversal activities: exploration, development, testing and adaptation and exploitation and transfer of results. During these phases, various activities will be undertaken that either serve the development of tangible project results or the dissemination and exploitation of those results, respectively of the overall project objectives such as recognition of virtual training. Activities may also serve multiple objectives, such as stakeholder consultation undertaken in the context of elaborated needs exploration of evaluation of interim results also serves dissemination and exploitation purposes. Project activities to be undertaken also involve the testing of results, specifically a testing workshops with professional drivers and trainers for R1 and 2, a virtual training course for the GameTrain module (R3), testing workshops with trainers for the online pool of training resources (R4) and consultation workshops in the context of R5. In addition, five multiplier events will be organised by the project consortium, four of which will be national events hosted in France, Sweden, Finland and Ireland, and one European conference to be hosted in Germany. Beyond these events, all project partners will carry out various other dissemination activities over the course of the project lifetime, such as (virtual) stakeholder consultation workshops, presentations at other events such as workshops and conferences, online publications. Activities to be carried out also involve the four planned physical transnational partner meetings and the additional virtual transnational partner meetings at which project management activities will be coordinated and agreed upon, work steps and (interim) results will be discussed and reviewed and future activities planned and organised.<< Results >>The GamingDRV project will develop all the tools that are necessary for the provision and sustainable exploitation of high-quality, didactically sound, gamified, innovative and inclusive VC-based training. These tools include: (1) a learning outcome-based concept and curriculum for VC-based driver CPC training, allowing for the integration of innovative and inclusive gamified training elements; (2) the development of Gamified Learning Elements, digital gamified, engaging and interactive training methods that can be applied in the VC; (3) a train-the-trainer module, based on the necessary learning outcomes, that enables trainers to plan, organise, implement and evaluate innovative, gamified and engaging VC-based training, taking into account specifically the scaffolding necessary for inclusive training approaches; (4) an online pool of resources targeted at trainers, providing them with high-quality, relevant, affordable and GDPR-compatible tools, methods, instructions and resources for gamified VC-based training; (5) guidelines for the application of all project results in and beyond the sector, including guidelines for sustainable exploitation of the project, specifically by integrating approaches to virtual learning into regulatory instruments by addressing issues such as regulatory and recognition-related aspects. For this purpose, the results will be developed in a way that allows for long-term integration into formal VET systems, specifically the compulsory driver CPC training. In addition to the tangible project results we intend to create a major impetus for the establishment of a sector dialogue regarding the long-term exploitation of virtual (elements) of driver CPC training through formal recognition in the involved countries. This work will be supported by the recommendations and guidelines developed in R5 as well as through the national and European multiplier events and other dissemination and exploitation activities in the context of the project’s activities and through the support of the project’s associated partners. We thus intend to create and support an exchange of ideas, methods and good practice among VET stakeholders of the logistics sector and to establish new and strengthen existing ties and networks among those.