"<< Background >>When thinking about future perspectives for the Cultural and Creative Sector (CCS) beyond the COVID-19 crisis, a return to the ‘old normal’ is not considered a viable option. Given the vulnerabilities that characterised the sectors already pre-COVID-19, the crisis has provided a unique momentum to re-think dominant structures and practices and to experiment with possible alternatives, often in intra- and inter-sectoral collaboration. We apply for “Paint the Bit” project mainly because it grasps at an early stage some critical aspects of the arts and culture sector, exacerbated by the global pandemic. According to the Research of CULT Committee (2021), the main consequences that the COVID-19 containment measures have generated for the CCS can be clustered under two main groups: • direct economic effects on the CCS, including negative trends in income, revenues, employment, business opportunities and business models in the sector;• wider social effects and changes in consumer behaviour impacting the CCS, related to socio-cultural indicators, such as changes in cultural demand and consumption, skills, cooperation, well-being, diversity and professional status of cultural and creative workers.Linked to these two topics, two other macro considerations can be developed.For many CCS workers, such as artists and freelancers, the cultivation of their professional networks during events, fairs and festivals is crucial to attract new work and to secure future income. Since most of these events were cancelled or postponed, the number of physical opportunities to network and start new professional relationships drastically decreased, with important negative effects on future income. The new social distancing measures resulted in the shrinking of physical consumption of culture and thus limited demand for this kind of products and services, marking instead a growing consumption of culture through digital media.The market potential of many digital opportunities born in COVID-19 times would also raise the question of the shift towards commercially driven economic models that, before COVID-19, heavily relied on public funding.The increased use of digital tools raised other concerns as well about the degree of digital skills of artists and CCS professionals and their readiness to digitise. While some digital formats and solutions were easy due to the availability of basic expertise, the uptake of digital solutions for competitive e-creation and e-distribution has not been an easy pathway to follow.In this framework, the future crisis resistance of the art, media and creative professionals strongly depends on their way of doing business, the degree of digital innovation, the set-up of new collaborations, the re-thinking of relationships with audiences and customers for the development of new revenue models.<< Objectives >>""Paint the Bit"" project aims to strengthen and contaminate Cultural and Creative sector professionals' skills for a digital, innovative and inclusive production and distribution in a renewed labour opportunities. New job profiles will be identified and a VET curricula will be defined to better responding to the current market framework of artistic and creative production and fruition in the era of digital transition. A blended training and capacity building path for CCS professionals aims to reinforce their digital and transferrable competences so that they can increase their efficiency and acquire career adaptive competences. It will enable them to become more resilient and competitive in their professional offerings, strengthen networking capacities and cross-sectoral collaborative approaches, as necessary skills to provide cultural and creative services more responsive to renewed market needs and social trends.<< Implementation >>“Paint the Bit” project foresees 5 main activities packages.The first work package (WP1) intends to frame the renewed social and market context linked to CCS sector, maps the training needs and offers for CCS professionals at national and European levels, and describes emerging job role profiles for CCS professionals. It will include the following tasks:T1.1 Specify renewed job role framework T1.2 Mapping professional needs T1.3 Synthesis of emerging job roles This WP will lead to the delivery of the Project Result 1 – Identification of emerging roles for Cultural and Creative Sector professionals. WP2 aims to design and develop VET curricula that can be used to train according to the job role profiles specified in WP1 and their “ingredients”, namely the methodology, the training modules and the handbooks. It will include the following tasks:T2.1 Design of the learning outcomes T2.2 Design of VET methodology T2.3 Validation and standardization T2.4 Development of training modules for transferrable competences T2.5 Development of training modules for digital competences T2.6 Development of training handbooks T2.7 Curriculum upgrade after the pilot This WP will lead to the delivery of the Project Result 2 – Modular VET curriculaWP3 foresees the design and development of a collaborative E-learning platform. This platform will reflect the methodologies and tools identified to pursue the learning outcomes and curriculum requirements. For this reason, it will be structured as an operational tool for all training and capacity building phases, containing all OERs and training materials developed by the project. It will include the following tasks:T3.1 Design of the E-learning Platform.T3.2 Development of E-learning materialsT3.3 Development of the E-Learning PlatformT3.4 Improvement of the Platform after the piloting phaseThis work package will lead to the delivery of the Project Result 3 –E-learning platformWP4 refers to the Piloting of the overall capacity building path including MOOC, Specialised Course and Peer Learning, to ensure that the modularized curriculum is fit-for-purpose, relevant to the identified professional needs and highly consistent with EQF-ECVET. The learning-outcomes approach will be applied to the creation of job profiles and the design of training modules taking into account the ECVET principles. Planned activities within each training phases will foster, in a progressive way, the acquisition of the competences and further application to specific situations. It will include the following tasks:T4.1 MOOC T4.2 Selection, targeting and matching of participants for specialised capacity buildingT4.3 Specialised Digital/Virtual Courses T4.4 Peer-to-peer learningT4.5 Assessment and validation This work package will lead to the delivery of the Project Result 4 – Pilot test.The last WP5 is transversal to the all project activities foreseen and directly contribute to the creation of a transnational Community of practice involving VET organisations, CCS freelancers and professionals, stakeholders and private actors to promote a cross-sectorial collaborative model that can meet the current challenges of the arts and creative sector.WP5 will place as overall support of the project a sound dissemination and exploitation plan, with tailored activities addressed to target groups and stakeholders. It includes the creation of the project web site; the production of dissemination material and dissemination of project outcomes by providing versions adapted to national contexts.<< Results >>The project will expect to achieve these main outcomes:•Development of a VET curriculum and methodology linked to the emerging job profiles in the current societal and economic context;•Reinforcement of digital and transferable competences (including entrepreneurial, managerial and collaborative skills) of CCS freelancers and professionals;•Creation of a transnational Community of practice involving VET organisations, CCS freelancers and professionals, stakeholders and private actors to promote a cross-sectorial collaborative model that can meet the current challenges of the arts and creative sector.To reach these results, “Paint the Bit” will produce a range of fruitful and innovative outputs:- Report on needs and training offer - Job role profiles, freely available via the platform - VET curricula, including adapted version to five national contexts (France, Cyprus, Italy, Austria and Spain) - Learning methodology and handbooks - Online platform to support all blended learning phase as well as discussions, exchange and knowledge sharing- OERs, translated and adapted to national contexts- Web site and social software - Standards on learning outcomes and eCF, ECVET and EQAVET standards"