"<< Background >>The digital divide exists, and people with disabilities are some of the worst affected and left behind without digital accessibility knowledge. This was confirmed in the European Parliamentary Research Service report titled ""Bridging the Digital Divide in Europe"" that stated, ""one in three persons with disabilities had never used the internet"". This project proposal aims to build on a pilot programme running at atempo in Graz for several years. atempo, they have been training young learners with disabilities to become school assistants for digital education and supporting them to work in elementary schools across Graz. This is a very innovative idea and one that is not replicated anywhere across the Eurozone.The project partners and associated schools all agree that the proposal provides real solutions to tackle two significant challenges they face. The first is the ""Education and Training"" need identified within the school community to support digital accessibility and inclusion among pupils and the school community. This project also provides innovative education and training opportunities for people with disabilities enabling them to share digital accessibility knowledge with students. The second challenge is the lack of employment opportunities for people with disabilities. This project provides new roles that were not previously available in the education sector. Inclusion is the driver of this proposal, with all project elements co-designed with people with learning disabilities.<< Objectives >>The SAID project aims to train people with disabilities to become School Assistants for Digital Education within the school system. This project aims to show that all people are experts in certain areas and that in a community, all people can learn from each other and with each other on an equal level.Vocational inclusion is directly lived here through the collaboration with people with learning difficulties, who will be actively involved in the project and who will act as school assistants for digital education. This provides:A new innovative curriculum to produce School Assistants for Digital Education within vocational education and training.New employment opportunities for people with disabilities.A more inclusive society.People with learning difficulties will work directly in schools as experts and key personnel supporting digital accessibility in education. This makes a significant contribution in the area of professional digital transformation as they bring in new skills, accessible digital tools and a new professional attitude. Forming a curriculum and corresponding training provided for this professional field will be a vital objective of this project. The added value of having the active school assistants from Austria involved as consultants and co-designers will endorse the value of inclusion and support the project's success.<< Implementation >>The project activities undertaken by the consortium will all lead to the successful execution of four project results. The initial efforts make up the Analysis Phase and will be led by Uni Graz with input from all partners. The team will gather the experiences from the assistants who have worked in schools and look at the support that atempo provided to establish and sustain the initiative. They will analyse the challenges and qualities of the school assistance program. Uni Graz will also explore the appetite in the partner countries and expose any barriers to success. These activities will provide vital information needed to support the other project results. The second set of activities are overseen by atempo, with each project partner designing and developing one of the modules producing the curriculum for the professional field “School Assistants for Digital Education. The first phase will heavily influence the development of the four concrete modules. The developed learning modules will run over 80 hours exploring general didactic principles, competencies to achieve with the training, and the job description will be defined. The already experienced school assistants (2-4 Peer Experts) act as consultants and test groups during the project and provide a sounding board. The board meets for training to prepare the experts for their tasks in the project. And during the development phase of the curricula, they will meet together at least five times to review the developing phase and to test the materials.Trycamp will lead the activities during the third result phase by creating the SAID methodological guidebook for pedagogical staff, which will be used as the basis for the local training of teachers. The activities of the third phase will be informed from the results of phase 1, the evaluation phase. This will be followed by the design and development of the guidebook on the curriculum and four modules. Other activities embedded in this phase will include the practical testing of the methodological guidebook and the adaptation & translation of the guidebook for partner organisations. The activities will include 2-3 teachers from 2-4 partner schools = 4-12Teachers and 4-6 PwLD to the deployment as school assistants of digital education in primary schools (SAID Methodology) within six months.The final set of activities directly linked to the project results will be the compilation of the Handbook for Schools. These activities will be led by SJOG and support the innovative roadmap to support the sustainability of the professional field of school assistance for digital education. The project consortium will share the instruments that enable this support role to become anchored in the education system. It will share the opportunities for higher inclusion standards and how the school Assistants for digital education can become an integral part of the school community, along with alternative recommendations for transfer to different contexts and managing expectations.Other vital activities engaged by the consortium include communication management, both internal with the partners and associated partners and the meaningful dissemination of the project updates with the broader community. Each partner will also take on the project management activities, e.g. timesheet and budget, and ensure the project governance is adhered to at each stage of the project. The final products developed will be presented to a wider audience at SAID conferences (Multiplier Event2). During the project, we will disseminate news and information about the curriculum and its content, the project itself, the partners’ work and other topics on the website and in newsletters (available in any language used by the partners). Other outputs of the project management and documents: e.g. partnership agreement, financial guidelines, templates for reporting, communication plan, dissemination plan, Project Delivery Plan, an interim and final report.<< Results >>The main outcome of the SAID project will be a new professional field of ""school assistants for digital education"" filled by people with disabilities and learning difficulties (PwLD) for children with disabilities and learning difficulties. Leading to more opportunities for PwLD in everyday work. The project will kick off with analysis, and the reports and papers (project result one) produced will help inform the rest of the three other project results. The second project result will be the creation of a formal training curriculum for school assistants for Digital education, including corresponding manuals and teaching and learning materials. The content of the curriculum is divided into four content modules (media competence, basic digital skills, toolbox, social and communication skills) and a general part with the didactic and methodic. The curricula and their content will be available in all partner languages.In a test phase, in which the developed curriculum is tested within the partnership in the context of a learning-teaching-training activity (LTTA -Train the Trainer), the project result three, a training concept with the SAID Methodological guidebook for pedagogical staff to support people with disabilities is created. As part of this training (Train the Trainer), a training team is formed in each partner organization to train PwLD and teachers from partner schools on-site afterwards.During and following on from the implementation phase, the fourth project result will be produced in the form of a Handbook for Schools. The handbook will provide vital recommendations and implantation guidelines for Schools on using and implementing digital school assistants and support for VET Providers. Other significant results include the local Multiplier events that will facilitate the partners to share the developed curriculum and project results with other PwLD and teachers. After completing the project, a new concept and a curriculum for the professional field ""school assistant for digital education"" will be available, and training for School assistants can be offered Europe-wide. Each partner can and will offer the VET training in their organization after the project duration, regardless of the partnership.The SAID project leads to a change in societal attitudes and a better integration of people with disabilities into the world of work, and a change in the quality of life of those involved."