Informal creative workshops with digital and manual tools bring concrete benefits to young people. Our own educational practice shows that young people eagerly participate in making activities supported with 3D technology which lead to production of concrete physical objects of artistic and/or practical value. However, such opportunities for young people are very limited. Wherever available, they let young people develop not only soft skills but also hard competences essential for careers in modern economy.ObjectivesOur main objective was to foster growth of informal learning environments which provide opportunities for young people to engage in craft making with support of digital technology.Specific objectives:- Develop such a workshop programme for youth work practice- Validate it in concrete inclusive educational setting- Propagate it widely- Guide potential users on how to implement/adapt the modelActivitiesThe undertaken activities addressed the above objectives:- We organised a new 3D Lab equipped with relevant tools for digital craft making - We piloted learning activities for young people that introduced them to the basics of 3D design and prototyping - Experiences from these workshops provided input to the project online course on how to organise such activities in the youth work context- The course served as the main tool to encourage youth workers/educators from other organisations to adopt our methodsParticipants- Young people taking part in 3D Lab workshops: interested in digital technology and making physical objects, with limited access to such opportunities due to their distant location, price, etc., in need of support to develop competences essential for employment- Youth workers/educators taking part in online course: those who organise creative activities for young people, seek new opportunities to extend/improve their programmes, work in organisations with relevant potentialMain outputs- 3D Lab workshops with digital and manual tools providing learning paths from designing and prototyping objects to elaborating them into crafts- Online platform for learning and communication of both young participants and youth workers involved in creative artisan projects- Online course guiding youth educators on how to integrate digital design and prototyping technology in a craft making spaceOutcomes/impact- For young participants: increased competences in craft making, increased sense of creativity and entrepreneurship, more positive attitudes to out-of-school environments open to their interests as well as European projects - For youth workers/educators: improvement of their youth practice through acquaintance with new methods to facilitate creative activities of young people, enhanced ability to set up more inclusive learning environment taking into account the participants’ varied competences, experiences and interests, new opportunities for networked learning in a European dimension thus raising appreciation of EU projects- For partner organisations: reinforced capacity for European cooperation with partners bridging youth work, lifelong learning, vocational training and research, willingness to integrate good practices/methods from other contexts - At systemic level: strengthened argumentation for opening traditional forms of youth work practice to new digital technologies, better awareness of learning outcomes of such activities

CONTEXT OF THE PROJECTThe Language Industry has been continuously growing for the last 10 years, currently being one of the more robust economic sectors with an 11% estimated growth for 2020. Great technological and skill developments have taken place along this growth in the private sector that have outpaced the translation training proposals at Higher Education institutions despite considerable efforts to the contrary by scholars. The Translation Studies community, in the meantime, has adopted a research-based pedagogic agenda to inform translators' training and education with the latest advances in empirical investigations on the translation process. In this context, we find disperse training needs and solutions that evidence a clear gap between industry and academia, impeding quick, quality, inclusive responses to current challenges. While this by now proverbial gap has been one of the warhorses in university translation schools, it is to this day that the academic community has excelled in identifying the main issues with limited success in providing solutions.OBJECTIVESThe main objective of this project, therefore, is to develop an innovative, inclusive training model taking the most of technological advances to provide a new, industry-oriented and research-based quality qualification. This objective will be achieved by successfully attaining secondary objectives, including designing an open, flexible online course in response to the gaps and requisites identified in online training as a result of the pandemic and creating learning resources enabling autonomous use. These actions will also lead to a second major objective, creating synergies and knowledge/transfer links between the university and the private sector by introducing modular, flexible and autonomous learning strategies.PARTICIPANTS NUMBER AND PROFILEThere are four participants including two academic institutions (UVa and UGA), an LSP company (Hermes) and a technological institute (CTI). The profiles of participants as experts in translation and Language Industry research, teaching, technology and professional practice respond to the multidisciplinary and transnational requirements of an ambitious project that otherwise could not meet the established aims and objectives.ACTIVITIESThe project development consists of 16 Work Packages including project design, management and evaluation and all the activities conducive to the achievement of the two Intellectual Outputs, which will be propagated according to a detailed dissemination plan.METHODOLOGYThe project follows an inductive methodology formulating a proposed solution structured around clearly set objectives. These aims then cascade according to work packages sequencing including tasks and activities assigned to the different working teams (partners) as per their field of expertise and know-how. The project management is based on an AGILE method, where the working packages, assessment loops and inter-teams feedback iterations are arranged in a way that every team makes the most out of the others´ output in this most efficient possible way.RESULTSThe results include responding to the current training proposals at Higher Education institutions falling short to provide language industry-relevant learning experiences and developing a modular training and education model further articulated as an online course. These results are materialized in the form of an an open access learning handbook. The online course proposed will be developed and implemented in a virtual environment, together with its materials and activities, which will be open access resources in order to ensure the modular, autonomous learning experience of participants is structured and relevant. With regards to non-tangible results, this project introduces a paradigm shift in university and professional training that will contribute to a better mutual needs understanding, thus contributing to bridging the gap between industry and academia, as well as introducing new, more resilient methodologies of trianing and performance assessment in the face of social challenges.IMPACTThe project improves students employability and professional performance, which has a direct impact on the industry. It also generates critical thinking and autonomous self-training strategies, which is essential for life-long learning and recommended by the guidelines of the EHES. The project also has a critical impact on accessibility, lowering entry barriers to a booming industry for those who cannot access current qualification opportunities either for personal, economic, geographic or any other reason derived from the COVID-19 pandemic.LONG TERM BENEFITSBeyond the immediate benefits, the project puts forward an innovative use of technology as applied to professional training and knowledge transfer. Also, the project entails a valuable training paradigm shift: from a linear, pre-ordered sequence of discrete units, to flexible modules.