There is a significant gap between the reality of the workplace and the educational world that need trimming. Corporate Volunteering is a strategy (linked to the Corporate Social Responsibility) that provides an opportunity to connect both realities. According to “Business in the Community” (reference organization in Europe in the field), Corporate Volunteering is “voluntary activities and personal commitment made by employees in an organized and on an informal, unpaid, and for the benefit of other individuals framework. These activities include: mentoring and coaching, training and knowledge transfer schemes, workplace learning and training, community service, team projects building and conference dedicated to volunteering.Corporate Volunteering in educational centres have relevant benefits for both:- For the educational centres, joint work with companies provides them with new perspectives, contents, methods, resources for students and teachers. It also provides with an updated vision on the skills and competences that the labour market demands, from a general and specific point of view.- For business, this collaboration contributes to increase their positive image and reputation but above all to improve the commitment and sense of belonging of employees, thus contributing to a better internal working environment. Volunteering activities also improve participating employees’ competences (such as: self-management, organizational and communication competences). CV PLUS project seeks to contribute to improve the connection between the education and business world through Corporate Volunteering. Its objective is offering to those responsible for business organizations and educational centres, resources that enable them to understand what Corporate Volunteering is, how to integrate it into their strategic plans/educational program, how to design joint actions and how to measure the impact of these actions on the company and on the educational centre and their staffs. The project Consortium is formed by seven organizations from six EU countries (ES, DE, IT, PL, FI, BE) that are both business organisations (such as CEBEK, Hanse-Parlament and VOKA), schools and VET practitioners (such as CCOOS and KCZIA), and specialists on innovative pedagogies and business management (such as Learnmera Oy and Inveslan)They will enjoy their theoretical background and practical experience for the development of:1. An online platform for open educational resources, which will include - A database of good practices on Corporate Volunteering linking companies and educational centres (with video testimonials from people who have been involved in corporate volunteering experiences with educational centres); - A training course to train managers of companies to design a strategic plan of Corporate Volunteering and evaluate his impact; - A training course for school and VET centres leaders, trainers and teachers to empower them to organise CV initiatives in their centres.2. A Methodological Guide for companies in which methods and tools for planning, implementation and evaluation of actions of Corporate Volunteering in cooperation with schools will be offered.3. A Methodological Guide for schools in which methods and tools for planning, implementation and evaluation of actions of Corporate Volunteering in cooperation with companies will be collected.CV PLUS project will contribute:- To disseminate information about what Corporate Volunteering is, and which opportunities and benefits it offers;- To improve the links and cooperation between companies and educational sectors through the implementation of Corporate Volunteering projects;- To improve the capacities of the business and educational management to design and implement effective Corporate Volunteering programs and activities.The long term benefits of CV PLUS activities will be a better collaboration between business and educational worlds, which will translate in:- A more socially committed business world, - An educational world closer to real work market needs;- The improvement of students’ competences and employability.

"What about values? WAVE YEU - Youth and social work for young migrants/refugeesThe European wide discourse and the value framework within youth social work for young migrants has to find has changed in the last few years. Distinct nationalism, increasing xenophobia and anti-democratic sentiment in the host population and among political opinion leaders are establishing themselves in almost all member states. European values such as cross-border solidarity and tolerance are negated and nationalist attitudes become mainstream. But also not a few of the migrants coming to Europe have little relation to the classical European values. Youth social work has to take these changed conditions into account. The aims of social inclusion must be more closely linked to the consideration and communication of ""European values"" and democracy building. Therefore a more holistic view and efforts related to the practice of youth social work within a changing migration influenced society is necessary. In addition to the exchange of good practice on the integration of young migrants at European level this strategic project pursues an expanded objective: the discussion, analysis and evaluation of offers, methods and strategies of European youth social work for young migrants regarding the impact of ""European"" values and also the communication of those values. The wider focus is on the possibilities and chances of nonformal education and political education.A network of seven Organisations from five different European countries which are all well experienced in youth social work and/or in organising European funded projects for young people with fewer opportunities will cooperate for two years to gain results of good practice in youth social work regarding to the transfer of European values by working on social inclusion of young migrants. The main target groups are for the first the practitioners and organisations on youth social work, than young migrants and also the hosting society. The main objective of the transnational project is to analyse methods and approaches of youth social work with young migrants in connection with the communication of European values, to surge for relevant and adequate concepts of nonformal education in the practice of youth social work and to determine recommendations as a quality feature of youth social work.Six transnational meetings will be organised. Participants are mainly practitioners on youth social work from the sending organisations, representatives of organisations and forther institutions from the local, regional and national level, young migrants from the local level (and if possible as internationals) and representatives from the hosting community like volunteers and other engaged people. Four of these transnational meetings will work on specific topics like: ""European values basics""; ""Democracy building and the practice of youth social work ""; ""Youth social work and the hosting society"" and ""Nonformal political education in the frame of youth social work - methods and practice"" . The last meeting will be organised as a final meeting with a broader audience to summarise the gained results and to formulate recommendations which can be used to improve the quality of European value based youth social work.For further information please contact: hauser@caritas-dicv-fr.de"

Multiuser immersive experiences can provide an opportunity to leverage health results and quality of life in smart ageing care environments.Virtual Reality (VR) current approaches for the Silver Economy follow a common pattern:the gamified experience.VR2Care breaks the current VR paradigm in smart living environments by enabling a multi-user mixed reality service, available for embodied exercising group in different physical locations at the same time and with expert exercise supervision.Motivation is empowered in VR2Care by a social commitment. A social experience of several people sharing difficulties and fighting isolation, replaces the “the patient/user and the application” paradigm, and the gamified entertainment experiences. VR2Care goes beyond the common requirements as it is codesigned with active participation of older adults, caregivers, therapists, community and clinicians to provide a full immersive multiuser experience.VR2Care will leverage the technology by running four demonstrators that support the project pilots in three locations across the EU:Portugal,Netherlands and Italy.Demonstrators explore the multiuser capabilities of the environment in a distance psychomotricity training with large movements; multimodal natural interaction, with real time AI supported guidance for a one-to-one physical rehabilitation experience; an hybrid approach with a local group of older adults and a distance individuals performing physical activities; and a clinical approach for the promotion of exercise as a therapy after rehabilitation.From a business perspective,VR2Care opens up a global market to deliver services and products to customers, where distances between provider and customer disappear.Business opportunities go beyond the technological and technical companies, expanding challenges for the AAL ecosystem including companies such as broadcasters, architects, therapists, training and education institutions to deliver at any place trainings, advices and design.

In Turkey, no specific education is required to be a prison staff (PS). PS actively working in prisons encounter many problems during execution of prisoners. Desensitization against crime and criminals, feelings of insecurity, pressure and threats of prisoners, feeling worthless, lack of social skills, limited field of action, social prejudices, personal and professional burnout, and various health problems can be listed as problems faced. PS has difficulty in overcoming many of problems mentioned. Thus, this project is related to the fields of vocational education and training (VET), developing basic and transversal skills using innovative methods, exchange of experience and know-how between different types of organisations involved in education, training. Target group of this project is professionals directly or indirectly involved in assisting the length of sentence.Main objectives of the project are to define professional and social competences of PS, improve the level of key professional and social competences and skills, with particular regard to their relevance for duties performed in the prisons. Gaziosmanpasa University (GOU), Ankara Training Center of Prison and Detention Houses (ATCP), Turkish General Directorate of Prison and Detention Houses (GDPD), Tokat T Type Closed and Open Prison (TTP) and Association of Assistance and Solidarity for Prison Staff (AASP), University of Pitesti (UPIT), Social Cooperative Nonprofit Organization (COOSS), National Association for Family Action (ANJAF) were the partners of project who are experienced in Prison regulations of EU Council. GOU, which is coordinator of the project, is experienced and applied so many national and international projects. GDPD is the main public organization responsible from all kind of activities in Prisons of Turkey. AASP is the only non-profit organization of PS in Turkey. ATCP is the largest training center of PS in Turkey and conducts trainings throughout the year. In order to develop professional competencies and increase social competencies of PS, SWOT analysis, need analysis and questionnaires, quality catalogue, educational modules and pilot and main trainings were performed. Therefore, in the first step SWOT analysis for PS was applied in order to see the current situation of this profession in Turkey. Second, need analysis and questionnaires were implemented with the face to face and online questionnaires by staff working in prisons. In the collection of data for needs analysis, 970 people were reached with the random sampling method; 455 of these responded. Third, quality catalogue was developed to determine professional and social competencies of PS. The catalogue consists of 3 core competency areas (professionalism, working with others, professional development), 12 sub-competency areas and 162 performance indicators. This catalogue has the characteristic of being the first quality catalogue developed for prison staff in Turkey. Fourth, education modules were prepared. When developing these modules, expert opinions, needs analysis data and basic and sub-competencies within the quality catalogue were taken into consideration. Each chapter of educational module was written by experts from Universities and training centers. The efficiency of the prepared educational modules were tested with pilot and main trainings, both in Turkey and abroad. In the pilot trainings, participants’ opinions were taken via an evaluation survey. In the final step, a website (http://prisonstaff-project.eu/) was created for the promotion and dissemination of the project and for beneficiaries to easily access project outputs. Also, a learning management system was added to the website, providing the beneficiaries the opportunity to utilize project outputs in an interactive way. Into this system, besides all relevant reference books and audio-visual materials (videos made at the main training, lesson presentations etc.), interactive materials such as question bank and animation were also added. In this way, it was aimed to reach prison staff that due to limitations could not receive training during the project and to support their professional and social developments based on lifelong learning.In order to achieve the objective of the project primarily a situation analysis was made by putting forth the internal and external dynamics of the penal system. The biggest contribution of the project to its participants and project partners however, is that it sets forth a competency framework concerning prison staff in EU standards for the first time. Also educational modules were developed to support the competencies of PS. These modules were published in the project website, providing access to prison staff both in Europe and in Turkey. This project overall made an important contribution to the improvement of the penitentiary system in Turkey in line with European Prison Rules and other international standards.

Cybercrime has recently shifted from attacking big corporations to smaller industries, like financial services as well as the healthcare sector. Especially in the last area the trend is rising, where hackers are targeting patient health devices that are connected to the internet. Most cases include stealing patient information and encrypting it for ransom money. The big problem is interconnection, each application or device that runs on the networks represents a possible entry point for a cyber-physical attack. So far, most hackers infected hospital software with ransomware to prevent staff from accessing patient records or scheduling appointments. But capable terrorists would also be able, to render active medical devices not just useless, but deadly. Complete cybersecurity in the health sector is unachievable, and would exceed financial means; nevertheless, vital steps can be taken to minimize the risk of cyber- attacks against healthcare facilities. Around 85 percent of targeted cyber-attacks would be preventable if basic protection protocols would be established. The SecureHospitals.eu project seeks to raise awareness on risks and protection opportunities, setup training schemes and the initiate training sessions for IT staff working in hospitals. Through several training approaches, the project will boost the level of training in cybersecurity in Europe, improve the knowledge of staff and in turn contribute to decreased vulnerabilities against cyberthreats and increased patient trust and safety.