BACKGROUND & NEEDSThe European workforce is ageing. The number of working age individuals aged 65 and over is predicted to increase by 20% by 2020. For the first time there will be more than five generations working together in organisations, enriching the diversity of experiences, perspectives, personal values and ideas and creating challenges and opportunities which HR managers need to be reflective to address. Within this context, HR managers and people managers need to develop key competences such as understanding the age-dynamics at the workplace; fostering multigenerational teamwork; dealing with age related stereotypes; culturing emotional intelligence; dealing with the intergroup conflict and underlying anxiety; and promoting intergenerational learning in the workplace. This is why the adoption of new management approaches with regards to age-related demographic changes in the workplace poses new challenges for the continuous training provision (CVET) for HR managers and people managers enriching existing training offerings, beyond the focus of just how to manage, keep employed and lead older workers. AIMThe project aims to support VET provision for HR managers in age diversity in the workplace addressing the needs of VET providers and learners by building upon previous projects and training programmes to: a) enrich knowledge, skills and competences regarding age-diverse working conditions in the form of up-to-date learning outcomes, b) develop Open Educational Resources that ensure easy and free access to on-line educational material, and c) work towards an educational framework for the mutual exploitation of the updated learning outcomes for HR managers in Europe.OBJ-1. Develop appropriate learning outcomes to support VET provision on key competences in age-diverse workforce management for HR managers.OBJ-2. Enhance access of learners to VET provision that support key competences on age diverse workforce management via original OERs and game based pedagogy.OBJ-3. Facilitate mutual recognition of the developed learning outcomes across EU.THE HR4AD PARTNERSHIPThe partnership comprises 5 organisations from 5 countries from the world of VET, the sector, and field experts. EXELIA has delivered training on communication / negotiation / management skills and is an expert in the development of innovative ICT-based training, and game based pedagogies. PRIZMA, GIP-FCIP and KERIGMA bring significant experience on post-secondary VET courses, hold a long field expertise and present strong networking and dissemination capacities. BAPM is representative of the HR managers’ needs at national and EU level. ACTIVITIES & METHODOLOGY1. Development of learning outcomes, based on evidence collected from VET providers, field experts and the HR managers’ industry via original desk and field research on skills requirements, leading to specific definitions of knowledge, skills and competences following EQF and ECVET standards. 2. Development of a modular course (in the form of OERs and training game) and VET guidelines for the integration of the HR4AD learning outcomes in current and future training programmes.3. Involvement of educational and VET provision authorities and institutions for the mutual recognition of the HR4AD learning outcomes, through the development and promotion of a strategic cooperation plan and a signed support statement. 5. Sharing and validation of outputs with multiplier events, inviting target groups to test and uptake HR4AD results acting as further disseminators.RESULTS 1. Evidence-based learning outcomes in key competences in age-diverse workforce management.2. VET learning units for a corresponding modular course. 3. VET guidelines for the integration of the developed learning outcomes into existing programmes. 4. Pedagogical resources and assessment tools offered as OERs.5. An HR4AD training game.6. EU pedagogic framework for the mutual recognition of the developed learning outcomes.7. Five demonstration workshops (SI, EL, FR, PT, BG) to promote results and validate learning materials.IMPACT AND POST-PROJECT SUSTAINABILITYThe HR4AD project is expected to have the following impact and longer term benefits:1. Promoting participation of a growing number of VET learners using the HR4AD OERs and training game via their availability and dissemination, exploitation and maintenance activities for three years after the project’s completion based on the partners own effort.2. Supporting at least 20 VET providers across the EU on enhancing new training programs by integrating the HR4AD outputs. 3. Further maturing of certification & accreditation policies, as a result of the developed by the project EU framework towards the development of an EU qualification on age diverse workforce needs for HR managers.

AGEFACTOR project insists on increasing the competences of educators and professionals in the adult education field to promote them for personal and professional branding. In particular, it targets over 50 age group, with an intergenerational approach to provide digital and transversal skills to create social reputation, professional credibility and to be able to increase the opportunity for lifelong employability.Evidence shows that too many people in the EU still do not have the skills required ranging from the most basic ones to the transversal skills such as communication, problem solving, digital competences, initiative taking etc... EUROSTAT data (digital scoreboard – Eurostat, ICT Households/Individuals Survey) confirm that older generations in many EU countries lag behind in the use of internet and mobile internet.The project capitalizes on the potential of social media as tools for lifelong guidance and employability, working on reinforcement and development of key and transversal (e-)skills of > 50 age groups, also with the involvement of younger generations. In fact, the project intends to create an EU platform for adult educators, trainers and career guidance to make social media - and their value for employability, professional branding and reputation - available to mature workers.The project consortium is made up of an alliance of 10 partners, covering 8 EU countries. Most organizations have a long-standing and complementary experience on the project’s focus. IIt is made of local/regional authorities (Newry and Mourne, Veneto Lavoro and the Development Agency of Santa Cruz of Tenerife) dealing with employment and local development, higher education (University of Latvia, CARDET), adult education and business support providers (Forcoop, IPZ, Prizma, FCI), led by a EU-wide network who work in the field of human capital appraisal in light of demographic changes (Tandem Plus). Adult learners: This is the main target group of the project (over 50 primarily, but with a role also for and younger generations). Adult trainers, facilitators, coaches and HR will be involved in the analysis and development phases, thorough the participation in the focus group, and the validation (peer review) of the state of art and first pilot of the AGEFACTOR experience . Trainers will also be involved in the short joint stafftraining. Finally, the global number will be involved during the local and transnational exploitation events, both as invitees and experts in the field. Companies and stakeholders are the “mover and shaker” for the project because it is the most important target that has to buy-in the project’s approach and developed tools. Enlarged networks and other stakeholders will also be reached through the dissemination activities, as participants of events and recipients of information. The project is designed according to the main tenets of project management cycle and the activities leading to the outputs can be briefly summarized into three main phases: Phase 1: Baseline Analysis and sharing . The deliverables are represented by 7 country reports, a EU compendium and one transnational report (output 1). Phase 2: Development of the AGEFACTOR activities and pathways. The deliverables are a concrete set of methodological and training material (so-called BOOSTER-O2 and CAMPAIGNS-O3) . The material will be prepartory for the main entry point of the AGEFACTOR experience, (so-called online and offline COMPASS- O4) .Phase 3: Pilot Testing and evaluation of the tools. The final deliverable is represented by a final assessment (05), a comprehensive report that will also include recommendations to pave the way for mainstreaming of test into ordinary practice and presented to local, national and EU stakeholders through the dissemination events. As a result of testing, implementation and dissemination of the project’s approach, the expected impact is:- On adult learners (different ages, primarily over 50, but also younger generations, with diverse skills and life experiences). Improved capability and skills to manage their career, to let emerge talents, to collaborate, use social media, improve digital literacy and transversal skills. - on SMEs: enhances awareness of social HR functions such as selections and induction of prospective workers in finding the right skills (present or needed in the companies) for the new challenges ahead, avoiding potential deadweight losses; On both previous groups: increased participation in lifelong learning opportunities, take-up of ICT tools to assess skills’ needs and development, emergence of transversal talents/skills The AGEFACTOR project has been thought as a transnational experience that maximizes the available ICT social media and tools to boost their potential for learning. Partners are therefore committed to achieving mainstreaming and continuous adaptation well beyond the project’s cycle, also through the creation of the AGEFACTOR alliance after its end (O6).

"<< Background >>Europe’s digital transformation continues to accelerate through the development of new emerging technologies. Digitalisation brings many new opportunities as it helps to improve efficiency and learning outcomes. In order to achieve a high quality and inclusive digital education and training, the 2018 digital action plan has been presented and implemented by the EU with the ambition to contribute to the creation of a European Education Area by 2025. This plan presents measures to help Member States and education and training institutions to reap the opportunities and meet the challenges presented by the digital age. The outbreak of COVID-19 and necessary national measures taken to tackle the spread of the virus have caused significant disruption to the provision of education/training/mobility opportunities for learners, teachers and educators across the EU. All institutions have had to adapt in order to be able to provide training and education and have turned to online training: a number of EU states have opted for a combination of distance learning and face-to-face as provisional measures for the 2020-21 school year. The pandemic also demanded a quick adjustment to the quarantine, and trainers have effectively embraced online training. However, the transition from face-to-face training to fully online and distance training has been abrupt. Training providers still need to adapt to the implementation of training within the framework of hybrid systems (blended learning combined face-to-face and distance) or completely open/distance learning (ODL) and thus train their trainers to ensure its delivery. Nevertheless, this period tackled some gaps concerning the training needs of trainers/teachers: remote support for the trainee (question of tutoring, social bond with the learner, social bond between learners, social learning, motivation, etc.); remote training and tutorial engineering models to support them in their practices. Moreover, the job of trainer, like any other job; is bound to evolve because of the rise in the use of digital tools. New technologies and the Internet allow free access to knowledge, enabling people to learn anytime, anywhere and from any device (ATAWAD: Any Time, Any Where, Any device). Thus, the role of the trainer/teacher is no longer to transmit knowledge, but to facilitate learning. The training methods are also changing: open and distance training on PC, smartphone or tablet. Mobility training is developing training via an internet network in a mobile situation) and training content must adapt to this societal change with the provision of short training content on demand. Consequently, these developments require new digital and transversal skills for teachers/trainers in order to support learners in their online learning process. For many years, their skills development has focused in particular on pedagogy and the integration of digital technology in training. Now, there is a new challenge: the development of new skills for a trainer/teacher who has become a ""learning facilitator"" as well as filling of the gap of a lack of teaching resources allowing the setting up of blended training systems on themes linked to the evolution of the profession of trainer.<< Objectives >>The health crisis has urged teachers/trainers to adapt their teaching methods to the use of technology and digital tools. A skills framework for the trainer-facilitator in the digital age was recently updated. It comprises 6 competences: design and creativity, animation, collective intelligence, collaborative digital, high-quality relational communication and shared leadership. The main objectives of our project are: - to fill in the gap regarding the new required competences of trainers/teachers- to help them adapt to a new VET environment and new relationships with learners - to support learners in their learning process with upskilled teams and the delivery of high quality training - to develop OER with new methods and tools to deliver quality and inclusive education and training through online and virtual means<< Implementation >>The partners have created a realistic work plan supported by solid communication mechanisms and a strong sense of trust, shared ownership of project objectives and outcomes, evaluation and impact measurement through a quality assurance process and dissemination practices.COORDINATIONThe coordination of the project is led by DOMSPAIN and will be based on mutual respect and cooperation through: - systematic monitoring of progress with the help of the evaluator in charge of quality assurance,- consensual decision making among partners,- targeted interventions by the project coordinator.The project management structure will consist of: the SC for major management decisions – one rep by each partner chaired by the PC. The members of the SC will remain in permanent touch and will be informed by the Results leaders of their progress. Decisions are expected to be taken by consensus. If not possible, the approval of a majority should suffice. The project management structure is designed to enhance coordination by supporting monitoring, stimulating teamwork.DISSEMINATION BI will coordinate the overall dissemination of FAVET, whose responsibility lies in the whole partnership. BI, an expert in dissemination, will provide guidelines for the whole process and the use of the project website and social media. RESULTS and inputs from the partnershipEach Result team will be responsible for taking decisions in its own area of speciality. The leaders of each Result, responsible for each of the 3 packages, are the following:Result1: PRIZMA will lead its development supported by BI in charge of supervising the design of the mapping of competences.. All partners will provide inputs, review contents, provide feedback and improvements, pilot and translate contents.Result2: IFPRA supported by 36.6CC will lead this work package. IFPRA will be more particularly in charge of the design of the online game and 36.6 CC will coordinate the work related to the escape game. Like for the previous WP, all partners will be involved in provision of contents, reviewing, giving feedback, piloting and translating.Result 3: KSAO supported by IES J. Antonio will lead the development of this result. Based on the methodologies proposed by the lead VET centres, all the partners will contribute to the guidelines to the engineering models, which include theoretical parts and case studies to serve as examples for implementation of the models provided. QUALITY ASSURANCE36.6CC will coordinate the ongoing monitoring, evaluation process and impact analysis to support the coordination team of the project thanks to their expertise and experience. They will devise the necessary guidelines and monitoring tools. They will collate information and results across the partnership and provide reports to focus on strengths and weaknesses and possible improvements.PROJECT SUSTAINABILITYThe FAVET project sustainability will be based on the Exploitation of the results and Sustainability plan, designed and monitored by PRIZMA, which will promote the sustainability and exploitation of the project results, guarantee that all results developed under the project reach out the widest possible audience, ensure that all project results are available online and can be used after the project completion, promote the Erasmus+ Programme and its activities, ensure that the project's activities and practice have an impact on target groups and decision makers, maintain and exploit the project results on a daily basis in partner organisations’ contexts and communities.<< Results >>The partnership is very dynamic and partners are experts in their own field. Moreover, associate partners can add further value to the delivery of the project. While working together, partners expect to put synergies in place as they will contribute with their own expertise to deliver common outputs towards common goals. With this project, the partnership seek to achieve such results: - design a methodology to provide each vocational school and/or training centre with a tailor-made support (through work-based training and e-learning tools) - develop and offer a pathway more suitable to the demand to support training centres and vocational schools so that they can address the modern challenges of distance learning (in order to meet the new training market requirements) - high development of blended pathways: face to face session + online teaching/training + tutoring - develop updated CVET training resources in order to meet new training needs - online Open Educational resources - teaching/learning materials easily accessible by the target group: shorter, customized, more reactive, so that the target audience can adapt/build their own training pathway according to their profile - upskill educational teams to support them in the evolution of their job incurred by the development of digital and distance learning- enhance transversal competences of teachers and trainers related to digital field, facilitation and vocational training and consequently- achieve a greater effectiveness of teaching/training activities for the benefit of learners - offer new and improved approaches and practices (facilitation) to meet the needs incurred by long-term distance learning - create a more dynamic, committed teaching and learning environment with both learners and teachers/trainers ready to integrate good practices and new methods in their daily activities related to distance learning - upskilling of educational teams on-line with the new constraints due to Covid19 sanitary crisis but also (with the integration of a greater part of distance learning into pathways whatever they are) with the digital education action plan - develop high quality and inclusive education and training with upskilled teams (in order to support for instance, distance learning for learners in rural areas or a disadvantaged audience participating in a training scheme with the purpose of vocational inclusion ...)The partners wish to provide teachers/trainers with a methodology enabling them to create a favourable learning environment for distance learners; they will learn how to improve the delivery of online contents, to organize distance group work and the rhythm and type of interactions with learners, to develop distance collaborative work, to maintain social links even if learners study remotely, to make learners take initiatives regarding the learning process, to develop a knowledge building approach."

“Making better use of digital technology for teaching and learning” is one of the 3 macro - objectives of the Communication on the Digital Education Action Plan, released in 2018 by the European Union. The year after, the Center for European Policy Studies conducted an analysis detecting “significant differences across member states in terms of the capacity to take up the opportunities of digital learning”, with a great difference between northern countries (the best positioned) and the southern countries, with Italy, Greece and Slovenia in particular ranked close to the end of the list. Then, at the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic event upset the world, with enormous consequences also in the worldwide and European educational systems. As a response, when decision makers realized that the educational system was too slow in facing the necessary shift from a fully-traditional educational structure to a partly-digital didactic, many efforts has been performed for the digitalization of curricular educational activities, but less efforts had been dedicated to extra-curricular activities, such as dual education. Acting in the field of dual education in order to digitize processes and tools also means a change of methodologies: traditional dual education schemes, where students are asked to perform mechanical tasks with equipments and machines, are no longer replicable on distance and a new approaches in planning experiences and assessing competence must be developed and tested.For these reasons, the SEED project created an international partnership composed by training and vocational education institutions as well as technological and scientific knowledge providers located in Italy, Spain, Slovenia and Greece to design and test innovative creative-base methodologies (SEED Toolkit) for teachers and trainers of the high schools and vocational schools (15-18 years old) using problem-solving approaches to deliver ready-to-use solution based on real-business cases in order to ensure the continuity in performing extra-curricular activities also on distance. SEED specific objectives are: => To recognize the importance of creativity as a crucial transversal skill for students in order to better face the increasing request of innovation in all sectors of the labour market; => To improve the use of “dual training” as a fundamental pillar for a faster and more profitable access of students in the labour market, especially by ensuring more digitalized and creativity-based methodologies; => To equip vocational education institutions staff with the necessary digital skills to manage on distance dual training experiences based on creative-led methodologies; => To contribute to the empowerment of the EU educational policies by testing and delivering a new creativity-based and digital solution, aligned with EPALE and School Education Gateway.Starting from a specific methodology (Contamination Labs) designed and implemented by Ca Foscari Foundation in Italy, where the connection between schools and enterprises is guaranteed by local labs where students of different level of education are asked to solve problems through creativity-based techniques by releasing “project works” (very close to business plans), the above mentioned objectives will be achieved by an intense cooperation of 24 months between the SEED partners, based on a first activity of baseline study (IO1) aiming at the identification of the starting points in terms of dual education systems actually active in PP countries (IO1.1), creative-based methodologies applied to work-school experiences (IO2) and digital solutions for on distance dual education experiences (IO1.3). The last action of IO1 is the definition of a first draft of the SEED Toolkit (IO1.4), to be then assessed and integrated with local Co-Design Labs (IO2.1) performed in all countries with the involvement of the 3 key stakeholders (teachers, tutors, mentors): this action will pave the way for the definition of the digital supportive technology (IO2.2) enabling the application of the SEED creative-based methodology on distance and leading to the Final SEED Toolkit (IO2.3). Once ready, the SEED Toolkit will be transferred first to internal trainers through a joint international training action (IO3.1 and C1) and then the knowledge will be transferred at local level to local SEED Communities in each of the 4 countries (IO3.2), in order to prepare the field for the User - Testing Experimentation (IO3.3), where the Toolkit will be tested in real dual education experiences (4 countries, 20 teachers, 20 companies and 100 students involved). The feedback collected during the ET Experimentations will drive to the SEED Handbook for on distance Creativity-Based Dual Education. SEED partners will be deeply involved in dissemination and raising awareness activities, in particular by means of 4 multipliers events (2 national and 2 international) to be organized after the release of the SEED Toolkit.

The project “Dive 3: Zero to One > 1 to N” was implemented in a period of 14 months and it included the following partners: YAK (North Macedonia), OENEF (Greece), EuroDEMOS (Romania), ACI (Costa Rica), SocialWorkLab (Peru), Belle & Co (South Africa), IAFA (Portugal), Demostene (Italy), N.L.K DOO (Slovenia); ECIM (Poland); I3C (Bulgaria); Jóvenes Ambientalistas (Nicaragua). Main goal of the project was to contribute to fight youth unemployment by supporting development of cross-sectoral cooperation in involved countries and between different regions of the world represented in the project. During the 14 months of the implementation period of the project we have realized the capacity building and mobility activities separated in two phases. During the first phase the partners took place in the following mobility activities: partnership building activity in Florina, Greece and study visit in Ljubljana, Slovenia. These activities provided to the participants an opportunity to work on development of new projects, to learn from practices of other countries and to develop set of competencies that they used in the process of creating cross-sectoral partnerships for social entrepreneurship and young people. The gained experiences and knowledge each partner used for implementation of series of public raising awareness activities (series of life streaming debates on social entrepreneurship, local workshops and round tables in the countries) capacity building activities at local level striving towards supporting and raising awareness on cross-sectoral cooperation in their communities and countries. In second phase, the partners took part in several mobility activities study visit in Cape Town, South Africa and job shadowing in Peru, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Finally, we have implemented 5 days international conference that brought together representatives of different sectors (decision makers in the field, education institutions, CSOs, municipalities) to work together with the young people. As a result of the conference set of policy recommendations on cross-sectoral cooperation were developed and in the next steps each partner had dissemination strategy for raising the impact of them. The project brought numerous results as: reports from all implemented mobility activities, reports from all national activities implemented in 12 countries with achieved results, media report with gathered media announcements for the project and series of video tutorials on social entrepreneurship that contains lessons learned through project and practical tips that can be applied by different stakeholders in different communities as well set of policy recommendations that resulted from the conference. All these results were published online on the project web site. To sum up, within 14 months of work the project “Dive 3: Zero to One > 1 to N” reached over 3023 young people from Europe and the world, Alumni network of 548 young people, youth workers, social entrepreneurs, more of 52 entrepreneurs, 18 municipalities, 62 CSOs, 33 educational institutions were directly involved in the activities that contributed for creation of strong networking between different stakeholders relevant for the field social entrepreneurship.