SIGNS FOR HANDSHAKES Deaf-Youth-Meets-Employers-ToolkitProject period: 10/2015- 09/2017 SIGNS FOR HANDSHAKES is a 2 year European project with partners from Austria, Bulgaria, UK and Slovenia with the aim of: Build and maintain strong links with representatives of the employment sector and the Deaf Community.Offer practical advice for employers on hiring young Deaf people.Increase job-opportunities for young Deaf job-candidates in the regular job market. Increase the understanding of effective methods of alternative communication in the workplace. Strengthen the use of Sign Language in the workplace (basic everyday signs).CONTEXT/BACKGROUNDCareer aspirations of Deaf youngsters do not differ from hearing youngsters: hairdresser, accountant, plumber, waiter/waitress, artist, teacher, nurse, photographer, programmer, web designer etc.!Today, youth unemployment and joblessness is a complex problem all over Europe. This is especially so for young Deaf job seekers, for them entry into the regular job market is full of obstacles.How to communicate, is the first question, when employers become aware, that the young job applicant is deaf? In fact, there are many ways that deaf and hearing people can communicate with each other and work together very well. The first requirement is that both sides are open to each others needs.What the project will develop: ACTIVITIES & OUTCOMES 1. DEAF PEOPLE AT WORK: Role Models - Portraits Deaf people are hardly visible in our society. To shine a spotlight on Deaf people and their work situations is the best and most effective way to build Deaf Awareness, and especially “Deafness at Work” to the employment sector. Portraits and reports about the Deaf at work, give helpful tips for employers who aren’t familiar with issues about the integration of Deaf individuals in their companies or institutions. The portraits are also enriching and motivational for Deaf youngsters to get first hand information about real work experience from their peers . 2. DEAF-YOUTH-MEETS-EMPLOYERS-TOOLKIT: “Nothing about us without us”- the participation of young Deaf people themselves is used to address Deaf Awareness- and communication activities to the employment sector. It is crucial that they are visible with their own language, their potentials and expressions.Deaf youngsters show important sign and communication tips to make the everyday cooperation between hearing and deaf colleagues easier. For example, how to say “good morning”, “what’s your name”, “how are you”. Many of these phrases are quick and easy to learn and allow an easy start in to sign language communication.3. ACTIVE NETWORKING: networking with organisations in the employment sector and for the Deaf Community is essential to build sustainable bridges to work for the young Deafs’ entry in the regular job market and is a major part of the project. SIGNS FOR HANDSHAKES is establishing a NETWORKING MAP with organisations and companies that promote and support the Deaf-friendly workplace. 4. ENCOUNTER and DIALOGUE: the project provides workshops and training for companies and organisations to raise Deaf Awareness and overcome communication barriers. The workshops will be designed with a full range of video-based material, created by young Deaf people. The training events will bring together participants from all the target groups: representatives of the employment sector as well as young Deaf. IMPACT ENVISAGED• Increased employment of young Deaf people• Improved communication between employers, Deaf workers and their hearing colleagues• Better awareness of Deaf culture and Sign Language in the workplace

"Mathematics education has received a lot of attention in the member states in recent years. Curricula have been updated and goals have been sharpened. The 2011 Eurodyce report ""Mathematics in Europe: Common Challenges and National Policies"" acknowledges the efforts of the central authorities but also states that a variety of teaching methods are needed and that learners’ motivation is often an issue and that only few countries in Europe work on extracurricular project-based ideas.Vidumath would like to contribute to this discussion with an innovative teaching method with ideas of a technology-rich ecosystem built around video production. Video nowadays is a common form of communication that most young people enjoy. Video can be a very motivating tool and bring in many different facets compared to a conventional textbook. The moving image can help to illustrate more complex structures and can aptly connect with the real world.European video education experts and mathematics innovators will develop a framework of ideas of what could be done within the mathematics classroom with and for the age of 9 to 12 years. The core idea is that the learners themselves are the active part of the production process. In this process, using systematic but creative thinking, mathematical content will be re-worked and visualised. Mathematics is a science that occupies itself with such things as rules, patterns, abstractions or proofs that can be applied in a large number of settings, applied or philosophical or playful. In this approach: * Children will playfully discover learning within mathematics * Children will document this process themselves on video * Other children, as an immediate repercussion, will be learners and consumers of these productions * Children will be given opportunity for self-reflection from this learning-by-teaching approach * Teachers will facilitate appropriately and provide ideas and examples * The ideas will be further developed together with other EU teachers Teachers will be the interface to reach the learners and the project will take great care to address and include them appropriately. To give structure to our productions, vidumath will collect and develop video material within three matrix themes: entry task (screen recording, one-shot video), intermediate task (stop motion / animation) and advanced task (creative explorations – edited video). Basic ideas with a clear pedagogical outline and well produced video tutorials will especially address teachers with no video experience. For these teachers ideas will include: what can be done with a limited amount of classroom time, how tasks can be combined with homework as well as ideas for interdisciplinary project work especially in conjunction with the subject of art.In order to promote the vidumath vision the project will produce attractive and clear pilot examples for each matrix theme. Pedagogical material will include background information and video tutorials will offer a good introduction about what kind of videos can be produced and how. The focus will be on visual material with little amount of words. This will support the exchange of outcomes and help schools to work in tandem across Europe. A project wiki will offer a space for schools to connect with each other and showcase their ideas and outcomes freely.The vidumath ideas will be spread within European teacher workshops and courses as well as online. Our existing promotion expertise with popular online platforms will guarantee that hundreds of thousands of European educators will hear about the project and its results. The project will work on a cross-platform promotion campaign and rely on Facebook pages, YouTube playlists and channels, Twitter, LinkedIn and additional social platforms. The integration of the outcomes on open platforms will make sure that vidumath will have a long-running and sustainable home (The project will of course take appropriate care that privacies are respected. The children’s work and not the children themselves will be represented).We are excited about this project’s potential and are anticipating triggering a wider movement of interest in and for mathematics around Europe."

"‘EiYoU - Educational Innovation facing Youth Unemployment’ lasted two years under the funding of the Erasmus+ programme of the EU. It was born from the great challenge of trying to give an answer to the emergency existing in a specific generation of young people regarding early school leaving and unemployment. As it was singled out in the preparation phase, the existence of a strict connection between lower expectations from the job world and the disbelieving in education led to the will of EiYoU! to try and empower students and teachers to cope with the negative impacts that youth unemployment has on learning and schooling and to change the perception that students have of education, looking at it as something that can contribute to a satisfactory professional life and that could favour a more strict connection with the labour market.The study that stood under the concrete development of EiYoU! revealed a serious condition and challenging situations about youth unemployment, also linked to the overall economic and political situation. The rates of ESL in the partner countries are: Italy and Turkey 17.6 % and 15%, and Portugal and Italy have NEETs rate of 23%.The project objective was to address specific needs and intervene on them with its actions at national and transnational level, as: motivating students to take over their future instead of being threatened by the actual conditions; delivering resilience competences to the generation most affected by the risk of unemployment and give them the tools to face their professional path in a positive and entrepreneurial way; giving schools new teaching and learning methods to encourage teachers and students. All this with the main general objective to reduce the early school leaving caused by demotivation and disbelieve in education. The EiYoU! project brought together 7 partner organisations that, thanks to their interdisciplinary character, contributed together to the proper achievement of the projects’ results. They represent various areas regarding education and all the issues linked to youth unemployment that EiYoU! aimed to address (the school sector, employment and counseling in training, youth).The partnership has produced research reports, implementation resources and a Catalogue of Educational Innovations containing the best innovative interventions developed and experimented during the project.A relevant part of the project activities was represented also by the workshops realized at national and transnational level (exchanges of students and teachers) where the bottom-up approach at the basis of the whole EiYoU! had its most evident expression. Pilot interventions were realized in all the concerned countries to put into practice the educational prototypes co-created by all teachers and crowdsourcing members.Worth of mention are also all the intangible results gained, e.g. the changed attitude towards school that many of the teachers and students demonstrated thanks to their active involvement in this project.They have acquired a positive mind set towards educational efforts, their motivation to participate in educational activities and the importance of personal and creative initiatives increased. Thanks to the pilot testing, the students showed an active engagement in the activities, greater autonomy and sense of responsibility and independence, development of their problem solving skills.They have acquired and understood how positive is to acquire competences that can help them during the life after school and in their professional orientation. Teachers will be empowered to change their model of teaching, by integrating new creative and meaningful learning activities. They will also ""learn"" on how to produce such innovation, by collaborating with others around them or within a global network (crowdsourcing). EiYoU! reported a concrete increased participation in the learning activities by the students and diffusion in schools of some alternative learning/teaching methods for encouraging teachers in their job and students in their learning path and in participating in school activities with a more positive and proactive approach.As a longer-term benefit the attitude and approaches obtained and implemented are an incentive to reduce the discouragement, lower achievements and apathy in the schools. Multiplying positive reflection effects and influence also on the schools that are in the same region, district, network of the ones directly involved can be singfed out; they in fact will have at their disposal the tools created during EiYoU!A great enthusiasm was clearly demonstrated by teachers towards the actions promoted at EU level thanks to the Erasmus+ programme; they acquired a positive approach and renovated passion for their job.The reuse, adaptation and multiplication of the methods will contribute on the long term to reach early school leaving rates of 10% or less, supporting the goals of Europe 2020."