"Cultural background, education, religion and language are just some of the variables characterizing the modern appearance of a business. These different ""colors"" lead us to the definition of the ""plural"" and heterogeneous enterprise, increasing the importance of an “aware” management of the human resources.This phase of change shows up strongly in the Creative Industries economic segment, whereas the peculiar characteristics of the various sectors imply the need for training organisations, to adapt and continually modernize their contents, tools and methodologies, in order to play in a proactively and functional way their formative and support function. FACING offers a concrete answer to this needs, focusing on the Human Resources area as a well recognised driver of innovation and fundamental factor of creative enterprises’ competitiveness.Long-term goal of the project is to modernize the capacity to provide training of the Italian organisations involved, generating a strong impact on the territory and contributing to the regeneration of the competitive potential of the Italian Creative Industries and Venetian in particular, thanks to the new shared knowledge and competences. FACING middle – short term goal is to establish a stable network of trainers and experts who, benefiting from the mobility actions (training staff), abroad within the Centers of Excellence partners of the project, will use the acquired tools in order to support the economic fabric maximising the know-how.FACING also aims to involve the entrepreneurial component, flanking and supporting trainers and experts through training assignment experiences at the Centers of Excellence partners of the project, in order to involve them in the innovation process as a proactive actor and fostering the creation of an effective and stable transnational network of entrepreneurs, trainers and experts in the field of the Creative Industries.Mobility actions will see the following:For Staff training activities:- the staff of the training organisations and associations, part of the National Consortium;- the trainers of the training organisations and associations, part of the National Consortium.For the training assignment:- entrepreneurs (or HR Managers), working into the Creative Industries who are responsible for the managing and training of the Human Resources within the company.Any planned mobility action will last 3 to 4 days and it will be set as follows:- the staff of the Consortium members will benefit from targeted training opportunities, set up on the basis of the training needs expressed by the individual beneficiary in the selection process. These elements will be connected to the training actions offered by the foreign partners;- selected entrepreneurs will share their experience and expertise in the delivery of training programs at foreign partners premises, getting the opportunity to compare their methodologies and management principles in the Human Resources field.FACING therefore aims to produce a direct impact on:- staff and trainers of the National Consortium, enriching and/or updating their professional skills and acquiring specific tools for a wise and profitable management of human resources;- partners of the National Consortium, which will bridge the gap existing in its training offer to Creative Industries in order to effectively tackle the demands of the economic fabric;- entrepreneurs providing and sharing their experience and expertise in a peer learning process;- staff of the foreign Partners, as beneficiaries of the training assignment actions, through which will be able to expand their professional competences, comparing and testing their methodologies with working contexts abroad.In the long term the project aims to make an impact:- on the Italian territory and in particular on the Veneto Region, as the whole planned training activities are set up on the basis and in response to the needs expressed by stakeholders and final clients of the skills and know-how acquired by the beneficiaries;- on the National Consortium members, entrepreneurs and foreign partners, as the whole complex of the planned actions will result in the construction of an informal network of shared knowledge, skills and methodologies, which will continue to grow and be enriched by the progressive mutual acquaintance. The entrepreneurial component, in particular, will also be able to get in touch with foreign markets of interest, benefiting from new business opportunities and internationalizing their company. Similarly, National Consortium members and foreign Partners will benefit from new opportunities offered by the international cooperation."

Aim: creation of digital learning resources for mobile devices to improve the educational integration of disadvantaged learners in the educational system (retention of Roma children in schools, better utilization of learning material in the training of students with special educational needs, the opportunity for better integration of disadvantaged students in the existing educational system and possible inclusion of isolated people due to socio-economic reasons in the system). Outputs: development and adaptation of training modules, improvement of qualification of teachers dealing with students at risk, new teaching methods with the use of mobile technologies and devices. Impact to policy making: mRIDGE concept is positioned to constitute an important step towards promoting a broader approach to risk group inclusion and is focused on achieving more comprehensive and coherent policies for the broader social inclusion of vulnerable people. The educational outcomes of the project alongside with the participation of European and national stakeholders and representatives of the local and national authorities, responsible for the provision of integrated support education, is a guarantee, that the project will provoke acknowledgement of this inclusion challenge and will put in place strategies to overcome and prevent further exclusion of disadvantaged young people. The dissemination and exploitation activities and the transnational co-operation measures, embedded in the project work plan, will guarantee European level of visibility of the project results. Following this strategy, the project will contribute to improvement of the present policy measures and good practices and will reinforce the development of new policies and practices in the fields of disadvantaged groups and Roma young people education at the EU member states. By following this strategy it will have a direct impact on European policy making in the fields of education and training.

There is a strong demand for global competencies in creative graduates and our participation in mobility projects provide us with an effective way to empower our students with such skills. Although our Erasmus offering remains quite small in comparison to those of larger London based creative universities we were extremely encouraged by the strong responses to these opportunities from our students and staff. In the summer of 2016 we had close to 30 applications of interest from students wishing to undertake a mobility but only 9 eventually participated. However, this is still an increase on previous levels of participation. The majority of the student mobilities were traineeships; reflecting the strong keenness amongst our student body to acquire global work experience, expand their network of contacts and build their intercultural communication skills. Unfortunately, the uptake within the academic community was not to the projected level, so we are actively working to boost this number in future projects.The school of design provided the majority of outbound participants with the school of media continuing to be under represented in the project. As in previous years, most of the outbound students were British or EU nationals, among our non -EU student cohort the challenge of obtaining visas is the most heavily cited reason for foregoing participation.

The University’s broad goal for the project was to make it easier for our community of students and staff staff to engage with the Erasmus+ in more meaningful ways and to implement a step change improvement in the student experience. Beyond this broad statement, however, Ravensbourne University London restates the goal contained within its Erasmus Policy Statement:•To encourage students to recognise the opportunities offered by a European placement, which will enhance their employability skills and enrich their cultural and social knowledgeWe hoped and continue to hope to use Erasmus+ as a catalyst for improving global competencies, intercultural awareness and skills across the entire community. Although a great deal of effort was invested in promoting Erasmus opportunities throughout the university community to allow us to achieve the targeted 14 student and 4 staff mobilities only one mobility was eventually undertaken through the project. This mobility was a 5 day staff teaching mobility focused on on the following objectives:To witness different academic processes.To internationalise Ravensbourne University London's Digital Photography as a course. To share current UK commercial photography working practices. To deliver a contemporary photographic masterclass to a combined under-graduate and post-graduate group with industryparticipation from Phase One. To feedback into the overall portfolio review at Ravensbourne.The content of the mobility consisted of brief led workshops with a commercial photographic focus. Engaging on a technical and conceptual level over 5 days with technical and academic delivered instruction in Spanish. Formative feedback and group seminar discussions were delivered at the end of the project .

The project's objective was to enhance the student experience and to provide learning opportunities for staff. With 2nd year Fashion Students undertaking work placements it was felt that students would be able to benefit from widening their search to Europe with the extra incentive of applying for an Erasmus grant to support this. We also hoped to provide the opportunity for study mobilities to our students and opportunities for staff also. We had 2 of our BA (Hons) Fashion students go to Belgium and Italy to fulfil their 2nd Year accredited Fashion Placement units. The purpose of this unit is to expose students to contemporary professional practice in the creative industries and to work in an environment similar to one in which a graduate in their discipline might be employed. The unit allows students to undertake a unique work based and international learning experience to deepen their understanding of the industry. It also allows students to apply and place in context the knowledge and skills they have learnt on the earlier parts of the course. Students are briefed on the process of securing a placement in the previous term and supported by the Careers and Employability Team in developing their CV as well as targeting potential host companies. During the course of the placement, students will be required to develop a profile of the company and its products. The Five Principles underpin the Mindsets and Skillsets Manifesto and are the foundation upon which all course curriculum frameworks and unit specifications are based. The relevant Principles as stated below have been mapped against the Learning Outcomes relevant to each course unit and at each level: 1. Cultivate / Where the individual thrives. 2. Collaborate / Where disciplines evolve. 3. Integrate / Where education engages industry. 4. Advocate / Where purpose meets practice.Of the 2 students that travelled overseas for their placement, both gained a deeper understanding of the industry and were able to utilise and expand their skills learnt on earlier parts of the course. One student's experience was extremely successful and she was offered the opportunity to extend her placement and therefore deferred her 3rd year and extended her placement. Our other student did not have quite so much success on placement, however, also gained invaluable experience and successfully completed her 2nd Year.