Europe employs more than 278.000 people in more than 21.000 companies, mainly SMEs, adopting a development strategy based on higher quality of products and services, flexibility, short time to market, product differentiation and added value producing 3,2% of the 24.3 billion pairs worldwide (figures 2019 www.worldfootwear.com ). It is a very manufacturing intensive sector with more than 35% of the employees over 50, which highlights strong need of attracting motivated and qualified young talent to replace the future retirements. The Pact for Skills in TCLF (S4TCLF https://www.s4tclfblueprint.eu/ ) as a consequence of the European Skills Agenda, outstands the need of addressing innovative ways of delivering IVET and CVET to capture and maintain a younger generation of employees inside the sector and calls the attention to the urgent need of a digital transformation at the level of training/education.All these factors are currently further amplified by the impact of COVID-19.A survey performed by S4TCLF project to VET providers and High-Education institutions providing VET on the impact of COVID-19 in the training/learning activities resulted in the following findings:- Urgent need of changing the ways of delivering training, opting preferentially by “at distance” approaches- Difficulties in “delivering practical training”- Difficulties from trainers and teachers in adapting their own practices to the new “normal” due to the lack of digital literacy and materials adapted to the new approaches. difficulty in keeping trainees and student within the courses, calling the attention to the need of creating attractive pedagogical resources and environment.- VET providers surveyed also confirmed that after COVID-19 the training approach will change definitely compared to the past and nothing will be as it was, highlighting the priority of developing robust Digital teaching and learning approaches. Therefore, CTCP Portugal, CTCR Spain, POLICALZ Italy, TUIASI Romania, IPS Poland, together with CEC, the umbrella association, and a specialist on digital education, joined efforts to face up this European challenge, for the development of a Footwear virtual “learning by doing” approach targeted to:1st- Trainers/teacher/coaches in footwear sector willing to promote, develop, accompany and assess innovative digital training2nd- Students/trainees in footwear related IVET and CVET or others willing to go for a career in footwear sector and to know more about footwear manufacturing operations,And the expected contributes are at 4 levels:1-Preparation of VET Providers and HE providing VET and their correspondent staff, including trainers, teachers and coaches, for the implementation of comprehensive digital strategies for the learning By Doing in Footwear Manufacturing, including approaches, methodologies and autonomation in contents development.2-EU network of VET providers and HE providing VET to excel in the digital delivering of practical training, toward the development of the practical skills, in footwear manufacturing, including IT educational experts and Umbrella Association.3-Creation of a free complete digitally environment for training/teaching/leaning of practical skills in Augmented reality and correspondent contents.4-Creation of a joint international digital course certified at National level and recognized at EU level for the development of practical skills in Footwear manufacturing.The expected results will be in 3 groups and will be released in English plus the 5 languages versions of the partnership: Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Romanian.1- Joint International course for digital “Learning by Doing” on Footwear manufacturing for the practical learning on Footwear manufacturing, integrally anchored in digital strategies. 2- Joint virtual Shoe Fab Lab and correspondent contents in Augmented Reality (AR) This also includes a course for trainers, teachers and coaches on how to use authoring tools (for the development of innovative and attractive contents in AR. 3-Common methodology on training/teaching/coaching for training itineraries based on augmented reality (AR) which includes manuals for trainers/teachers, coaches and trainees and training opportunity for end users (students and trainees in IVET and CVET).

The aim of the project was to prevent burnout at work and raise resilience by developing toolkits for SMEs staff, management staff, SME owners to help them to forecast burnout ( develop coaching and counselling methods and tools) recognize the warning signs, to take steps to get balance back and to change peoples’ approach to a balanced life, to improve working conditions, reduce the cost of burnout, stress. Main project rezults developed during the project lifetime are: - Framework about burnout and resilience- Assessment to explore and recognize burnout and resilience- Toolkit for resilience - 5 toolkits, 5 ways to raise resilience. Toolkits are linked to the test on identifying factors that hinder or help your resilience.5 toolkits are:1. Personal coping 2.Experience of work 3.Health and wellbeing 4.Think yourself strong 5.Create resilience in your environment- Toolkit for managers 5 toolkits, 5 ways to raise resilience designed for SME managers to help prevent burnout at work. The content helps spot any warning signs at an early stage and ultimately improve employees’ happiness in the workplace. The toolkits are linked to the self-assessment on identifying reduced resilience of your employees. 5 toolkits are:1.Circle of Influence2.Core Quadrants of Ofman3.GROW Model4.Progression Feedback5.Social Styles- E-learning development with gamification elements- Guidelines for workshops - A total of ten workshops were delivered across the partnership, with two workshops taking place in each partner country (Belgium, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the UK). The main objective of the workshops is to test the SME Tools to Prevent Burnout platform (IO5) with managers and employees working in SMEs. The platform has been designed for two target groups: managers and employees. The workshops enabled the partnership to test various aspects of the platform including the quality of platform content and how user-friendly it is. Guidelines are attached to this report together with the final report. The partnership grew from relationship established over several years with an emphasis arising from LdV Transfer of innovation.The project proposed a well-balanced partnership structure designed with full consideration of the skills and expertise necessary for the execution of the project. Okrganizations were directly involved in the development of the project: CTCP from Portugal, Obelisk from Belgium, Materahub from Italy, Inova from UK and Globalnet fro Poland. CTCP is a public training institution that operates in the area of footwear industry in Portugal. Obelisk is a company providing multiple trainings and consultancy, it's a customer-orientation, flexible, professional and mature organization with 16 years of expertise in the area of learning and development. INOVA Consultancy is a private for profit SME specialised in providing consultancy services and project work in the field of gender diversity and equality. Materahub IT is an aggregator of people and business, a “space” where they meet, encourage the creation of new job opportunities through a process of mentoring, training and business development. Globalnet specializes in e-learning solutions and cooperates with people from various vocations. It owns the e-learning platform that is adjusted to different training courses. These project partners are responsible for the creation of toolkits and e-learning content. Due to its geographical spread the project contains high cultural diversity and varied national contexts. In addition, the project is composed of partners with large networks of contacts and expertise in creating connections among organizations. Thus, the project impact and reach will go beyond the partner countries. Generally the project and its results will have a possitive impact on many areas. Not directly the project will cause the decrease of stress level and the general working conditions should, therefore, improve - less stress and tools to prevent burnout and raising resilience and at the same time: - raised resilience will influece the professional activity of employees- less people suffering from stress and equipped with tools to fight burnout and raise their resilience- self - assessment tools to assess participants resilience and help them raise it- less people suffering from stress-related conditions caused by work (cardiovascular, musculoskeletal disease, immunological problems)- better health of staff, wellbeing, improved satisfaction with life, possitive emotions-positive effect on health and resilience,-an increased mobility of people involved in the project, - an interest in the project of the employees organizations, companies,- interest in the project outcomes of the institutions not involved in partnership,-an increase of the offer of educational institutions,- development of new initiatives between partners from European countries,- increase in interest in lifelong learning

Over the last years, the European footwear sector has been changing in the way it demands more specialised expertise and new skills suitable to company’s specific requirements towards new business models, innovative and high-tech technologies, design and styling, environment issues etc.Furthermore, in order to remain competitive, businesses must be able to adapt to changes. The latest updated assessment of the needs for skills in European footwear industry, performed by European Sector Skills Council for textile, clothing , leather and footwear (TCLF) industry in 2014 hasidentified various drivers of employment and skills that are influencing and shaping the TCLF sector, including the footwear sub-sector too, such as: regulation and multi-level governance, demographic and population change, environmental change, economics and globalisation, technological change, changing values and identities, consumer demand. The TCLF 2014 Report reveals that “five times more jobs are to be opened for highly qualified employees than for low-qualified employees by 2025”. Within this context, the necessary qualification requirements for working in the European footwear industry must be redefined in order for the labour market to be reinvigorated with skilled professionals that will offer their full potential to the industry. dicSHOEnary aims to provide the technical language infrastructure necessary for strengthening the international communication of the shoe industry and for the establishment of new partners and to support the current and enthusiastic managers of the sector according to the expectations of the most current and necessary language skills and training needs.In order to do so, dicSHOEnary will produce a set of 3 intellectual outputs that materialise the project objectives, supported by management activities and an exploitation plan that will ensure the dissemination of its results even after the project has ended. The activities include: a) Need Analysis& State of the Art Report, b) Language guide in 10 languages with 3000 vocational terms e) Interactive web portal The dicSHOEnary partnership was established on the basis of combining the different backgrounds, experience and expertise of 10 partners from 9 countries, who have had experience in implementing transnational projects, in the field of vocational training, or in the field of footwear industry, in order to complement one another regarding their role in the project.dicSHOEnary aims to reach a large number of persons inside and outside the partnership, using different communications activities and channels by promoting the project and its results among European involved and/or interested organizations, and, at a national and regional/local level, bypromoting the project results among target organisations and end-users. Almost 1500 persons are estimated to be able to be informed about the project and benefit from its activities, including VETs, policy-makers, associations and organisations dealing with footwear, universities, research centres, managers of the sector and potential ones and trainers.The intellectual outputs developed by dicSHOEnary will be concrete and transferable, so that they can be exploited even after the project conclusion, both by the partners and by other stakeholders.The research activity implemented during dicSHOEnary can be the starting point for implementing research activities in the field. Managers and potential managers will be offered the opportunity to access the dicSHOEnary on the platform even after the end of the project and the world of Education, Research and Industry will have the opportunity to be part of a community which will be set the ground for developing innovative footwear products, new projects and common initiatives.

<< Background >>There is an increasing pressure for reducing the environmental footprint of the industrial activities and for slowing down the climate change. European Union has launched the “European Green Deal” action to boost the efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy in order to make the EU's economy sustainable. Previous projects and research efforts are mainly focused on eco-design tools and methodologies, such as life cycle assessment and others. However, other important dimensions of sustainability such as the economy and the society are not given adequate attention. Sustainability requires an even economy development that respects and promotes equal opportunities. Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the EU’s economy and the size of most footwear enterprises is very small and/or small. It is essential to strengthen them through activities that are in line with EU initiatives (e.g., “An economy that works for people”) that foster social fairness and prosperity.Over the last years, the European footwear sector has been changing in the way that demands more specialised expertise and new skills suitable to company's specific requirements towards new business models, innovative and high-tech technologies, design and styling, environment issues etc. Activated in a multi-billion market, the European Footwear Industry requires professional designers with increased competences and qualifications being able to develop sustainable products. Additionally, circular economy underlines new requirements for products use, re-use and disposal. The capacity to design for the circular economy is considered as an important driver for employment in the near future.All the project partners are involved in providing study programs, training and/or running educational projects for the footwear industry in their countries and/or EU level, but none of them have already included in their VET curricula and/or training content the hereby mentioned drivers of skills for the project target group: the footwear designers. In an era where consumers are driving industries, the footwear industry should consider consumer’s wellbeing and sustainability concerns as a competitive advantage to satisfy their demands. Increased health-consciousness and social awareness have to be incorporated in product development. Retailing practices and consumer behaviour are shifting towards sustainability. Moreover, consumers increasingly demand personalised and differentiated shoes, which open opportunities for more creativity while ensuring that sustainability concerns are satisfied. New sustainable materials, eco-design and marketing models are powerful tools to increase product differentiation. It is therefore a priority to equip footwear designers with a deeper understanding of the mechanics that determine sustainability and circular economy.<< Objectives >>Enhancing the skills of the professional designers through a cross-disciplinary training program, combining professional and transversal skills associated with creativeness, innovation, and sustainability, both technological and non-technological, is the aim of the project to be undertaken. In this context, the SHOEDES objectives are:•To anticipate the job-related requirements of the future footwear designers more effectively and explore new and innovative business / entrepreneurship models based on sustainable products and footwear design for the circular economy. •To develop new framework career guidelines and paths for sustainable footwear design by exploiting existing European instruments and initiatives like Europass, “Economy that works for people”, “European Green Deal”, that will result in better-qualified footwear design professionals and better services and in the EU and Turkish footwear industry.•To develop new methodologies and learning tools based on MOOCs for re-engineering the training process targeted to the existing and future designers of the footwear industry.<< Implementation >>The project comprises a set of implementation activities that will materialise the project objectives, supported by preparation, management, quality and dissemination activities that will ensure the propagation of its results even after the project has ended. Management and quality evaluation will be present throughout the duration of the project, making use of milestones and indicators in order to accurately determine whether the project is on schedule and the objectives are continually met. The outcomes of each activity shall be evaluated before the finalisation of the deliverables of the activity, in the context of the validation step of each activity. The project will deliver educational material in the form of reports, MOOC, Book of Lectures and new career and business models. It will include research and validating activities, a set multiplier events for dissemination, and intensive training workshops for the validation of the results.<< Results >>(1) A transnational report that will identify and analyse the characteristics of footwear design in terms of the three pillars of sustainability. Task leader: UAEGEAN(2) A new framework for career guidelines and paths for sustainable footwear design. Task leader: TASEV(3) A MOOC on “Footwear Deign for the Circular Economy”. Task leader: TUIASI(4) A Book with lectures on “Footwear Design for the Circular Economy”. Task leader: CIAPE with the support of TASEV-SCHOOL.(5) New and innovative business / entrepreneurship model based on footwear design for the circular economy. Task leader: ADC with the support of TASEV.(6) Multiplier event for disseminating Result#1 – Transnational report. Task leader: CRETHIDEV(7) Multiplier event for disseminating Result#2 – New Career Framework. Task leader: TASEV-SCHOOL(8) Multiplier event for disseminating Result#3 & Result#4 – MOOC & Book. Task leader: TUIASI(9) Multiplier event for disseminating Result #5 – New Business Model. Task leader: ADC(10) Design-challenge competition in all partner countries for the design of footwear for the circular economy. Task leader: CTCP(11) Intensive training workshops in all partners countries. Task leader: CRETHIDEV

CONTEXTAs the footwear sector rapidly grows into an integral part of the European economic growth,providing more than 260.000 job opportunities,the need of Europe for global exports becomes even more decisive for the European enterprises.This case is driven by the fact that Europe is culpable only for 13% of global exports,exporting around 15% of its production outside EU.Concurrently, the European financial crisis still has a negative impact on the sector with a notable number of businesses dropping down and their turnover decreasing significantly due to lack of adequate skills to sustain their operations within a competitive global market.SOLUTIONThe BOOST4Shoes project developed an open,all-inclusive training program for boosting skills towards a more efficient use of the Internet as a sales channel to enhance cross border business activity resulting in higher competitiveness,less business failures and thus increased revenues to ultimately benefit the EU economy.After the completion of the training, all participants in BOOST4Shoes were able to retain and improve their knowledge and skills,acquire new high-quality competences and continue their professional development by implementing the recommended strategies.PARTICIPANTSThe project envisaged the following target groups:Directly:-EU Footwear SMEs-Sales managers and professionals dealing with the footwear sectorIndirectly:-VET training organizations,trainers already providing entrepreneurship,eCommerce,ICT related training or looking to introduce such a training offering,business coaches-SME chambers,Business Innovation Centers,entrepreneurship associations,public officials responsible for entrepreneurship/growth/VET. OBJECTIVEThe purpose of the project was to help entrepreneurs of the footwear sector improve their skills and knowledge in e-Commerce strategies supported by the smart use of ICT/eBusiness for generating revenues through cross-border sales.PARTNERSThe partnership comprised the following organizations:-CIVIC (UK):a digital strategy agency with e-Commerce expertise-COIN (Cyprus):an educational technology & knowledge dissemination company-CRE.THI.DEV (Greece):an NGO focused on action plans for local communities and SMEs-CTCP (Portugal):a VET centre supporting all companies of footwear cluster-ISC (Germany):a research centre supporting the footwear industry-TUIASI (Romania):a higher education institute researching in footwear-DANMAR (Poland):a software development company and VET training centre ACTIVITIESThe project delivered a complete training program on cross-border e-Commerce for footwear sector SMEs,following a concrete methodology:-The first step was a comparative analysis of the current state of play between e-Commerce practices implemented by SMEs in partner countries and winning practices in countries outside the partnership.The aim was to identify the actual needs of the target group in order to form a training program tailored to them.-The next step was the validation of the needs by representatives of the target group in order to address and describe the learning outcomes forming the Online Sales Manager profile.-The training methodology and set of e-Commerce strategies were based on the validated needs.-To materialize the recommended strategies and support their implementation in real life,the partnership then developed the Online Sales Manager (OSM) modular course comprising hands-on actions linked to ECVET system with supporting tools.The course is implemented within the Online Sales Strategy Genie,a virtual environment that promotes personalized learning pathways at individual SME level and delivers the most important actions based on the user profile.-Together with the OSM,a personalized tool delivering a re-modeled course towards skills retention after the implementation of the actions was developed in a dedicated virtual space serving as a Learning Motivation Environment (LME) in order to complement the training program towards lifelong learning.15 trainers were trained upon the methodology and results in order to deliver the course in a blended-learning environment.All results were tested and evaluated during a piloting period before the final release.RESULTSThe main results of the project are: -OSM Training Content -ECVET supporting tools -Online Sales Strategy Genie -Skills Retention Service -BOOST4Shoes Academy LONG TERM BENEFITSSupported by the BOOST4Shoes Academy,a virtual space developed for the sustainability of the training program,SMEs are able to implement all recommended strategies ensuring sound e-Commerce practices,improving sales’ performance through enhanced cross-border capabilities and capacity to respond to new trends and consumers’ needs,increasing EU’s SMEs competitiveness within a global market.ACRONYMS-TPM: Transnational Project Meeting-LTTA: Learning Teaching & Training Activity-ME: Multiplier Event-IO: Intellectual Output-PQP: Project Quality Plan