"<< Background >>The main motivation behind the presentation of this project is the idea, stated in the Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan, that ""investing in entrepreneurship education is one of the highest return investments Europe can make"", combined with the conviction that soft-skills hide the key to unlock additional potential in young professionals and entrepreneurs. As a result, we have seen the multiplication of initiatives promoting entrepreneurial learning across the board, from vocational education and training organisations to non-formal entrepreneurial learning in youth organisations. Today, a substantial body of evidence demonstrates that possessing soft skills predict a wide range of life outcomes, in particular employability, career advancement, and entrepreneurial success (Kerr, 2018, Krueger, 2015, Lackéus, 2015).Hard skills have gradually lost importance in favor of soft skills, especially with the proliferation of artificial intelligence, which have proven to be a crucial asset in terms of employability and entrepreneurial success. In fact, the comprehensive Youth Work and Entrepreneurial Learning report (2016), demonstrates that entrepreneurial learning and its associated soft skill development, is particularly powerful when taking place in non-formal and informal settings, including youth work. SOFTIMPROVE intends to translate it into actionable learning strategies and provide employed and unemployed professionals and aspiring and confirmed entrepreneurs with the soft skills necessary for employability, career and business success while creating synergies between vocational education and training and non-formal entrepreneurial learning settings.In a nutshell, this project is justified in an ever-changing economic environment, which is in an evolution process towards a new professional framework that is more reliant on soft-skills and interpersonal competences. It responds to the need of young professionals and confirmed/aspiring entrepreneurs of enhancing their employability and their probabilities of economic success. More importantly, it responds to the need of training the best professionals for tomorrow, to expand their potential and capabilities to adapt to the new challenges posed by the economic environment.<< Objectives >>The goal of SoftImprove is to provide professionals and entrepreneurs with the knowledge and practice of soft skills needed to enhance their employability, improve their career prospects or increase their chance of success as entrepreneurs. The specific objectives of the project are:• O1: Characterize soft skills, decipher the role they play in improving employability, career and business and assess professionals and entrepreneurs’ needs and expectations of training on soft skills;• O2: Specify and develop a methodology blending in-person teaching and distance learning to train employed and unemployed professionals and aspiring and confirmed entrepreneurs on soft skills along with tools to monitor and assess the trainees’ progress in soft skills;• O3: Develop a face-to-face training course on soft skills combining theoretical knowledge, coaching, gamification and peer-to-peer feedbacks to be tested in pilot sessions, evaluated and refined;• O4: Construct a distance learning platform on soft skills made up of adapted as well as specifically developed contents;• O5: Promote a generation of professionals and entrepreneurs well-aware of and well trained on soft skills with the message than soft skills are as important as hard skills, and that soft skills can be improved through learning.<< Implementation >>In order to fulfill the first and second objective, that of delving into the state of the art of Soft-Skills and the elaboration of a methodology to give training, the partners will: map soft-skills, seek for feedback on stakeholders about their way of considering soft-skills and investigate their impact in terms of employability, career, and business as well as the needs of the target young professionals and entrepreneurs in soft-skills. Regarding the objective of developing the training modules and tools, the activities planned include: the development of the training modules, the creation of a soft-skill use library and the Experimentation and assessment of the training program. Thirdly, the activities planned to build the distance learning platform are: defining the functional specifications of the platform and set it up, and the adaptation of the content to the characteristics of the platform as well as the creation of new content specific to the platform (i.e. video testimonies). Finally, the platform will be tested and improved with the feedback received.Planned additional activities are: -Strategic steering, quality control and project monitoring-Administrative and financial management-Dissemination activities through, but not only, multiplier eventsAll these activities are aimed to provide the target group with training in soft-skills, which will ultimately enhance their employability and their chances of success when starting a business.<< Results >>At the knowledge level, the project will result in a common terminology of soft skills and an in-depth assessment of their impacts on employability, career, and business, as well as a mapping of the soft skills needed and expected by professionals and entrepreneurs. At the educational level, the project will design, develop and implement a gamified, blended soft skill development programme, applied to professionals seeking jobs or career progress and entrepreneurs starting or running their own enterprises or aspiring entrepreneurs looking to turn ideas into action. The programme will include: (i) a list of intended learning outcomes drawn upon both professionals and entrepreneurs’ needs and expectations and partners’ knowledge and experience to be used to define the learning content in terms of topics as well as levels; (ii) The set of modules to be taught in face-to-face sessions made up of theoretical knowledge, quizzes, coaching sessions, serious games, and peer-to-peer assessment ; and (iii) A distance learning platform providing dynamic and interactive training on soft skills with embedded incentives (gamification), practical simulations and ongoing feed-back along with a library of concrete cases for experiential learning.Finally, at the dissemination level, the project will create a website presenting soft skills notably, but not exclusively in terms of lever for employability and entrepreneurship, the project objectives, content and partners; and five multiplier events held in Belgium, France, Germany, Iceland and Spain to present the project outcomes, discuss their scientific and pedagogical relevance and promote their take-up at the academic as well as business levels."

<< Background >>PEPAICO has as its goal to provide, students, professionals and entrepreneurs with the necessary and sufficient knowledge and tools to allow them to take on the challenges posed by the emergence of artificial intelligence and exploit the wide range of opportunities offered by this technology, either as novel products or innovative means to upgrade processes.According to International Data Corporation, the global artificial intelligence market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17% to reach 250 billion euros in 2027. The impact of artificial intelligence on employment has been extensively studied over the last ten years, leading to a paradoxical conclusion called ‘job polarisation’. Examining the US, Acemoglu and Autor (2011) came to the same conclusions than Darvas and Wolff (2016) who worked on the French, German, Italian, Swedish and British cases found similar results for the US, while report such developments for a selection of EU countries: in all these countries, the number of middle-education jobs (clerks, machine operators, assemblers) is declining while at the extremes, the number of high-education jobs such as managers, engineers and health professionals and the number of low-education service occupations (e.g. shop workers, deliverers, etc.) that are not worth to replace by automation, are growing. A key conclusion is that the quality of human capital plays a crucial role. The ability of individuals to use the technological advances for the benefit of their work requires developing particular digital skills through well designed policies. This underlines the importance of using appropriate instruments to ensure that workers are well prepared to harness the disruptive forces of digital technologies.Because it creates a wide range of new products and services, artificial intelligence is the very type of technology favouring not only entrepreneurship but also new generations of graduates, professionals, and entrepreneurs.Engineering, life sciences, business, arts, security, and even politics, all sectors use under one form or another. artificial intelligence technology is virtually limitless. J. Boynott provided seven examples spanning from finance, medicine to law to the showing how artificial intelligence can disrupt almost all industries. But artificial intelligence also changes radically the way businesses are run. K. Patel listed five ways AI can bring added value: efficiency, productivity, customer experience, creativity and error avoidance. At the same time, artificial intelligence is increasingly viewed as a threat rather than an opportunity, including youth who is presumably more acquainted with digital skills than their elders. In a study made by Young Enterprise on young people’s view of AI, 76% of respondents said that they think that AI will lead to fewer jobs. The artificial intelligence revolution is nevertheless irreversible. According to a survey performed by IBM and Oxford Economics, 82% of enterprises are now considering AI adoption. What really worries enterprises in implementing AI has nevertheless changed. Instead of the availability of technology, which was seen as the most important obstacle, now, it is the lack of skilled people enterprises consider as the most deterrent barrier.By contributing to the emergence of graduates, professionals, entrepreneurs well aware of the opportunities and threats artificial intelligence is and will be bringing in, the project is expected to: i) lead to business creations and jobs; ii) upgrade the employability of the learners since artificial intelligence is adopted by an increasingly number of companies.<< Objectives >>Spanning over three years, PEPAICO has as overall goal to alleviate this barrier by providing students, professionals and entrepreneurs with the knowledge allowing them to face the challenges posed by artificial intelligence and exploit the opportunities it creates in terms of careers or businesses. To that end, the project will achieve the following objectives:-O1:Characterise the advantages, drawbacks, opportunities and threats brought by each type of technologies on employability, career and business;-O2:Specify and develop a modular methodology blending in-person teaching and distance learning to train students, employed and unemployed professionals and aspiring and confirmed entrepreneurs on artificial intelligence along with tools to monitor and assess the trainees’ progress;-O3:Develop a face-to-face training course on artificial intelligence combining theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and gamification;-O4:Construct a distance learning platform on artificial made up of adapted as well as specifically developed online contents and a micro-learning application;-O5:Promote a generation of graduates, professionals and entrepreneurs well-aware of and well trained on artificial intelligence with the message than well tackled, artificial intelligence can lead to employability improvement, career boosting and business opportunities.<< Implementation >>Lasting 36 months, the project is made up of four intellectual output-producing activities (IOs). There are additionally an activity package (AP) dedicated to the dissemination and exploitation of the project results, and an activity package (AP) devoted to the project implementation and management.-“IO1 – Impacts of artificial intelligence on employability, career, and business” will set the ground for the educational methodology to be adopted by PEPAICO. Its purpose is to investigate the effect of artificial intelligence on each industrial sector and perpendicularly on each job position. IO1 will start by setting up a common terminology since artificial intelligence terminology and meaning are often vague, multi-semantic and intertwined. The results will be combined with existing studies to provide an in-depth insight of the impacts of artificial intelligence on employability, career and business.-“IO2 – Pedagogical methodology” has as its goal to specify the modular blended training programme on artificial intelligence in terms of content as well as format. To that purpose, the project will: i) determine job seekers, employees and entrepreneurs’ needs and expectations regarding training on artificial intelligence by means of quantitative surveys and qualitative semi-structured interviews; ii) use the results in combination with the outputs of IO1 to determine the artificial intelligence knowledge and skills to be acquired by each target groups regarding their backgrounds, professional profiles, and personalities; iii) Specify the formats to be used for the educational materials e.g. in-class theoretical teaching, simulations, coaching, gamification, peer-to-peer assessment, self-evaluation, etc.-“IO3 – Learning content development” will develop the core training content based on the survey, need analysis, and intended learning content specified by IO2. The developed content will be rolled out in face-to-face teaching and training pilot sessions. To that purpose, IO3 will: i) inventory partners’ educational material responding to the specification of IO2; ii) Adapt existing pedagogical material to make it tailored to trainees’ needs; iii) Develop complementary pedagogical material to fully respond to job seekers, employees and entrepreneurs’ expectations; iv) Carry out pilot sessions and refine the content taking into account the collected feedbacks.-“IO4 – Distance learning platform and micro-learning application” will design, develop and deploy the distance learning on artificial intelligence through four components:-The online teaching modules resulting from adaptation of the modules developed by IO3 and complemented with additional modules if necessary-The micro-learning application whose goal is to enhance the training process and create a collaborative network of trainees on artificial intelligence-The library of examples of use of artificial intelligence to enhance careers or businesses to illustrate-“AP5 – Dissemination and exploitation” is aimed at reaching the largest possible audience. For that purpose, it will combine multiplier events and online promotion of the project results, including the development of a website dedicated to the project in particular, and artificial intelligence in general, and participation in all relevant social networks. -“AP6 – Consortium coordination and project management” will put in place a management system be sufficiently flexible to allow the project face unexpected events while strong enough to ensure the project be implemented according to the work plan.<< Results >>PEPAICO will result in:•At the knowledge level,-R1:The project will produce a mapping of the impacts of each artificial intelligence technology on each industrial sector, job and position. This result will be reached by the achievement of the objective O1. It will help companies exploit the opportunities created by artificial intelligence while mitigating the risks it brings in, in terms of business development as well as process improvements. It will also help graduates and professionals identify the levers offered by artificial intelligence to upgrade their employability or promote their careers.-R2:The project will identify produce a pedagogical methodology for modular blended learning aimed at determining the artificial intelligence topic to be taught to students, professionals and entrepreneurs according to their background, industrial sector, situation, and aspiration as well as needs and expectations. R2 will be the result of the achievement.•At the educational level, the project will design, develop and implement a 360° learning approach grounded on the intended learning outcomes specified by the results R1 and R2 and combining face-to-face coaching, distance learning and daily micro learning:-R3:The set of modules to be taught in face-to-face sessions -R4:A distance learning platform aimed at allowing learners to access to a wide range of training contents including among others online courses, market forecasts, business cases, technological trends and best practices-R5:A micro learning application allowing learners to: i) self train on artificial intelligence knowledge and skills; ii) find information with the assistance of artificial intelligence; iii) network with other learners.Altogether, R3 will concretise the achievement of IO3 while R4 and R5 represent the achievement of the objective O4.•At the dissemination level, the project will:-R6: Create a website presenting artificial intelligence issues notably, but not exclusively in terms of business and jobs, the project objectives, content and partners as well as the Erasmus+ programme. The project website will naturally linked to the project distance learning platform as well as its micro learning application. This main communication tool will be supported by hardcopy material including flyers and brochures.-R7: Organise three multiplier events held in Finland, France and Spain to present the project outcomes, discuss their scientific and pedagogical relevance and promote their take-up at the academic as well as business level.Together with R3, R4 and R5, R6 and R7 will accomplish the objective O5.

This action supports physical and blended mobility of higher education students and staff from EU Member States and third countries associated to Erasmus+ to any country in the world. Students in all study fields and cycles can take part in a study period or traineeship abroad. Higher education teaching and administrative staff can take part in professional development activities abroad, as well as staff from the field of work in order to teach and train students or staff at higher education institutions.

Spanning over two years, FABLE has as its aim to help higher education (HE) teaching staffs to design and implement blended learning while fully exploiting the advantages offered by this approach consisting of combining face-to-face teaching, live videoconferencing courses, online accessible recorded courses, micro-learning, and online self-training.To reach this overall goal, the project will pursue and achieve the following objectives:•Ceating a knowlege bank, to better identify the needs and expectations of students and trainees on the one side, professors, educators and trainers on the other side, regarding blended learning and training on blended learning. This will be done through online survey complemented with in-depth interviews of the large populations of students and trainees on the one side, professors, educators and trainers of the other side that the partners access directly. The achievement of this objective will result in the intellectual output IO1.•Conceive and test a methodology to transform in-class courses into blended learning ones exploiting the benefits brought by this form of teaching, including a guide to distance learning tools. Built upon the needs and expectations identified, the methodology is aimed at providing a step-by-step ‘vade-mecum’ explaining to professors and trainers how they can design or transform their in-person courses into blended learning curricula according to the intended learning outcomes. The methodology will include a guide of the different tools used to digitalise courses. This accomplishment of this objective is concretised by IO2. •Design, develop and implement a tool aimed at training faculty on blended training so to help them design courses for blended learning. The platform aims at a full integration of the learning and teaching experience in online and face-to-face combined settings. It will provide the eLearning platform with the resources for a high impact of replicability and sustainability. The result of this objective is IO3.•Issue a white paper for education systems to help them steer the digital transformation of their teaching through effective performance indicators.The project is aimed at emphasising and accelerating the movement toward digital courses that was considered with some reluctance before the Covid-19 crisis makes it a necessity.If it is not considered only as a low-cost stopgap of traditional teaching, the benefits of blended learning are numerous:•Personalisation: by adding self-training and virtual classes to in-class teaching, blended learning is training delivered at right amounts, at right moments. Training can now fit in a pocket and is becoming more and more convenient for us to travel. The training can therefore be consulted anywhere and at any time;•It favours memory anchoring. By allowing shorter learning sessions distributed over time, it is much more effective than concentrated sessions;•It promotes back-and-forth moves between knowledge acquisition and practical application during virtual class interclasses;•It facilitates quality assessment: blended learning learners no longer simply acquire knowledge, but develops skills, making it easier to assess the upgrade of their skills;•It suits digital natives and is adapted to increasingly technology-oriented learning methods;•Social learning is encouraged, and a micro-community can be created around the training.These benefits have shown to be efficient to reduce school dropouts and reengagement of people having left secondary education without graduation.The consortium counts five HE organisations covering different disciplines – from business school to technology institutes, and generalist universities – , of different digitalisation maturity states and coming from different European horizons, from North to South, West to East. This will ensure a large coverage of disciplines, digital maturity levels and cultural backgrounds. The project includes additionally: i) a private company specialised in digital education, ii) a private company specialised in transfer technology from the academic world to the industrial sector.The project is expected to greatly help partner organisations’ professors, educators and trainers digitalise their curricula in such a way that the resulting courses own added values as compared to in-person learning. Students and trainees having responded to the survey or interviews will better grasp the benefits of distance learning. On the mid-term, sharing a common methodology will help European HE and VET organisations develop harmonised blended learning programmes thus improve student and trainee exchanges all over Europe. On a longer term, FABLE will contribute to enhance the quality and quantity of blended learning programmes, thus their impacts on society, notably but not exclusively school dropout reduction and reengagement of not-graduated people.