“Landscape means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors” (Art.1 of European Landscape Convention (ELC)). Landscape is both a physical reality and the representation that we make of it. It is the face of a land with all its natural and anthropological elements and, at the same time, the feelings and emotions that it arouses in us when we see it. The ELC (aka the Florence Convention, 20/10/2000 came into force on 1/3/2004, Council of Europe Treaty Series no. 176) indicates that assessment of different dimensions that exist in landscapes should be taken into account. ELC aims to encourage public authorities to adopt policies and measures at local, regional, national and international level for protecting, managing and planning landscapes throughout Europe. The Covid-19 crisis seems to have hit a pause to these policies and activities, but it is not the time to ignore such issues nor forget about the training of trainers, students and citizens required to achieve these objectives. With this situation in mind, GEOLAND focuses on NATURA 2000 sites. ParticularlyGEOLAND will:1. explore and develop educational procedures for the effective participation of Higher Education (HE) students in decision-making for landscape management, planning and protection of NATURA 2000 sites. 2. enable the uptake of novel ways to engage and empower HE students in environmental science and stimulate participatory decision-making. In particular, it will provide the opportunity to students, citizens & stakeholders being interested in the definition and implementation of landscape policies to play an active part in setting sustainability indicators of desirable landscape quality objectives (Landscape Quality Objectives/LQO). 3. attempt to identify and summarize the environmental/cultural stratification in the examined landscapes through a sophisticated Landscape Character Assessment (LCA). On the basis of this Assessment, the capabilities of geospatial technologies (Earth Observation and Geographic Information Systems) and web-based GIS applications will be exploited. 4. encourage/introduce innovative pedagogies (citizen science), technologies and state of the art approaches (LCA) to higher education studies in Europe, while addressing issues of teaching and learning about Landscape as a multidisciplinary subject area in universities. PARTICIPANTSPartnership of 7 partners from 5 countries: 1 Research center, 2 Higher Education Institutes, 3 Non -Governmental Organizations, 1 ICT small-medium Enterprise and 1 chamber of commerce.RESULTS- Promotion of latest digital innovative technologies for Landscape monitoring in Higher Education.- Support of ELC comprehension from students regarding the knowledge of the landscapes (identification, analysis, assessment) and the definition of Landscape Quality Objectives in higher education.- Progress towards a coordinated and targeted approach to the best use of geospatial technologies and relevant data and their fusion on a multidisciplinary level in educational landscape ecological services.- Support the participation of students in environmental monitoring and landscape management.- Synthesize and integrate readily communicable, to a wide audience, findings suitable for awareness raising and policy negotiations among students in Europe.- Highlight the role of training students in real-life interaction between them and available geoinformatic technologies to set up a successful format.The aforementioned results will be materialised through the generation of:1. Educational Handbook for monitoring European Landscape2. Training Course - Web based GIS platform3. Policy outreach activities4. Online gallery of student’s work5. Digital educational readiness assessment tool.LONG TERM BENEFITSBenefits expected from above results will be felt in many ways, especially in the pedagogical, environmental and digital skills fields. In particular, they can be defined as follows:- Min. 30% increase (in participating organizations) in the number of students who will be aware of the most important pieces of ΕLC.- Min. 30% (in participating organizations) increase in students' awareness of Natura 2000 sites and network, as well as their environmental and socio-economic value.- Min. 500 students handling the most updated geoinformatic technological applications, products and services derived from the project.- Min. 40% (in the participating organizations) increase in the amount of students participating in proposed processes for the monitoring, management and protection of NATURA 2000 landscapes.- Identification and recommendation of policies and measures from HE students and professors aiming at landscape management and protection of landscape.

SMEs are Europe’s motor for growth and employment. They represent 99% of all businesses in the EU and account for two thirds of EU28 employment. The availability of skilled labour is an important prerequisite to their prosperity. Nonetheless, there is a mismatch between the skills the labour market demands and those that the education and training system provides. Realising this mismatch, the European Commission has identified that quality work-based learning and apprenticeships can be an efficient way of addressing labour market imbalances. In countries, where there is a well-established apprenticeship system, such as UK, Austria and Germany, SMEs contribute strongly to the training of the future work force through their involvement in work based learning and apprenticeship schemes. On the contrary, in countries with more school based systems, like Slovakia, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Bulgaria, the engagement of SMEs in the supply of placements is more challenging as they lack the support systems and fail to realise both the financial and social benefits. The SMEs awareness of the cost-benefit analysis deriving from the work-based learning is therefore crucial in order to determine their participation to the apprenticeship system. Based on this need, “RoI of WBL and apprenticeships” project suggested the development of a return on investment (RoI) model and digital tool that allow European SMEs to calculate and visualise how investment on WBL and apprenticeships can manifest to multiple benefits. The innovative force of the project is the focus of its model to SMEs needs as well as the integration in the model and the digital tool of both SMEs-related benefits as well as society-related ones in order to clearly demonstrate the multilevel outcomes derived from work-based learning & apprenticeship practices. The general objectives of the project were: - make apparent the benefits of WBL and apprenticeships at the level of individual SMEs and the society. - promote WBL and apprenticeships by motivating the engagement of SMEs. The direct target groups were SME’s entrepreneurs, managers and staff as well as VET providers (vocational training centres, professional schools, employment centres) that cooperate with SMEs for the provision of WBL and apprenticeships. At second level, it targeted VET stakeholders and policy makers, national representatives of European networks as well as VET practitioners and experts. The main results of the project are: - A model for the calculation of RoI of WBL and apprenticeships by SMEs - A digital online tool that will demonstrate in visual way the RoI model - A Good Practices Guide addressed to SMEs, giving guidance on how to design, implement and monitor profitable apprenticeship practices which can benefit the enterprise, the apprentice and the entire society. - Creation and promotion of an apprenticeship-friendly SMEs badge to increase the engagement of companies in the provision of WBL. - Promotion of VET – SMEs cooperation, through experimentation and validation of the RoI model. - Organisation of promotional events addressed to SMEs entrepreneurs, VET centres and stakeholders that are interested to apply and promote the RoI model and tool. The project was implemented by 8 partners from 8 different EU countries in order to create results that have European wide applicability and impact, including countries that are still lacking in the engagement of SMEs in WBL (Slovakia, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria), taking benefit from countries that are more advanced (UK and Italy) and using the technological know how of others (Cyprus). The expected long term benefits deriving from the project are: - increased supply of WBL and apprenticeship opportunities from SMEs - empowerment of mainly young people by expanding apprenticeship offer - better matching between skills needed by SMEs and those provided by the VET centers - increased number of VET business partnerships - contribution to the establishment of sustainable funding of WBL and apprenticeships through the self-motivation for investment from the side of the SMEs.

RATIONALE:According to World Tourism Organisation (WTO) news from 8th of April 2020, the world trade is expected to fall by between 13% and 32% in 2020 as the COVID 19 pandemic disrupts normal economic activity and life around the world. The economy must be relaunched as soon as the sanitary crisis will be stopped.As the coronavirus situation will gradually improve in Europe, tourism is expected to play a larger role in boosting consumption to help revive the economy. As the overseas travel have been suspended due to the pandemic, domestic rural tourism is expected to welcome more tourists, for people are chasing for a more healthy and natural lifestyle.The project will create the platform for a new era of the rural tourism, after COVID-19 pandemic crisis, as to exploit in village travel opportunities to conscious tourists by turning less-known places and rural areas into new routes of sustainable tourism, working tightly with the locals to revamp their traditions and cultural heritage and turning them into assets for socio-economic local development.OBJECTIVES:SMART VILLAGE Project intends to create a new educational curricula for upgrading until 2022 new digital basic skills and competences to more than 900 economic disadvantaged low-skilled and low-qualified senior adults impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, more exactly for persons living in deprived rural areas from at least 9 European local communities. The project will learn seniors how to create their own new business in villages by using innovative local cultural tourism opportunities based on social innovation best practices and circular economy principles. Our project can be a great opportunity for seniors to earn their own living in the economic crisis generated by the pandemic period, keep their mind engaged and challenged and stay active in the community.SMART VILLAGE project will produce new innovative teaching and learning approaches in the form of a research study and best practices collection, 4 multiple handbooks, a training kit, a videogame as tools for acquiring entrepreneurial competences in rural tourism. The project platform of resources and community will ensure direct impact on more than 900 adults learners (seniors) until 2022 who will increase their low digital skills and long term impact on more than 500 travel agencies and from Europe.TARGET GROUP: - seniors (50+), adult learners willing to work in the tourism chain sector from rural areas, the main considered marginalised (depopulated, isolated areas or with limited access to infrastructure: road transport networks, electricity and/or to telecommunications, including the Internet) or are included in marginalised populations, being people with low incomes, people at risk of poverty or social exclusion;- adult civil servants (+40) of the local public administration and private sector managers of SMEs from the rural villages.TRANSNATIONAL APPROACHEuropean added value lies in the fact that the actions under this initiative will address some crucial challenges such as improving the digital entrepreneurship skill in rural sustainable tourism at European level. The variety of countries the project partners represent ensures valuable input from all sides. By gathering 9 partners from 6 different countries, with expertise and different fields and knowledge areas, project aims to provide learning materials specifically developed to empower elderly to create business or to work in rural tourism sector in all countries of the EU.NEED:Rural tourism across Europe are undergoing big change. Whilst persistent challenges, such as depopulation and poor quality public services, and now the COVID-19 pandemy continue to put many rural communities under economic and social pressure, there are also new and exciting opportunities for rural residents. Opportunity arises from the key drivers of rural change in the 21st century, including the attraction of the tourists for the visitor’s experience related to a wide range of products generally linked to nature-based activities, agriculture, rural lifestyle / culture, angling and sightseeing. This attraction is complemented by the impact of existing and emerging digital technologies on the tourist attitude and preference for the destinations promoting low-carbon and circular economies, the bioeconomy, new value chains, new patterns of mobility. Based on our previous research, review of literature and on the current situation due to pandemic crisis, seniors can play an important role in revival of the rural tourism, but they need to have upgraded competences and skills in:- the main principles of Smart Village concept;- social innovation business models in rural tourism;- circular business models (i.e. based on Flourishing Business Canvas; Inclusive Business Model);- digital research and promotion tools and management of online reservation system;- new sanitary and hygiene rules and conditions for accommodation and services.

Integrating deaf people into the job market is a key challenge; more than 50 % of the 1 million deaf people in Europe are unemployed, and those who are employed are often in low-skilled and low-paid jobs.Access to digital jobs and professional VET programs in ICT for deaf and hard-of-hearing people is severely affected by the lack of proper field-specific terminology in the different sign languages, although the needs analysis conducted previously to the submission of this proposal has highlighted a rising trend in deaf entrepreneurship within the digital and ICT sector (ref. field research carried out by the project “Deaf Enterprise”, KA2 2016-1-UK01-KA202-024361, see innovation and complementarity section).The employment rate in ICT is going through a really positive trend in the last years; in fact, according to Eurostat, the number of ICT specialists in the EU grew by 39.1 % from 2011 to 2018, over 6 times as high as the increase (6.5 %) for total employment (shorturl.at/bepE0).As with any other language, lexical wealth of sign languages gets updated in accordance with use and diffusion of terms. New lexical resources for digital and ICT are lagging behind in sign languages, due to the common but misguided myth that written text can be sufficient for deaf people to understand and being able to express themselves, particularly with regards to the field of digital and ICT. According to the European Federation of Hard of Hearing People, there are 52 million European citizens affected by hearing disabilities of any kind, and national sign languages are to be considered their mother tongues. Access to sign languages is comparable to a Human Right, allowing them to be fully included in the daily life of their society. As such, the existing lexicon gap in the digital and ICT domain of sign languages has to be overcome in order to guarantee equal opportunities in accessing the ‘digital community’ of professionals for people with hearing disabilities.The project aims to develop the “EU Digital Framework for Sign Languages”, i.e. an analytical and descriptive database providing the main sign language resources in is (international sign) related to the lexical domain of digital and ICT. The framework will be mainly represented by an e-glossary containing at least 500 lemmas in IS, distributed in five key digital subdomains: 1.Computer science; 2.Cloud networking; 3.Internet of Things (IoT); 4.Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics5.Audiovisual and media production. Each entry of the glossary will be augmented with a short video showing how to properly sign it plus additional information like etymology, usage scenarios and situational contexts. Where a lexical gap is detected, new signs will be developed according to the current rules of new signs formation. Apart from the language academic interest, this project pursues the full integration of D/deaf individuals into professional and VET contexts with a degree of digital/ICT intensity. Therefore, the results are thought to be used and adopted by both D/deaf and hearing people, to favour the spread of deaf culture and encourage dialogue and inclusion. To this end, the “Guidelines for the inclusion of D/deaf workers in digital and ICT settings” will be delivered in the final stage of the project.The main target group is represented by D/deaf individuals about to enter the job market in the fields of digital and ICT, then also engaged in VET related training programmes. As a secondary indirect TG, the project encourages the uptake of results by VET trainers, employers and entrepreneurs in the field, sign language interpreters and schools, associations for the inclusion of people with hearing disabilities, who will benefit from project results.

The Covid 19 pandemic has overthrown established practices in the world of education and in particular it has dictated the need to support qualitative and effective digitalisation of VET provision as well as to pursuit actions and programmes that both teaching and administrative staff need in their effort for upskilling their communication and digital competences to meet the new challenge.“We-R-Open: An educational approach for digital upskilling of Teaching, Managerial and Administrative staff of VET Schools” is an Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic partnership for VET, development of innovation.Partners are 4 VET organisations FORAVE from Portugal, IEK DELTA from Greece, DEFOIN from Spain and Emphasys from Cyprus, a training centre providing adult education - IDEC from Greece and the European Digital Learning Network (DLEARN).The central aim of this project is the digitalisation of VET institutions through providing the adequate learning resources to their staff. The project addresses the whole VET schools community, namely its target groups are- Teachers and educators of VET schools- Administrative staff of VET schools- Supporting and back-office staff of VET schools - VET Students and their parentsWe-R-Open will produce three two intellectual outputs:a) an innovative online toolkit for supporting Teaching staff to go digital in teaching and communication process and b) an e- learning course for the Managerial and Administrative of VET schools, that will support working remotely and communicating effectively on line. In addition the staff will acquire digital skills for designing and implementing virtual events such as Open Days and Career Days. Other important project outputs that will contribute to the achievement of project results and goals are: Six multiplier events in Lousado, Portugal, Piraeus, Greece, Athens, Greece, Madrid, Spain, Nicosia, Cyprus and Milan, Italy, in which a total of 95 persons with multiplier capacity will participate. Dissemination campaigns in the five project countries, using different channels, i.e. a project dedicated website, circulation of three newsletters to 4500 recipients, articles in online communities, presentations in conferences and events, promotion in social media Facebook and LinkedIn. .The project is innovative as:- it uses a holistic approach to upskilling of both teaching and administrative staff of VET institutions, taking into account the whole set of operations of a VET institution.- it is designed to meet the specific needs of VET institutions (practical training, labs, communication with companies for placements and apprenticeship, organisation of Open and Career Days and events) to be organised in a virtual way.- it aspires to prepare VET institutions’ staff to embrace digitalisation and to have a clear digital strategy for the future.Expected impact of We-R-Open includes:- The integration of digital tools will guarantee the continuity of the educational process and VET schools’ operation in cases of emergent situations, like COVID- 19 - VET schools will be able to organize professional, efficient, and effective virtual Career Days- VET students will engage in qualitative learning regardless of the potential lock-outs and they will continue receiving placements as apprentices, interns and employees in companies - Good practices and learning materials in the, presently limited, areas of “Communication, Smart Work and Virtual Events Organisation for staff of VET schools” will be enriched - VET institutions will upgrade their operation and quality of their services by exploiting and capitalizing the resources and methodologies introduced by the online toolkit and the training course. Response time to students’ queries will be narrowed. - VET teaching staff will have a handy and user friendly toolkit especially developed for them meeting their needs to organise practical training and labs digitally, providing them also with tangible examples They will have less stress, to cope with the demands of digital VET and they wiill feel a fresh interest for their job - Managerial and administrative staff of VET schools/institutions will acquire the necessary digital and communication skills to organise their school’s Communication, e- administration and Virtual Events such as Career and Open Days. They will cooperate better with the teaching staff.Results will be available in English, Portuguese, Greek, Spanish and Italian languages.