Mobility project for higher education students and staff with programme countries

Mobility project for higher education and staff with programme countries

Mobility project for higher education and staff with programme countries

Foot diseases are recognized as a wide societal problem, reducing mobility, social activity and quality of life of the people suffering from it. The occurrence of foot problems, which has been reported at 40%, affects specially the elderly, diabetic and obese people. This means around 202 million European people will suffer some kind of foot abnormality or severe pain. Podiatry can support the wellbeing of these population groups through a twofold strategy of treatment and prevention.As other health care services, podiatry is under significant pressure to provide innovative, effective and timely services. Ageing, advancing technology and the specific needs of different population groups constitute a major challenge for podiatry profession, so responses are needed to support a modern and developing podiatry profession.PODIATRAIN project aim is to create a European high education framework to homogenize and improve knowledge of podiatrists in advanced techniques and treatments as well as bring to bear the newest technologies for user assessment. PODIATRAIN will offer these professionals a number of advantages over traditional methods providing a route to transform podiatry from an artisan craft into a modern clinical speciality. The project results will contribute to improve the competences of these professionals, widening their labour opportunities. PODIATRAIN will be available in two European languages (English and Spanish).PODIATRAIN consortium is formed by three universities and one research and technological centre: Universidad Católica de Valencia (Spain), Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences (Finland), University of Malta (Malta) and Instituto de Biomecánica de Valencia (Spain). This consortium has been set up to guarantee the success of the project and its future exploitation beyond the project end. Project partners are experts in the contents to be developed; they have access to current and future podiatry professionals and capability to exploit the course. In addition, they will explore the EQF credit recognition and the introduction of PODIATRAIN outputs into formal education. Academic partners assure representativeness of European formal training programmes, being all of them members of the European Network of Podiatry in Higher Education (ENPODHE).PODIATRAIN project will have a total duration of 30 months and it will be coordinated by the Universidad Católica de Valencia. Dissemination, Exploitation, Quality management and Project coordination are activities planned for the management and implementation. PODIATRAIN has associated three intellectual outputs, all of them will be freely accessible through the project website to target users and also for general public interested on them: - Curriculum of PODIATRAIN course - Formative contents and complementary materials of PODIATRAIN course - PODIATRAIN on-line coursePodiatrists will be the main beneficiaries of the course, but other target groups will be students finishing their bachelor's degree in podiatry and other foot health practitioners as foot&ankle surgeons. Around 87.000 European podiatrists will have the opportunity to improve their skills, acquiring more competences based on advanced techniques and treatments as well as on the use of new technologies for better assessment and diagnosis of patients.Patients will indirectly benefit of receiving more accurate diagnosis and improved treatments based on latest research and technologies. In addition, as PODIATRAIN intends to homogenize best practices among European podiatrists, this will directly benefit patients throughout Europe.

"The term “cultural industries” is used almost interchangeably with the concept of “creative industries”. Whereas the notion “cultural industries” emphasizes the cultural heritage and traditional and artistic elements of creativity, the notion of “creative industries” tends to place emphasis on individual creative talent and innovation, and on the exploitation of intellectual property. Those industries (performing, visual arts, broadcast media, digital games, design, creative marketing, PR, fashion, cultural heritage) which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property are a powerful tool to activate new learning processes (mainly non formal) for EU citizens and community.Analysis made on the sector pointed out the potential contribution of CCIs to the economy and society first (KEA 2006) in terms of wealth and jobs (UNCTAD 2008/2011), then on the positive spillover effects on employment other non-creative sectors (KEA 2009). The project “Break in the Desk” has developed a training package to train creative and artists in order to stimulate their entrepreneurial spirit making them able to activate new business and projects, creating economic value from their performances and activities. In doing so, the Strategic Partnership, built by the project, has also exploited creative thinking and non-formal training competences of CCIs to facilitate a process of innovation in SMEs from non-creative sectors and Public Administration departments. CCI operators can play a role in the process of innovation of other economic sectors, in which creativity is not common as a feature, by applying creative, non formal facilitations and training through transversal methodologies (“break in” intervention). Project objectives have been:- to promote entrepreneurship education for artists and cultural operators performing an action of ""translation"" of terms and concepts from the business sector to the world of arts and culture;- to support sustainability of artistic and cultural organizations and projects through the process of training activated by the project;- to enhance the relevance of the learning offer for CCI operators, by developing new and innovative approaches to spread a creative/innovative culture inside SME/PA- to develop and test methodologies, tools and concepts that facilitate organizational development and product creation inside SME/PA- to foster the assessment of transversal skills and promote the take-up of practical entrepreneurial experiences The Strategic Partnership activated to reach project objectives and develop related intellectual outputs was composed by:- Creative and Cultural industries coaching and training organizations: Materahub (Italy)- Creatives and Artists representatives: Collage Arts (UK)- VET organizations experts in the field of CCIs and recognition/assessment of outcomes: Rinova (UK)- Local public development organizations representative of SMEs interests: Consorcio Provincial de Desarollo Economico Cordoba/Instituto Provincial de Desarollo Economico Cordoba (Spain)- Clusters of Creative and Cultural Industries: Cultural Innovation Competence Center (Hungary)- Universities dealing with research/education on Creative and Cultural Industries with a specific focus on training and development programs for creative entrepreneurship: Aalto University/Mikkeli University/XAMK University (Finland)- Public Authorities in charge of local policy for education, youth, job: Rome Municipality Department for Youth, Equal Opportunities and Entrepreneurship (Italy)- A European network of Creative and Cultural organizations: Euromedinculture(s) (France)- An SMEs business association/chamber of commerce: Sibiu Chamber of Commerce (Romania)- A technical partner in charge of the dissemination, networking and e-learning platform: Link Campus University (Italy)- A regional development agency that promoted urban regeneration through Creative Industries valorization: SAMOA (France)Project target group was composed of primary beneficiaries (150 artists and creative involved during barcamps – 21 selected for the training activities) and indirect beneficiaries (the selected Public Organization (Saint Nazaire Development Agency) and SME to pilot the “break in intervention”).The project has finally:- trained artists and creative from Italy, UK, Finland, France, Hungary, Romania and Spain to stimulate their entrepreneurial spirit and develop their business skills - offered them a web based social elearning platform for further training and networking - trained them to become facilitators of innovation in SMEs and Public Administrations through process of creative intervention- shared a policy to support creativity in its application to VET system, entrepreneurship education and spillover effects with other EUcountries not involved in the project"