Reason for the project: Reinforce and modernize libraries and improve the level of competencies and skills of library staff in HEI’s in Western Balkan countries. The level of competencies and skills of library staff is not of a high standard in the target PC's. Library staff need to be trained in modern library standards & practices. The main challenge they face is to transform themselves into modern electronic libraries through fostering deeper involvement of library staff in scientific research. A more proactive role for libraries in teaching and learning is needed. Libraries must be promoted as important Centres of information literacy and lifelong learning accessible to all learners to aid development of their critical thinking skills.Concise description: LNSS will develop modern Library Staff Development Training Programmes supported by 8 ECTS modules accompanied by online learning media and embedded in curricula in PC universities and disseminated to external stakeholders such as Public and National libraries to ensure maximum transfer effect to society at large.While the main beneficiaries of the project outputs/products/results are librarians and library staff in PC universities there will be different levels of positive impact. The results of the LNSS project will result in reform of Library Services in Western Balkan countries which will involve target groups Librarians, Academic Staff, Students, National & Public Libraries, Administrative and other non teaching staff as well as people with Special Needs and Disabilities. All Library users will benefit from the LNSS project and Curriculum. Library staff will be highly equipped both to provide quality library training to all stakeholders in critical areas such as Information Discovery & Avoiding Plagiarism and to manage and operate quality, modern library services to support teaching and learning.

<< Background >>Modern society is facing high demand for engineering students due to the fact that employers are connected with the rapidly developing fields of IT, mechanics, telecommunications, electronics etc. This is the appeal to all higher education institutions (HEI) to focus on labor market request for highly skilled future employees. HEIs all across the world are asked to arrange and ensure the future engineers as best as they can so they are able to successfully integrate in the companies and make the expected contribution to help the employers to achieve definite results. There is a set of must-have knowledge that is defined by the HEIs and is accepted by the industry or vice versa. Requisite knowledge refers to subjects that are used in the industries' every day working life and are changed whenever something new emerges in the field and demonstrate its strengths over the previous manner. Typically required knowledge that should be taught in HEIs are related to the field that is chosen by the student and mostly is connected to the hard skills which are easy to identify, measure and test. Nevertheless 21st century labor market requires not only hard skills. Industry insists that engineers (future and present) must manage soft skills as well including communication skills and competences as they are considered as the linking bridge between knowledge and possibility to work and perform entrusted duties.The partners of this project has spent years focusing on increasing its international recognition, presence, and developing frameworks that link the HEIs with global academic and non-academic partners (including labor market representatives). The expertise and initiative are shared by all projects partners of the SUCCESS - Riga Technical University (Latvia), Technische Universitat Dresden (Germany), Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena (Spain), Association Leonard de Vinci (France) and Paul Francis East (Germany). The project partners involved in this project have good knowledge of industry demands towards new graduates. We strongly believe that communication competences of engineering students and specialists should be encouraged by stimulating open conversations and implementing new methods into already existing study programs. By stimulating creative learning and teaching practices, the project contributes to various sectoral and horizontal objectives to enhance the exchange of expertise and practices across the EU region. Our goal is to help students and specialists develop a skill set that will enhance their confidence and abilities to deliver the knowledge they have in an engaging and interactive way. This current situation that we are all facing has enlightened the importance of not only having knowledge but also transforming the way we share it. That is precisely why the SUCCESS project has been initiated and is relevant in the long-term perspective.<< Objectives >>The SUCCESS project is a great opportunity to develop and implement new, innovative ideas in already existing curricula. One of the main goals of the SUCCESS project is to encourage the use of creative learning and teaching methods by offering student-centred curricula that will meet learning needs, eliminating communication ability mismatches in English, and providing complete coverage of communication skills needed by the labour market for technical communication. The project team promotes a cross-disciplinary approach to engineering studies and evolve innovative pedagogies in the field of engineering or any other related fields by designing, testing, simulating and implementing modules for teaching-learning innovative approaches to communication in collaboration with the leading providers of ESP in Germany, Spain, France, Latvia. The SUCCESS will generate a dialog on national and transnational level so that employment across different industries and sectors can be improved.<< Implementation >>During the active phase of the project we plan to implement various training programs. First one, dedicated to DIGITAL COMMUNICATION, will develop learners’ digital skills and etiquette, master their digital communication and presentation skills. This activity will help students and specialists develop their written and oral communication, presentation skills, as well as their skills in debating, analysing, formulating and defending arguments as well as case study analysis. Second activity will be ENGLISH FOR ENGINEERS (ESP) that will familiarize participants with the specialist language they need or may need in their daily work lives. Participants' academic writing and speaking skills, as well as their overall scientific capacity, will be enhanced by participation in this program. The CAREER PANEL is the third activity and it will allow participants and employers to interact. This will allow participants to learn oral, presentation, body language, negotiation and argumentation skills required by the industries and labor market for the successful employment. These competencies will contribute to analytical and strategic thinking, decision-making, stress management, adaptability, teamwork, and openness to feedback. The COMMUNICATION LAB or virtual simulation environment will offer a platform for engineering students to put established skills to the test and develop their soft skills by practicing it in the virtual simulation environment. Finally, the COMMUNICATION DEPLOYMENT HACKATHON will assist in transferring and deployment of all the abovementioned knowledge into the reality by offering engineering students and specialists to become a part of the international forum with a wide range of skills and specializations, as well as innovative disciplines, to cooperate, learn, participate, and demonstrate their abilities in order to solve various problems while interacting on this international communication platform.All of these activities are intended to enhance communication competences in English, enabling students/specialists/academic staff to be engaged with future students, colleagues and customers more effectively and efficiently.<< Results >>The project results will include all the materials, handbooks, guidelines, methodologies and simulation lab creation activity developed during the project life-cycle that will be made public at the project website. These outputs will ensure that projects results are sustainable in the long term and can be transformed to fit specific needs of any higher education institution. The project results will be not only incorporated into the existing study modules structures of partner organizations, but also, by sharing these activities with other EU HEIs and beyond adapted and transformed while keeping the key components to their curricula. This will show the importance of transnational cooperation, practice-focused learning modules development and implementation, soft-skills simulation activities, and will improve employment ratings among HEIs graduates. We believe that communication skills would be extremely valuable for engineering students and young specialists who are planning not just to start their career, but also plan to enter the academic environment and teaching, especially, these days when we are moving towards more and more advanced online learning platforms and various ways of communication possibilities. Dissemination and assessment of the methods used will also help to gain a better understanding of the barriers and improve the use of resources in future projects.

The reason for the project is the multiple challenges faced by Vietnamese and Laotian university staff teaching vocational education. These include a lack of competencies and skills in modern pedagogical teaching practices, the need to acquire key principles in vocational language teaching as well as ICT methodologies, the need to be an “integrated teacher” capable of combining both theoretical education and practical training, understanding quality assurance processes and mechanisms in vocational education, to secure opportunities to develop and retain practical skills of existing university vocational teacher staff. The main result after a Start Off meeting with needs analysis, planning and QA training will be an initial EU training (after preparation) in English for Specific Purposes (terminology, soft skills, key writing) and general vocational pedagogical training with ICT inputs. Programme Countries then create a 9 module pedagogical/ICT based Core Curricula which will be developed, piloted and integrated into existing university pedagogical vocational teacher training in each university. There are two Supplementary Modules as support. National Awareness Days explaining the objectives and status of the project will take place twice in each PC and promote dissemination and sustainability. Action Group will develop a CATALYST Strategic Plan ensuring post-project dissemination and sustainability. All modules will be downloadable on an online platform designed as not only a hub for academic activity but additionally for administration. We envisage very strong impacts as the Programme Country universities were selected for their interest in this project and based on EU partner experience a project like this will initiate key change.

Reason for the project: Reinforce and modernize libraries and improve the level of competencies and skills of library staff in HEI’s in Armenia, Moldova and Belarus. The level of competencies and skills of library staff is not of a high standard in the target PC's. Library staff need to be trained in modern library standards & practices. The main challenge they face is to transform themselves into modern electronic libraries through fostering deeper involvement of library staff in scientific research. A more proactive role for libraries in teaching and learning is needed. Libraries must be promoted as important Centres of information literacy and lifelong learning accessible to all learners to aid development of their critical thinking skills.Concise description: LNSS will develop modern Library Staff Development Training Programmes supported by 8 ECTS modules accompanied by online learning media and embedded in curricula in PC universities, Public Administration Institutes and disseminated to external stakeholders such as Public and National libraries to ensure maximum transfer effect to society at large.While the main beneficiaries of the project outputs/products/results are librarians and library staff in PC universities there will be different levels of positive impact. The results of the LNSS project will result in reform of Library Services in Armenia, Belarus and Moldova which will involve target groups Librarians, Academic Staff, Students, National & Public Libraries, Administrative and other non teaching staff as well as people with Special Needs and Disabilities. All Library users will benefit from the LNSS project and Curriculum. Library staff will be highly equipped both to provide quality library training to all stakeholders in critical areas such as Information Discovery & Avoiding Plagiarism and to manage and operate quality, modern library services to support teaching and learning.

Reason for the Project: The DIREKT project aims to instill best Information Literacy (IL) practices in higher education systems in the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan & China. The project is much needed in order to up-skill library and academic staff specifically their transferable, pedagogical and lifelong learning skills in the Information Literacy field thereby developing capacity and affecting all stakeholders including students. The project aims for improved, more relevant University services in the Information Literacy area leading to better awareness, modernization and improvements in teaching and learning. Concise Description: Creation with Librarians and Faculty, of curriculum-integrated IL programs (embedded in the three cycle system (bachelor/master/doctorate), quality assurance and recognition of qualifications for the development of lifelong learning in higher education and in Society at large and incorporating appropriate electronic media. Development of training programmes supported by 7 ECTS modules- a DIREKT Curriculum for Information Literacy which will be embedded in curricula in PC universities and with involvement of external stakeholders to ensure maximum transfer effect to Society at large.Impact envisaged: As Information Literacy is a vital transferable skill for lifelong learning that transcends all academic disciplines what is truly special and unique about this project is that the results will benefit a huge learner group- all University staff, students and librarians and the effects will be felt in RF, KZ and Chinese Society through university links with external stakeholders.