During the past decades VET schools and providers in Bulgaria and Turkey experienced difficulties in provision of dedicated proper internship programmes for VET students who have completed Business and Entrepreneurship courses with regards to agriculture and eco-farming fields, especially for those that would like to initiate a start-up of a new enterprise. In the rapidly changing labour market, youngsters are faced with the lack of practical skills and support that could help them to bridge successfully from the education system to the actual business. Internship programs, as a type of work-based learning, have been recognized as an effective method for alleviating youth unemployment and equipping young people with relevant skills. However, major barriers for that is the time availability of the mentors at companies as well as the lack of tangible assessment standard which can measure and proof the effectiveness and impact of such internship programme. Furthermore, the VET students experienced geographic obstacles to visit the premises of the employers which in agricultural/eco-farming sectors are mainly at the rural area. Especially this is highly problematic for students with poor income and/or disability. In Bulgaria and in Turkey majority of VET staff and students as well as mentors are hesitant to recognize the value or learning benefit of such internships. Due to the lack of familiarity with that type of experience usually the time spent to complete internships are often not eligible for educational and school credits/value.In order to address these concerns and educate both employers and educators about a modern form of internships, this project will set up a model for the blended virtual internships by drawing up a structure that can work in a feasible and simple manner. This was the main motivation of the project consortium: to produce a programme for conducting blended virtual internships in the field of business and entrepreneurship, where a guidance material, assessment standard and virtual mobile internship application (software) will cover this gap and ensure via sustainable cooperation synergies the implementation and long-term exploitation/sustainability and usage. Our target groups will be:• VET learners in agriculture and eco-farming sectors• VET trainers & educators• VET schools/centers who are providing further training• SMEs/ Employers active as mentors/tutors in internship programmes• Policy makersAims and objectives:• to increase the entrepreneurial skills of young agriculture and farming students by provision of dedicated blended virtual internship programme• to deliver tangible and sustainable outcomes in establishing a guidance material for educators for its conducting, assessment standard of its efficiency and mobile solution for conducting the virtual part of the blended model, which will ensure better transparency, comparability and recognition of the acquired knowledge, skills and competence of young VET students• to further strengthen overall the quality, relevance and attractiveness of the VET provision• to implement blended virtual internships as part of the work-based learning, addressing ECVET learning outcomes and proper recognition and validation of the learning achievements• to cover skills mismatch and shortages as well as the need for higher level skills at sectoral level in the agriculture sector.Intellectual outputs:IO1: Guide for conducting blended virtual internships for acquisition and validation of entrepreneurial and business skills in agriculture and eco-farming sectorsIO2: Assessment standard for validation and recognition of the acquired knowledge, skills and competences related to business and entrepreneurship during blended virtual internships in agriculture and eco-farming sectorsIO3: Mobile application for conducting blended virtual internships towards business and entrepreneurshipPartnership:P1: Leading agriculture university with a VET center from BulgariaP2: SME from Bulgaria implementing further work-based ECVET based trainings and internships in the field of entrepreneurshipP3: Inclusion institute, who is responsible for further VET training of educators in the field of entrepreneurshipP4: SME who is conducting blended internships with an expertise in validation and impact assessment of the implementation of virtual internshipsEnvisaged impact will be:• Further validation of knowledge, skills and competences of young VET learners in the agriculture and eco-farming sectors.• Covering the learning gap in terms of lack of provision of proper and effective VET internships and training materials for their conducting.• Provision of targeted training materials (guide for conducting, assessment standard, mobile internship application) that supports the National plans for further development of VET sector in Bulgaria and Turkey.

"The core concept of this project is to establish support service, to train carers and raise awareness towards elder maltreatment. The elder maltreatment is pervasive in all countries in the European Region. It is a growing concern, and estimates suggest that at least 4 million people experience elder maltreatment in any one year in the EU Region. The full scale of the problem is not properly understood, but it has far-reaching consequences for the mental and physical well-being of tens of millions of older people and, if left unchecked, may result in their premature death. Studies show that older people with dementia and with a disability that results in increased dependence on caregivers increases the risk of elder maltreatment.Key facts:•The European Region has a rapidly ageing population.•One third of the population of the European Region will be 60 years and older in 2050.•Many more older women than older men are in poverty.•The prevalence of elder maltreatment in the community is high (about 3%) and may be as high as 25% for older people with high support needs.Perpetration is most often carried out by caregivers who are partners, offspring or other relatives, although professional health and care workers and visitors can also be perpetrators in institutions or at home. Perpetrators are more likely to have mental health problems, especially depression or a history of violence, and may suffer from substance misuse, especially alcohol abuse.Why is elder maltreatment a health and social problem?•Humanitarian – it causes great suffering to individuals or groups within a society.•Functional – it threatens the fabric of society.•Cost – it drains resources and requires societal investment.•Social justice – some older people are vulnerable and their rights should be protected.•Social norms – regarding behaviour and expectations.•Prevalence – overall, many people suffer from elder maltreatment, and special services and programmes are needed.•Burden – a cause of premature death and disability.•Response – the health and care sectors are in the front line for prevention, detection and rehabilitation.The prevalence increases among people with disabilities, cognitive impairment and dependence.To combat this phenomenon, our project aims to establish a support service framework, as well as train carers on how to recognise such maltreatment, address it and take action, and how to raise awareness in the own community, and this with special attention for those older people with disabilities.Therefore, our project focuses on supporting social workers and carers to:•recognise any elderly maltreatment in their community or among their clientele.•address it•take action•but especially also raising awareness in the communitySocial marketing, mass media awareness raising and education programmes like our project aims to develop will be used to raise awareness of the effects of maltreatment and to promote a healthy ageing approach to overcome negative stereotyping. Engaging older people in these processes will be very important.Based on the above, the project will develop and approbate the following intellectual outputs:IO1: ECVET based training curriculum and training course on ""Recognising elder abuse""IO2: Mobile training app, including good practices databaseIO3: Policy recommendation report for the improvement of governmental support towards prevention of abuse towards elderly peopleTARGET GROUPS•Social workers•Caregivers•Doctors/GPsBENEFICIARIES•Older people (with disabilities)•Family of older people•Social servicesThe partnership is composed by:P1: Local municipality from Rodopi region (among vulnerable in terms of abuse towards elderly) in BulgariaP2: National association of professionals working with elderly people and those with disabilities all over BulgariaP3: Leading clinical psychological support unit from another vulnerable region of Sliven, BulgariaP4: Inclusion institute who is training social service personnel and caregivers from Istanbul, TurkeyP5: VET training provider in the social services field from Belgium"

PURPOSE:Dementia is a decline in mental ability that usually progresses slowly, in which memory, thinking, and judgement are impaired, and personality may deteriorate. It usually develops slowly, and affects mainly those aged over 60. It is one of the most important causes of disability in the elderly in Spain, Bulgaria and Turkey (source; World Health Organisation) with the increasing proportion of the elderly in many populations, the number of dementia patients will rise also (expected to raise with 12% in the next 10 years in Spain where around 818,347 people are affected - source https://www.alzheimer-europe.org/Policy-in-Practice2/Country-comparisons/2013-The-prevalence-of-dementia-in-Europe/Spain; 20% in the next 10 years - source for Bulgaria: https://alzheimer-bg.org/dementia/research/, source for Turkey - https://www.titck.gov.tr). The most common causes of dementia in EU are Alzheimer's disease (about 50-70% of cases), the successive strokes which lead to multi-infarct dementia (about 30%); other causes are Pick's disease, Binswanger's diseases, Lewy-Body dementia and others.It is clear there that a big burden for the families is to support their family member with dementia. Especially for the adult population this is a huge stressful moment especially taking into consideration that there is no enough information available towards the behavioural and attitudinal challenges which the living with a person with dementia caused. In addition, there are no existing non-formal trainings on that topic which presents in an understandable way the strategies and tips that could support the adult generation into the process of supporting their family member with a dementia. Caring for a person with dementia can be a devastating task. That person may be a parent or grandparent or a family relative (uncle, aunt etc.) who has been known and respected and it is difficult watching the deterioration. In the later stages there may be physical problems, including the indignity of incontinence. The person may seem most ungrateful and even aggressive and this can be hurtful for the person who is supporting him (if a caregiver is not involved). Usually the caring person (in many cases adult because other family members are working at the same time) should be prepared to react adequately in the following cases: • Cognitive impairment which is affecting: Memory, Language, Attention, Thinking, Orientation, Calculation, Problem-solving ability • Behavioural problems: Changes in personality, Changes in social behaviour, Emotional changes, Hallucinations and delusions, Aggression, Depression, Agitation • Difficulty with daily living: Dressing, Driving, Eating and Shopping.AIMS & OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT: - to raise the awareness among partners countries and on EU level about the importance of provision of informal training to adult family members to understand and provide better support to their family member with dementia; - to enable the acquisition of additional key and transversal competences of adult population in a informal setting. - to provide reliable material to adult volunteering organisation who are supporting adult volunteers that care about alone elderly with dementia. - to develop online and mobile learning material which consist of proven training content that will avoid misleading information that is appearing onto internet on the topic - to decrease the social and economic burden to the families of suffering patients. SOLUTION: Therefore, the project will aim to develop the following outputs which will support the adult awareness and preparation (adult training) to support their family members with dementia: - IO1: Adult guide “How to support your family member with dementia” - IO2: Wizard style open mobile application – 24/7 offer help on solutions per specific problem - IO3: Guidance Toolkit for Adult trainers with methodological support on delivery of the DEMOER courseTARGET GROUPS: a) as learners: adults (aged 16-29) who are caring (non-formally) about their family member affected by dementia; b) as trainers: Adult trainers and educators, coordinators/managers of volunteering NGOs who are provided non-formal care services; BENEFICIARIES from the improved services: people with dementia, their families, NGOs/Unions of people with disabilities and elderly people, policy makers in the field of health and social care.TRANSFERABILITY: The outputs can become a main training material for NGOs and volunteering organisations who are supporting organisation of adult non-formal caregiving trainings.CONSORTIUM: 5 PARTNERS (ES, BG, BE CY & TR) consisting of adult training providers from Department of Psychology of Higher educational institution on tertiary level, National umbrella ogranisation of professionals working with people with disabilities, Inclusion institute and 2 consulting bodies, offering know-how and digital expertise on solutions for maintaining the brain functions.