The project idea came from analysis of the situation regarding the intercultural competences (IC) which in today's reality are a major key competence. The importance of IC has been recognised by EC and educational entities but it is still not yet prevalent or even common for every country to include intercultural education into every educational path. The extent to which the competence development is included in VET varies from country to country but interculturality has never been a major concern in vocational education. Instead, professional skills have always been regarded as being of the most importance. Consequently, there are many VET trainers who are experts in their field but when it comes to knowledge or experience in delivering their classes to learners from diverse cultural backgrounds, they have a real deficit detrimental to the content and delivery of their teaching. Taking into account the mobility of workers not only between EU countries, but especially from non-EU countries, VET Trainers need to be aware of intercultural differences and to be able to deal with various cultures every day. In view of this situation, the main objective of the project was to develop and increase intercultural competences of VET Trainers' dealing with diverse learners in Germany, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, Ireland and Netherlands. The partnership consisted of organisations working in VET education area and dealing with diverse learners: assist (coordinator), Danmar Computers, Diciannove, ITT, IBI, CKE and RUNI. Each member in the consortium organizes VET courses and in addition, Danmar has IT expertise sufficient for development of digital part of the intellectual outputs. The target group of the project were VET Trainers working with diverse learners from different cultural backgrounds, staff of VET providers which deal with diverse learners and public officials responsible for VET management and policy-making at the level of VET education. The project directly involved over 2000 participants. The main undertaken activities in the project included work on the main results, meaning that the activities included searching for tools, preparing database, work on content, digitalizing the materials and their extensive testing and improving. Important activities included quality assurance and dissemination of the outcomes in order to assure their exploitation also in other EU countries and other fields. The dissemination included Multiplier Events. The results of the project include tangible results which are two main intellectual outputs: 1) Open Online Catalogue of Intercultural Tools implemented as an on-line application available as OER consisting of three parts: - database of intercultural tools (collection of tools developed within previous various initiatives and projects as OERs and that relate to intercultural education), - training materials about culture in the form of e-learning, - guide on how to develop simulations for intercultural training.2) Guidelines for Practical Application of Intercultural Aspects in VET Context. Besides intellectual outputs, the project created dissemination materials (website, social channels, leaflets, newsletters, articles, presentations) and working materials including plans and very important intangible results. Those are: increased intercultural competence and through that, vocational skills of VET trainers, increased awareness of VET trainers but also other stakeholders about existence of various tools they didn’t know before, opportunity of being involved into European project which brought new knowledge and experiences for target groups, stakeholders, participating organisations and participants. Other intangible results are: stronger cooperation networks of those who worked on the results or participated in various activities of the project. In case of VET providers, they gained useful and innovative tools that they could include into own educational offer. The impact of the project exceeded the expectations. It can be seen in partners’ organizations, their staff and learners, VET trainers, operators in the field of VET education. The most important is that all who participated in activities or at least heard about its results, have better awareness about intercultural issues and available tools that can help in rising intercultural skills. Moreover the usage of the Catalogue itself helps in increasing ICT skills. In addition, the open character of the Catalogue (possibility of adding new tools) assures its self-expandability which might bring benefits to interested groups of users in the long-term.

The representatives of IT profession often suffer from lack of soft skills. The stereotype is that the IT person sits in front of their PC the whole day, is socially isolated, have friends only in the virtual worlds and is, to some extent, excluded from the society. What is very much needed nowadays is the ability for IT people to communicate with others, to express themselves, to voice out their doubts and opinions. In the collaborative environment of software development the possession and use of soft skills enhances the likelihood of an individual’s success (International Journal of Information Processing and Management/IJIPM, 2013). IT companies suffer from lack of soft skills enabled employees. Even if they are the best ones in their professional field, inability to communicate hampers the growth of the company. Although the software industry is paying attention to soft skills up to some extent, there is a need to further acknowledge the role of these skills in software development (IJIPM, 2013). On the other hand, those form the IT area who demonstrate strong communication skills are in high demand. They take managerial positions or are often employed as analysts or as consultants. This clearly shows that strong soft skills are even more important than had skills which, in comparison, can be gained more easily. Further exposure to and enhanced understanding of soft skills from the software industry can help an appreciation of this fact to flourish. Achieving such a variety of skills would enable us to bring a richness of talent and points of view to bear upon the inherent complexity of software systems (IJIPM, 2013).The objective of the SayIT project is looking for strengthening key competences in initial and continuing VET for IT professionals through reinforcing their soft skills and making them more qualified and competitive on a professional level.The two main results that the SayIT project will elaborate are:IO1 - Soft Skills curriculum for IT ProfessionalsThe first Intellectual Output will serve as a guidance for vocational institutions and relevant stakeholders in the field. Its aim will be to design the curriculum that will build upon the development of soft skills for IT professionals. The Curriculum will be a proposal of holistic approach towards upskilling IT professionals in the area of soft skills.IO2 - Soft Skills Trainer appThe second Intellectual Output will be an innovative training app for IT professionals that will allow them to raise their vocational qualifications in the area of soft skills. With the use of the visual novel methodology, it will put IT professionals into simulated environment, test their reactions and provide them with relevant learning resources.SayIT project will address primarily IT professionals who are hampered in their professional development due to the lack of relevant soft skills. The project will also address relevant stakeholders who can influence the training programmes offered for the representatives of the IT sector.The expected impact of the SayIT project can be characterised as increased awareness of the importance of soft skills among IT professionals which translates directly to the impact specific for the Key Action 2 as set forth in the Erasmus+ Guide: “education systems that are better aligned to the needs of and opportunities offered by the labour market” and also “improved provision and assessment of basic and transversal skills”. IT professionals reached by SayIT project activities should ideally have better understanding and recognition of skills and qualifications related especially to the IT professions, improved access to innovative learning materials tailored to the IT professions, improved career opportunities through application of soft skills training, improved professional behaviours thanks to increased recognition of soft skills, and finally, increased satisfaction from working in a professional environment.Through the planned activities, SayIT project is expected to contribute towards the shift in perceiving the qualities that constitute a successful and valuable IT professional on the labour market.

Already in 2003 the Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies (2003) and lately scientists from London`s Global University (2011) noticed, that the cultural diversity will be one of the most important factor in health-care area. Due to this, it is important to equip medical personnel with proper cultural competencies. As an answer to the above needs, the MICE-ICU project aimed at improving the knowledge, skills and cultural competencies of nurses working in intensive care units (ICUs). The MICE-ICU project was developed to improve knowledge, skills and competencies of ICU nurses in cultural sensitive care by developing and providing online access to a specialist, multicultural course for ICU nurses. The partnership started from the initiative of Polish Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Nurses (PTPAiIO). PTPAiIO and two higher education institutions: the College of Nursing in Celje from Slovenia and the University of Ostrava from Czech Republic engaged scientific experts in order to prepare proper methodological approach to achieve the objectives of the project. The high quality of the project results and the effectiveness of dissemination were ensured by the European federation of Critical Care Nursing associations (EfCCNa) - who is a European network and umbrella organisation for national associations of intensive/critical care nurses. EfCCNa consists of 28 national European critical care nursing associations, and represents more than 25 000 critical care nurses in Europe. The strategic partnership was supported by Danmar Computers Lld., who became the technical partner, responsible for preparing e-learning platform, MICE-ICU web site and other IT solutions. Finally the assist GmbH from Germany joined the partnership and offered expertise in training international soft skills as well as train-the-trainer training. All partners, except for Danmar Computers Lld. and assist GmbH acted as experts in the intensive nursing care. Despite the differences in the nature of main activities of the each partner, all of them contributed to the final outcomes of the MICE project. Main activities conducted during the project include: Literature review and ICU nurses training needs analysis – the systematic literature review was conducted by researchers from Poland, Slovenia and Czech Republic in order to identify nurses educational needs related to multicultural care in ICU in participating countries. Additionally the survey technique was used to identify actual cultural competences level of ICU nurses. The Healthcare Provider Cultural Competence Instrument (HPCCI) developed by Schwarz i in. (2015) was used for this purpose. In total 598 ICU nurses participated in this study including 155 nurses (25.92%) from Poland (PL), 218 (36.45%) from Czech Republic CZ), 97 (16.22%) from Slovenia (SI) and 128 (21.40%) from 20 European countries like Sweden, Izrael, Finland, Denmark. The results of literature review and training needs analysis formed the basis for developing the course curriculum and content. 1.The course was developed in cooperation between all partners and implemented on-line as e-learning course. It was agreed that the course will consist of three modules: Module I: Cultural awareness and sensitivity, Module II: Culturally diverse patients in health care environment, Module III: Specifics when caring for culturally diverse patients on ICU. The course starts with entry test of knowledge and ends with ending test. Topics prepared by the individual partner were reviewed by other partners, further developed or modified and finally the preliminary version of the course content was agreed. The course was translated into Polish, Czech and Slovenian languages. Danmar Computers Lld. implemented the course online and provided access to the testing platform. 2.Testing phase involved nurses from PL, CZ, SI and a few European countries, who took the e-learning course and answered questionnaires regarding usability, effectiveness and provided other suggestion to improve course quality. 3.The final version of the online course on multicultural care for ICU nurses was presented to EfCCNa council members and the join decision to recommend this course for ICU nurses all over the Europe was stated. The MICE-ICU project resulted in a specialized and accredited e-learning course on multicultural care dedicated to nurses working in intensive care environments. Besides main intellectual outputs, the multiplier events in all partner countries and the international Symposium on Multicultural Care were organized. The impact of MICE ICU project is expected on national and the European levels which assure long-term benefits in the shape of better qualified ICU nurses ready for caring for culturally dissimilar patients. If relevant, longer-term benefits. As the result, the ICU Nurses will increase their vocational competencies and receive a practical tool for work with patients from different cultures.

Studies show that there is an urgent need for qualified personnel in Europe: As shown, for ex. in the 2 cited studies ‘How mobile is tech talent?’ by Centre for European Policy Studies, 2016 and McKinsey study, 2012 called World at Work the need for young talented people entering the labour market is very high. This study reached conclusion: employers in Europe and N. America will require 16 to 18 million more college-educated workers in 2020 than are going to be available. McKinsey consulting coined the term ‘War for Talent’ to describe this phenomenon. In many EU countries, this is a particular problem for SMEs looking to hire and keep personnel, as SMEs cannot compete with corporations when it comes to salaries and other incentives. SMEs may not be able to fill 1 in 10 roles they need, much less fill them with top talent.At the same time, Europe experiences unprecedented high levels of migration, many of whom are well qualified. In Eurostat report ‘Migrant integration’ from 2017 the result was concluded concerning migrants in Europe: the EU-born population recorded the highest share of graduates (36.7 %). This proportion was 4 pp higher than for the native-born population and 5 pp higher than for non-EU-born population. These statistics reflect potential benefits of migration of EU Citizens where more extensive recruitment of young people with migrant backgrounds or young refugees could help SMEs in finding appropriate employees. Especially that motivation to gain access to the labour market among them remains exceptionally high: e.g. 93,3% of the population in Germany with a migrant background retain that a fix workplace is an important factor for integration in the accepting country.In contrast with these facts however, 7 out of 10 (71%) of DE companies with trainee programmes don’t employ trainees with migration background. This figure is higher for SMEs with less than 50 employees. Those over 50 show higher rates of willingness to employ trainees with migrant backgr. but still 46%. (SVR-FB_Diskriminierung-am-Ausbildungsmarkt, p. 31). This situation indicates a strong tendency by SME towards risk avoidance: The risk is that financial consequences for SME of the trainee breaking off the apprenticeship ahead of time. Research indicates that due to the nature and size, SME give trainees and new employees more responsible tasks relatively early. This requires the trainee to fit in the company’s structure easily and smoothly (SVR-FB, p. 30). In order to avoid these potential negative consequences, decision-makers in SMEs are guided by the unconscious human preference for people like themselves based on the unconscious psychological assumption ‘people who are like each other, like each other’, which seems generally true and in so doing demonstrate an unconscious bias to trainees and employees who are from their own culture. Consequently, for the sake of financial security and social integration in the staff, when it comes to choosing the right trainees and employees, these unconscious decisions, however, lead to the exclusion of many talents only because of the cultural background.Existence of unconscious bias is the fact, there is a need to recognise it and to cope with it. The project’s main aim is to develop competences of SMEs managers and recruitment staff in understanding, recognising, reflecting on and managing the unconscious bias and validating those competences in order to enable SMEs to recruit suitable personnel. The main objective will be achieved through developing the vocational education tool - CUB@work system.Target groups:- Management and recruitment staff of SME- VET trainers and public officials responsible for VET policyIt is expected that the impact of the project will be significant at all levels. Local, regional and national levels will be impacted by the dissemination activities performed by partners in their regions and countries. The project is likely to have a sustainable impact within and beyond its lifetime, especially on the target group, management and recruitment staff of SMEs. The participation in the project activities will increase their vocational skills needed in the recruitment and in the workplace. They will become not only aware of unconscious bias but also will know how to recognise it and how to manage it. In effect small and medium-sized companies will be better able to recruit suitable coworkers, also from the migrant population. It is expected that over 1000 people will participate directly in the project activities and over 20 000 will learn about its results via different digital channels. The project will also have impact on all those institutions and organizations that operate in the field of VET education. As unconscious bias is becoming more and more important due to high immigration recently, the CUB@work system should be found useful by many actors across Europe.

<< Background >>Throughout the European Green Deal, education is a central component to achieving the EU’s climate targets, in the ambition to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 (Green Comp, 2020). The need to transition towards more environmentally sustainable modes of production and consumption has become imperative, for developed as well as for developing countries (UNESCO, 2017). Sustainable Development Goal 9 includes the target of upgrading infrastructure and retrofitting industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes by 2030. Sustainable Development Goal 12 includes the target of achieving the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources by 2030. The transition to a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy requires systemic changes that will result not only in new products and services but also in changes in production processes and business models (UNESCO, 2017). This greening of the economy will inevitably change the skills required and the tasks involved in many of the existing occupations (European Commission, 2020).<< Objectives >>RetroVET project objectives are to:- Contribute to develop and promote a green culture among VET establishments- Close the green skills gap between VET centres that have successfully adopted green skills implementation practices, by facilitating the integration of amongst VET centres which have not embraced ICT practices- Develop a collaborative European Green Skills VET peer mentoring and performance improvement tool/frameworK- Capitalise on existing European vocational training networks multiplier structures and regional hubs to mainstream ICT skills change in VET centres across Europe- Promote and facilitate green skills learning through cross-curricular collaboration and remote peer-to-peer learning amongst European VET centres, practitioners and wider stakeholders<< Implementation >>The RetroVET project will support the fight against climate change and promote the benefits of an environmentally sustainable approach to vocational education and training through the “Green Elements”: 1) Green VET Strategy, 2) Green VET Approach 3) Green VET Skills and Knowledge. These elements cover each of the key VET centre stakeholder perspectives and aims to provide a holistic, inclusive approach to the “greening” of existing European VET. RetroVET directly supports The European Green Deal as a new growth strategy and recognises the key role of VET institutions to engage with learners, parents, educators and the wider community on the changes needed for a successful transition to become climate neutral by 2050. Linked to the priority above, RetroVET aims to adapt VET to labour market needs as we consider the future needs of the European labour market by supporting the development of a set of innovative tools which will inspire VET centres to offer a balanced mix of vocational skills linked to existing and evolving jobs and working methods as well as key green skills competences. The RetroVET project directly contributes to innovation in VET through the development of the project results which will be a unique set of tools in European VET, which by their very nature and purpose will also continue to support innovation in VET through the involved stakeholders. In this way, RetroVET adapts the VET provision and jobs of today, to address the needs of the future European labour market, increasing long-term employability and sustainable careers for VET graduates, and raising awareness of the European approach to climate change and sustainability through Green Skills.<< Results >>Through the four project results, the project will produce the following key deliverables:1. Report on Green Skills integration in VET2. RetroVET Interactive Benchmarking Tool 3. RetroVET Platform & Matching Tool4. RetroVET Facilitator eCourse