"<< Background >>Most environmental legislation is targeted at large organisations, but in fact SMEs have the biggest impact. A study by the European Commission showed that “SMEs contribute 64% of environmental impact” (SMEs and the Environment in the European Union, 2010). Therefore, it has become a priority for the EU to give to SMEs all the necessary help to strive towards reducing their impact on the environment. Realistically speaking, and unless SMEs develop an sustainability culture, this seems to be a difficult challenge. SMEs do not possess either the structure or the trained resources to tackle this vital issue. They need to embed sustainability in their management roles, and gain access to tools which will enable to monitor that impact to the environment.With the intervention of technology, tools can become efficient and reliable in undertaking the task of monitoring sustainability. Furthermore, communication has also eliminated distances and now monitoring can be done remotely. It is incredibly important for SME managements to have timely information in their hands in order to decide on the appropriate remedial reaction and contain the damage to the environment.The missing link to the above is learning how to develop a sustainability strategy and how to use the technological of other tools to implement it. This missing link is in the hands of vocational education. VET has the agility to grasp market needs and transform them to educational offerings using ECVET standards to safeguard quality.<< Objectives >>SustainSMEs aims to: 1. Develop a control mechanism within SMEs to increase or maintain their sustainability performance2. Define a new role within SME structure, assigning specific role and responsibilities related to sustainability4. Promote the recognition of skills and qualifications according to EQF in Europe 5. Improve the SME sustainability practices and outlook6. Foster innovation, education, social inclusion and climate/energy preservation, in line with the EU SME Strategy 7. Create more job opportunities through sustainable development8. Strengthen the role of VET in educating SME management on sustainability policies and practices9. Underline the use of EQF and ECVET as tools for achieving lifelong learning<< Implementation >>In order to achieve the above mentioned objectives SustainSMEs will implement the following activities:- describe the EQF Level Descriptors for the Sustainability Regulator role in an SME ;- create an agile training course ""SustainSMEs VET Curriculum and Course"" that can be delivered in physical, blended or distance learning environment;- design and develop a Digital Sustainability Audit Tool as a monitoring tool to for SRs to control the sustainability performance of their SME;- organise a training the VET trainer event which will aim to equipped VET trainers with the additional knowledge and skills to train SME managers or future SRs on monitoring sustainability in their SMEs;- organise four transnational project meetings to coordinate all other project activities;- five multiplier events with a minimum total physical participation of 180 and virtual participation of 120 members of the target groups to disseminate the project results and activities of SustainSMEs.To successfully implement the above activities, the SustainSMEs consortium will also deploy:Project Management activities:- Four transnational project meetings in the Spain, Cyprus, Greece and Austria;- online partnership meetings every 2 months;- bi-annual financial internal reports to manage budget expenditures; - Interim and Final reports to the Spanish NAQuality Assurance Monitoring and Evaluation Activities:- Drafting and implementation of a Quality Evaluation Plan- Evaluation of consortium meetings- Gathering and processing feedback from participants of project activities- Monitoring of project indicators and ensuring high quality of project resultsDissemination Activities:- Preparation and implementation of a Dissemination Plan- Development of the SustainSMEs project visual identity- Development of a project website and promotional material- Creation of project social media page<< Results >>The SustainSMEs consortium expects the following Project Results and Outcomes:- an Food Waste Management Control System;- The VET Training course on ""Food Waste Management in Food Service"";- The Serious Game on ""Food Waste Management"" ;- The SustainSMEs Project Management Handbook;- The SustainSMEs Quality Assurance Plan;- The SustainSMEs Dissemination Strategy Plan;- The SustainSMEs C1 Activity;- The SustainSMEs project website, social media page and other dissemination material;- 6 x Multiplier Events in Spain, Cyprus, Austria, Bulgaria, Greece and the Netherlands."

In recent years, VET colleges have shown impressive progress in developing entrepreneurship programmes in their schools. The quality of these programmes is increasing. More and more entrepreneurship programmes are involving competence based learning and are aimed at active learning. Furthermore, many of the VET-institutions in Europe are aware of the importance of internationalisation and have developed approaches to incorporate international activities into their training and organisations. Internationalisation is a crucial response to the demands to develop graduates who possess adequate skills, knowledge and attributes to engage and perform in a globalised and intercultural world. Even though many colleges, besides entrepreneurial behaviour, also promote international experiences for their students, the connection between entrepreneurship and internationalisation is rarely made in VET. In short, existing entrepreneurship programmes in VET have no clear and high quality international dimension. The I-STEP project is initiated to address this issue and combines entrepreneurship and internationalisation by giving entrepreneurship students the opportunity to work with foreign students and explore possibilities for internationalisation. Therefore the main objective of the I-STEP project is to enhance international entrepreneurial skills, attitudes and mind-sets of teachers and students in VET by 1) creating an international dimension to the entrepreneurship programmes already in place and 2) strengthening the local and European (industry) network of VET schools. The I-STEP consortium consists of a variety of organisations with experience in entrepreneurship and internationalisation support including 2 VET schools, 2 HE institutes and 3 business representatives. These organisations form a strong consortium as it involves both education and business which allows knowledge, experience and expertise from both perspectives. During the 2 years of the I-STEP project we have undertaken the following activities:Intellectual OutputsIn total there have been developed 4 final Intellectual Outputs which are:-I-STEP Teacher Manual that guides VET teachers and trainers to get started with implementing International Entrepreneurship in VET-International Student Entrepreneurs Programme which is a training programme for VET students that highlights all aspects that are important in doing business internationally-International Entrepreneurship Platform & Community where all I-STEP materials can be downloaded for free and includes a communication and file share area for everyone interested in the subject to chat together and set up international cooperation and projects-I-STEP quality label which is an online tool (self-assessment) that helps schools to assess their performance related to international entrepreneurship activities. If a certain score is achieved, the I-STEP quality label certificate will be released.The I-STEP project has used a clear, complete and logical work programme to achieve the final results of the project and can be divided into the following 3 phases: Strategy, Development and Implementation. This is expressed in the approach to the development of the Intellectual Outputs as the phases contain activities for preparation, research, development, alpha testing, implementation, beta testing and dissemination.Learning/Teaching/Training activity – Blended mobility of VET learners (C1) 4 students and 1 accompanying teacher from LT, NL, UK and IE gathered in Birmingham for the I-STEP training week. The students formed mixed groups of different nationalities and under the guidance of the teachers they worked on the development of a new international business idea.Final Multiplier Event in Kaunas and national Multiplier EventsKSPMC organised the I-STEP final conference in Kaunas. Besides the final conference in Lithuania, all other partners organised a Multiplier Event by the end of the project to share and disseminate the final results of IO1, IO2, IO3 and IO4 amongst the stakeholders.I-STEP realised a major impact on the planning and development of the educational programmes and curriculum of the partner schools in the project as they have serious plans to (partly) implement the I-STEP materials in their curriculum (or are already doing so!). Mind-sets have been changed and networks expanded of all organisations and individuals that have been involved in the project. This has strongly enhanced the international entrepreneurial skills, attitudes and mind-sets of teachers and students in VET, improving transversal competences such as curiosity, flexibility, adaptability, resilience and teamwork but also competences related to internationalisation such as English language and intercultural cooperation. The I-STEP project serves as a strong and great example and will encourage other schools and organisations in the region to increase internationalisation in entrepreneurship education in VET.

The project addressed the digital literacy needs of the students and teachers in the secondary school sector. As part of the EU ‘Digital Skills and Digital Literacy : European Union policy actions’ the New Skills Agenda calls on Member States to develop comprehensive digital skills strategies. The Digital Competence Conceptual (DigComp 2.0) Reference Model was developed with this strategy in mind (http://aims.fao.org/activity/blog/digital-skills-and-digital-literacy-european-union-policy-actions). Phase 2 of the update includes 8 levels of learning outcomes and examples of the knowledge, skills and attitudes related to each competence. This ERASMUS+ Application incorporated learning outcomes and examples of the knowledge, skills and attitudes related to each competence. This ERASMUS+ Application addressed learning outcomes and examples of the knowledge, skills and attitudes related to each competence: 1. Information and data literacy To articulate information needs, to locate and retrieve digital data, information and content. To judge the relevance of the source and its content. To store, manage, and organise digital data, information and content. 2. Communication and collaboration To interact, communicate and collaborate through digital technologies while being aware of cultural and generational diversity. To participate in society through public and private digital services and participatory citizenship. 3. Digital content creation To create and edit digital content - To improve and integrate information and content into an existing body of knowledge while understanding how copyright and licenses are to be applied. To know how to give understandable instructions for a computer system. 4. Problem solving To identify needs and problems, and to resolve conceptual problems and problem situations. To deliver on the objectives above the project developed two interactive and educational units for each project partner entitled: 1. Introduction to Tourism 2. Careers in Hospitality and Tourism 2. The provision of and open source resources available to target school/VET students to increase their digital literacy through encouraging active learning while promoting information on careers in a given sector. This Interactive Tourism Project (ITP) has identified a gap in that there is no specific open resource to target school/VET students within the regions. Our material was developed in English and in the target language of the partners region therefore each partner has 4 units at project completion stage. There is a total of 28 units; created by seven partners. The project is based on a prototype available at: www.tourisminsight.ie which provides valuable tourism insights to students and industry learners, informing them of career options within the tourism industry. Tourism is everybody’s business and every interaction with a tourist is an opportunity to make them feel welcome and we want everyone to understand the value of tourism and of every tourist. There is a strong need to present the industry as one which offers serious career options with good career prospects and transferable skills. Specifically after the challenges of COVID-19. Featuring interactive tutorials and interviews with young people working in tourism within the relevant project regions, the project will give a comprehensive introduction to the industry and its landscape. Students will learn all about this exciting business, what it means to the respective countries and region, what’s going on in the tourism industry in your region, and how tourism is promoted around the world as well was why tourists come to specific regions. The cohort of the project were secondary level students and VET students, who would like to be informed about their career choices. But it is also addressing school leavers who have not made up their mind about their future career and other stakeholders in the sector. Having international partners in this consortium added value to this project: students can get a feel for what the Hospitality sector is like in other countries; it will support mobilities of students by motivating them and working in an international team will have increased quality of the final results. Furthermore, as modules are also available in target languages of the partners, it enhances language learning of the students. Objectives: 1. Increasing students’ awareness of potential careers in the tourism, culinary and hospitality areas; 2. Addressing a shortage in human resources in these industries. Key features of this project were: • To promote Hospitality and Tourism as a career of choice to students at second level education. • To ensure the sustainability of skilled personnel within the market place in each partner's country. • The Hospitality and Tourism Industry in each partner's country will prosperous and grown. Please see https://t4c.erasmus.site/ for further details.

<< Objectives >>We want to achieve that many more people will have the opportunity to develop their soft skills using LEADER - which will help them to take leadership over their lives and careers in a rapidly changing world. Soft skills are becoming increasingly important and we want to give teachers/trainers the support, tools and confidence to start working with them. Young, old, online, offline - all kinds of opportunities to develop these important skills.<< Implementation >>We will achieve our goals by thoroughly investigating what other possibilities LEADER offers and how we can best meet the needs of schools, companies and institutions. We support and train teachers/trainers by, for instance, offering workshops and a transnational blended course. Furthermore, we develop teaching and training content like videos, worksheets, activities and a LEADER Card Game. These materials will be made easily available on our new e-learning platform.<< Results >>We expect concrete results, such as (but not limited to) teaching and training materials, videos, workshops, a card game and an extensive e-learning platform. Intangible results: more attention to the development of soft skills, citizenship, sustainability and digital competence.

This is the proposal of EEN Nortern Netherlands for the H2020 workpackage 4 for the year 2019. SMEs in the Northern Netherlands still lag behind on internationalisation and innovation in comparison with most other regions in the Netherlands. Export intensity is still below national average, as well as innovation expenditure and the use of EU funding. The economic outlook is that the Northern Netherlands will grow considerably less than average. This proves the need for support for the Northern Netherlands SMEs to realize economic growth. One means of achieving economic growth is internationalisation, which is covered by our COSME 2019 proposal. Another is focus on Innovation. The proposal at hand describes the two main objectives for the support focused on innovation: 1) Continuing the Key Account Management for the beneficiaries of the SME instrument in the North of the Netherlands; 2) Continuing the EEN services for the Enhancement of the Innovation Management Capacity of SMEs in the Northern Netherlands. Specific attention will be given to the management of these two services and to the organisation of smart signposting of clients within the consortium. The consortium partners already have many contact moments with SMEs in the region and due to this project, the advice and support given during these moments can be increased. The consortium aims to assist at least eleven SMEs from the North of the Netherlands region. We expect to deliver our KAM services to one company and the EIMC services to ten companies. Given the limited number of SME Instrument Grants, the synergy with the COSME programme and the client journey, we feel it’s more effective to focus more on the EIMC services. We expect that investing more time in the EIMC services is also the best way to also promote the SME Instrument. We trust this will result in more SME Instrument applications and also more grants in the longer run.