"<< Background >>The project is a follow-up of a previous Erasmus+ project called Virtual DS. This project was realized by our partner from the UK and is the only one with experience in virtual reality in the Supported Employment process. This project brought a very innovative approach to the field of Supported Employment for people with disabilities. Within this project, the partners created guides concerning Supported Employment and created an online platform that enables people with down syndrome to learn about five different jobs via virtual reality scenarios. The scenarios were developed by an external supplier. Supported Employment counsellors know how to use them. Since that flaws of this highly innovative concept have been discovered. This project will work with the gained experience and develop it further. The main difference will be not to use only a limited count of scenarios but enable the counsellors to create and adjust the scenarios according to the ever-changing needs of their clients, employers, and society in general. This way the sustainability will be secured despite the rapid technical progress. The Virtual DS project proved the efficiency of using Virtual Reality in the development of skills. Area of Supported Employment for people with disabilities and Career Counselling for disadvantaged people needs to step into implementing Virtual Reality into their practice as much as possible to have comparable results to other areas and secure good and sufficient support for the inclusion of their clients.<< Objectives >>The project is prepared by the partnership consisting of Supported Employment agencies and Career Counselling providers. Partners have different levels of experience and one of them, from the UK, already has experience with using virtual reality in their practice. This partner´s experience shows the benefits of using virtual reality in the process of Supported Employment. These benefits exactly meet the needs of the Supported Employment agencies and their clients - people with disabilities who want to work, with the focus on students or recent graduates of schools with special educational needs or young unemployed people with disabilities. They will be better prepared for their jobs and it will be easier for them to keep the jobs if virtual reality is implemented in the Supported Employment and Career Counselling process.Agencies encounter situations in their work with clients which cannot be tackled in a real and safe environment. That´s why using virtual reality in their practice definitely widens the possibilities. The benefit of using virtual reality is directly for the clients of the agencies and providers. Unfortunately, until now Supported Employment agencies and Career Counselling providers do not and can´t use virtual reality for their clients or they use it to a very limited extent, in our case this is valid for the UK partner. They don´t have qualified staff, plus there is a lack of user-friendly and accessible technologies and they don´t have the technological equipment to implement virtual reality in their daily practice. Through this project, these needs are be addressed. There is a consortium of partners who support each other in implementing virtual reality and more importantly, they will be trained in using virtual reality and will have the technical aspect of using virtual reality in their practice solved. The project focuses on exchange and gaining experience with using virtual reality among Supported Employment agencies and providers of Career Counselling for disadvantaged people. In the project, there are 16 Supported Employment Counsellors and Career Counsellors from the Czech Republic, the UK, Romania, and Poland educated in using virtual reality in their Supported Employment and counselling practice. They will be able to create and adjust virtual reality scenarios. They will know how to use these scenarios for the training of their clients´ hard skills and soft skills. A ""recommendations package about using virtual reality"" for the community of Supported Employment Counsellors and Career Counsellors for disadvantaged people will be prepared. This package should serve future counsellors as a source of specialized information and will make them more ready to implement virtual reality into their practice. This package should illustrate concrete, real examples of the implementation of new technologies into their practice. The project enhances the use of new technologies in the social area where the staff is not as used to the new technologies as in, for example, the commercial area. The staff of these organizations and their clients will be better equipped for dealing with a nowadays ever-changing society.The mentioned needs of Supported Employment agencies and Career Counselling providers were further enhanced by the pandemic situation. The pandemic showed that it is necessary to take the e-path in the area of social and other helping services much more than now. The pandemic accelerated what was already present in the development trends of moving into the digital technology world. Thus the project contributes to the quality of social services and keeping up with these trends.The project helps Supported Employment agencies and Career Counselling providers and their clients to keep up with the ever-rising demands of employers and the rapid technological progress in all areas of life. The project further develops and reinforces the network of organizations using virtual reality.<< Implementation >>We plan to realize 4 training sessions for a group of 16 Supported Employment and Career Counselling counsellors from the Czech Republic, the UK, Romania, and Poland. They are expected to posishare their knowledge and ideas about how to implement virtual reality in the practice of supported employment and career counselling and determine the best way of implementation of virtual reality in their practice. They will learn how to use the VIAR360 program for creating virtual reality scenarios to train their clients skills. The trainer will teach them how to use the proper technologic equipment. Then between the third and the fourth training session, they will create their own virtual reality scenarios for their concrete clients. They will be writing a structured report about the whole experience on two of them. One will be for hard skills and one for soft skills development. They will test how virtual reality works in the whole process of supported employment and career counselling on their concrete clients or groups of clients. This will be also included in the reports. The experience learning is promoted here. Throughout the whole learning process and implementation process, they will have support from the trainer, two result coordinators, and national coordinators and they will support each other.<< Results >>We plan to have two results that will complement each other.An Educational Methodological Framework for Implementation of Virtual Reality in Supported Employment and Career Counselling and a Collection of Best Practice reports.The methodological framework shall contain guidelines, recommendations for the implementation process, answering questions like how to determine if virtual reality training can be effective for a client, how to communicate about it with the client and his surroundings, how to create virtual reality scenarios, and how to use them with the client or groups of clients, how to evaluate the progress and how to put it together with other procedures in the process of supported employment and career counselling. This will be complemented with a collection of real-life experiences of real counsellors using 2 types of scenarios - one for hard skills development, the second for soft skills development. It will include their feelings and thoughts on the learning of creating the scenarios and the process with their clients.The project will generate a group of participants who undergo the education related to creating the scenarios for their job and with a rather new experience, so they will be able to use their new skills in the jobs. And they could be a support for other organizations in their countries who would be interested in using virtual reality. There will be an international network of professionals who could support each other in using virtual reality in their practice. The partner organizations from the Czech Republic, the UK, Romania, and Poland will be equipped with new necessary technologies for using virtual reality. The skills of Supported Employment Counsellors and Career Counsellors in the field of new technologies will be strengthened. The secondary target group – the clients of the partners´ organizations will have a much better chance to develop their skills and thus more opportunities in the labor market. And they will get acquainted with new technologies as well. Another secondary target group - employers of people with disabilities will have a better chance to employ them without suffering financial burden from employing a person with a disability due to increased needs for their training period and increased inclination to make mistakes."

The incorporation into the working world of People with Down Syndrome (PDS) is recent, with positive consequences: greater social integration, the promotion of personal autonomy and the fact that they can feel full citizenship Studies shown that PDS are able to improve their learning through Virtual Reality.VIRTUAL DS is launched with the main objective of increasing the competences (attitudes, skills, knowledge) of People with Down Syndrome and Other Intellectual Disabilities, Job Trainers and companies about how to exploit Virtual Reality for increasing the employability of PDS, according to the Supported Employment Model, through an innovative training program. The project has the next specific objectives: • To raise awareness and motivate the full collective about the capacities for employment of PDS and the potential of VR for enhancing them. • To developed VR contents and introduce them in a global training methodology based on the SE Model. • To transfer knowledge and guidelines about how to exploit Virtual Reality as training tool.• To enhance the access of PDS to labor market. • Sensitize companies and thus facilitate the incorporation of the PDS in them. • To develop a collaborative model with commercial companies based on the Supported Employment model for PDS in order to facilitate their active incorporation. In order to cover all the needed competences, the consortium includes: • 4 entities working in the field of supporting PDS (ASINDOWN, ALDO-CET, DDSS, APPT21), involving a big collective of people, families and professionals. These organizations have own staff and also established cooperation with experts in their countries • 1 entity specialized in Supported Employment (STATUS EMPLOYMENT). • 1 company specialized in the development of Virtual Reality contents (IMAGINA RV) Through the execution of this Project the next results obtained are; • Co-Created Methodological Guide with the direct participation of End Users, with the main objective of determining the key contents, methodologies and tools needed for creating and improving the critical competences of people with Down Syndrome, Job Trainers and companies for exploiting Virtual Reality for increasing the employability of PDS, according to the Supported Employment Model. • Training Materials addressed to PDS, Job Trainers and Companies for facilitating the implementation of Virtual Reality for increasing the employability of PDS, according to the Supported Employment Model Training Materials include Virtual Reality Contents developed including virtual scenarios for training PDS in operations and emotional intelligence. Specifications and previous preparation about selected jobs operations needed in order to facilitate the efficient development of VR Contents. Each job has written training contents and VR Contents, (videos, pictures and virtual tours). • Experiential Training Activities designed; They are the core of the Training Program and they are for enhance the practical and experiential training of PDS with Virtual Reality contents, including the optimal and oriented exploitation of aforementioned Training Materials within real environments. • Development of an e-Training Platform, including awareness, Virtual Reality Contents, Training Materials for supporting the implementation of the Training Methodology. • Creation of 5 VIRTUAL DS UNITS in all the Down Syndrome and Supported Employment Associations of the Consortium in order to ensure the sustainable exploitation of the project after the project lifetime. • Development of Dissemination Actions addressed to the European collective related to people with Down Syndrome. VALIDATION ACTIONS of Virtual Reality Contents Training Materials and e-Training Platform have involved a total of 64 people with Down Syndrome, 42 Job Trainers and 25 companies ‘representatives on each participant country. VIRTUAL DS benefits a number of people during the project lifetime: • 131 Persons with Down Syndrome (PDS), their Job Trainers and companies’ representatives have been trained 50 in Spain, 30 in Romania, 20 in Portugal and, 15 in Slovenia and 16 in UK), through their participation in the validation actions (See Validation Report) • More than 1590 people with Down Syndrome, Job Trainers and Companies Representatives (490 in Spain, 200 Romania, 200 Slovenia, 300 Portugal and 400 UK), have been aware, through the multiplier events and dissemination actions (See Dissemination Report).

Young people with disabilities are much more likely to be unemployed and in poor economic conditions than their peers without disabilities. Since it is very hard for them to find an employment, a valid alternative would be to turn in self-employment and entrepreneurship. However, existing entrepreneurship training and support programmes usually do not take into consideration their needs which are specific and different from those of young people without disability. STARTUP project aims to empower young people with disabilities to start their own enterprise and support them to overcome all the obstacles that exist both practical and psychological. In the same time, the project aims to empower youth workers to support them in this process. In order to achieve these objectives, the project is going to organise three capacity building courses with many activities, discussions and a mentoring program in order to support the youth workers in the specific field. The project will also build bridges between youth workers and successful entrepreneurs, who are going to share their experiences, best practices, and their guidance, with the aim this project to be the stepping stone for a future where they can drive their own lives. Furthermore, the project is going to develop an online portal related with young entrepreneurs with disabilities with the aim to create a reference point for the whole sector. It is also going to develop an e-learning course and open educational resources in order to reach young people that because of their disability are not going to be able to participate in the presential activities. Young entrepreneurs with disabilities and innovative ideas are going to be supported through mentoring in an individual basis or in a group. E-youth work is going also to be piloted in order to support these activities.The project is going to be implemented by a consortium comprised of 5 organisations, representing 4 countries from 3 continents (Greece, UK, Japan, Chile) that face similar issues related with the entrepreneurship of young people with disabilities. The organisations are experts in the promotion of entrepreneurship (generally) and the entrepreneurship of young people with disabilities (more specifically) , online and youth work.It is expected that at least 60 youth workers and 100 young people with disabilities will be involved in the project activities. At the end of the project, it is expected that more young people with disabilities will be involved in entrepreneurial activities which will be more successful because of the provision of more adequate support.

The project ‚My career matters!’ (MCM) targets career guidance sector with the purpose to empowering people with intellectual disabilities (PwID) to become more involved in shaping their learning, training and labour market integration pathways and their careers. The primary target group is PwID who will receive accessible and available tools in order to make informed choices regarding their careers. In too many cases decision about jobs or careers are made for them instead of by them. The second target group is the guidance sector from schools, VET and employment providers who will receive increased knowledge and information about the needs of PwID, and also resources which will lead to more effective guidance strategies, as a key role to promoting social inclusion.The project aims to increase participation of PwID to lifelong learning programs and employment, by making the resources regarding labour market information and training courses in career information more accessible and available. MCM project is fully in line with and supports Erasmus+ Programme as it addresses the field of adult education priority: increasing learning demand and take-up through effective outreach, guidance and motivation strategies which support the upskilling pathways by encouraging and supporting low-skilled and/or low-qualified adults, through developing guidance-as-a-service to ensure that adults have access to relevant learning throughout their life. The project objectives are:• Developing career management skills of PwID through improving their access to accessible and available resources in career development and learning opportunities;• Improving teaching methods and tools in career information for staff from educational, VET and employment systems, in order to better respond to the needs and expectations of PwID.The Guide ‚My Career Maters!’ will improve the availability of LMI to PwID and will address the challenges this group is facing in accessing LMI. The guide will be a tool for PwID to support them in the process of identification of labour market opportunities, as well as in the career guidance process. Improving access to LMI will encourage and empower PwID to look for career opportunities that align with their skills and interests. The Guide will be elaborated in an easy to read and understand format.The Training package ’Career information’ will develop career management skills of PwID, skills which should be maintained throughout life and are based on key competences, in particular ‚learning to learn’, social and civic competences - including intercultural competences - and a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. A special attention will be given to developing navigation skills during the implementation of training.The Toolkit ‚Xplore LMI’ will cover the needs of practitioners working in training and guidance sector for specific support tools in their activities with PwID. It will consist in a set of practical instruments that can be used in leading accesibility and combat discrimination - both intentional or unintentional - in their activities with PwID. MCM provides tangible tools to empower PwID to make informed choices regarding their career and in support to guidance practitioners to make the most of their growth potential and capacityin order to ensure PwID have access to the same information and opportunities on the labour market. A number of 375 PwID will develop their career management skills through participation to piloting and validating the Guide ‚My career matters!’ and the Training package ‚Career information’. A number of 600 practitioners (career educators, VET and specialists of employment services) will benefit directly from the activities in the project, as they will have resources and tools for developing skills in offering customised services to PwID, thus becaming agents of change and promoters of social inclusion, building their own and their institutions` capacity to work with diverse service users, ensure participation and promote learning and employment for PwID. MCM will include an online platform as an Open Educational Resource to share with the target group of PwID, practitioners in educational and employment sectors and the general public the Guide, the Training content, the Toolkit, the resources and the wealth of knowledge the partners have generated over the implementation of the project.