The importance of the agricultural sector is crucial for the economy and society of the EU. Its contribution in terms of employment globally accounts for 32% and can provide great potential in creating new jobs, fighting unemployment and strengthening cuntries` economies. The significance of involving young people in agriculture, improving their skills and entrepreneurial competencies in reversing the trend of ever aging population of farmers in the EU is plain to see. This importance is also clearly presented at EU level: Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) 2014-2020 and the EU 2020 strategy for innovation, growth and jobs but also the new EU Research and innovation strategy 2020-2024 that will play a key role in responding to the challenges brought about by the global COVID-19 pandemic. It will help deliver Europe's recovery plan, paving the way out of the current crisis based on economic growth that respects the planet. These strategies call to adopt recommendations in order to support different national high-quality education programmes that will focus on youth agriculture entrepreneurship by offering innovative educational training. Programmes such as Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+ nurture research and training in the field of agriculture and entrepreneurship and stress their growing importance. AGRIENT Project: “Enhancing Youth Entrepreneurship Skills, Career Guidance and Competences in Agriculture Through a Game Based Virtual Reality Platform“, aimed at designing a training curriculum in agriculture and entrepreneurship with innovative courses and creation of Open Educational Resources, complemented by up-to-date and technology-enhanced 3D virtual world training platform to meet the needs of training in these fields and indirectly to promote and support young people in formulating, starting, running and improving their own agribusinesses. The project implementation period had initially been scheduled for 24 months but due to the pandemic situation this period was extended by 5 months, with the end in June 2021.AGRIENT project adapted the curriculum and materials to specific regional and national needs, developed 5 distinctive courses or modules with exercises on complex issues, gathered examples of good practice from participating countries and provided interactive and innovative open educational resource. The learning materials of the courses, 3D learning scenarios following gamification ideas were all hosted in the 3D virtual world educational platform freely available online with the total of 21 interactive learning scenarios. The main target groups young people interested in agriculture and entrepreneurship, graduates of agriculture educational institutes, young NEETS, teachers/trainers/tutors from HE institutions, VET institutions, elementary and secondary schools, youth training centers, young people from isolated rural areas, adult education and training institutions and other related groups: career counselors and agencies, policy makers, youth educational networks, development agencies, youth agriculture and entrepreneurship networks.The main aims of the AGRIENT project were to :• Create an innovative curriculum based on agriculture and entrepreneurship, create an innovative 3D educational virtual world platform;• Promote entrepreneurship education for developing active citizenship, employability and creating new businesses, support future learning and career pathways for individuals,in accordance with their personal and professional development;• Update and improve instructors’ knowledge and support related professional groups, educational and youth institutions and training centres • Create a network of stakeholders at local and regional level to raise awareness of relevant institutions in the field;• Provide young people in isolated and remote rural areas with freely available and innovative learning environments to overcome geographic and economic obstaclesThe results of the project were materialized in the following Intellectual outputs:• O1: Design of Agro-Entrepreneurship Curriculum, Formulation of Innovative Courses and Creation of Open Educational Resources • O2: Game-based 3D Virtual Reality Educational Platform for Agro-Entrepreneurship EducationIn the final stage of outputs development, these were validated by selected participants during pilot testing, and the final results were improved according to their feedback andrecommendations. The project has developed user-driven and interactive training tools, which are unique in Europe; it had a major impact not only in terms of target beneficiaries, but also through relevance, usefulness and transferability of the project results.AGRIENT is a sustainable project and it developed innovative practices which are fully transferable to other areas. Both project outputs can be used as a model for educational processes, as a guideline how to proceed with the educational and methodological aspects of trainings not only in the subjects of agriculture and entrepreneurship, but they can also be adapted into other fields and sectors in education.

BACKGROUND.Global competition has generated the need among all the enterprises, especially SMEs, to adjust their strategies for survival.As a result of T4 actions, the interviewed stakeholders complained of lack of skills and knowledge to allow companies have a dedicated person to facilitate the transfer of modern technologies, products and services so as to accelerate the development for survival on the market in the fight with big companies.It has so emerged that the proposed occupation, the Transnational Technology Transfer Manager, is mandatory for the development strategy. TTTM must possess, apart form the professional technical abilities, competences which should enable European harmonization (leadership, economic and legislative knowledge, ability to mediate between social groups with different cultures etc). OBJECTIVES.The general objective of T4 was to increase and upgrade skills and competences of European SMEs in the field of transnational technology transfer and accelerate public and private stakeholder organizations in increasing their responsiveness to SMEs skills needs. T4 aimed at 1)minding the gap between SMEs and transnational technology innovation processes;2)establishing a permanent, transparent, recognition oriented, evolving&multi-actor training mechanism which will allow to respond to the needs of SME's;3)increasing institutional capacity and awareness of responsible actors of industrial, technological and training policies about the role of transnational technology transfer for SMEs and extend cooperation between SMEs, Research, Service Providers and VET&Training System actors.TARGET GROUPS included:SMEs:managers,technical and administrative staff,consultants;Cluster Organizations:technical staff,consultants;R&D Centre / Universities:researchers,technical staff;Technology Parks and Business Development Centres: technical staff,consultants;Economic Development Bodies:policy officers,management,technical staff;VET and Higher Education:trainers, researchers, technical staff, administrative staff, learners.The directly involved target groups members was 650 units, but due to multiple information in various media channels, we consider that the number can be 1000.ACTIVITIES.In order to achieve the planned objectives, T4 has been structured so as to obtain the four IOs which were implemented by 7 complementary partners combining training, technology, outreach to SMEs and policy anchoring capacities.The 8 Work-packages were:WP1-Project Management;WP2-Quality Management;WP3-Evaluation and Risk Management;WP4-Dissemination and Exploitation;WP5-inding the GAP: SMEs& TTT (M2-M6) created a knowledge base about current successful practices which combined technology transfer&training methods to support these processes and further strengthen them; WP6-Mapping skills needs&Develop Competence Profile(M6-M11) which focused on mapping the competences of the TTTM; WP7(M11-M24) focused on producing the curriculum and in the development and testing of the TTTM Training Program;WP8(M20-M26) delivered 2 sets of final guidelines, one for policy levels and the second one for VET system & Innovation system actors and a template of Memorandum of Understanding in order to set up of a TTT Training Cooperation Network.RESULTS. Main project results can be summarized as follows:1)SMEs increased awareness level about technology transfer processes at transnational level;2)Training&Service Providers increased knowledge about how to simplify technology transfer processes;3)available training (including competence profile, training course structure, content and self-enrollment E-learning platform);4)increased capacity of the educational/training/service side to respond to educational/training needs with a more close to market and understandable language;5)participation of the governance level&VET System actors to the information and awareness raising initiatives;6)increased knowledge about how developed training can be transformed & readapted according to technological trends and SMEs needs(and how formal VET training course can be anchored to more situational learning settings based on SMEs daily operations);7)achieving of a good collaboration between partners;8)harmonization of know-how transfer between them and familiarity with cultural specifics of involved countries.The impact of our short-term activities was to raise awareness of the need to develop such a business within companies, creating a win-win collaboration. In a long terms perspective the project aims at creating a winning cooperation mechanism between training&educational system and European SMEs which will contribute to adopt transnational technology transfer as a means to accelerate growth and development.A major benefit consisted in observing the enthusiasm and satisfaction of the contacted stakeholders in finding the solution to solve the problem they had been struggling with for a long time, namely surviving on a market dominated by the big companies.

It was recognized by the partners in this project that the education process in their organizations needed to be upgraded, in a meaning to offer to the new generation of students a new approach in knowledge transfer process. Many surveys had proven that the students (and the employers) are demanding skillful labor when entering their enterprises, instead of an individual who knows how it should be done but does not have the skills to do it.In that manner, at the beginning the project was aiming to provide the following objectives:-Create user friendly IT based tools for knowledge transfer in two disciplines:oNutritionoManagement of accommodation facility-Connect professors and employers while establishing the elements that would become part of the future IT learning tool-Train students to perform research in order to create promotional tools for the tourist offer while developing new learning toolFour HEI took place in implementing this project:-University Goce Delchev in Shtip, Republic of Macedonia acting as Beneficiary-Prof Dr Asen Zlatarov University from Burgas, Bulgaria, -Veleuciliste u Sibeniku, Croatia and -Alexandreio Technologiko Ekpaideitiko Idryma Thessalonikis from Greece as partners in this project.As far as outputs development is concerned, for the forst output research and selection of recipes that are part of the electronic edition were completed on time and after 4 sets of workshops on which numerous testings were taking part, the Electronic calculator now is operational and is used by the professors, students and any other interested party. Since the first output was divided in two subsections, the second one was to search for traditional meals within the countries of the region, to publish a National Menu booklet and to the train professors from the HEI in preparing these meals, thus building up capacity in foreign countries and enriching knowledge to the students in the countries abroad. On the each of the workshops, which were taking place at each of the participating country, participants were exposed in practical training, the best in transferring knowledge. The hosting institution was in charge of preparing the training, on which the participants were preparing meals of the hosting country.The second output, although similar, had a bit different approach. It was performed in a form of a Blended course of Distant learning method. As in the previous output, during workshops the participants were testing what’s been done in time between two workshops and agree on what needs to be done in the next period of time. The software is already in use by the professors and students from all the institutions and as by several users from the rest of the world.During implementation phase, UGD staff had organized a promotion activity for other HEI and high-schools. All of them participated in the testing period expressing their feelings. Their level of satisfaction is expressed by receiving Letter of support for the job done and a request to continue developing similar tools which make knowledge transfer process much easier.

"<< Background >>The partnership has met several times on the zoom meetings and discussed in detail the project assumptions. All partners agreed and confirmed the necessity of implementation of the WOBIS project because of the urgent needs of the target groups in partner countries. To prove this necessity each of the partners has executed survey and desk research about rural woman entrepreneurship in rural areas. Each of the partners made a survey in their own country trying to reach a maximum number of respondents to get feedback about their needs. A leader from Slovakia together with the rest of the partners asked their direct stakeholders ( rural women) what is the level of their entrepreneurial skills and what is their willingness and needs of improving their knowledge and skills. Even if there are differences in partners countries the result of the survey was quite similar - rural areas are still marginalized and especially women from that areas are entrepreneurially excluded. Even if women from rural areas would like to implement some new business they still have social and knowledge obstacles to do it. That was the first source of confirmation of the needs of our target groups. Nevertheless, to make this research more convincing we have implemented desk research which confirmed our survey results (e.g.http://www.fao.org/3/W2356e/w2356e10.htm; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267821750_Development_of_Entrepreneurship_among_Rural_Women; https://www.unido.org/sites/default/files/2009-04/A_path_out_of_poverty_0.pdf; https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/article/2005/womens-entrepreneurship-in-rural-areas<< Objectives >>The project will have a strategic impact on the future of enterprises in rural areas run by women and on the development of rural women's associations themselves (rural housewives' associations) by increasing the knowledge of entrepreneurship among the members of women's organizations in rural areas. The main objective of the project is to improve the skills and competencies of the members of rural women's associations through the implementation of an interactive course corresponding to the training needs of the target group of the project but also of advisors working in rural areas, local entrepreneurs, organizations, and associations working for the development of women in rural areas. Initiatives involving a large number of target users will be included in the full plan of the promotion strategy. Promotion and involvement of a wide range of institutions, associations, and companies in the sector, which are of great importance for maintaining the results achieved and the training platform, is also an important part of the sustainability strategy of the project. The interactive model will be implemented not only as useful but also expandable by adding case studies and best practices from partner countries and other than those directly involved in the project. The case studies included in the project platform will not only be complementary material but also an example of the possibility for new beneficiaries to implement the idea in another region of Europe. In addition, promotion activities published on the website, which will continue to be managed until 2025, will continue to provide a reference point for further updating. The project, therefore, does not end with the completion of the project but forms the basis for the further development of the online course and its subsequent use in accordance with the objectives of the project exploitation. The developed interactive model and its ease of use in e-learning and distance learning will continue to be the privileged basic promotion of the knowledge and skills needed to make choices useful for the integration of sustainable entrepreneurship in rural areas and the development of women's organizations in rural areas. The strategy adopted, based on the centralization of rural areas as privileged places for the development of entrepreneurial skills, can also ensure a vibrant process of creating new women's associations and the development and competence of the members of these NGOs, as well as the appropriate involvement of institutions and stakeholders at local, national, European and international level. In line with this strategy for smart rural planning, the existing problems of the digital divide in European countries can also be overcome by pointing to the sustainable development of services based on sustainable entrepreneurship in rural areas. Finally, an open model and platform designed in this way can attract, in addition to a group of promoting and directly interested networks and associations, training centers, universities and lifelong learning providers are also interested in the possibility of using online courses, which can use content tested and integrated into a platform that can be managed without the direct physical involvement of carers and other human resources. For these reasons, partners and much other interested public, private and individual users will be interested in using the training platform after the end of the project.<< Implementation >>The WOBIS project is aimed to elaborate training methodology, training materials and integrate it into the dedicated curriculum. There will be new modules developed in two thematic blocks:Block 1:• Module 1: Self-esteem;• Module 2: Interpersonal communication;• Module 3: Assertiveness and expressing your needs and coping with stress and other emotions;• Module 4: Organizing own time and planning for the future as well as creative and independent thinking and problem solving;Block 2:• Module 1: Entrepreneurship in rural areas - current challenges;• Module 2: Sources of obtaining and financing investments in rural areas (financial planning and financial analysis);• Module 3: Creative entrepreneur (modern promotion instruments, creative problem solving, an innovative element of building a position in society);• Module 4: Building relationships;The materials will be designed in an attractive and usable way and integrated into the dedicated e-learning platform. The new curriculum will be made available in EN and all partner languages. The project’s web site will be developed as a portal WOBIS. ICT resources will be updated according to the latest trends to follow the updated training methodology and to support attractiveness and simple access to the training.The project will be structured in 3 phases:""Localize and adapt the curriculum for WOBIS course and web-portal""""Validations, demonstrations, adaptations""“Promotion and Exploitation activities”Activities of the project will be:1. Project management and quality assurance: The management activities set out to establish the key guidelines to be followed by all partners.- Development of project management methodology, with protocol and guidelines for internal and external reporting, implementation calendar, financial management.- Development of project structure, national networks, and working groups- Establishment of effective communication network inside (intranet) and outside (website) the project partnership, maintaining and developing it.- Fulfillment of all Programs (reporting on time and under the agreed quality standards) and Project partner's requirements (ensuring communication flow among the partners).- Drawing up the reports.2. Transnational project meetings, related to project coordination, development and evaluation and its application into practice. 3.Training contents development will follow the research executed before the project lifetime. The training materials will be developed both in the national language of partners and in EN then teaching materials will be integrated and implemented with e-learning platform. 4. Project website and e-learning environment design including all necessary activities to design and make more functionally and friendly for user e-learning the training system and the project website. 5. Project's outputs promotion and exploitation will include development and localization of further courses, contribution and organization the production of a course textbook, organization of the dissemination conferences, and multiplier events on national/international level. 6.Preparation, publication, and dissemination of WOBIS handbook which will be published in each participated country. A scale of specific indicators will be constantly monitored and updated in relation to the achieved outcomes, relevant timing, and quality, in order to evaluate internal evaluation and satisfaction of the users. A risk analysis assessment, also providing alternative problem-solving at their appearance, will be also followed up by the governing board of the WOBIS partnership. The monitoring activities will be made constantly and information will be collected and centralized from all partners via internal management system. Stakeholders will be gradually involved throughout all activities.<< Results >>The policies pursued by the European Union and Slovakia should encourage women taking up rural areas in the task of building a strong position of women's role and promoting all their activities. Therefore, the creation of rural housewives' circles is such an activity that accomplishes and fulfills the above objectives.The aim of the project is to conduct a series of trainings for affiliated women in rural areas. After reviewing research and literature, as well as social consultations with women living in rural areas, it can be concluded that there are no training courses addressed to this segment, and such a need exists. Women from rural areas show great interest in this area and also want to participate in such an enterprise.The main task of the project is to propose to women affiliated in rural areas a range of activities aimed at raising their soft skills. The proposed series of training concerns two blocks.The first thematic block is related to the personal development of women, while the second thematic block refers to women in social life.The first thematic block is divided into four thematic modules:• Module 1: Self-esteem;• Module 2: Interpersonal communication;• Module 3: Assertiveness and expressing your needs and coping with stress and other emotions;• Module 4: Organizing own time and planning for the future as well as creative and independent thinking and problem-solving;In turn, the second thematic block concerns 4 modules and these are:• Module 1: Entrepreneurship in rural areas - current challenges;• Module 2: Sources of obtaining and financing investments in rural areas (financial planning and financial analysis);• Module 3: Creative entrepreneur (modern promotion instruments, creative problem solving, and innovative element of building a position in society);• Module 4: Building relationships;The last block concerns checking the effects of the training carried out, for example, based on a range of ideas by Edward de Bono. The implementation of this project will allow women in rural areas to boldly reach for EU subsidies, build a creative and innovative presentation of local folk culture and acquire social concepts so important in building a personal development planet. Hence there will be few project results elaborated. Those products will be as followed:IO1 - Specific curriculum elaborated especially for the training for the target groupIO2 - Specialised training content (with modules indicated above) with deep testing phase to obtain the highest possible qualityIO3 - Dedicated web-based platform with access to open educational resources (OER)IO4 - Case study poolIO5 - Printed and electronic handbook prepared in attractive graphics and user-friendly way"

The European Commission Education & Training 2020 programme and the report on the Modernisation Agenda of Higher Education identifies improvement of quality and relevance of teaching and learning as one of the most important current issues. One of the main priorities for Higher Education is reducing the discrepancy between graduates' skills and expectations of society and labour market as well as raising teaching standards in universities.The expectations of the European market in relation to universities are expressed in qualified, competent and skilled graduates. Businesses are able to train graduates’ hard skills, however soft skills are often a prerequisite. Thus, qualified employees, as understood by modern enterprises, should have a thorough education reinforced by diverse soft skills. Typical classes are based on knowledge transfer in form of lectures among a large group. Students learn dry facts, even if they are based on case studies, and lack the opportunity to learn by doing and being exposed to real workplaces. Classroom has become a comfort zone, a place where help and assistance is offered, one that is not present in a real environment. Only practicing a variety of real time interactions allows future graduates to enter the labour market with an adequate skill set.The above mentioned factors manifest in deficiencies in soft skills and practice of graduates and cause inability to properly react to the challenges at future workplace. Responding to above mentioned needs, we would like to enrich study programmes of all partners by implementing an innovative method for teaching and learning soft management skills based on augmented reality (AR). We believe that applying AR as a part of existing curriculum, will allow to achieve the main goal of this project, which is to improving the quality and efficiency of higher education as well as qualifications and competencies of students. The term AR refers to the interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real-world are augmented by computer-generated imagery and sounds. According to Power Research Center 73% of teens have access to a smartphone, thus AR is available for use for the majority of the target group. Therefore, this technology has a great potential to printed materials, making education more accessible and mobile. Among the most significant trends in EdTech, AR has the leading position.The goal of this project will be achieved by creation of interactive AR simulation dedicated for enhancing training of future managerial staff. It will allow the students to gather both, knowledge and experience. The main intention behind creation of such a tool is development of soft skills such as team work, collaboration, communication, self- and group motivation, creativity, time management. The AR simulation will provide an will provide an attractive and engaging presentation artificial environment in which exercises can be performed. Additionally, it will be possible to use the application from different locations, removing the necessity of users colocation (distance learning). The application will contain two types of exercises focusing on Lean Management and Health and Safety at Work. For both cases separate scenarios will be developed and incorporated into the application as an AR simulation.This project involves three target groups: students, academics and businesses. It will improve soft competencies of graduates such as: planning and organizing, staffing and controlling, problem solving, critical thinking, creativity and teamwork.The universities, academic staff and students will benefit from:-access to engaging and immersive exercises in the form of group tasks, based on case studies gathered among associated partners,-risk free opportunity to learn by doing, by means of AR,-accessible education - distance learning with AR-aided materials.-attractive teaching tool tailored to fit the curriculum. From the business perspective:-graduates with higher qualifications, especially in term of soft skills;-new employees equipped with high demand skills;The consortium comprises five partners: Lodz University of Technology (the leader), Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, University of Tartu, University of Aveiro, Polytechnic of Šibenik and three associated partners: Siemens Sp. z o.o., DPD group, and Wielton S.A.Associated partners are bound to provide business insight and market-driven analysis of needs and requirements for future employees. Experts from each company will be responsible for providing real case studies that will be implemented into all scenarios of the AR application. The final scenarios and the releases of the AR application will be presented to associated partners’ experts during meetings with target groups (E1 and E2). Collected feedback will be invaluable for developing the application in order for it meet the needs of future employees and employers.