The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the reality of the education sector and has highlithened the need to transform the existing training systems to meet the current challenges. Just like all other education institutions, VET providers are facing the necessity to reinvent their learning environments so that digitalisation expands and complements the education process. Shifting from school-based education to learning via online platforms and the need for digital content have revealed not only the shortage of the digital technology at schools but also a significant lack of digital skills of teachers and trainers. Even before the COVID-19 crisis teachers in many countries reported the need for ICT training (OECD, 2019).The e-VET project seeks to establish a transnational partnership focusing on the needs of VET providers in view of the digital transformation of the education sector. The project partners will research and analyse the existing digital training solutions, methodologies and techniques for distance learning in order to identify the ones that are easily adaptable and transferrable to different VET training programmes. All the findings will be compiled in the Guidelines for Delivering Remote Teaching in VET.The project contributes to the Covid-19 situation by improving VET teachers’ digital competences not only to use the most up-to edge technologies but also encouraging them to be creators of the digital content which meets the best educational and pedagogical requirements. The project partnership seeks to create the so-called soft results - development of digital skills and guidelines, which could become a valuable resource of educational institution and in the long run ensuring quality and inclusive teaching and learning in various situations, e.g. remote learning due to various reasons such as quarantine, sickness, Erasmus mobility, revision, apprenticeship.The project forms a Strategic Partnership to support digital education in the EU aiming at:-Improving teachers’ digital competences to empower them not only to use various ready-made digital resources in remote and hybrid teaching but also to encourage them to be creators of digital content of vocational curricular by providing a practical training on using various apps, software and learning environments.-Developing the guidelines that will facilitate provision of remote/hybrid training for VET providers.-Implementing short-term transnational training activities for trainers of VET institutions who will be able to use the acquired knowledge and skills for the development of digital content and implementation of remote/hybrid training.-Establishing preconditions for the creation of international virtual learning environment and development of the joint VET programme among the partner organizations.Main target groups addessed:- VET teachers and trainers;- VET students;- VET providers;- Stakeholders (employers, associations, chambers).

Effective VET teaching meets needs of both students and companies. ICT is necessary for that, because:-classroom, online, blended teaching have to be available-apprentices and employees have to have ICT skills, varying from basic to specialist ones, depending on the job -use of ICT-based training materials and online course is often for teachers the only possibility for self-development as an educator. But in spite of accessibility and affordability of ICT hardware and software applicable for teaching, its use in E&T is relatively low, taking into account variety of ICT and possibilities it gives. Lack of relevant abilities is one of reasons. The objective of the MOTIV-e project is to develop easy to access and use training resources for VET teachers wishing to increase their abilities to integrate ICT in teaching. The project consortium are: -VET institutions: Riga Technical School of Tourism and Creative Industry (LV), Šolski center Velenje (SI), ASUC „Boro Petrushevski“ (MK)-R&D institute KOMAG (PL). Their competences will contribute to high quality and usability of the project results. In the MOTIV-e project complementary to each other results will be developed in 4 languages: English, Latvian, Macedonian, Polish, Slovene: 1.MOTIV-e Platform with training materials providing knowledge and skills necessary for use of ICT for teaching2.MOTIV-e AR Toolkit and MOTIV-e 360 Panoramas Toolkit that enable to learn how to integrate augmented reality (AR) and interactive 360 panoramas in teaching 3.MOTIV-e Software Sandboxes -a set of ready-to-use installations of ICT tools that can be used for learning how to use these tools and what opportunities they give.Instructions on the MOTIV-e Platform and sample content will be provided for the toolkits and software sandboxes. 4.MOTIV-e Advisor helps teachers to optimise their efforts in self-development in providing ICT-enhanced teaching. This tool, based on prior interaction with a teacher, will advise them which of the available resources they should use, and will give direct link to these resources. All the solutions listed above can be use as separate tools. But to enable a teacher to take advantage of the whole potential they give, relations between them will be established and this way MOTIV-e Training System will be developed. Among varied tools and technologies covered by the MOTIV-e Training System, there is also Virtual Reality. This technology is considered as attractive and usable for training but at the same time - as being beyond capabilities of ‘average VET institution’ or ‘average VET teacher’. To overcome this second belief and prove that in fact it is otherwise, VR Centres will be built at each project partner’s facility, and knowledge how to do it at ‘any VET school/centre’ will be shared. Comprehensive guidance how to build a VR Centre, and how to develop and use VR-based materials will be provided. A VR centre is a place and an environment for development of VR-based training materials and using them in an unlimited way, both via browsing (immerse in the scene and watching what is there) and via interactive activities in the ‘virtual world’. A VR centre is composed of properly combined with each other hardware and software solutions, and supplementary equipment. 5 intellectual outputs will be carried out to develop the project products:O1.Identification of good practices and technological potential of available resources and solutions for ICT-enhanced trainingO2.Development of resources and software for ICT enhancement in VETO3.Development of the MOTIV-e VR CentreO4.Prototype of the MOTIV-e project results. Integration of the developed components in ready-to-test solutionsO5.Pilot tests and validationContent of the online training solutions will be established based on results of 2 researches: i) identification what are VET teachers’ needs, ii) review of available hardware and software resources suitable for VET teaching utilizing Extended Reality solutions. Prototype versions of MOTIV-e software products will be developed in English. During the whole development process, they will be periodically, internally tested by the project partners. Once the products are ready, they will undergo external tests –by VET teachers. Based on their feedback, validated software products will be developed and translated into partners’ national languages. As regards VR Centres, prior research for optimal hardware and software composition will be carried out. Then all the components will be integrated into fully operational object for using VR. The MOTIV-e project results will comprehensively support VET institutions in increasing their abilities in use of ICT:-they will educate teaches how to use ICT in teaching-they will show a variety of ICT solutions, possibilities of their applications and benefits, which will help the management staff to take actions and decisions in favour of ICT-enhanced teaching.

Report is in English.

"The project partners - Riga Technical School of Tourism and Creative Industry (Latvia), Provinciaal Instituut PIVA, Antwerp, Belgium and Helsinki Vocational College (Finland) has known each other for many years from the C.H.A.S.E (Consortium of Hospitality and Accommodation Schools of Europe) network. These partners worked together in EU mobility projects as a receiving & sending partner for Restaurant - Kitchen - Bakery - Hospitality in vocational education. On the annual meeting of this network in November 2013 first planning started to work together in the field of tourism education. It was nice to have 3 big cultural cities in the project with other background, other religions, other basic language & different education system. For this project partners agreed to focus on VET students between 15 till 17 years (for all of these students English is a second language). The aim of this project was to provide learners & trainers of VET in tourism field the ability to create new, ICT based methods of learning on their own level. The transnational co-working in this project was a value: participants integrated the languages, art, culture, religion, architecture, history. Tourism teachers and students from 3 VET schools worked together - first, VET students learned about cultural environment, architecture, religions, local and international history of other country and by using local language, then worked together with participants from other schools via Facebook group, e-mail google drive by making theoretical base for tourism routs in the city. Within learning/teaching/training activities students and teachers from different countries together developed new teaching tools in tourism - digital and developed from knowledge and ICT skills if participants. Once a year a group of students from each school did a try-out of the created tool ""on the spot"" during a short learning mobility. During this project, 6 new digital city guiding routes were created using GoogleMaps platforms, all the routs are created in 6 EU languages - English, Latvian, French, Dutch, Finish and Swedish. Digitization in both - education and tourism is becoming a topicality. Students learning in VET in tourism fields are a bit left behind therefore this project was a huge step in bringing use of digital tools in tourism education. Impact was greater than expected - we faced challenges in lack of ICT skills of teachers as well as lack of meaningful use of technologies among the students. This project was eye opener on current situation and the routed developed by project participants will be used as sample teaching material."

Context/background of the projectThe aim of EC action plan for Entrepreneurship 2020 is to ease the creation of new businesses and to create a much more supportive environment for existing entrepreneurs to thrive and grow. In this project we answer directly to EC´s intervention propositions:1) Entrepreneurial education and training to support growth and business creation and 2) Dynamising the culture of entrepreneurship in Europe: nurturing the new generation of entrepreneurs.Investing in entrepreneurship education is one of the highest return investments Europe can make. Surveys suggest that between 15% and 20% of students who participate in a mini-company program in secondary school will later start their own company.The previous KA2 project “Kick off to Entrepreneurship with Pop-up Company” (2014-1-FI01-KA202-000875) was selected as a Success Story and as a Good Practice Example by the European Commission.Objectives;1) CREATE a new inspiring, practical and DIGITAL eLEARNING ORIENTED PEDAGOGICAL MODEL - eLEARNING WITH POP UP COMPANY MODULE - in English to learn entrepreneurship in vocational education2) CREATE REAL Street food pop up restaurant in Finland, Spain, Italy and Latvia.3) UNITE European vocational curriculums of participating schools with new Working as Entrepreneur module (15 ECTS).4) DISSEMINATE new PEDAGOGICAL MODEL TO STUDY ENTREPRENEURSHIP to new countries outside Europe (incl. e.g. Jordania) with the use of filming the whole concept and inviting observers to pop up restaurants.Number and profile of participating organisations;The participating organizations were 9 vocational schools in 4 countries representing fields of BUSINESS STUDIES; Perho and Mercuria (Finland), Badalones (Spain), De Amicis (Italy), Jēkabpils (Latvia) and RESTAURANT SERVICES; Perho (Finland), CETT (Spain), IPSAR Luigi Carnacina (Italy) and Riga (Latvia). There was also a restaurant entrepreneur from each country participating in the project as a mentor.Description of undertaken main activities;During the project Working at a Company study module (15 ECTS) in eLearning format in English was created. The first Transnational project meeting to start the project took place in Helsinki in September 2016.Four workshops were organized and four real pop up restaurants were established in the four participating countries.Workshop 1 in Finland: Teurastamo Christmas market in December 2016 (Helsinki)Workshop 2 in Spain: Palo Alto market in May 2017 (Barcelona)Workshop 3 in Latvia: Christmas market in December 2017 (Riga)Workshop 4 in Italy: Chiaretto rose wine festival in May/June 2018 (Bardolino)The final dissemination seminar was organized in Helsinki in May 2018 and 50 stake holders were invited to participate in the seminar. Results and impact attained;During the project all business and culinary students studied Working at a Company study module (15 ECTS) in eLearning format in English. Students learned to setting up and running a successful pop-up restaurant and they gained valuable knowledge on entrepreneurship during the learning process. The learning process included two main methods; Working at a Company study module (15 ECTS) in eLearning format and establishing a real pop up restaurant in practice during the workshop week abroad. The activities were carried out in co-operation with restaurant entrepreneurs.In each workshop a pop-up restaurant was set up in one of the participating countries with about 30 students and their 10 teachers working together for the success of the restaurant. A total of four pop-up restaurants were set up in the four countries. Over 100 students were involved in the project during the 2 years.