<< Objectives >>OO is to foster awareness raising and capacity building to the pupils and educational staff on SDG11 through the upcycling model of an ecologically planned city. PO1&2 To providing academic staff with tools to develop pupils ' understanding and enhance the of natural systems, urban landscapes, and ecological city planning; PO3 To develop integrated non-formal learning material and innovative tools that prioritize a holistic understanding of resilient urban development.<< Implementation >>Transnational meetings and coordination; Preparation and adoption of the modules; Preparation of the narrative part of each of the six modules; Finalization of the Curriculum; Preparation of the Manuel – workbook; Concept and scenarios for the Educational Animated Videos; Designing, Narration, Montage of EAV; Promotion and Dissemination of EAV; -Organizing local/national workshops to apply the knowledge practically. Pupils, with the support of the teachers, will gain an understanding of SDG11<< Results >>R1 The Curriculum on SDG 11 targeting pupils aged 6-14 with focus on presenting activities in elementary schools building sustainable cities;R2 IManual provides teachers and academic staff with tools to teach ecological urbanism and ecological planning; R3 Twelve (12) animated learning videos for increasing students' knowledge of ecological city planning and equip them to be active agents of social change.

<< Background >>Despite the significant amounts of public investment devoted to enhancing e-government over the last ten years in EU countries, there has only been an increase by 15% of citizens’ use of this service, posing a challenge to national governments. Effective e-government can provide a wide variety of benefits for EU citizens, particularly money savings, better personal planning, increased participation in the decision-making. As 88% of adults (+25) go online, not even half of the group report to use the Internet as means to interact with public authorities & online services (EC, 2020). Basically, literature has gone beyond “have/have-not” category for Internet usage, and it focuses on the different levels of skills, of trust, of information access of adults when using Internet (second-level digital divide) and on the offline benefits adults get in the offline world thanks to the strategic usage of online resources (third-level digital divide). Most recent research shows how e-government is still a matter of affluent, high-educated and urban young male people (Rodriguez-Hevia et al., 2019; Morotea et al., 2020). Women, migrants, and low-skilled/low-educated suffer from second- and third-level digital divide as factors as lack of trust toward e-government and digital divide-related capabilities are at the basis of their limited usage of e-government services (UN 2018).Striking figures on the new EU Digital Action Plan show that 39% of adult educators have insufficient digital skills, and don’t have adequate pedagogical skills in defining new strategies regarding e-government. As most of digital adult education has focused on the first digital divide, there are no current strategies in terms of tackling second- and third-level digital divide. In fact, most of adult centres focus on basic digital skills, but do not go in the direction of autonomy in the rights exertion by adults. It is important to create a bridge with digitally excluded adults and e-government, and define a strategy that blends trust, digital competencies and build autonomy among low-skilled/low-educated adults (+40), particularly of disadvantaged categories, in the fields of e-health, online job research and usage of public agency services, bill & taxation e-payment, and e-participation portals. We won’t focus on specific device-oriented education, but we focus on problem solving and critical thinking in everyday scenarios that adults face and make e-government closer, practical and pragmatic, showing in concrete ways how life with and without e-government is, and how adults can take advantage and overcome barriers. We want to build also the necessary pedagogical competencies of adult centres/educators to tackle the second/third-level of digital divide. The difference in usage has been particularly striking when comparing rural and urban data, as well as gender data, according to the context just provided. Plus, we have interviewed n.60 adult educators involved in the 6 countries involved and they have shown limited knowledge on e-government service, so that training schemes in adult centres are mainly focused on basic digital skills and not on the second- or third-level digital divide. This lack of strategic change within adult education providers is mainly related to lack of confidence among adult educators and, reflexively, in the educational methodologies used. We have seen how adult centres are not ready yet for this digital transformation that is taking over in EU, & their training lessons are lagging and only focus on improving the usual basic skills such as mobile phone usage, emails etc. but they do not involve adults in developing critical capabilities regarding the e-government services.<< Objectives >>Despite the significant amounts of public investment devoted to enhancing e-government over the last ten years in EU countries, there has only been an increase by 15% of citizens’ use of this service, posing a challenge to national governments. Effective e-government can provide a wide variety of benefits for EU citizens, particularly money savings, better personal planning, increased participation in the decision-making. As 88% of adults (+25) go online , not even half of the group report to use the Internet as means to interact with public authorities & online services(EC, 2020).Basically, literature has gone beyond “have/have-not” category for Internet usage, and it focuses on the different levels of skills, of trust, of information access of adults when using Internet (second-level digital divide) and on the offline benefits adults get in the offline world thanks to the strategic usage of online resources (third-level digital divide). Most recent research shows how e-government is still a matter of affluent, high-educated and urban young male people (Rodriguez-Hevia et al., 2019; Morotea et al., 2020). Women, migrants, and low-skilled/low-educated suffer from second- and third-level digital divide (ibid.; ibid.) as factors as lack of trust toward e-government and digital divide-related capabilities are at the basis of their limited usage of e-government services (UN 2018).What is more, striking figures on the new European Digital Action Plan show that 39% of adult educators have insufficient digital skills, and don’t have adequate pedagogical skills in defining new strategies regarding e-government. As most of digital adult education has focused on the first digital divide, there are no current strategies in terms of tackling second- and third-level digital divide. In fact, most of adult centres focus on basic digital skills, but do not go in the direction of autonomy in the rights exertion by adults. It is important to create a bridge with digitally excluded adults and e-government, and define a strategy that blends trust, digital competencies and build autonomy among low-skilled/low-educated adults (+40), particularly of disadvantaged categories, in the fields of e-health, online job research and usage of public agency services, bill & taxation e-payment, and e-participation portals. We won’t focus on specific device-oriented education, but we focus on problem solving and critical thinking in everyday scenarios that adults face and make e-government closer, practical and pragmatic, showing in concrete ways how life with and without e-government is, and how adults can take advantage and overcome barriers. We want to build also the necessary pedagogical competencies of adult centres/educators to tackle the second / third-level of digital divide.Dig-Equal project wants to:1. Define the main skills and expectations on the main adoption factors for e-government interaction by adults, defining different everyday scenarios together with the target group. As such, we focus on how adults can contextually exert their different e-rights and which methodology can adult educators follow.2. Improve and strengthen the competencies and skills of adult educators and low-skilled adults through a training course on the different aspects of e-government services based on a user-perspective. In this way, we want to strengthen the role of adult education as a gateway for digital inclusion of adults.3. Develop a quest-based interactive web-app for adults to choose and understand everyday situations and compare how “life with and without e-government is” through a gamified approach, useful both as an educational tool for adult educators and for self-learning in a visual and immediate way, very apt for dis-empowered groups and for culturally diverse groups. It wants to encourage from the final users’ perspective the practice of problem solving, critical thinking, a critical approach to digital identity.<< Implementation >>To go beyond a simple approach of being able or not to access to technology and Internet, we need to focus on the digital transformation of adult centres, making them become local platforms that can really be functional to the wider e-strategies of public administrations with regards to e-government. We want to engage low-skilled/low-qualified adults, particularly the ones which use Internet but do not access to the opportunities of e-government, to discuss and engage with us on the current barriers and problems they face on the Internet by focusing on practical everyday scenarios.In this sense, through the support of adult educators, we will be able to reflect on the current gaps regarding e-government access, usage, understanding and exploitation by adults by following decision-making patterns and tackling the context-related issues which render digital education difficult to implement and acquire.So, we will be able to go beyond a device-centred approach. In synthesis, we foresee:1. The creation of local action groups constituted by adults, adult educators and local stakeholders to ‘map’ the current gaps and barriers in e-government access and digital education2. The development of a framework for adult educators and adult centres which will be able to test and validate through a joint-staff training (C1) and pilot at local level3. the development of a learning course for adults and a toolbox of materials to support adult educators to complement their current digital education classes4. the co-development of a gamified web-app to make adults and adult educators critically reflect on how life with and without e-government is. In this way, we will make targeted groups reflect on a concrete level and make digital education closer to the closer needs of adults.As partners, we foresee 3 transnational meetings and 6 multiplier events.During the project development, we have planned a full dissemination agenda to reach local, regional, national and European partners to favour methodology endorsement and work.<< Results >>As main results, we want to develop: 1) a Framework of competencies for adult educators to engage low-skilled/low-qualified adults based on the local engagement of adults and adult educators. Through the analysis of different e-government areas (economic, social, labour, health etc.) and the current status of online access, we reflect on the digital gaps to develop the pedagogical & digital competencies to make e-government closer.The framework builds the basis of a methodology to be adopted by adult education centres to expand the scope of their current digital education practices2) A training course for adult educators and adults as a sum of two main blocks:- Nonformal education tools for adults to stimulate the reasoning of adults along different e-government areas. In each area, we will reason on the different digital divides (first, second & third) and how to support adult educators in deploying innovative materials- A course for adults focused on the different e-government scenarios and tools to support them in practically respond, and focus on the possible strategies which go beyond the barriers they face. Courses on e-health, e-bills, online payments, e-participation etc concepts and specific portals will be depicted.3) A quest-based gamified web-app to facilitate how adults understand their everyday situations focusing on “life with and without e-government”. We want adults to play different scenarios ordering the steps leading to digital actions, in this way we lower down the barriers of mistrust and complexity which often discourage adults.We will involve 120 adults and 60 adult educators throughout the project, improving their sense of critical thinking as well as better view on e-government provided by the EU governments.

"""Social Inclusion through Entrepreneurship "" was a project that focused on ensuring more inclusion of citizens with fewer opportunities by building their capacities on social entrepreneurship education. The project directly addressed the common concerns of European society such as inclusion of citizens and challenges for inclusion of people with different backgrounds. People at risk are the most common target for discrimination, especially when it comes to employment opportunities or other forms of realization of social rights. Each partner of the project is working on inclusion of citizens locally, but a common need to understand and learn from good practices in Europe is the most cost-efficient way to achieve a good multipliers effect.The project aimed to develop capacity of educators and leaders who are active and experienced in adult learning programmes, to design and deliver educational programmes to facilitate inclusion, and initiate employability. This was done by supporting the promotion of social entrepreneurship through adult learning programmes. The project provided space to innovate and exchange good practices on how adult learning programmes and citizens organizations in particular can serve as supporters and motivators for social entrepreneurship for people. It aimed to reduce the disparity in learning outcomes between different groups of learners (citizens with fewer opportunities and other citizens). This was done by promoting more employment opportunities for citizens with fewer opportunities and supporting them to become social entrepreneurs. Raising the capacities of the organizations to provide inclusive programs for entrepreneurship ensured participation of this target groups in the citizens activities provided by the partner organizations. The project was consisted of:- Training course on social inclusion in Germany that aimed to exchange good practices for the participants - educators, on social inclusion and how to approach citizens with fewer opportunities. Following this training the participants also offered coaching for their peers on social inclusion.- Training course on social entrepreneurship in Macedonia gave the tools for running workshops about social entrepreneurship and provided practical ideas.- Study visit on social entrepreneurship in Belgium that aimed to motivate the educators to understand how social entrepreneurship can support citizens with fewer opportunities to start their initiatives and get actively involved. Following this activity the participants of the study visit engaged in preparing and implementing the multipliers events-Multipliers events gathered more than 90 participants, educators and representatives of different organisations and institutions, to learn about the approach of entrepreneurship education. The participants were selected based on their potential to act as multipliers or to implement some of the gained information back in their reality. The partners included within the project, ""Center for Intercultural Dialogue"" from Macedonia, ""Wisamar Bildungsgesellschaft gemeinnuetzige GmbH"" from Germany and ""Out of the Box International"" from Belgium exchanged and summarized a joint publication on good practices which elaborates on the key concepts and methods, as well examples of successful social enterprises. It also suggests a training curricula offering the educators a core and advanced programme to work on the topic of social entrepreneurship.In addition, the educators and participants from the 3 countries benefited from the project, by experiencing new approaches in their work on unemployment, especially structural unemployment of people with fewer opportunities."

<< Background >>The E(U)-leaders project responds to the EU high priority on boosting the e-leadership and digital competences, thus amending the mismatch between the skills available and those demanded for digital transformation of the economy. Therefore, the aim of the project is to foster the competitiveness and productivity of businesses and organizations through the development of strategic e-leadership skills necessary for entrepreneurs/employers/leaders/managers ( as well as VET trainers, educators and mentors) to manage their teams effectively and efficiently within virtual working environments. The project will contribute to the development of a complex and reliable set of digital tools and approaches for e-leadership skills assessment, development, evaluation, and certification, thus addressing the needs of the labour market and supporting the digital transformation of businesses. In the current globalised environment, we observe the emergence of a new class of e-leaders, namely leaders who display strategic leadership, business and ICT savviness (www.eskills-guide.eu). Currently, there is a considerable growth of labour demand, as well as a high increase of ICT graduate entries in Europe, leading to an estimated growth of the IT workforce from 8.5 million in 2016 to 9.5 million in 2020. The 2017 Final report of the EC on “High-Tech Leadership Skills for Europe” clearly highlights that “Europe is required to generate around 50,000 additional high-tech leaders per year in the years up to 2025, or a total of around 450,000 until 2025, by providing them with relevant education opportunities and exposing them to the necessary work and leadership experience”. Furthermore, based on the Final Report on “Digital Organisational Frameworks and IT Professionalism” (February 2019), a number of 64,489 posted online vacancies for e-Leaders in Europe is being estimated for the year 2018. However, technology advancements have overcome barriers to communication and it becomes more and more common for business leaders to work flexibly across time zones to ensure the most effective maintaining of business operations. In virtual teams, there is a greater requirement for autonomy and thus, a greater need for communication, trust and cooperation between a team leader and the team members. In Europe, e-leadership skills are a major policy concern for the creation of employment opportunities, innovation, and growth. In more detail, a 2019 JRC report highlighted the necessity in promoting and developing ICT training on digital skills and telework within organisations for keeping up with changing and alternative ways of working. To briefly explain, less than 10% of personnel receive training for ICT skills in Cyprus and Greece, around 10%-25% of personnel in Slovenia and Portugal and above 30% of personnel in Netherlands and Germany. Eurostat published on April 2021, a statistical report on employed persons working from home as a percentage of the total employment from 2011 until 2020, by sex, age (15 to 64 years old) and professional status (%). Focusing on the latest trends, in Germany, the percentage of the employed people working from home increased from 5.2% in 2019 to 14.8% in 2020, in Greece from 1.9% to 7%, in Cyprus from 1.3% to 4.5%, from 14.1% to 17.8% in Netherlands, from 6.5% to 13.9% in Portugal and from 6.8% to 7.4% in Slovenia. With this in mind, the E(U) Leaders project is innovative as it will provide a holistic approach for the development of high-skilled and competitive leaders for the needs of the EU labour market. It will follow a thorough procedure for educating and certifying its target groups and offer a comprehensive package of educational tools and methodologies through a tailor-made E-Leaders High-tech Course which will be free-of-charge, available through a virtual environment and certify their knowledge and skills based on widely recognized quality standards.<< Objectives >>The aim of the project is to foster the competitiveness and productivity of businesses and organizations through the development of strategic e-leadership skills necessary for entrepreneurs/employers/leaders/managers, as well as VET trainers, educators and mentors, to manage their teams effectively and efficiently within virtual working environments. The project will contribute to the development of a complex and reliable set of digital tools and approaches for e-leadership skills assessment, development, evaluation, and certification, thus addressing the needs of the labor market and supporting the digital transformation of businesses. With this in mind, the objectives of the project are:•To create an e-leadership model by mapping strategic e-leadership skills, competencies and approaches organizations communicate within virtual working environments•To identify common high-tech leadership skills’ needs within virtual working environments, both at personal and strategic/organizational levels•To identify effective web-based tools and approaches in managing virtual working environments and teams successfully•To develop and assess e-leaders’ strategic e-leadership skills through web-based teaching and learning approaches•To create a certification framework which will define both the e-leaders curriculum and the skills assessment process.These indications imply that prioritization initiatives need to be made to support the digital transformation of businesses and enterprises. Therefore, in order to set up or manage a business, technological and business skills should be enhanced by skills that enable change, innovation of societal practices, attract, develop and manage (especially virtually) talents. To address these needs in the labour market, the E(U)-Leaders project addresses the common e-knowledge, e-skills and e-competencies needed by existing and would-be e-entrepreneurs/employers/leaders/managers/VET trainers/mentors/educators to lead in the digital economy. For this reason, the target groups who will benefit from the project products and take part in the projects’ activities are as follows:Primary:•Entrepreneurs/employers/leaders/managers leading teams in virtual business environments across different national contexts – prior, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic period: -SMEs (tech-based and non-tech-based organisations such as ICT companies, multinational organisations, etc.) -NGOs •Future entrepreneurs/leaders•Partner organizations Secondary:•VET trainers •VET mentors •VET training centres and other VET organisations•Chambers of Commerce and IndustriesThe expected impact on the target groups:•Improvement of high-tech leadership skills of end-users•Increased availability of reliable and accurate tools for diagnosis and improvement of strategic leadership skills •Increased skills of VET trainers, mentors and educators in using tools for assessment and development existing/aspiring leaders•Increased awareness of SMEs and NGOs on how to seize the opportunities in innovation/new technologies •Increased productivity of businesses, organisations, institutions run by highly-skilled professionals•Mitigating the digital gap in education and labour market•Incorporating new learning/teaching programmes and materialsThe project involves 7 organizations from 6 EU countries - CY, GR, DE, PT, NL, SI. Information about the EU support accompanied by the EU logo will be visible in all project products and in promotion materials used during the project’s implementation and beyond; available on project website as open source and on the project’s e-learning platform, without any financial restrictions.<< Implementation >>A short-term Joint Staff Training Event (C1) will be implemented, addressing entrepreneurs, employers, leaders, managers, as well as VET trainers, mentors and educators of the project partners with the aim to enrich their competencies and skills so that they can transfer in a self-sustaining way the training/learning approaches of the E(U)-Leaders’ project products in each partner country; it will provide added value to the E(U)-Leaders’ project in the following ways:•Transfer the training methodology and project results (materials and tools) to end-users: 14 in total•Each participant of the C1 activity will elaborate an evaluation report by assessing the products’ methodology and materials through providing their practical feedback and experience based on which the fine-tuning of the project products will take place•Based on the evaluation, EUROSC, with the contribution of TUV Cyprus will elaborate a summative report on the sessions, where the overall activity will be thoroughly described. It will also provide the partners with recommendations and conclusions for the successful practical implementation/transfer of the products in each country in the next phases of the project.The selecting criteria are as follows:•Proven experience in leading and managing virtual teams •Proven experience in the field of digital skills and other soft competencies•Experience in non-formal education methodology•Fluent communication in English (oral and written)•Good communication and interpretation skills•Good digital skills•Highly-motivatedEach participant (in case of external expert/collaborator) will have to sign a voluntary agreement with the national partner, who will then have to provide a copy of the agreement to the project coordinator and an official contract with the sending organisations, defining their involvement in the projects’ activities and the responsibilities of each party (participant and partner organization) regarding the mobility. Concerning the support and safety of the participants, every sending organisation will be responsible for organizing transport for participants, accommodation and money to cover transport, accommodation and subsistence costs. During the implementation of the mobility, the host organisations will assign 1 contact person who will be in constant contact with participants to guide them, solve any occurring issues and monitor the results and impact. Whenever additional actions prior traveling are needed (i.e. official document/ invitation from the hosting partners to the specific participant partner), these will be communicated in time among the two partners (participant & hosting organizations) and will be arranged within the needed deadlines. The participants of C1 will obtain Europass Mobility issued by hosting partners (EUROSC). Also, all project results will be pilot-tested be all project partners in the project countries, for improving the quality standards of the outcomes based on the end-users needs at national and European levels. Moreover, 6 MEs (5 national events and 1 international Final Conference) will be implemented towards the end of the project implementation, to implement the final version of all results to target groups, stakeholders, authorities, and end-users. All implemented activities will be enhanced through the use of various dissemination tools and channels, implemented by all project partners. Dissemination will maximize the promotion and exploitation efforts, through using social media, webpages, digital materials, articles, and press releases. Finally, to evaluate and fine-tune all elaborated materials and products, the partners will implement internal reviews with staff members of each partner organization, as well as piloting activities with the participation of target groups and stakeholders. Through these activities, remarks, comments, and suggestions will be collected in order to improve and fine-tune the materials of the project<< Results >>Five main project results will be developed: PR1: Guidebook of inclusion of best practices on suitable digital working environments •The Guidebook will include examples of good practices already established at a national and European level, promoting e-strategies and e-tools organisations adopt in their daily management for ensuring the efficient virtual working environment of their employees•The Guidebook will be addressed to entrepreneurs/employers/leaders/managers PR2: E-Leadership Model adopted within tech-based and non-tech-based organisationsThe aim is to identify the training needs, challenges and gaps entrepreneurs/employers/leaders/managers face when managing virtual working environments and teams. It consists of a set of focus groups implemented in the project countries, which will mainly focus on:•e-leadership styles•web-based teaching and learning approaches•remote strategies and culture •monitoring individuals progress remotely •the use of web-based tools (for measuring productivity, engagement, work progress, etc.)•managing virtual team interactions and well-being The results of the focus groups will be used for the development of the PR3: E-Leaders High-tech Course for entrepreneurs/employers/leaders/managers/VET trainers/mentors/educatorsPR3: E-Leaders High-tech CourseA set of modules developed to enrich high-tech leadership skills for entrepreneurs/employers/leaders/managers/VET trainers/mentors/educators (incl. mentoring methodology for mentors)•The High-tech Course will be available on the e-learning platform (PR4) •The High-tech Course will be developed based on the results of PR1&2PR4: E-learning platform for Leaders This will be basically the platform which will host the developed training materials of PR3 for the end-users (entrepreneurs/employers/leaders/managers/VET trainers/mentors & educators)PR5: Certification framework of e-leadership skills for defining the certification scheme, quality standards and requirements based on ISO/IEC 17024:2012, addressing entrepreneurs/employers/leaders/managers/VET trainers/mentors/educators

“Social Inclusion of People with Autism Spectrum Disorder Through Virtual Reality” is a project that deals with the social inclusion and employment of people with ASD. People with ASD experience persistent difficulties with social communication and social interaction. The lack of social skills makes it difficult for them to navigate standard everyday situations as well as having a job. Thus, they often experience social exclusion. This project will develop VR tools that through simulated everyday situations will train and enhance the social skills of adults with ASD and improve their ability to navigate standard situations. The innovative part of the project is that the VR toolkit will be developed by people with ASD, which means that the tools will be made by those who will also use them for training. It will also develop a Handbook to help potential employers deal with people with ASD. It will also showcase good practices along this field. A multi-skilled partnership composed by organizations active in the field of digital-based technologies, social, labour market integration, and special educational needs, will develop a VR training toolkit for people with ASD with the purpose of rehabilitation and training of social skills. Furthermore, potential employers will be informed about the advantages of hiring a person with ASD. To reach this final goal partners will:-Make a needs analysis and a VR environment design based on interviews with people with ASD, relatives and professionals working with people with ASD (01)-Develop and implement the VR toolkit (02)-Train key persons in helping people with ASD on how to use the VR tools.-Create a Manual for employment of people with ASD and include good practices (03)-Arrange local multiplier events to disseminate information about the project and it’s outputs.These activities will increase the target group’s ability to navigate standard everyday situations as well as work-related situations. In this way, the project aims to foster social integration and employment opportunities of the target group through VR technology.