<< Objectives >>The priorities identified in the GAD project respond to the European need to qualify the e-skills of educational and professional organisations (DigCompOrg) and professionals (trainers, teachers, educators): learning institutions face the challenge of changing their pedagogical and educational approach to take into account the use of new technologies and the communicative and representational changes in the digital age of teachers and learners.<< Implementation >>The project foresees the realisation of a digital learning game (GAD GAME) in augmented reality that intends to develop the digicomp of trainers (especially those engaged in life-long learning), increasing self-efficacy and the capacity to create digital learning and educational products suitable to face also the new training challenges due to the pandemic emergency. Transversal communication, dissemination and impact assessment activities are foreseen.<< Results >>The project intends to achieve the following results increasing and qualifying the digital skills of professionals (DigComEdu_2017) with particular reference to Area 2-3-5-6';to strengthen the transversal skills that enable them to conceive innovations and respond to the changing needs of the contexts to qualify the training and teaching offer of professionals in the digital environmentcreate innovative digital training prototypes

"Statistics show that more than 70% of the visually impaired population in Europe is currently unemployed; the percentage is even higher for young VIPs. It has been reported that despite achieving a higher level of education, this specific group of young people does not manage to access employment. The majority of young VIPs, however, have unlimited access to the internet and digital tools. This is the reason why we have designed the actions of our previous project (VIP-Tech-Job) around the development of innovative digital solutions to facilitate access to employment for young VIPs. During the ""Vip-Tech-Job: Time 2 Act !"" project, the consortium (partners from Belgium, Greece, Italy and Spain) plans to intensify the dissemination efforts of already realized products on multiple levels and to create additional complementary outputs that will simplify the existing products and render them as user-friendly as possible.The general, long-term objective of the project is to increase the number of young employed VIPs all over Europe and to promote their active citizenship, together with the development of key competencies in lifelong learning. The specific objectives are:- to empower young VIPs and better prepare them in their quest to find a job and be active citizens;- to improve access to information regarding the employment of young VIPs, both for young VIPs and employers/supported employment specialists, etc.;- to facilitate the connection between young VIPs looking for a job and employers/HR managers (including via job agencies and portals).With the use of nonformal and experiential learning, internal and external desk research, we are going to produce 3 innovative outputs, a learning and teaching activity and 4 local focus groups, involving over 400 people among our target groups. The products are:1) the “VIP Job Accessibility Toolbox”, a one-stop-shop for all our users belonging to different target groups: it will include tools and resources to support employers who wish to understand concepts like accessibility and inclusion in the workplace, job agencies, youth workers, youth leaders, supported employment specialists and career and school counsellors working with young VIPs, and young VIPs themselves, who will be able to connect and exchange experiences with their peers and, undoubtedly, ease their access to the job market and as a result, increase their levels of social inclusion. 2) the ""VIP Job Podcast"", a podcast comprised of 10 episodes in partner languages, which will be recorded by skilled young VIPs and explore success stories of young VIP's inclusion in different workplaces in Europe through interviews and storytelling. The podcast will also include a narrated version of user guides for our digital products - how to use them, what you can get out of them, how will they help you in your job quest, etc.3) the ""VIP Job Video Pack"": the narrative of this IO will tend to depict the hurdles of young VIP in integrating the job market as well as their idealistic views on a 100% barrier-free work environment. The LTTA in Granada (Spain) is a blended mobility for young people; it's designed on the model of traditional job fairs and will compromise an in-person meeting and online preparation and follow-up/testing phase for all participants involved; through experiential learning, they will have the possibility to practically test what they have learnt by confronting themselves with employers via simulated individual and group interviews. The targets groups of the project's results and activities are: - young visually impaired job seekers, either visually impaired students transitioning from education to work or young unemployed VIPs; - - employers (private and public sector) and HR managers + professionals supporting young VIPs, including youth workers, youth leaders, supported employment specialists, school and career counsellors, etc-;The direct beneficiaries of the project will be at least 400 and we expect to reach at least 600 other young VIPs all over Europe for each result. VTJ2 will last 24 months (1/02/2021-31/01/2023), and will also include 4 transnational meetings, one international multiplier event (organised by the project coordinator), and three local multiplier events organised by each partner organisation.At the local, national and European level, through the targeted dissemination planned by the partnership, we also strive to raise the general public’s awareness level and inspire organizations, institutions, networks that work with young VIPs to advocate for improving the conditions, support services and work environments for young VIPs all over the EU and beyond.The project’s impact will be reflected upon young VIPs who will improve their soft skills to be able to successfully find a job using the products created by the partnership. The digital component of the project makes it extremely easy to re-shape and adapt, given the current health emergency in Europe."

A safe space is a space which, either technically or emotionally, is meant to provide equal opportunities, representation and communication outlets for marginalised groups or persons in an environment of respect and understanding that eliminate oppressive behaviours, recognises struggle and cultivates dialogue. Historically safe spaces have been places for marginalised individuals and groups to come together and communicate regarding their experience with marginalisation, learn, and engage in social and political matters against repression. The European Commision has highlighted in the last decade, through campaigning and recording realities in documentarist manners, the crucial role that safe spaces play in the psychological empowerment of refugees and people in traumatic journeys under systemic exclusion due to gender, sexuality, race or their socio-economic status. Creating a safe space for the SAFE consortium means listening, sharing and evolving. As such a safe space is not bound to be geographically demarcated as it can extend to the online communities or even one’s self. In SAFE we will strive to highlight this triangular relationship between safety and space meaning extending from the actual space, to the online space and the mentality in one’s own sense of creating and seeking safeties. The aim of this project is to strive for social inclusion and change by improving and extending the supply of high quality learning opportunities for adults, through the creation of a comprehensive guide for creating and maintaining safe spaces for learning, including an extent research on safe space mentality in the life systems of people, meaning family, community and international identity. The project also aims to increase learning demand and take-up through effective outreach, guidance and motivation strategies that will be facilitated by the creation of a storytelling boardgame that will aim to not only recognise the safe and unsafe elements of a learning environment but also provide solutions, highlight struggle and work towards resolving conflicts through understanding. Specifically the Boardgame will be created alongside the target groups,which will consist of the broad adult education community including adult educators and adult education providers along with adult learners from a variety of marginalised and systemically excluded groups, through the implementation of 2 piloting phases (1st: designing the Safe boardgame | 2nd: playing the Safe Boardgame) target groups . Finally the partners will create an awareness raising policy paper discussing policies on race, gender and civic identity in Europe, and how policy could aid society in moving towards acceptance, recognition of struggle and the creation of safe spaces for all. Specifically the project will evolve through the implementation of three (3) Intellectual Outputs, and their respective actions, along with six (6) multiplier events that will be organized as webinars. Below we present namely the outputs and events:Intellectual OutputsIO1- Safe Spaces for Learning Guide: How to create and maintain a safe space for adult learning --IO1. A.1: Safe Spaces in everyday life: Coping with struggle and oppression in everyday life systems --IO1. A.2.: Good Practices on Safe Spaces for Learning: A visual library of existing safe spaces for adult education IO2: The S.A.F.E. Boardgame: Recognise Bias and Create a Safe Space --IO2. A.1.: 1st Piloting Phase: Designing the SAFE Board Game--IO2. A.2.: 2nd Piloting Phase: Playing the SAFE Board Game IO3: Policy Paper: Sustaining Safe Space Mentalities: Discussing policies on race, gender and civic identity in Europe. Multiplier Events: The multiplier events will result in extent commentary publications on the themes of the discussions that took place. E1. Dialogue and Reflection in creating Online Safe Spaces for Learning (Greece)E2. The role of European actions in Creating Impactful Safe Spaces (Belgium- European Level)E3. Cultivating S.A.F.E. Mentalities in the Community (Italy)E4. Working with diverse groups of learners and the Necessity of creating Safe Spaces (Austria)E5. Discussing theories on Space, Safety and Relevant Concepts (Serbia)E6. Raising Awareness for Transcending Safe Learning Spaces into the Workplace (Portugal)

CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND. In 2015/16 high numbers of asylum seekers entered the European Union. This challenge requires different instruments for fostering their long-term integration. Mainly instruments are focused on the satisfaction of basic needs. But for a long-term and sustainable way of integration and for reducing the risk of exclusion and the related social problems on one hand and using these resources for reducing the lack of qualified employees on the other an early access to preparation and training for the job-market is essential. Frameworks for the process of recognition as refugee and integration are compulsory in the European Union. Based on those standards transfer of experience and knowledge about appropriate methods of integration in the CVET should be a benefit for all: the participating and involved organizations as for the refugees as well. The European Union tried to establish obligatory rules for the distribution of asylum seekers but in reality some European countries do not accept them. Showing in the good practices that integration in the job-market works also in countries with economic problems is a benefit for Europe.The main OBJECTIVES have been the collection of good practices showing appropriate measures for the integration of asylum seekers/refugees in the CVET and at least in the job-market. It based on an exchange of good practice in study visits and in written documents. They have been evaluated in terms of efficiency, sustainability, transferability and quality. For having comparable results and facilitating the reading of the booklet common templates are used. For understanding the good practices in the national and regional context country analysis of all partners’ countries have been provided also.For facilitating the access to the booklet general information has been translated in all partners’ languages.Beside of this main objective regional and European networks of organizations dealing with the integration of refugees have been established.All of these activities have one common aim: to expand and to improve the activities undertaken for the integration of asylumseekers/refugees in the further education and finally into the job-market. THE PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS: We chose 7 partners out of 7 countries presenting a range of different kind of VET/CVET providers, adult education centers, NGOs and university dealing with the integration of refugees in the job-market. The partners’ countries are those which receive numerous refugees and which are meeting the challenge to integrate them. Some of the partners collaborated in former European projects others are new. All partners are experienced in projects and are well integrated in networks. This made way to a very balanced approach and allow for a maximum possible target group.The MAIN ACTIVITIES of the project have been(o) Collection of Good practices: The partners visited different organizations and gathered all the information about the good practice in a common template. The good practices have been evaluated by the whole partnership and 40 of them have been chosen for being published. Some of the good practices have been visited by the whole partnership in study visits.(o) Development of country analysis: An overview on the situation of refugees, the legal frameworks and the offered measures for their integration in the participating countries has been compiled using a questionnaire for getting comparable results (resources: national reports and UNHCR).(o) Development of booklet and accompanying information In the overview of GP we recognized the very different approaches. Considering that later users may be interesting in specific ones we decided to organize the GPs not per country but per category. We identified 7 relevant categories. Overview by country, editorial and closing words completed the content of the booklet. To facilitate reading and understanding of booklet one page of general information and overview has been translated in all partners’ languages.RESULTS AND IMPACT:Finally 40 good practices out of the 7 countries have been selected concerning the different categories. These categories show that for different steps in the process of integration different approaches are available and useful. The good practices organized in these categories and the country analysis have been published as a booklet on the website and distributed to good practice providers and stakeholders. The booklet is accompanied by general information translated in the partners’ languages for facilitating the access.This collection of best practices fosters the efforts and identify possible barriers to educate and train refugees and to integrate them in the job-market. It helps to network under the aim to develop successful measures in a good quality and to make possible the transition between different stages of guidance, training and job.

PROMOTING DIVERSITY ORIENTATION IN ADULT EDUCATIONAdult education institutions offer their services in a changing and diverse society. Therefore, students and employees in adult education organisations come from heterogeneous groups. The goal of DivCap was to promote inclusion and diversity in adult education (AE) at two levels: at the personal and organisational level. Support structures were established in AE institutions to enable them to successfully deal with the diversity within their organisations. In this way, a contribution to anti-discrimination and inclusion was made, and equal access to AE offerings was promoted. DIRECT TARGET GROUPS and participants were staff and managers of AE organisations. During workshops, case studies and pilot projects, in each of the 7 partner countries two organisations and their staff were involved. INDIRECT TARGET GROUPS were disadvantaged learners, in particular adult migrant, who were the final users benefiting from the more inclusive access. Furthermore, through a variety of dissemination activities, involvement of stakeholders and key persons in the field of AE and related areas, in total more than 43.600 persons could be reached.Undertaken ACTIVITIES and RESULTSKnowledge of and awareness for diversity issues was enhanced at two levels. At the level of staff in the involved organisations, the goal was to improve the personal competencies of the employees in dealing with diversity. Here, an “Applied Diversity Awareness (ADA)” workshop was tested in three pilot workshops. This ultimately resulted in a modular curriculum. The modular design aimed to meet needs in different settings. The approach of the workshop design is to deepen the cognitive understanding of diversity through concrete personal experiences; learning was initiated through different exercises, the “Diversity Walk” (a field visit) and reflection sessions. Profound work was furthermore completed at the level of the organisation. Here concrete measures to promote inclusion and diversity at an institutional scope were implement. In each country, the partner organisations worked together with a second educational institution that was committed to making concrete progress in enhancing diversity. This means that across Europe 14 educational institutions were involved in total. In the first phase, a special questionnaire was developed to analyse the organisations in terms of their diversity orientation. The questionnaire consisted of several subsections, which cover relevant areas for determining the diversity status. Additional to the English version, the questionnaire is available in Croatian, Dutch, German, Greek, Italian, and Spanish.The questionnaire and further models were used to conduct case studies to analyse the organisations in terms of their diversity orientation. The reports contained the findings of the analysis and recommendations for the implementation of concrete measures. These recommendations addressed different areas such as mission statement, human resource development, employee competences, or public relations. The most important results were summarised and used to create a tool kit for the analysis of an organisation and initiation of change processes. The tool is available in the form of an online tutorial on the website.In the second phase, concrete measures were implemented in pilot projects. The results of the change and learning processes in the 14 AE organisations were documented in reports. In the documentations, the processes were described as well as good practice examples, developed tools, lessons learnt and statements of persons involved. Different categories were pointing to areas where concrete measures were implemented: Human Resources, Structural change, Diversity competences of trainers, Diversity sensitive public relations and Adaption of educational offers. Furthermore, a video series was created, portraying 7 institutions and showcasing how each of them addressed the respective topics and the experiences they gathered on their way to becoming more diverse and inclusive. The experiences and findings in the 14 institutions were then distilled into overarching principles for the implementation and design of diversity processes in educational institutions. Guidelines for diversity processes were developed, as well as recommendations of managers and staff. All reports and handbooks can be found on the DivCap website. The video series was published on the DivCap YouTube channel. This will ensure that AE institutions across Europe, that are interested in introducing diversity orientation, can profit from the experiences gained. All tools and checklist, generalizable recommendations and guidelines as well as the curriculum of the ADA Workshop, were tested and are available for other organisations for transnational use. Furthermore, the structured documentation of the workshops, case studies and pilot projects serve as inspiring examples for other organisations.