Key contemporary trends, such as climate change, gender inequalities and the COVID-19 pandemic, bring new challenges to European rural areas. Change also brings opportunities to foster more resilient, inclusive and sustainable rural regions, such as created by the digital and ecological transitions. However, there is a need for all individuals and communities to participate in rural innovation. Traditionally, however, rural women’s employment opportunities and contribution to innovation has been overshadowed, and often suppressed, by for example a patriarchal ethos. FLIARA (Female-Led Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Areas) uniquely proposes a transdisciplinary, innovative methodology to improve understanding, awareness and recognition of women’s role in a more sustainable rural future, as well as develop proposals for how more effective policy and governance frameworks can support this and enhance women’s capacity to contribute to it. FLIARA will combine futures and case study methods, alongside network building and policy benchmarking, while being underpinned by a co-created conceptual and assessment framework. Using a unique foresight approach, FLIARA will identify visions for sustainable farm and rural futures and the sustainability innovations needed to realise these visions. Using a thematic case-study approach, project partners will investigate women-led innovations on farms and in wider rural areas looking at their pathways in the innovation ecosystem. Building on the power of social networks, a Community of Practice will be developed with women identified throughout the case studies networking alongside key innovation policy and governance stakeholders. The Community of Practice Network will occur in conjunction with a Campaign of Visibility for women-led rural innovations, spotlighting women as key innovation actors. Project outcomes will result in end-user ready resources, including policy proposals and practical tools supporting women-led innovation.

Digital skills and competences are increasingly crucial not only for employability but also for civic and social participation. While new generations are accustomed to daily use of ICT and develop digital skills at young age, adults lag behind. Young people are “digital natives”, but adults need to acquire digital skills and competences not to be left out from socio-economic opportunities. Ireland scores low in international rankings for digital skills. The 2013 OECD International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), Survey of Adult Skills clearly shows the need to intervene fast on Digital Skills for adults: -> 42% of adults in Ireland score at or below Level 1 in Digital Skills proficiency -> 18% of adults refused to take the computer-based assessment. -> 38% of adults in Ireland have no experience with computers and lack basic digital skills The situation in Europe is not better: according to EU Commission, “Digital Competence Framework for Citizens”, 2016 -> 40% of Europeans have insufficient or no Digital Skills -> of those, 42% are unemployed There is an immediate need to provide low-skilled adults (a considerable part of population) with practical and operational learning opportunities to improve digital competences. Against this background, DELSA has improved digital skills and competences of low-skilled adults and enhanced their socio-economic empowerment and increase their employability. DELSA consolidates under the concept of “entrepreneurship” the key traits of “Digital Skills” according to OECD and EU definitions, in particular the “Digital Competence Framework DigComp 2.0” that identifies digital competence in 5 areas: 1) Information & data literacy 2) Communication & collaboration 3) Digital content creation 4) Safety 5) Problem solving DELSA pooled the expertise and capacity of 8 partners from 6 countries, representing the various dimensions of adult education for low-skilled adults, with a strong emphasis on Digital Skills. The partnership encompassed public sector, private sector, adult education formal and non-formal providers and ICT/Tech partners. Roles were distributed among partners to capitalise on their specific expertise and carry out the following activities: Activity 1:DELSA OER Platform was developed for FREE and OPEN access to digital skills learning Activity 2: Assess to specific capacity and training gaps in digital skills for low-adults Activity 3: Concrete and user-friendly educational tools and content were developed Activity 4: The Delivery of adult education courses to 200 low skilled adults to increase their Digital Skills DELSA partners had strong experience in ICT and adult education and used a solid and relevant methodology & ensured pedagogical accuracy with operational relevance of the teaching and learning materials: the methodology was structured in very distinct steps: analysis => development => test & validation => full scale OER deployment => exploitation The project produced tangible results that are fully in line with national, European and Erasmus+ priorities: IO1 DELSA OER Platform for OPEN and FREE access for low-skilled adults and AE providers to the content, tools and training IO2 Mapping of Digital Competences: IO2 informed the “evidence based policy making” for the more accurate design of AE interventions for low-skilled adults in national and EU contexts IO3 DELSA Content in 5 languages: training courses for low-skilled adults on Digital Skills and Competences that are relevant for the EQF (being based on DigComp 2.0) IO4 DELSA delivered training to 200 target groups ................ The above concrete and tangible results allowed DELSA to produce immediate and tangible impact at practice, policy and systemic level for AE of low-skilled adults and their Digital Skills: - Practice Impact: low skilled adults have a full scale learning catalogue in mulitlingual versions that enchanced their Digital Skills - Policy Impact: policy and decisions makers (in the field of AE, employability and low-skilled adults) now have access to more precise “evidence” that they have now tailored their policies and programmes - Systemic Impact: the adult education “ecosystem” (made of providers and practitioners) now use the DELSA tools and resources in their respective environments to enhance Digital Skills of low-skilled adults beyond and above DELSA project Hence, DELSA’s impact is beyond the positive impact at local level (through the participating organisations), but has generated positive impact at national and EU levels Moreover, DELSA has produced immediate tangible impact at “micro-level” by directly involving low-skilled adults during all project’s phases and most importantly in the delivery of adult education services during IO4 DELSA has become a sustainable platform for AE beyond the EC cofinancing: partners have now exploited and mainstreamed project results to better sustain digital skills and competences.

<< Background >>The lack of female participation in the EU labour market continues to represent a significant source of untapped potential for EU economies. As outlined by the EU Commission Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, gender stereotypes and male-dominated models and networks continue to prevail to the detriment of women.Women make up 52% of the total EU population, yet only 34% are self-employed and just 30% of start-up entrepreneurs are female (WEgate, European Commission, 2020).Covid-19 has undoubtedly exacerbated the challenges of female entrepreneurship promotion as well as the social challenges of violence against women and discrimination (in the EU there has been a rise of 60% in instances of violence against women during the pandemic). At the same time, the post-pandemic landscape provides for new opportunities for female entrepreneurship, specifically the unexploited potential of digital entrepreneurship.As well as addressing the existing gaps in relation to female entrepreneurship promotion, there have also been calls for action to address gaps identified in relation to training under the EU ‘Updated Skills Agenda for Europe’. A specific focus on digital skills is also required which would result in a significant boost to GDP of approximately €9bn (Danti, European Commission, 2016).Therefore, Digital Entrepreneurship for Women (DEW) is ideally placed to respond to both issues – the under-representation of women in the entrepreneurial space and the need for gender-specific training around digital enterprise.Therefore, within this context, DEW delivers the following innovative solutions: 1. Developing innovative, gender-specific training on female entrepreneurship with specific focuses on key areas where female entrepreneurs experience the most challenges e.g. access to finance, digitalisation and accessing networks.2. Establishing an Open Educational Resource which enables access to free resources in 4 languages.3. Contributes to policy development on the topic of female entrepreneurs and digital enterprise, by specifically applying a gender lens to the ENTRECOMP Framework..DEW harnesses the expertise of 7 partners from 5 countries who represent the various dimensions and aspects of female entrepreneurship with a specific emphasis on digitalempowerment. Within the partnership are public and private sector organisations as well as academic, NGO and ICT partners. All of this expertise will combine to successfully deliver on this innovative project.<< Objectives >>DEW is an operational solution to the challenges faced by existing and potential female entrepreneurs in a post-pandemic world. DEW aligns itself with key Erasmus+ priorities including:•Inclusion and diversity in education and training•Digital transformation•Adapting VET to labour market needs•Increase flexibility of opportunities in VETTherefore the DEW objectives encompass the following:•INCLUSION – DEW addresses the issue of social and economic exclusion of women, particularly those from marginalised backgrounds who do not have the opportunity to access supports to acquire or enhance digital enterprise skills. The DEW OER will be an accessible resource and greatly enhance opportunities for new and existing female entrepreneurs but also enhances the suite of supports available to the project partners, and by extension, other enterprise support and VET providers locally, nationally and on the European stage.•DIGITAL – DEW is grounded in digital enterprise supports and both the design of the training and implementation provides opportunities to increases digital competencies. DEW will be a solid resource for users and will also contribute to policy as part of the Gender Effect Assessment which applies a gender lens to the ENTRECOMP framework.•ADAPABILITY AND FLEXIBILITY – DEW will provide a flexible and adaptable platform for upskilling and acquiring new skills in digital entrepreneurship. •CONTRIBUTION TO POLICY – DEW brings a gender perspective to the issue of digital entrepreneurship and the barriers facing female entrepreneurs. It creates a European-wide Community of Practice on the issue and combines the learning and results into a format that can enhance and strengthen new policy initiatives in the area of female entrepreneurship.<< Implementation >>DEW encompasses a number of activities. Key to the success of the project will be:*Gender Effect Assessment – this piece of research is a contribution to both knowledge and pedagogy in terms of the practices and material required to support VET for female entrepreneurs. During this piece of work, a gender lens will be applied to the ENTRECOMP Framework, thereby contributing to future policy development. This work will be carried out by all partners, coordinated by LWL as lead, who has over 25 years’ experience in developing and implementing initiatives to support female entrepreneurship and digital upskilling. *OER – DEW will design and deliver a freely available, flexible and multilingual platform which will provide training resources, tutor guides and digital badges to support the delivery of digital entrepreneurship training to female entrepreneurs. The digital badge is an innovative online validation system which increases the interaction element of the platform and ensures it is an engaging experience for all users. *TRAINING TOOLBOX – This element of DEW is a collective activity, encompassing all of the expertise and skills of the partner organisations – NGOs, social enterprises, adult education providers, education institutions etc. who have vast experience in the area of equality, female entrepreneurship and adult and vocational education. Developing the toolbox will include a pilot phase, testing and validation which incorporates a range of activities from focus groups to online testing activity. *TRANSNATIONAL EVENTS – The success of DEW lies in the quality of its partnership. Therefore the transnational partner meetings will be a critical activity for this project – facilitating knowledge exchange, training development and dissemination activities.*MULTIPLIER EVENTS – As part of the dissemination activity, DEW will hold five Multiplier Events to share the learning and promote the DEW platform as a free, flexible resource for female entrepreneurs. All of this activity makes a significant contribution to the success of the project. Activity is therefore practical and policy-based. Practical activities include the development of the platform, training and testing/validation as well as tutor supports. Policy-based activity involves the gender effect assessment which adds to the current body of knowledge in relation to barriers and obstacles experienced by female entrepreneurs as well as guidelines for future iterations. It also includes the building of a community of practice among female entrepreneurs at local, national and European level – knowledge is created and exchanged on a transnational platform but also within partner countries.<< Results >>DEW will produce a very specific set of results:*An open a flexible platform which will be used by existing and potential female entrepreneurs.*A practical guide to implementing future iterations of the project*A set of training programmes which are accessible and flexible, thereby overcoming many of the accessibility barriers raised by existing research pertaining to female entrepreneurship*Guides for tutors to support learner participation in the pilot phase*Research contribution to the field of policy and research on the subject of female entrepreneurship – barriers and competencies. This research will be innovative in its application of a gender lens to existing frameworks. *The DEW Training Toolbox will enhance training offering by existing providers and practitioners in the field of entrepreneurship, thereby ensuring that the impact of DEW extends beyond the lifecycle of the project. The impact of DEW extends from the local impact right up to European level.*DEW will remain as a sustained platform for female entrepreneurs beyond the EC co-financing: all partners will disseminate the results and seek to mainstream same after the end of the project to better sustain female entrepreneurship skills.*DEW will also create a community of practice of both female entrepreneurs and training organisation/enterprise support agencies both at a national and transnational level.*Finally, DEW believes that the ultimate outcomes will be an increase in digital skills by female entrepreneurs and a tangible support system for this cohort to play an active role in the labour market. It is a meaningful partnership between VET and enterprise.

The context and or background to the DEAL Project is the deficit in entrepreneurship digital skills identified by the EU Commission, the associated unemployment statistics (See below) and the opportunity presented by digitalisation, especially in the area of developing self employment - entrepreneurship opportunities in particular for the older, rural female worker. DEAL supports especially vulnerable target groups who are preparing for the unavoidable impact of digitalisation. External global drivers of change such as rapidly changing technologies, globalisation, climate change and urbanisation will have significant impacts on enterprises nationally and at a European level.- 44% of EU Citizens do not have basic digital skills- of that 44%, some 42% are unemployed PROJECT OBJECTIVESThe target 150 participants will in the main be recruited from low income, older rural and females cohorts. The objectives of the project are to these recruits in a specially designed education and training programme which will provide them with the necessary knowledge, information and competence to have the necessary self-confidence to take advantage of digitalisation for the purpose of developing self-employment entrepreneurship opportunities. Dissemination and Valorisation of the project products and results are key objectives with a target of over 150,000 set. PROJECT ACTIVITIESThe activities of the DEAL project will include:1. Leading and Managing all aspects of the project including:a. Reporting and Financial Requirementsb. Communicationsc. Quality Assuranced. Risk Assessment and Remedial Actionse. Dissemination and Valorisation2. Developing a user-friendly Open Educational Resource Platform for the purpose of hosting our proposed Education and Training Programme and Associated Resources for the benefit of the Target Group3. Mapping Dynamics and Trends of the Silver Economy and Active Aging for the purpose of ensuring, through the production of a comparative Country Map, using a common methodology, of the existing and emerging dynamics and trends of the silver economy and active ageing, so as to ensure that the currency, relevance and practicality of the proposed education and training programme responds to the actual and not some perceived needs of the Target Group4. Training and Resources Toolkit for the purpose of imparting relevant Skills, Knowledge and Competence to the Target Group.5. Producing a DEAL Operational Manual and Position Paper to enable other Organisations and Users to understand, operationalise and benefit from the Projects outcomes and outputs into the foreseeable future.PROJECT METHODOLOGYThere will be a number of methodologies employed in the DEAL Project including:1. A democratic inclusive partnership style to Project Management2. An adult education pedagogic approach to programme management, design, development and delivery, which respects the knowledge and experience and actual circumstances of the learners and puts their needs at the centre3. A common methodology and framework for mapping purposes4. A technological methodology that places ease of navigation, information retrieval and accessibility to the fore having in mind at all stages the need to build digital and entrepreneurial self confidence in the learner5. A methodology committed to the free flow of information and resources on a continuous basis into the future so as to benefit people and organisations not originally involved with the Project.KEY PROJECT RESULTS AND IMPACT ENVISAGED· Successful delivery on time and as originally described· Full compliance with the Funding Agency’s requirements· A cohort of trained individuals, drawn from the target group who will have the knowledge, skills and competence, as well as the self confidence to develop self employment opportunities through entrepreneurship.· A relevant Education and Training Programme (in the area of Digital Entrepreneurship and Self Employment Opportunities) and associated Resources freely available to all· An Operational Manual and Position Paper making the results and outcomes of the project truly transparent and available for further exploitationFINALLY THE POTENTIAL LONGER TERM BENEFITS-A reduction in the number of EU Citizens who do not have digital skills- An increase in the number of EU Citizens self employed through their own efforts as a result of having benefited from the education and training programme originated by the DEAL Project- Specific groups such as women, rural dwellers and older people will yield particular benefits from DEAL as the project supports these cohorts to address the very specific challenges they face.

<< Objectives >>Objectives of OPSIZO are: 1) improve the competitiveness and efficiency of microenterprises, through innovative training and operational tools 2) promote a culture of diversity and inclusion as corporate welfare tool in microenterprises 3) contribute through innovative training courses to equality in the world of work 4) enhance individual and organizational resources, supporting personal and professional growth processes<< Implementation >>Partners will carry out a series of well-articulated, timed and sequenced activities grouped in 4 WPs: > map dynamics of diversity and inclusion in microenterprises > develop training and operational materials for the OPSIZO Tool-Kit “Diversity Management for Microenterprises” and its translation > build and maintain a customized OER Platform > deliver the OPSIZO Tool-Kit to at least 200 target groups > Mainstream results through “Diversity & Inclusion in Microenterprise Manifesto”<< Results >>1 Multilingual OPSIZO Knowledge Warehouse2 “Diversity&Inclusion in Microenterprises” to map impact of COVID on corporate welfare and its effect on gender and sexual orientation dynamics3 OPSIZO Toolkit: training courses and operational tools in 5 languages, comprising in addition to training: a) taxonomy b) “From definitions to situations” c) Organisational Self-Assessment+D&I Audit d) Checklist to introduce D&I in business functions of microenterprises4 D&I for microenterprises Manifesto