<< Background >>The DiFree project stems by the continued growth of the freelance professional figure through Europe, especially those pertaining to the digital world. As of today, young people want to be self-employed and self-empowered. According to EUROSTAT 2018 data, the number of self-employed workers has reached 15.8% of total employment. There are approximately 32.9 million self-employed people working in the European Union, as of 2019. These numbers are sharply increasing as a consequence of the impact of the COVID19 emergency on work procedures, market needs and subsequent opportunities. Working as a digital freelancer is today a specific career path, requiring specific skills, soft and hard. In this context, graduates lack proper information and practical competencies which are needed for successfully managing a freelance career, due to the lack of previous exposure to it before they attempt such a career. Neither Universities nor companies working with freelance consultants usually provide for guidance or training on how to effectively be a freelancer, yet such competences seem to be expected in order to be active on the labor market and actually make a living from an online profession. This hinders the possibility for young people and graduates to actually consider the freelancing career or to successfully carry it out throughout time. Also, this lack of education and training sets the ground for several initiatives akin to Multi-Level Marketing or similar ones which seems very appealing for the digital and 'flexible' nature of the job but at the same time are unable to create long term solutions for the worker nor added value for the job market and the society as a whole. At the same time, digitalization and information and communication technology (ICT) can complement, enrich and transform education for the better, as well as accelerate progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). In addition, in line with the features of the digital freelance lifestyle, this type of career can be particularly suitable for vulnerable workers, such as single parents, stay at home mothers, geographically disadvantaged workers, unemployed ones, people suffering from mobility impairments, etc. From a needs' perspective, the exploration of such career opportunities can prove to be a decisive choice for many young graduates or HE students.<< Objectives >>DiFree projects wants to fill the gap between the academic knowledge and training offered today to HE students and the current needs of a volatile and rapidly changing job market, where flexibility and digitalization are core competencies.For this reason, DiFree Consortium has an overall objective and several specific ones.OVERALL OBJECTIVE: provide HE students and graduates interested in the freelancing career with digital, entrepreneurial and job market-relevant knowledge, training and education. Learning by doing methodology will be applied, also cross-contaminating the activities with the involvement of companies relying on freelance work.SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: - expose HE students and graduates to the freelance career from a practical and realistic perspective; - invite HE students and graduates to reflect on themself and self-assess their soft skills and competencies before they initiate a career - provide HE students and graduates with guidance and mentoring before, during, and after the choice of a freelancing career - offer to HE teachers training on the digital labor market and on digital entrepreneurship, subsequent needs in term of the workforce, and required competencies, so that these pieces of information can actually be channeled to a larger number of HE students; - create innovative, easily accessible and open-source educational material regarding the project topics that will be made available to and disseminated among all interested parties; - create a specialized Freelance Hub, virtual and physical place where the target group can find accurate and reliable information, guidance, mentoring programs, opportunities for life-long training, upskilling and reskilling. It will focus on transversal competencies and soft skills and therein students and graduates can meet, share knowledge, organize gatherings and events, invite personalities from the freelance community, etc.- offer to HEIs beyond the partnership and to potential freelancers not enrolled to the Partner HEIs with the same opportunities as those offered to the students of the Partner Universities, thanks to a Transferability Manual, made freely available to all those who desire to introduce digital and entrepreneurial skills in their teaching curriculum, regardless of the specific sector.<< Implementation >>The activities that will be carried out with the support of the ‘Project Management and Implementation grant’ will be (for their schedule, see the Gannt, Annex 1 - for details see the 'Management' section of the application) A1 – Management A2 – EvaluationA3 – Dissemination A4 – Preparation of the Management Plan A5 – Preparation of the Evaluation Plan A6 – Preparation of the Communication & Dissemination Plan A7 – Preparation of the Sustainability Plan A8 – Preparation of the Project LogoA9 – Building and maintenance of project website, preparation and translation of content A10 – Creating social media channels – FB, IG and LinkedIn A11 – Preparing and distributing project digital leafletsA12 – Preparing and distributing digital newsletters The activities that will be carried out with the support of the ‘Project Results grant’ will be (for their schedule, see the Gannt, Annex 1 - for details see the 'Project Results' section of the application) PR1 - In order to achieve PR1 “Toolbox ‘How to freelance online’’ for Higher Education students and graduates, in a time-bound and efficient manner, the following actions will be taken: PR1/A1 - desk review PR1/A2 – structured interviews to at least 5 senior successful freelancers PR1/A3 (during the 2nd TPM) – focus groups for best practices identification PR1/A4 - drafting phase PR1/A5 – Partners’ revision PR1/A6 – Summary translation in national languages PR1/A7 – Launch and PublicationPR2 - In order to achieve PR2 “Development of a repository of e-portfolios / digital CVs” in a time-bound and efficient manner, the following actions will be taken: PR2 /A1 Brainstorming PR2/A2 Data collection PR2/A3 IT development PR2/A4 CV templates creation PR2/A5 Indexing system (keywords) PR2/A6 Stakeholders engagement campaign PR2/A7 Launch and Publication PR2/A8 Website monitoring and moderationPR3 - In order to achieve PR3 “Mentorship program” in a time-bound and efficient manner, the following actions will be taken: PR3/A1, Program creation PR3/A2, Mentors engagement PR3/A3, Video interviews templates PR3/A4, Video recording PR3/A5, Guidelines drafting PR3/A6, Partners' reciprocal feedback PR3/A7, Translation of summary subtitles in national languages PR3/A8, National workshopsPR4 - In order to achieve PR4 “Development of a self-evaluation and self-vocational professional assessment” in a time-bound and efficient manner, the following actions will be taken: PR4/A1 Psychological and methodological research PR4/A2 Content creation PR4/A3 Focus groups for best solution identification PR4/A4 IT development PR4/A5 Summary translation in Italian, Greek, Portuguese and Spanish PR4/A6 Stakeholders engagement campaign PR4/A7 PublicationPR5 - In order to achieve PR5 “Establishment of Freelancers Hubs” in a time-bound and efficient manner, the following actions will be taken: PR5/A1 Brainstorming PR5/A2 Network creation PR5/A3 Website creation PR5/A4 Stakeholders engagement campaign PR5/A5 Content creation PR5/A6 PublicationPR6 - In order to achieve PR6 ‘Transferability Manual ‘What does it take? Setting the sustainability environment’ in a time-bound and efficient manner, the following actions will be taken: PR6/A1 Partners discuss the lesson learned in focus groups PR6/A2 All materials created are gathered and rationalized PR6/A3 All materials are translated in summary into national languages PR6/A4 Graphic layout PR6/A5 PublicationThe activities that will be carried out with the support of the ‘LTTAs grant’ will be (for their schedule, see the Gannt, Annex 1 - for details see the 'LTTAs' section of the application) LTTA1: Training for teachers on digital competences applied to the freelancing career. How to stimulate innovation among students; LTTA2: Training for learners on digital competences applied to the freelancing career. LTTA3: Leadership workshop for potential freelancers. + 6 Multiplier Events (see relevant section)<< Results >>The expected results of DiFree project are the following:- increased self-awareness of HE students and graduates in pursuing the digital freelancer career;- HE students and teachers exposed to, and trained on entrepreneurial and digital skills according to EntreComp and DigComp2.0 schemes;- increased uniformity and transferability capacities of resumes and CVs according to the EQF- HE students and teachers equipped with up-to-date soft skills, relevant for the current job market needs- Support the digitalization process and reward innovation in learning and teaching activities capable of being actual change-makers in the communication between academia and the corporate world- Strengthen the relationship between HEIs in general and the corporate sector, and more specifically establish a long lasting dialogue between Partner HEIs and involved companies and public bodies, interested in the freelance workforce.- Establish a physical as well and virtual place where young freelancers can find information on the freelance job market, guidance and mentorship, participate to innovative events, get into contact with potential clients, acquire market relevant notions and skills, assess themselves and share experiences, expectations and fears among peers in a protected environment- Support HEIs in Europe and in Partner countries interested in embedding self-entrepreneurial and digital skills in their academic curriculum, regardless of the specific thought subject.