Notizie | - Part 2

Tour2Include: Migrants’ integration into tourism-related professions

April 22, 2021/in Notizie /by idpeuropa

Educational paths for Migrants’ empowerment and upskilling

Tour2Include is an international project co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission which aims to establish innovative approach supporting low-skilled migrants willing to work in the Tourism Sector to acquire the necessary and typical soft skills. In doing so, the project focuses on targeted training opportunities set to offer better career perspectives to migrants, thus avoiding undeclared work and marginalization.

On the 15^th of April 2021, the Tour2Include Consortium gathered together for the third transnational meeting and had this opportunity to take stock about project implementation and further development.

After a brief welcome and introduction by Social Impact, partners moved on by (re)discussing key outcomes emerged from the assessment of Migrants’ qualification and training needs. Concluded in October 2020 and formally led by Italian partner CESIE, the aforementioned task has been carried out at national level by all organisations (for a total of three country reports) and identified several training and upskilling needs that can be broken down in three main clusters:

Based on these results, partners brainstormed on the structure of a reliable training programme that is consistent, reliable, relatable, and most importantly, able to tackle and narrow the skill mismatches of migrants. After collecting inputs from all partners, the Greek organisation AKMI shared the content foreseen as training material. In total the partnership produced 5 training modules focusing on:

General Soft Skills
Intercultural Skills
Communication Skills
Tourism-related Skills
Digital Skills (Basic Applications of Computer and Web Literacy)

Each module is designed in further sub-units (i.e., didactic units), each of which focusing on a specific segment of the topic. During the meeting, partners reviewed the Learning Outcomes expected from each training module (assuring their consistency with targets’ needs and their legitimacy in consideration of the overall scope of the project) and the overall structure of the material in terms of content, visuals, and aesthetics.

Now partners will deep dive into the consolidation of the Glossary and Cultural Profile Snapshots, two documents foreseen as further teaching and learning support material.

The concept of a Glossary stems from the idea to propose a section for learners providing them with a sort of summary of key takeaways (i.e. a dictionary of learning outcomes); while the idea for a Cultural Profile Snapshot comes from the opportunity to offer learners essential information related to tourism and culture of the hosting country (represented by the consortium).

Later on, the Italian partner IDP shared with the consortium the results that partners are achieving in terms of communication and project awareness overall. The dissemination activities (i.e., formal mainstreaming of project’s activities, results, and deliverables) are extremely relevant because they enhance the visibility of the project at international level, its “grip effect” on relevant stakeholders and further opportunities for impact.

IDP European Consultants is the leader in Dissemination. We take care of monitoring the outreach of the project and suggest to the partners any strategies to improve their communication strategy. Since the beginning of the project, we have shared the dissemination plan, and all monitoring tools.

For more information about the project, please visit: https://socialimpact.eu/tour2include

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Professional Success in reACT- Reassess and Act on Cross Competences: the Training Modules are now available online!

April 9, 2021/in Notizie /by idpeuropa

8^th April 2021

The reACT project (Reassess and Act on Cross Competences) reaches one of the core results of the implementation. Despite issues and difficulties coming from the impossibility to travel, partners managed to finalise the Training Modules that are available online at the following link https://www.react-training.eu/training.php (English language). The training contents are completely free of charge and will soon be available in 3 more languages (Italian, Spanish, and Turkish).

The training consists of 8 Modules structured in different didactic units, concerning the following topics:

Level Basic

Female Entrepreneurship and how to stimulate entrepreneurial attitude and soft skills
How to set a business
ICT Tools for Entrepreneurs
International entrepreneurship experience of women successful stories

Level Advanced

Development of an effective Business Plan
EU Tool Services and opportunities for Entrepreneurship
Online Communication and Visibility/Internalisation
Start up and Growth Strategy Canvas Model Business

Each module includes tools, keywords and learning objectives. reACT Trainings are also available for download in PDF format and include quizzes and a list of references.

In particular, IDP European Consultants developed module 5, “Development of an effective Business Plan”. The module illustrates how to draft an effective business plan and the difference between Business Plan and Business Model.

In the Project, IDP brings its consolidated experience and expertise as a private provider of VET and adult education services. IDP has 25 years of experience in international and cross-border collaboration in the field of promotion of entrepreneurship and employability. IDP will greatly contribute to the technical and operational activities of the Project carrying out analysis and stock-taking activities of the Italian VET ecosystem pertaining to the project; contributing to structuring modules, developing methodologies for effective teaching and learning, materials and content.

reACT (Reassess and Act on Cross Competences) is a Project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission involving eight Partners from four European countries (Italy, Belgium, Spain, and Turkey).

reACT has the objective to foster women access to the EU job market: the concept is to promote their employment by leveraging soft skills.

reACT supports the development of basic and transversal skills (such as sense of initiative, critical thinking, entrepreneurship, self-employment) in an innovative way: the innovative method of reACT relies on its bottom-up and demand driven approach while consolidating on the expertise and experience of VET practitioners and technical experts.

For further information on reACT and other IDP initiatives:

https://www.react-training.eu/index.php

Test and Validation activities: IDP European Consultants joined the 3rd online Meeting of the ALL ROUTES LEAD TO ROME project

April 6, 2021/in Notizie /by idpeuropa

On March 24^th, 2021, IDP European Consultants joined the 3^rd transnational meeting of ALL ROUTES LEAD TO ROME, a Project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission, which brings together eight Partners from five countries (Belgium, Italy, Greece, North Macedonia, and Spain).

Despite the containment measures due to COVID-19, the 3^rd Transnational Project Meeting, originally planned in Skopje (Republic of North Macedonia), was successfully held in online mode.

The implementation of the project goes on smoothly. The meeting started with a presentation from IWS, which showcased the main functionalities of the project’s platform https://www.romanroutes.eu/ that has been further enriched with training contents, one of the core results of the project after more than one year of implementation.

In the forthcoming months, the work will be focused on Test & Validation activities to deliver training contents directly to the target group and on receiving feedback for further development; the partners will also prepare clear Guidelines to guarantee further sustainability and future exploitation of project results.
In fact, the products created will be tested in the five countries on at least 200 people from the Target Groups. The partners will organize training activities (online and, where possible, face-to-face) for students but also teachers to collect their feedback, aimed to promote and test the training contents.

The SKOPJE UNIVERSITY representative, which will lead the activities within this process, presented its T&V plan, with a detailed description of activities and a clear distribution of roles among partners. Partners were also focused on defining a clear dissemination strategy to raise awareness on project activities and results. This will allow to reach more target groups in the T&V phase and for the limited face-to-face meeting opportunities.

The main goal of ALL ROUTES LEAD TO ROME is to enable university students to identify and pursue the best strategies to maximise the economic return of the ancient routes network, develop basic and transversal skills such as self-reliance, leadership, the ability to work in groups, problem solving, mastering of digital skills and multilingualism.

In the Project, IDP brings its consolidated experience and expertise as a private provider of VET and adult education services. IDP has 25 years of experience in international and cross-border collaboration in the field of promotion of entrepreneurship and employability. IDP will greatly contribute to the technical and operational activities of the Project carrying out analysis and stock-taking activities of the Italian VET ecosystem pertaining to the project; contributing to structuring modules, developing methodologies for effective teaching and learning, materials and content.

For further information on ALL ROUTES LEAD TO ROME and other IDP initiatives:

Professional Success in Digital Entrepreneurship – DEEP Training Modules are now available online!

April 1, 2021/in Notizie /by idpeuropa

30^th March 2021

The DEEP project (Digital Entrepreneurship for Employability Paths) reaches one of the core results of the implementation. Despite issues and difficulties coming from the impossibility to travel, partners managed to finalise the Training Modules on digital entrepreneurship that are already available online at the following link https://project-deep.eu/training.php (English language). Training contents are completely free of charge and will be soon available in five further languages (Bulgarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish).

The training consists of eight Modules structured in different didactic units concerning the following topics:

Basics of Digital Entrepreneurship for Business Competitiveness
Boosting and nurturing digital culture in the development of entrepreneurship Part 1
Boosting and nurturing digital culture in the development of entrepreneurship Part 2
Branding for digital entrepreneurship
Competencies and Skills for Entrepreneurship in Digital Environment
Digital Communication
IT and Digital Solutions for Digital Entrepreneurship (Level 1)
IT and Digital Solutions for Digital Entrepreneurship (Level 2)

Each module includes tools, keywords and learning objectives. DEEP Trainings are also available for download in PDF format and include quizzes and list of references.

In particular, IDP European Consultants focused on the development of Module 1: Basics of Digital Entrepreneurship for Business Competitiveness. The module explores ICT and Digital Solutions for Business Competitiveness. The Fundamentals of Data-driven culture are delineated, with an in-depth analysis on Sales and Advertisement, Competitors, Benchmarking and Scenario-making. The unit will provide learners with the fundamentals of branding in digital settings and diagnostic and systemic solutions for Digital Entrepreneurship. In addition, the main novel technological trends for business such as the “Industry 4.0”, Support Territorial Networks for Digital Entrepreneurship and policy actions for tech and innovation are explored. An overview of the main EU funding opportunities – Grants, Loans, Guarantees and Equity, Subsidies, Prizes and Public Contracts – is also provided.

The main objectives of this module consist in:

Exploiting the fundamentals of digital markets
Having a full understanding of the opportunities emerging from the IT ecosystem
Supporting their growth through digital solutions for management
Identifying EU funding solutions for their business

In the Project, IDP brings its consolidated experience and expertise as a private provider of VET and adult education services. IDP has 25 years of experience in international and cross-border collaboration in the field of promotion of entrepreneurship and employability. IDP will greatly contribute to the technical and operational activities of the Project carrying out analysis and stock-taking activities of the Italian VET ecosystem pertaining to the project; contributing to structuring modules, developing methodologies for effective teaching and learning, materials and content.

DEEP is a Project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission involving seven Partners from six countries (Poland, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Spain, and Bulgaria). The DEEP main aim is to improve professional success chances of VET students with different backgrounds by developing not only their entrepreneurship skills (or knowledge), but also their digital skills. The project provides VET teachers/trainers/mentors with the necessary tools and knowledge to help their students effectively acquire those skills. DEEP proposes an integrated approach, possible through the cooperation of partners active in multiple sectors.

For further information on DEEP and IDP European Consultants:

DIVERSITY – Including Migrants through Organisational Development and Programme Planning in Adult Education

March 30, 2021/in Notizie /by idpeuropa

Assessing and validating the DIVERSITY modularised training

DIVERSITY – Including Migrants through Organisational Development and Programme Planning in Adult Education – is a 30-month international project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission.

It involves a Consortium of seven Partners from six countries, i.e. Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, and Italy; its objectives consist in:

Accompanying the EU Adult Education system in the mentality shift from focusing on migrants as very specific target groups and preparing them for integration into society
Raising awareness about migration-related diversity, its challenges, and its opportunities (referring to cultural and pedagogical but equally to economic aspects) with managers and planners in AE as well as policy makers
Equipping managers and planners with the skills needed to open AE providers to migrants as a regular target group

To do so, during proposal Partners foresaw four macro intellectual outputs, conceived as follows:

1. An in-depth mapping activity on Diversity-informed dynamics and operational practices within the organisational dimension of Adult Education Providers: a cross-national assessment that involved both primary and secondary resources (via interview and focus groups) and resulted in a very comprehensive executive report collecting relevant trends, overall dynamics and success studies on effective education and training practices for migrants in selected European countries;

2. The development of a modularised training curriculum that enables managers and planners in adult education organisations to re-focus both their organisational structures and their course programmes to recognise and include migrants as a regular target group of their educational activities. The curriculum is structured into two major categories, organisational structure and programme planning, and each module is fully EQF-compliant aiming at learning outcomes on level three to four. The modules are to be “mixed and matched”; each module might be conceived as a stand-alone training unit but can also be combined with any other module, which maximises adjustments to the individual needs of managers/planners and their organisation. In terms of structure, each module consists of:

A short summary of the module

A brief description of the knowledge to be acquired

A brief description of the skills to be acquired

A brief description of the personal abilities (responsibility and autonomy) to be acquired

3. Testing and Validation of the modularised training curriculum with 100 target groups from the represented countries (including staff of the participating organisations, as well, since they are crucial for rooting the staff training in the partner organisation and therefore for a sustainable long-term continuation of the trainings). The project is currently in this exact phase of development – under the precious guidance of the Greek partner HAEA, the Consortium agreed on the outline of the underlying tasks in terms of general timeline and distribution of the work. Partners proposed and discussed what the most suitable means of delivery and the overall methodology they will rely on to conclude such delicate activity are for them.

4. Finally, the last months of the Project’s lifecycle will be dedicated to the development, review, publication and mainstreaming of the so-defined “Policy Recommendations”; a collection of findings, insights and experiences from the DIVERSITY project aimed to:

inform evidence-based policy formulation

provide policy recommendations

identify actionable measures for stakeholders

Standing from an evidence-based perspective, the paper represents a sort of operational memory of the project and will be used to expose where policy making, policy change or policy deregulation can support the transformation of adult education providers towards organisations open for migration diversity.

In the Project, IDP brings its consolidated experience and expertise as a private provider of VET and adult education services. IDP has 25 years of experience in international and cross-border collaboration in the field of promotion of entrepreneurship and employability. IDP will greatly contribute to the technical and operational activities of the Project carrying out analysis and stock-taking activities of the Italian VET ecosystem pertaining to the project; contributing to structuring modules, developing methodologies for effective teaching and learning, materials and content.

For further information on DIVERSITY and other IDP initiatives, please visit:

DIVERSITY Website: https://www.aewb-nds.de/themen/eu-programme/diversity/

Tools and Training for EU Family Enterprises: IDP European Consultants joined the second online Meeting of VESTA

March 24, 2021/in Notizie /by idpeuropa

On March 17^th, 2021, IDP European Consultants joined the second transnational meeting of VESTA, a Project co-funded by the Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Commission, which brings together six Partners from five countries (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain). The meeting, originally planned in Brussels, Belgium, was held in online mode due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The main aim of the meeting was the presentation of the Family Enterprise Country Reports (from Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, and EU) including a very detailed analysis from each partner. Indeed, during the first phase of VESTA implementation, partners were focused on the review of policy papers, studies, research, articles and other relevant sources and resources. The main objective of the research phase was to understand and analyse Family Enterprise’s roles, definitions, regulatory frameworks, quantitative and qualitative indicators and all the relevant trends useful to describe this phenomenon (which contributes to the creation of more than 14 million enterprises and more than 60 million jobs in the EU).

The research phase will allow partners to define what the challenges and the training needs are in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system and then develop a set of tools and trainings available online for free to be delivered to the target group. According to the preliminary results, the common challenges for family businesses currently are:

Generational hand-over
Digitalisation
Safeguarding family’s values and heritage
Diversification and Internationalisation

VESTA has the objective of supporting the growth and sustaining the competitiveness of family enterprises so that they can strive and continue to play that crucial role of social buffer and economic engine of growth, by developing innovative operational tools and training resources. Within such context, VESTA is devoted to family enterprises, especially those of micro-small size, formal and non-formal VET service providers and representatives of user groups, FE facilitators and members of support associations, media, and to all those who are interested in family business management.

For further information on VESTA and other IDP initiatives:

Website: https://www.projectvesta.eu/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vestaeuropeproject

Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCTu-Yj1x_s2-d_K5ZYhssA?view_as=subscriber

Digital Skills for an Ageing Europe: The online identity of the DISK Project is taking shape

March 22, 2021/in Notizie /by idpeuropa

As life expectancy increases, Europe’s rapidly aging population continues to grow in number. According to the Eurostat, one in four people will be over 65 years old by 2050; social policies for the elderly in Europe often neglect lifelong learning, and this even though the sustainability of social protection systems relies on the autonomy and on the community participation of the elderly population.

Because of these gaps, Digital Skills for an Ageing Europe (DISK) will adopt an intersectoral and gender sensitive approach and capitalise on the valuable experience of its partners (eight organisations from six different countries) to provide the elderly with innovative and tailored training opportunities.

Partners will carry out the following activities:

Develop a dedicated OER Platform accessible to all, free of charge, in full Open Access mode and in multilingual versions (EN, FR, GR, IT, MK, ES) where all the content produced will be published.
Develop highly interactive e-learning courses to improve the memory and learning skills of the elderly, help them familiarise with practical services such as online shopping, bookings, etc. with a view to improving their cognitive abilities and health, as well as preventing skill decline and dementia.
Develop guidelines to facilitate the uptake of Digital Skills for an Ageing Europe to sustain project results beyond Erasmus co-financing and widen its range of impact.

Since the very beginning of the project, the partners are collaborating to establish the online presence and visual identity of the project.

Under the precious guidance of the Greek and Spanish partners (Mathemagenesis and Internet Web Solutions, the IT and Web design specialists of our consortium), partners are in the process of finalising the digital assets of the project.

With in-depth accuracy, all participating organisations are involved in the design of the OER Platform in terms of:

Assessing its user-friendliness
Evaluating its ease of use

So far, the implementation of the platform is a “smooth-and-easy” process; the communication and collaboration among partners allow great efficacy and dynamism.

At the same time, partners are brainstorming on possible lines of intervention for the development of highly interactive e-learning courses to improve the memory and learning skills of the elderly, help them familiarise with practical services such as online shopping, bookings, etc. with a view to improving their cognitive abilities and health, as well as preventing skill decline and dementia.

The field of work has been divided in four macro areas, in compliance with scientific recommendations for the prevention of mental decline:

Memory: visual, verbal, and spatial ability to store and retrieve information when needed
Executive Functions: skills like reasoning, planning, regulating behaviours
Perception: how we interact with the environment
Attention: processing visual and auditory stimuli, selecting and distinguishing “relevant” from “non relevant”

In the Project, IDP brings its consolidated experience and expertise as a private provider of VET and adult education services. IDP has 25 years of experience in international and cross-border collaboration in the field of promotion of entrepreneurship and employability. IDP will greatly contribute to the technical and operational activities of the Project carrying out analysis and stock-taking activities of the Italian VET ecosystem pertaining to the project; contributing to structuring modules, developing methodologies for effective teaching and learning, materials and content.

For further information about DISK and other IDP initiatives, please visit:

Valorising and Nurturing Entrepreneurial Education across Europe. The Competences of Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs

March 18, 2021/in Notizie /by idpeuropa

After several months of hard work, the ECI consortium achieved another very important result contributing not only to the development of the project, but also, and most importantly, to the international mainstreaming and valorisation of the EntreComp Framework, the official model for the nurturing of entrepreneurial competences published and promoted by the European Commission.

The training content designed to operationalise the framework at EU level is finally available online and it is free for consultation. Such important achievement is the tip of a long process that engaged partners for more than one year.

At the end of last summer, the ECI Partnership finalised a detailed cross-reference analysis among the EntreComp Framework, ESCO (the classification of European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupation) and the EQF (European Qualifications Framework): a bond that the literature review – finalised during the development of the National Reports – proved to be highly consistent but still tangibly missing and not fully exploited.

The ultimate objective of this desk assessment was to establish an initial and operational connection between the EntreComp framework and the other two, allowing partners to operationalise a new model – the ECI model – for entrepreneurship valorisation and mainstreaming of entrepreneurial spirits across the VET dimension.

Each of the six competences selected by the partnership during the proposal as greater catalysts of “entrepreneurial attitudes”, has been reconducted to a specific dimension, field, and theoretical/operational setting of both ESCO and EQF, highlighting the different compliances by degree of consistency. We evaluated this degree by balancing each ESCO and EQF unit to the main and defining traits of each considered EntreComp competence as described by the same EU Joint Research Centre.

The results of this assessment can be found at the following link.

The development of the training modules kick-started during summer 2020; Partners invested energies, time, and efforts to comply with time schedule and quali/quantitative standards as discussed and foreseen during the proposal. The design of the modules in terms of content, structure, learning outcomes has been facilitated by a series of monthly brainstorming sessions in which partners had the opportunity to validate their ideas and have meaningful exchanges of views with their colleagues.

All training materials are EQF and ESCO compliant – a cross-referencing in which partners invested several months of close collaboration (please check the “Model” section for further references). The emerged results allowed partners to finalise a common methodology that provides for common understanding and shared guidelines upon all IO3-related activities.

The final Output consists in six training modules, each of which focusing on a specific EntreComp competence as highlighted by the framework. The material is organised as follows:

For a more comprehensive understanding of the subject, each training module is subdivided in further didactic units at the end of which there is a short self-assessment sheet. The training module comes with a short document (the so called “training fiche”) that summarises key concepts and main takeaways. Learners are recommended to an in-depth reading of both since they are highly complementary, rather than alternative.

In the Project, IDP brings its consolidated experience and expertise as a private provider of VET and adult education services. IDP has 25 years of experience in international and cross-border collaboration in the field of promotion of entrepreneurship and employability. IDP will greatly contribute to the technical and operational activities of the Project carrying out analysis and stock-taking activities of the Italian VET ecosystem pertaining to the project; contributing to structuring modules, developing methodologies for effective teaching and learning, materials and content.

For further information on ECI EntreComp and other IDP initiatives:

IDP European Consultants took part in CITIES BY HEART’s Transnational Project Meeting

March 17, 2021/in Notizie /by idpeuropa

On February 24, 2021, IDP European Consultants took part in a new CITIES BY HEART Transnational Project Meeting. The meeting took place online due to COVID-19 restrictions and allowed partners to take stock of the state of implementation of project activities and results.

While most of the attention is now devoted to Intellectual Output 5, Partners also discussed adjustments to the schedule and to the objectives to account for the exceptional circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, Partners made sure all previous activities were carried out according to agreed standards and procedures and came up with new ideas to boost the project’s dissemination activities.

CITIES BY HEART is a Project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission involving a Consortium of six Partners from six countries (Austria, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal).

The goal of CITIES BY HEART Project is to promote a type of responsible tourism “at zero kilometre” in which protagonists are citizens with a family or individual migratory path (whether new entrants or settled in the neighbourhood for several generations) original they want to share. The objective is twofold: to create a link between the residents of these urban areas to avoid communal conflicts and to trigger an economic dynamic to respond to the precariousness of the inhabitants of disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

In the Project, IDP brings its consolidated experience and expertise as a private provider of VET and adult education services. IDP has 25 years of experience in international and cross-border collaboration in the field of promotion of entrepreneurship and employability. IDP will greatly contribute to the technical and operational activities of the Project carrying out analysis and stock-taking activities of the Italian VET ecosystem pertaining to the project; contributing to structuring modules, developing methodologies for effective teaching and learning, materials and content.

For further information on CITIES BY HEART and other IDP initiatives:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citiesbyhearteuproject