Author: Stefania Felicia Pavel

INTERNATIONAL MEETING VET3D

Post author By Stefania Felicia Pavel
Post date December 8, 2022

Erasmus + project VET3D partnership held international discussion on December 1, 2022.

The discussion aimed to map the actual situation, problems, and possible solutions in the VET sector in project countries. Project partners introduced the meeting participants with the main results from project research in VET sector from Result 1 and Result 2 as well as discuss the actual problems and challenges in VET sector.

In total 22 participants from partner countries, namely, Italy, Latvia, Greece, Czech Republic, discussed VET sector challenges. The lack of teachers, also teachers’ ability to transfer soft skills across all learning dimensions, and students’ ability to socialize and build collaboration onsite or in presence was mentioned today as are to be improved as not VET students mainly represent Gen Z and digital socializing manner is more common. Soft skills integration into daily curriculum based on a certain soft skill framework was one more dimension today. Students’ engagement in after-class activities like common projects, camps, and gaming could be also soft skill promoter, but students may lack time and motivation to stay after a long learning day at school.

The international experts were introduced with Result 1 “DIGICOMP 3D PARTNERSHIP REPORT- research on the key competencies and soft skills model in Vocational Education and Training for VET students” available on a project web page https://vet3dproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/VET3D-IO1Report-Final-.pdf

The international experts’ meeting is one of Result 2 “3 Dimension learning model for VET” activities, finalizing soon in December 2022. The R2 report will be available in January 2023.

Project VET3D aims to promote soft skills in formal, non-formal, and work-based learning in the VET sector.

Please visit the project web page at https://vet3dproject.eu/ and follow project on FB page https://www.facebook.com/VET3D-Project-109531734918907

Smart and Cooperative Skills 2n Transnational Meeting

Post author By Stefania Felicia Pavel
Post date December 7, 2022

The partners of the Smart and Cooperative Skills project met for the 2^nd Transnational Project Meeting. The meeting was held on the 24-25^th of November in Perugia, Italy.

The development of the Digital Didactic materials (Project Result 1) was discussed between the partners as well as future procedures for the project. This first part focuses on the development of digital materials on life skills aimed at SEN students.

LTTA in Prague (21-25.11) Behave Your Prints project

Post author By Stefania Felicia Pavel
Post date November 25, 2022

From the 21st to the 25th of November 2022, a Learning Teaching Training Activity was held in Prague, Czech Republic for the Erasmus+ project BYP “Behave your prints”.

EUDA hosted 24 participants from all 6 countries to take part in several workshops on:
– Digital challenges for adults and teachers working with kids – how to walk kids through the digital world”
– Introduction to Netiquette – How to behave correctly in the digital world with respect to others”
– Digital Security – Minimum of cyber security awareness.
– Digital productivity and tools

The 4th day of the training was dedicated to dynamic and interactive roundtables on prepared topics such as:
– Digital Footprint and Online Reputation
– Competitive Jobs in the International labor market
– Youth Digital Citizenship and Critical thinking
– Online Youth Risk Behavior / Youth Safety and Responsible Online Youth Behavior

Thanks to fruitful discussions and sharing of professional and personal experiences in working with the youth generation, our 24 participants gave power to the project by giving crucial elements to be added in the BYP methodology.

Smart and Cooperative Skills Kick-off meeting

Post author By Stefania Felicia Pavel
Post date August 10, 2022

On the 28th of July the kick-off meeting of the Smart and Cooperative Skills project was held in Madrid.

Although originally planned to be held in December 2021, due the Covid-19 situation the meeting was delayed but carried out successfully with the 9 partners.

During the first meeting, all the partners had a chance to present themselves and discuss the first steps and deadlines of the project with an emphasis on the first Project Results. The meeting went very well and we are excited to start working!

The goal of the project is to develop and disseminate a pedagogical method, based on the theoretical foundation of the “Didactic Digital materials” focused on life skills, aiming to prevent and/or to face the early school leaving phenomenon.

Newsletter (1st) – Behave Your Prints

Post author By Stefania Felicia Pavel
Post date June 23, 2022

Home 6 (Onepage)

BEHAVE YOUR PRINTS -KICK OFF MEETING

Post author By Stefania Felicia Pavel
Post date June 1, 2022

BYP partners gathered in Belgrade, Serbia on May 30th – 31st for the project’s kick off meeting. The Project implementation handbook has been presented to all partners by the Project Coordinator, presenting the main activities, the sub-tasks and the people involved from each partner organisation, along with the relevant time framework.

We had a great experience in Belgrade and we look forward to furthering and fostering cooperation with our partners.

SURVEYS – VET Teachers & Students

Post author By Stefania Felicia Pavel
Post date April 14, 2022

VET STUDENTS AND TEACHERS SURVEYS /

ERASMUS+ VET3D project aims to integrate soft skills into VET curricula and help our VET students to become more confident as personalities, future professionals, and entrepreneurs.

To this end, project partners have created anonymous national surveys in 4 countries in partners’ languages and in English for VET students and teachers!

To help improve VET education across the EU, please visit the survey platform and fill in:
– the Student survey:
https://link.webropolsurveys.com/s/VET3Dstudents
– the Teacher survey:
https://link.webropol.com/s/VET3D-Teacher-survey

EEA and Norway Grants: Fund for Youth Employment

Post author By Stefania Felicia Pavel
Post date November 10, 2020

Key questions for “Unlocking Youth Potential”

On September 1, 2020, EEA and Norway Grants supported by Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway opened a call for “Unlocking Youth Potential”. As the Grants contribute to a more socially and economically equal Europe, the current Call targets NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) individuals. Aware that COVID-19 pandemic further limits access to the labour market for vulnerable citizens, the Grants finance finding new, transnational solutions for youth unemployment.

Key questions
When? Application window spans from September 1, 2020 until January 5, 2021.
Who? Target groups include 25-29 years old NEET individuals living in small towns, suburbs, or in rural areas; NEET young mothers; and 25-29 years old long-term unemployed individuals.
How much? Funding per project has to be minimum 1 million euro and maximum 2 million euro; total funding allocated for this Call is 11.5 million euro.

Where is the funding going?

This Call has three focus areas; each project can adress issues within one focus area alone.
1. Innovation and exploration – projects developing innovative, experimental solutions addressing youth unemployment;
2. Transfer of know-how and good practice – projects transferring know-how and good practice on youth employment initiatives across European countries;
3. Analysis and research – projects supporting transnational research networks that share ideas, theories, practices, and experiences on how to evaluate and perform impact studies of initiatives aiming to address youth employment in the eligible countries.

Who does what?

Lead partner

Submits the application
Enters the contractual relation with the Fund operator
Establishes contractual relations with the beneficiary partners and expertise partners pursuant to the Partnership Agreement
Maintains communication with the Fund operator on behalf of the project consortium
Receives and distributes the grant among the consortium’s members
Reports to the Fund operator on the project performance and results

Beneficiary partner(s)

Are entities established in one of the 15 Beneficiary States of the EEA and Norway Grants, or in Ireland, Italy or Spain
Participate in project consortia: minimum one beneficiary partner is needed; there is no limit on the maximum number of beneficiary partners

Expertise partner(s)

Share expertise, experience, and know-how
Cannot benefit directly from the Fund, yet they can benefit via professional cooperation, promoting extended and strengthened European networking, and the mutual development and exchange of expertise and good practice

Who can unlock youth potential?
Eligible project partners that are entities, public or private, commercial or non-commercial, and non-governmental organisations, established as legal persons. Also, EEA Grants distinguish between entities coming from Beneficiary States (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia), Eligible Beneficiary Partners (Ireland, Italy, and Spain) and Expertise Partners (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, the Donor States, and international organisations). Also, the composition of the project partnership must respect additional rules:

Entities from at least two countries have to be involved;
Each project must engage one lead partner and at least a beneficiary partner;
If one entity is the lead, respectively beneficiary partner, they cannot join another consortium within this Call
Lead, respectively beneficiary partners selected for Active Youth Call are not eligible for this Call; expertise partners can be involved in project under successive calls.

How can the funding be spent?

The latest the eligible expenses can extend is April 30, 2024. Every project consortium must provide co-financing, potentially an advance payment as well. Non-governmental organisations can entirely cover the co-financing share by means of voluntary work. Eligible expenditures include:

Direct expenditure

Staff costs
Travel costs and subsistence allowances
Consumables and supplies
Equipment costs
Project contract requirements costs
Subcontracting costs

Indirect expenditure

15% flat rate of the total eligible staff costs
Project administrative expenditures not directly attributable to the project
Voluntary work as in-kind contribution of NGOs as project co-financing

Which are the expected results?

Improved employment situation of NEETs/target group
Increased participation in education and training of former NEETs/target group
Increased number of NEETs/target group experiencing social inclusion
Innovative approaches on lowering youth unemployment have been developed or adopted
Increased transnational cooperation on labour market issues
Increased knowledge of the effects of employment initiatives targeting NEETs/target group
Increased capacity on evaluating effects of employment initiatives for NEETs/target group in research institutions
Increased use of impact studies among policymakers
Increased knowledge on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on NEETs/target group

For further guidance, there are devoted sections on the EEA Grants tackling Frequently Asked Questions and project basic procedures.

European City Facility EUCF – powering your potential

Post author By Stefania Felicia Pavel
Post date August 5, 2020

How to save energy tomorrow by acting today? The question countless cities and municipalities ask. This is the same issue EUCF seeks to solve.

New help for old problems

EUCF is set up under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of the European Union. It facilitates the transformation of energy and climate strategies into implementable investment concepts.

EUCF offers financial and technical assistance for sustainable energy practices to cities, municipalities, and their groupings from the European Union and the United Kingdom. The ultimate objective of EUCF is to help initiate energy investment projects across European municipalities.

Financing the change

EUCF provides tailored, rapid, and simplified financial support for developing investment concepts. EUCF funds:

in-house staff
external experts/sub-contractors
feasibility/social/market studies
engineering/financial analyses

The grant amounts to EUR 60.000 as lump sum, no co-financing required. Additional funding can be drawn from:

private sector
other EU-funded instruments, such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments, European Structural and Investment Funds, various Project Development Assistance facilities, like ELENA facility of the European Investment Bank
various national investment platforms.

ABC of EUCF

A – Application

There are three regional calls for application: 1. Central and Eastern Europe, 2. Nordic countries & Western Europe, 3. Southern Europe. Applying is a two-step process: eligibility check and full application.

The eligibility check is a five-item questionnaire which launches the application form in the EUCF website user zone. The application form must include: information on the applicant, description of the investment concept, respectively investment project.

Successful applications move onto the Grant Agreement phase where the beneficiaries receive 70% of the grant. Remaining 30% is awarded after the validation of the investment concept. The unsuccessful applications are redirected to the EUCF Helpdesk for feedback in view of potential reapplication.

B – Benefits

The EUCF offers a toolbox to further assist the beneficiaries:

Firstly, after obtaining the grant, for the upcoming twelve months, the EUCF provides support for development of the investment concept in the beneficiaries’ national language. Secondly, there is a two-year monitoring period when the investment concept is implemented, supervised, and documented via two simple monitoring forms submitted to EUCF.

C – Chronology

The current EUCF Calls for Proposals are:

1^st call 25 May 2020-October 2020
2^nd call March – April 2021
3^rd call October – November 2021
4^th call May – June 2022

Apply for EUCF today and power on the potential for change in your city/municipality!