During the third week of September the EUDA App Your School team took part in the second Learning Teaching Trainig Activity. The LTTA took place in Bologna, Italy. Teams from all eight participating countries gathered to present their Digital Atelier proposals, including some of the practical excercises. Further presentations and discussion concerned the Best practices in each of the countries. Participants were encouraged to share their national experiences and expertise which served as an inspiration for other partners. LTTA was organized and hosted by Zaffaria Centro A. Manzi. To read more about App Your School please see here.
VINA-Validating Informal and Non-Formal Acquired skills represents a partnership between 5 organizations from 5 EU member countries (Italy, Czech Republic, Greece, Poland and the United Kingdom) and it aims at promoting non-formal and informal education, as well as specific tools, in addition to growing awareness regarding recognizing the importance of informal and non-formal learning.
The project will provide information regarding how to access adult learning services. This purpose will be achieved by realizing a database that will evaluate and describe tools regarding informal and non-formal education. Also, the project will address the issue regarding the quality of the information.
Furthermore, VINA project wants to tackle and solve the following aspect: nowadays, an adult who is eager to validate the competences that he has acquired through non-formal and informal education encounters a range of problems because of the lack of access to appropriate tools. In other words, these tools exist, but they suffer from lack of possibility of implementation. With the aid of the VINA project, useful recommendations will be provided for users. Each partner organization from the 5 different countries will have a set of tasks and responsibilities to be achieved.
The target group of the project is represented by educators, lecturers and other users who need to update their skills in the field of informal and non-formal education, in order to meet the requirements for optimally working in the 21st century.
At the kick-off meeting in Italy, the 5 partners discussed the VINA project in details, including actions on budget, dissemination, Database instrument and the ROTA validation analyser.
Main tasks and responsibilities of our company, European Development Agency, are:
- Coordinate internal and external evaluation of the project;
- Attend the foreseen transnational meetings (two people for each meeting);
- Support partners in the implementation of all the foreseen activities;
- Organise 1 multiplier event in Czech Republic.
It is our pleasure to announce that on the 29th May, the second national training for teachers involved in the App Your School project took part at ZUŠ Music Art in Prague. The main purpose of the training was to share more practical information about the project and the related activities. The participants received valuable information directly from the teachers who took part in the Bologna training in January 2017. They shared their experience, described the activities they had attended in Bologna and explained what they have learned there.
As part of the training, all 18 participants had the opportunity to try some tasks, specifically the so-called Tree. That means the participants were supposed to create a multiple portrayal of a tree with the use of different materials and techniques, for instance paper, wire or digital animation. At the end of the training, a discussion about the current state of art took place as the teachers from Arts School Music Art explained their lectures where they use ICT tools and support children’s creative thinking. Finally, the teachers had a brainstorming about the possible future Digital Atelier activities conducted within the project.
On 22th May, European development agency in collaboration with ZUŠ Music Art and DISK Multimedia company organized a National Training fo App Your School. The project concerns the use of media and technology in education, more info here. Within the framework of the conference, participants learned interesting information about the project App Your School, which explores new media and applications. EUDA Manager also presented biographies of two Italian teachers Manzi and Munari who are considered to be among the first significant innovators in the field of using ICT in education. Therefore, they are role models for the project.
In the second part of the conference, the representatives from the ZUŠ presented the current state of art of multimedia education in the Czech Republic. Furhther, they spoke about their personal experiences with the use of multimedia in classes. The conference was attended by around thirty listeners who had the opportunity to learn more about the importance and effectiveness of using new media and technologies and thus took a number of valuable insights that they could certainly use in the future.
Staff mobility-Job shadowing of 4 Spanish employees took place in Prague from 14th to 19th May, 2017, under the auspices of the European Development Agency s.r.o. (EDUA). During the mobility they had the opportunity to learn about the style of teaching in Czech schools and the functioning of the city council. Mobility was carried out under the ALJARAFE EN EUROPA project. Its main goal was to familiarize teachers Delores and Manuel (teaching in Spanish vocational schools) with the use of ICT tools and other interactive tools at Czech schools. Beside this, for Mercedes and Antonio, from Mancomunidad Aljarafe, was important to understand the principle and functioning of the Czech city authorities and the city council. During their stay, not only they acquired a lot of interesting information from their Job shadowing, but also had the opportunity to see the most important places in Prague.
Upon arrival, the participants met with EDUA employees for a welcoming meeting that was followed by a tour of Prague City Hall. The next day in the morning, job shadowing took place at Secondary Technical School of František Křižík where the participants had the opportunity to observe classes of turbines, automation and IT. After lunch there was a tour of the historical center of Prague. Wednesday morning was dedicated to job shadowing at Prague 7 City District, followed by a tour of the Prague 7 district-Stromovka, Letná and Holešovice. On Thursday, job shadowing took place at Primary school K Dolům, where participants got familiar with a magic box ICT tool that is popuar among younger pupils. On Friday, before the departure, the participants were able to manage job shadowing at Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic and at Prague Institute of Planning and Development.
Within this five-day mobility, Spanish employees have become aware of the functioning of Czech schools and the use of interactive tools during lessons as well as the functioning of the city authorities. Due to the very positive attitude of Czech schools and city districts, Spanish staff have taken a number of valuable insights and mobility is considered to be very successful.
The European development agency now participates in a new international project which has started on the 1st April 2017. The project called CREA.T.Y.V. will run for 24 months and there are five participants from the Czech Republic, Italy, Ireland and Romania. The project aims at engaging young people with limited social opportunities to the community thus, increasing their self-confidence and social skills so that they could become active agents in shaping the future society. CREA.T.Y.V. is financed from the Erasmus + programme.
There will be a kick-off meeting in Bucharest in the beginning of May. All the partners will exchange their ideas and opinions on the project’s development there. Also, the lead partners will present the educational method of Creative drama which is the core tool of this project. For more information please see our CREA.T.Y.V. description here.
31 March 2017
PRESS RELEASE
VINA (Validating Informal and Non-formal Acquired Skills)
a EU co-funded project about skills validation in Adult Education
EURO, an Italian Research Centre, Promotion and EU Initiative, along with partner organisations from UK (European Learning Network Ltd), Czech Republic (Evropská rozvojová agentura s.r.o.), Greece (K Poulopoulos E.P.E.) and Poland (Fundacja Instytut Rownowagi Spoleczno Ekonomicznej) has been successful in gaining Erasmus+ funding for this interesting and important project for the Adult Education sector across Europe.
Erasmus+ is the EU’s programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe. Its budget of €14.7 billion will provide opportunities for over 4 million Europeans to study, train, gain experience, and volunteer abroad. The VINA project is approved under Key Action 2 – Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices – of the programme Erasmus+ managed by the Italian National Agency Erasmus Plus Indire.
VINA (Validating Informal and Non-formal Acquired Skills) project is aimed at educators, assessors, lecturers and other main users who need to update competences and skills of adults in the informal and non-formal sector to match the needs of the 21st century. The project consortium will develop:
- a database of Instruments for Validating Informal and Non- Formal Learning;
- a Recognition Opportunities Tendency Analyser (R.O.T.A.)
By involving external partners, adult colleges, assessors, lecturers, public sector institutions, trainers, teachers and the wider community, the 5 partners will, through thorough research, create a database and an easy-to-use online validation tool. Both will be available as an Open Resource.
More information about the project can be found at www.vinaproject.eu
Contacts
Project Coordinator: EURO
Viale dell’Olimpo n° 30a – 90147 Palermo (Italy)
E mail: info@associazioneeuro.org
Dissemination Coordinator: European Learning Network Ltd
152 City Road, London EC1V 2NX – UK
E mail: info@elnpartner.co.uk
“This project has been co-funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”
The GYMSEN Project, funded by Erasmus+ call has had as objective the development of a methodology for helping to prevent and retard both the sensory and cognitive declines of elderly people, especially of smell and taste. The project has developed a training tool by which participants have exercised their sensory capacities during the project.
The project came to an end on the 31st of August and we can say that it was a success. The training programme, which was piloted in cooperation with Prave ted was accepted with great pleasure by the trainers and incorporated to the day-to-day activities of the organisation. We hope the idea of training the sensory capacities and motivating seniors toward healthy lifestyles will spread to seniors´organisations nation wide.
During the project a new partnership was created and Prave ted together with the coordinator the GYMSEN project are currently developing another project. The MemTrain project focuses on combining physical activities and brain training to reach healthy ageing by people 55+.
You can read more about the project in the attached press release.
European development agency organized a kick-off meeting for APP YOUR SCHOOL project on 17th and 18th October. Nearly all of the project partners attended, therefore we had the pleasure to welcome here in Prague members of italian educational centre Zaffiria, that is a leading partner of the project, turkish Esenler District Educational Authority, portuguese AENIE, polish Modern Poland Foundation, finnish Kuopion city and their stategic partners from finnish education centre SAVONIA, greek KARPOS and EUDA, in cooperation with high school Otrokovice, attended for the Czech Republic.
During the kick-off meeting partners discussed important issues and planned their future steps, as well as the most effective outputs dissemination and implementation.
Project APP YOUR SCHOOL is focused mainly on children and younsters in 11 – 16 years of age education. Its aim is to develop some of the crucial abilities of a person in 21st century –media literacy and digital competence. This should be achieved with the help of inovative educational technologies, which use ICT.
Therefore, project seeks to create so called „digital ateliers“, that should encourage creative using of new media in everyday life. These ateliers will be produced in compliance with competencies desirable in contemporary world, as well as methodologies of Alberto Manzi and Bruno Munari, famous italian tutors and innovators in using ICT in education. One of the project goals is also familiarization of teachers with project outputs, so these can be succesfully implemented into education system.
At the turn of September and October 2016, the mobility of 17 Polish students held in Prague in the framework of the project Mobile mechanic on the European market financed by the European Social Fund, Operational Programme Research, development and education. Thanks to ERA there were involved also two high schools from Czech Republic, Střední škola technická Zelený Pruh and Střední průmyslová škola dopravní a.s., which hosted students of Motor vehicles, ships and aircraft from Marshal Jozef Pilsufski Schools in Szcuczyn, Poland.
The aim of this project was to gain work experiences in high qualified companies of the automotive industry in Czech market, acquisition of new skills related to the profession and deepening the knowledge acquired in school. Sub-objective was also improving language skills, especially English. In addition, Polish students participating in the project acquainted with the culture and traditions in the Czech Republic.
During the three-month mobility they attended practical internships in car services and rich culture program with Prague and Kutná Hora sightseeing, which the European development agency had prepared to them.
The European development agency would like to continue in cooperation with the mediator of this project. They already plan another educational mobility for Polish teachers at the beginning of 2017. There the teachers will be supposed to attend job shadowing in Czech schools and gain experiences of the real teaching at a foreign school in practice.
