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The end of the year marks the completion of the VAM Realities. The project kick-off back in January 2020 in an aim to provide higher education institutions with skills to guide SMEs into the adoption of VR and AR technologies and the integration of these technologies into their business operations.
In its 16 months of implementation the project has developed a suite of resources for higher education institutions, which include:
the VAM Realities State of the Art XR Technology Report: State of the Art Report that provides an overview of the most important and efficient VR/AR/MR technologies currently available to companies and what kind of hardware and software is successfully used in the various industries.
the VAM Realities European Survey Report: The report highlights the findings from a Pan-European Survey with 300 SMEs aiming to map the knowledge and needs of companies in regard to XR technology and how they are already benefiting from these technologies.
the VAM Realities platform: an online platform offering unique networking opportunities within the field of XR technologies. The platform hosts the VAM Realities Network, an online repository of more than 350 registered XR experts and XR enthusiasts from Europe and the whole world. The platform also hosts the EU XR projects showcase, where you can get access to more than 40 EU-funded XR-related projects from all around Europe.
the SME Online Skills Gap Detector: an online self-assessment tool that allows companies/SMEs to find out how well prepared they are – or not – for the increasing importance of VR/AR/MR in their industries.
the VAM Realities University Business Cooperation Handbook: a practical handbook which addresses how Higher Education Institutes can support manufacturing SMEs to adopt and integrate XR technologies successfully into their business operations.
You can find more information about the VAM Realities project at the project’s website: https://vam-realities.eu/
After a fantastic two-year journey that engaged more than two hundred European practitioners in VET education, the consortium of the VETENTRE project is proud to launch not only policy recommendations and a toolkit with strategies for VET educators and VET education providers but also an innovative fully self-learning platform.
The VETENTRE project will be officially completed by the end of this month. The project kicked-off in December 2020 aiming to support VET educators to design programmes and activities that promote the entrepreneurial mindset of trainees. To this end, VETENTRE developed a set of resources for VET educators and trainers, as well as adult educators, and other trainers to empower VET educators to develop their entrepreneurial mindset and to make VET education more attractive across Europe, focusing on the entrepreneurial skills of trainers and their capacity to design programmes and activities for learners.
The resources developed by the project include:
Entrepreneurship Toolkit for VET: VETENTRE has developed a Toolkit for VET educators that includes resources for integrating entrepreneurship in VET and supporting VET educators to develop entrepreneurship competencies. The Toolkit is aligned with the national frameworks for VET and Entrepreneurship and the EntreComp Framework that was developed by the European Commission.
E-learning space and VET entrepreneurship gamified environment: An E-learning platform and OERs that features a self-paced E-learning Course for VET educators, with online training modules that focus on developing the entrepreneurial competences of VET trainers. The E-learning space also hosts an e-Library with useful resources related to VET education needs and priorities.
VET and Entrepreneurship curricula: a comprehensive curriculum and training materials infusing entrepreneurship into VET, based on EntreComp and the resources of the VETENTRE Toolkit. The Curriculum includes four Modules supporting VET trainers to better design programmes and activities that promote the entrepreneurial mindset of trainees. Additionally, the training modules have been developed as a self-paced e-learning course, which is open for all VET trainers on the project’s e-learning platform.
Over the course of the project, the partners actively engaged VET trainers, VET providers, adult educators, education policymakers, academics, and specialists in all partner countries to identify and document the national and European needs and to ensure the relevance of the project’s results.
These tools and resources have been developed based on the findings of an extensive survey that took place in the beginning of the project in countries of the organisations participating in the consortium and in Europe in general.
The project has also produced a policy recommendation summarising lessons-learned, providing guidance for VET educators and VET education providers and decision-makers. This set of recommendations will be building a bridge between policymakers, organisations, and providers working in VET and add to the dialogue on European-wide policy and its initiatives related to VET, adult learning, and lifelong learning.
The VAM Realities project consortium, together with SME representatives from all around Europe, visited the city of Milan in Italy between October 11th and 14th and visited industrial fairs and SMEs developing and working with XR technology.
The delegation started on October 11th with a visit to AnotheReality, an XR company that develops custom immersive solutions for simulation and training, business, and entertainment. The delegation moved to the premises of the hosts, STIIMA-CNR and held a hybrid round-table with the participation of XR SMEs, including Realmore, 3DQR, and Virtualware. The day concluded with a visit to the Smau Exhibition and a start-up safari at the fair, where participants had the opportunity to interact with local start-ups.
On October 12th, the VAM Realities delegation visited Moxoff SpA and learned about the XR and AI projects and services currently implemented by the company. Afterwards, the delegation visited the MADE – Competence Center Industry 4.0, a technology centre which supports enterprises in their digital transformation path towards Industry 4.0. In the afternoon, we visited the BIMU Milan International biennial fair and most important Italian exhibition on metal cutting, metal forming and additive machine tools, robots, digital manufacturing and automation systems. The final day of the trip included a partner meeting for the consortium, as well as an additional visit to the BIMU Trade Fair.
The three-day site visit took place in the context of the VAM Realities SME Coaching Programme, which offers free personalised one-to-one coaching to manufacturing and other SMEs in order for them to integrate VR and AR technology into their processes. You can find more information about the VAM Realities Coaching Programme here.
The VETENTRE project consortium has developed an e-learning platform with a fully self-paced gamified e-learning course to develop the entrepreneurial competences of VET trainers. Through online training modules, the platform focuses on developing the entrepreneurial competences of VET trainers, adult educators and trainers and supports them to design programmes and activities that promote entrepreneurial thinking based on the EntreComp framework. The e-learning space also hosts an online library of useful resources relevant to EU priorities and policies related to VET, as well as resources relevant to the needs of the VET sector in general.
The VETENTRE team worked very hard over the past year to compile the content of the modules and the e-learning platform experts at Innovade LI developed it online. VETENTRE partners have conducted a series of pilots in Germany, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Spain to test and evaluate the e-learning space and the online course with VET trainers and adult educators in each country in order to collect valuable feedback to finalise this output.
The VETENTRE Online Training course consist of 12 interactive units, divided into the following four sections:
Theoretical framework and key Entrepreneurship competences
Learning design strategies for integrating EntreComp in VET
Assessment of entrepreneurship competences in VET
Identification of the main digital tools that can be used within VET
The E-learning Platform and training course are available in English, German, Greek, and Spanish. The platform and training course can be accessed both from a PC or a mobile device, on the project’s platform at: http://elearning.vetentre.eu/.
As part of the SME Coaching Program, the VAMRS Project is organising an industry delegation visit to the city of Milan, Italy from the 12th to the 14th October 2022 to experience how VR and AR technologies are being used in business and industry. The delegation visit will be led by the CNR-STIMMA – Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing, who represent the VAMRS project in Italy.
If your company would like to visit industrial use cases of VR and AR, engage with cutting edge technology providers and participant at the BIMU digital manufacturing trade fair as well as the SMAU Innovation trade fair then please contact the VAMRS project or the project partners in your region directly, and we will be delighted to accompany you on this 3-day visit together with like-minded companies from across Europe.
(Funding for expenses available subject to eligibility).
The Digital Youth project partners have conducted focus group interviews with youth workers and youth trainers in Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, and Spain. The focus groups took place in May and June 2022 and aimed to map the gaps and needs in the field of youth in relation to digital youth work, in terms of their knowledge, skills, and competences.
In particular, the focus groups aim to:
Assess the current state of digital skills knowledge in youth workers
Identify gaps in digital skills and competencies of youth workers
Identify what youth workers need in digital skills
Identify digital devices and apps/software youth workers use daily.
The focus groups have gathered very valuable information from the target group of the project, which will be furtherly analysed and will lead to the creation of the Digital Youth Training Package. The package will include an Interactive Handbook for youth workers and online learning modules, as well as other useful resources for youth workers and youth trainers.
We were happy to welcome our VAM Realities partners in Cyprus for the third face-to-face meeting of the project. The meeting took place in Limassol on April 7th and 8th 2022. On a very productive first day of the meeting, we went through the important details for the project progress. We were joined by Delta Cygni Labs who demonstrated the POINTR Easy Remote Support, highlighting its benefits on tele-collaboration via AR/MR. We also went through the VAM Realities Study Visits which we are extremely excited to be announcing soon. The first day of the meeting concluded with a tour in the city of Limassol. On the second day of the meeting the Unveiling of Skills & Training Gap Detector was presented by our partners of TALTECH. We also had a first-hand experience of the possibilities of the 3DQR Studio. Partners also went through Dissemination, as well as budgeting and other administrative things. The meeting was brought to an amicable completion with two study visits at the Cyprus University of Technology; the CUTing Edge-An American Space and the Cyprus Interaction Lab, where we had the opportunity to learn about the research and other activities conducted by the two labs. You can find more information for VAM Realities and stay tune for future updates on the project’s social media pages and website at: www.vam-realities.eu
