Skip to main content

Author: Hanna Yerega

Ageing Well – Introducing Science-backed Habits to Age Well

We are excited to announce the launch of our new initiative Ageing Well, following the first official kick-off meeting that took place between 13th and 14th of March. CARDET, in collaboration with the Institute of Development, had the pleasure of hosting European partners to discuss the essential steps towards supporting the large population of older adults and keeping them engaged in lifelong learning, as one of the key contributing factors to wellbeing at any age.

In particular, the Ageing Well project aims to design and deliver an innovative program that will focus on supporting older people, as well as Adult Educators and caregivers who work with the elderly. The training program will help all target groups in acquiring and developing skills and competencies to cope with the changes that accompany the ageing process and successfully embrace this natural process of life and thrive. The training program will focus not only on providing tools so they can elevate their wellbeing, but also on empowering both target groups to combat age discrimination and achieve equity and social cohesion.

In addition, cutting-edge and practice-oriented educational approaches will be introduced as part of the project to help elderly’s and their caregivers’ personal and social resources. Cultivating basic skills of wellbeing that include emotion-regulation, interpersonal skills, and meaning will provide a sufficient framework to encourage people to embrace life and growth at all ages.

For more information about the project, please visit the dedicated page here.

EMERGE Webinar Recordings are Now Available Online

CARDET and Koumanto Stin Tsepi Sou are proud to announce the successful conclusion of the insightful webinar series aimed at enhancing active citizenship and fortifying civil society organisations in Cyprus. Carried out as part of the EMERGE project, the webinars covered a broad spectrum of pivotal issues, ranging from inclusive democracy and civic participation, to crucial aspects of financial literacy and its impact both on active citizenship, as well as daily life management. 

The series officially kicked off on December 5th, 2023, delving into the vital role of inclusive democracy and how digital and societal forces are reshaping citizen participation, offering insights into empowering civil society organisations (CSOs) and individuals towards active changemaking. Following this, a webinar on December 19th focused on addressing common financial management challenges, equipping participants with practical advice on budgeting, saving, and achieving financial stability.

In 2024, the series continued to explore other significant topics. On January 10th, the conversation shifted towards the contribution of Think Tanks to policymaking and public discourse, highlighting their importance in fostering civic participation and democracy. Subsequently, on January 17th, the focus was placed on advancing LGBTQ+ rights, discussing collaborative efforts towards equality, tolerance, and acceptance across communities.

The series also highlighted the role of civil society in peace-building and reconciliation between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities on January 24th, emphasising historical insights, success stories, and the critical role of youth engagement. Concluding the series on January 31st, a webinar underscored the intrinsic link between environmental rights and human rights, advocating for collective action in protecting our planet. 

This diverse range of webinars provided a rich platform for learning, discussion, and action, reflecting the EMERGE project’s commitment to societal improvement through knowledge and participation. All of the webinar recordings in English are now freely accessible on YouTube, in addition to the resources and tools that can be found on the official website of EMERGE project.

Teamwork2 Announces Exciting Developments in Its First Newsletter

Teamwork2, dedicated to addressing workplace sexual harassment, is thrilled to share its first developments to combat this widespread and under-reported gender-based violence across the EU.

By enhancing prevention and protection mechanisms of sexual harassment at the workplace through capacity building, coalition building, as well as interagency collaboration, the project aims to reinforce and further support implementation of the existing national policies and EU Freamework Directive on Safety and Health at Work.

Want to learn more about what teamwork2 has prioritised over the last few months to achieve this goal? Download the newsletter below for a detailed breakdown.

Green Vet Choices Successfully Finalises its E-learning Platform

Green Vet Choices (GVC) is excited to announce that the project has now successfully finalised its e-learning platform aimed at supporting green VET careers in a pursuit of more targetted and consistent tackling of environmental problems and climate change.

Following the piloting event on 27th of February, the Green Vet Choices’ e-learning platform and gamified content were reviewed by over 30 participants in the test training, where they had the unique opportunity to offer practical feedback, insights and suggestions to further improve this crucial tool. The feedback was offered not only about the general scope of the educational materials, but also considered the user-friendliness and set up of the platform, which will play an integral role in assisting future and current green VET careers.

Please note that the materials will be soon available on the project’s website.

fuTOURISME: Fostering digital & sustainable transition of TOURism SMEs for FUture

To improve the competitiveness of tourism SMEs throughout the twin transition (sustainable and digital), the fuTOURiSME project focuses on approaches and activities to help SMEs develop new business perspectives. In particular, the project aspires to stimulate the development and implementation of innovative, sustainable and digital initiatives, creating links between different forms of
innovation.

To achieve this, fuTOURiSME will provide technical and financial assistance to SMEs in designing innovative solutions to incorporate sustainable and digital practices, as well as support activities for incubation, acceleration and growth. To that end, the partners will also lay the foundation for the creation of cross-border and cross-sector collaborations between European tourism SMEs to facilitate knowledge and practice exchange while simultaneously elevating the innovation barriers in tourism-related value
chains through cutting edge solutions.

Enhance your digital skills! Participate in the ALL DIGITAL Weeks 2024 campaign 

Brussels, 26 February 2024 – Today, ALL DIGITAL, the European association representing networks of digital education stakeholders, is pleased to announce the launch of the ALL DIGITAL Weeks 2024 campaign, the annual digital inclusion and empowerment campaign involving digital competence centres, libraries, community centres, schools and other venues across Europe. 

In 2024, as in previous years, the campaign will receive support from the European Commission and will span over three weeks, from the 13th of May until the 31st of May. It will engage international and national partners, as well as participating organizations across various European countries. The campaign actions will be underpinned under the motto ‘‘Enhance your digital skills’’ which is a call to action for all European citizens and every individual living in Europe to learn new skills, both basic and advanced, to be able to face digital transformation with confidence. 

The campaign will build on what was achieved in 2023 and on its contribution to the success of the European Year of Skills, promoted by the European Commission. ALL DIGITAL Weeks 2024, on the occasion of the European elections (6-9 June 2024), will put aspects of digital democracy, civic participation and social responsibility into focus, as well as cover challenges arising from disinformation online and a lack of information literacy for a large portion of Europe’s citizens are in the spotlight, as much as initiatives, solutions and tools fostering participation, equity and inclusion. 

The campaign will also support the implementation of specific actions of the Digital Education Action Plan 2021-27 of the European Commission, with the main objective of enhancing digital skills and competences for the digital transformation. Many EU projects where ALL DIGITAL is involved will be presented during the campaign period to increase their visibility across Europe.

The three weeks of the campaign will focus on the following specific core themes under which all the training and events will be organised at international and national level across Europe: Digital Skills for employment, entrepreunership and innovation (reskilling and up-skilling); Digital Skills in “Equity, Diversity and Inclusion’’ (encompassing issues such as migration, democratisation, gender gap, ethnicity); DigComp, DigCompEdu and Digital Skills Certifications; Digital media literacy and disinformation; Cybersecurity and safer internet; Digital Skills for Environment and Sustainability; Digital Skills for specific sectors (education, cultural and creative industries, transportation, health…) and the application of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in education and training

How the campaign will be supported in 2024

The campaign aims to show the need for empowering all European citizens with the digital tools and skills they need in their studies, jobs, and for social inclusion. We will focus on different actions covering policy themes, European project dissemination activities, and promotion of grassroots level activities. It encourages various activities to support the Europeans who do not have enough digital skills to participate fully in society and benefit from digital transformation.

The international launch event of the campaign will be organised in Brussels on the 14th of May 2024, involving policymakers, digital education stakeholders and ALL DIGITAL members.

The campaign will be sustained and promoted with the support of selected national coordinators across Europe. The national coordinators are ALL DIGITAL present or future members that will liaise with organisations involved in digital skills, will promote the campaign across their networks, and monitor the performances at national level. They will have the role of fostering the visibility of the ALL DIGITAL Weeks in their country, and support and coordinate the local partners in the organisation of local events, training and courses which provide different population groups with digital skills and education. 

We will invite international networks, umbrella organisations, or those with capacity to have a big regional or national reach to join as partners of the campaign. We ask them to support us in promoting the campaign and planned activities to their network and raise awareness on digital education issues tackled by the campaign in their country. We invite them to organize an international event in English and have it featured in the ALL DIGITAL Weeks 2024 agenda as well to encourage local organisations to add their events, courses, lectures, and training on the map of events, to showcase the concrete impact they have in enhancing teachers, students, employees, elderly people, migrants, and all groups impacted by the digital transformation. The map will be operational at the beginning of March on the ALL DIGITAL Weeks website.

We will welcome articles/blogs about the campaign with an overview of what has happened in the country, highlighting best/most interesting events. Interesting news will be published on ALL DIGITAL Weeks website and promoted through ALL DIGITAL’s social media accounts.

The Campaign

The ALL DIGITAL Weeks campaign is one of the major pan-European awareness raising campaigns on digital skills for inclusion, empowerment and employment. It is organised by ALL DIGITAL Network, and it has been running since 2010. Since then, the campaign has helped almost 1.5 million people to get online for the first time or enhance their digital skills. 

The awareness-raising campaign is run at digital competence centres, libraries, community centres, schools and other venues across Europe. Every year it helps about 100,000 Europeans from 20+ European countries to learn and be inspired by what technology can do for them, focusing on the opportunities given by digital transformation and its effects. The campaign is co-funded by the European Commission (1)

Over the years, the campaign was supported by Microsoft, Liberty Global, Accenture, Telenet, Cisco, Mozilla Foundation, Certiport.

For more information please contact:

Andrea Bedorin

Senior Communications Officer

andrea.bedorin@all-digital.org 

(1) Disclaimer: Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

TheEcoSTEAM eLearning Concept is Now Available

The EcoSTEAM Development team is thrilled to announce the completion of its first deliverable: The EcoSTEAM eLearning Concept. Following a year-long development phase, educational researchers, curriculum developers, and STEAM educators have jointly devised a comprehensive training course targeting STEAM educators. The resulting course aims to equip formal and non-formal education STEAM practitioners with essential skills and know-how for fostering environmental awareness and consciousness among secondary school students through STEAM methods and pedagogies.

The content coverage of the eLearning Concept training course ultimately seeks to support educators in enhancing students’ interest in scientific topics through innovative educational activities and projects, encouraging future studies and employment in STEAM-related fields. 

Drawing insights from over 120 scientific journal articles and extensive reflective workshops, project partners have meticulously designed four learning Modules encapsulating a series of didactical guidelines, quality indicators, and assessment strategies. The four principal thematic areas of the resulting modules cover: 

  • Fundamentals of instructional design in STEAM Learning & Education
  • Integrating and developing environmental awareness and ecological literacy through STEAM
  • Fostering communities of practice among STEAM educators 
  • Nurturing STEAM professionals of the future – from theory to practice

The EcoSTEAM eLearning Concept is a valuable resource for STEAM educators, equipping them with an essential understanding of integrating environmental agency into their teaching practices through highly engaging and creative STEAM activities. The EcoSTEAM team aspires to impact European STEAM education networks positively.

To access the EcoSTEAM eLearning Concept and stay updated on our future endeavours, visit EcoSTEAM website here.

VideoTeach Releases Its Video Course for VET Trainers

Following another successful transnational partner meeting in Karaman, Turkey – the VideoTeach project has marked significant progress towards making video teaching accessible to all. 

In particular, the meeting hosted by Temizel, Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School, (Ünlü Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi) from 5th to 6th of February has given all partners the opportunity to finalise important deliverables including:

As part of the meeting proceedings, the partners also had the opportunity to exchange knowledge and best practices with teachers and school administration, as well as observe classes, visit laboratories and learn about the school activities and initiatives. All these insights only further reaffirmed the course of direction for the VideoTeach project, and provided additional tips on the next steps of this initiative, including the finalisation of the VideoTeach platform.

TUA Pilots Its Training for Professionals Working with Youth with ASD/SD

The Unexpected Artepreneur (TUA) project is happy to announce the successful completion of its 2-day pilot training for professionals working with youth youth on the Autism Spectrum and Down Syndrome at Toxotis Charitable Foundation in Nicosia.

Aimed at forstering a deeper sense of belonging and inclusion of the young people with ASD/DS in the society, this Erasmus+ initiative leverages ‘artepreneurship’ to empower individuals and initiate different touchpoints in the community. To effectively achieve that, the project consortium has developped a comprehensive Training Curriculum to help professionals confidently incorporate this innovative and creative approach in their line of work.

During the pilot training, the psychologists and SEN educators got a firsthand look at TUA Training Curriculum and more importantly, offered their invaluable feedback and recommentations. This is a critical element for further refinement and enhancement of the proposed curriculum, before it will be available as part on an e-learning course to all for free.

For more annoucements on TUA Training Curriculum and the launch of the TUA – Express Yourself platform, please check out the TUA website. More updates are coming soon.

SMILE: Sustainable MobILity in school Education

By the end of this century, climate is expected to change due to the large amounts of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere. The European Green Deal (EGD) wants to tackle the threat of climate change by having no net emissions of GHG by 2050 and the EC aims for Europe to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, but in order for this to occur, there is a need to decrease anthropogenic GHG emissions.

The EC suggests that education and training will help achieve the green transition the EGD is aiming for. Therefore, equipping teachers’ knowledge and skills on using green activities will contribute to achieving environmental sustainability and thus, sustainable mobility.

SMILE aims to build the capacity of teachers to be able to implement activities with students in the field of climate change, sustainable mobility and STEAM education in order to increase awareness on these pressing topics.