Author: Nikolina Frangoullidou

MineTOUR: Becoming active citizens through Minecraft-enhanced Virtual Tourism

Written by Nikolina Frangoullidou on 03/06/2024. Posted in Projects & Initiatives.

MineTOUR is here to promote active citizenship and engagement of youth with civil society by using digital tools to encourage local tourism in rural areas. Expected results entail increased digital literacy, awareness of local cultural heritage and enhanced soft skills, while ensuring community involvement, sustainable local tourism and increased employability for youth. The project will also establish a network of stakeholders to keep promoting active citizenship and local tourism beyond the project.

Key objectives

• Encourage young individuals from rural areas to participate in developing and promoting local tourism becoming proud active citizens in their own hometowns.
• Equip them with digital tools for effective promotion and engagement with civil societies.
• Provide necessary resources and networks to showcase hometowns and foster local tourism.
• Promote cross-cultural exchange and collaboration among rural youth in Europe.
• Raise awareness of sustainable and socially responsible tourism practices.

leading2030 releases its first results Practice Principles Framework and the Upskilling Programme

Our project Leading 2030 Announces its First Results

Written by Nikolina Frangoullidou on 30/05/2024. Posted in Project News.

The LEADING 2030 project proud to announce its first significant milestone: the release of Practice Principles Framework and the Upskilling Programme. This marks a pivotal step in our mission to upskill business consultants, CVET professionals and leaders with competences to accelerate a culture of sustainability and ownership of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across Europe.

The Practise Principles Framework is the first output of the LEADING 2030 Erasmus+ project, and it acts as a strategic guide covering three main areas of the project, Sustainability, Business Practices, and Leadership. Apart from presenting the project’s reference practice principles through action vignettes, it also contains nine inspirational best practice examples from partner countries including Portugal, Greece, Estonia, Ireland, Cyprus, Spain and Germany. Its main goal is to guide leaders and organisations to embed the LEADING 2030 practice principles in their business strategies and initiatives. Find out more about the Practices Principle Framework here.

Complementing the framework, the LEADING 2030 Upskilling Programme is designed to enhance the skills of business consultants and CVET professionals, including trainers, coaches, and mentors using tailored training material. This training programme equips professionals with the competencies needed to support leaders and organisations in accelerating corporate sustainability and responsible business practices. Find out more about the Upskilling Programme here.

SeDiHUB final partner meeting and conference in Estonia

SeDiHUB – Exploring Design Thinking in a Conference in Estonia

Written by Nikolina Frangoullidou on 22/05/2024. Posted in Project News.

Our SeDiHUB project capped off its work and actions with a final Conference held at the University of Parnu in Estonia. The Conference, whose processes were followed by more than 40 attendees, served as the stage to explore and demonstrate how the Design Thinking methodology can be integrated into the strategic management of micro and family business to help them transform into innovative sustainable enterprises.

During the Conference, our partners showcased the work of the project, placing a special emphasis on illustrating the way its learning tools can serve as invaluable resources to family and micro-enterprises in creating greater value through service design methodology. Furthermore, our project manager Alexandros Peletie run a practical workshop on Design Thinking presenting the RIP+MIX methodology that facilitates the creative and inventive combination of diverse and, in the face of it incompatible, services and products. Alexandros’ workshop entailed a short introduction followed by group work that asked participants to utilise the information they received to collectively develop an innovative idea for an enterprise.

The workings of the Conference and the discussions held brought to the fore the key ideas and values that were examined, combined and developed by the SeDiHUB project over the course of its implementation and in its bid to support micro and family businesses to develop sustainable and digitalised services. To that end, it placed a special focus on providing structured guidance on the facets and utilisation of service design methodology and the ways in which it can be integrated into strategic planning and management of enterprises to facilitate their growth and sustainability.

Find out about our e-learning platform here

Green Vet Choices Partner final partner meeting in Florence

Green Vet Choices Wraps Up With Its Final Partner Meeting

Written by Nikolina Frangoullidou on 17/05/2024. Posted in Project News.

We are thrilled to announce the successful conclusion of our Green VET Choices.

A project, which has made remarkable strides over the past two years. Our journey culminated in a productive final meeting in Florence, where we met with our partners to discuss the project’s achievements and reflect on the steps taken toward shaping the future of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in the environmental sector.

In addition to a number of instrumental activities taking place throughout the project, including development of the training materials, workshops, and informational events, our team has developed an innovative e-learning platform, complete with comprehensive educational tools and reports. The great efforts of our team have paid off in ensuring that this new tool can support green VET careers, providing targeted and consistent strategies to address environmental challenges and combat climate change.

While we celebrate the successful closure of this chapter, our commitment to fostering a sustainable future for VET remains steadfast. Stay tuned as we continue to maximise our impact and leave an indelible mark on the VET environmental landscape.

GROWS project releases its First Newsletter

Written by Nikolina Frangoullidou on 15/05/2024. Posted in Project News.

The GROWS project, aims to raise awareness and empower the VET sector on the significance of sustainable waste management and the environment while improving the capacity of VET providers/trainers to implement activities in the field of environmental education with a focus on sustainable waste management and increase the levels of competences of VET providers on preparing and implementing a green education action plan.

Check out the first newsletter of the project to find out the outcomes of the first partner meeting, as well as the next steps of this important initiative.

GROWS – Moving towards a Green tRansitiOn through sustainable Waste management education in the VET Sector

Written by Nikolina Frangoullidou on 15/05/2024. Posted in Projects & Initiatives.

Waste management has become a hot topic recently due to the huge amount of waste produced in Europe (EC, 2018). Change is required and this can be achieved by a bottom up approach through VET and the integration of environmental issues caused by waste management. Thus, VET providers/trainers need to be trained and educated on producing innovative learning material to promote engagement towards sustainable waste management.

The GROWS project aims to raise awareness and empower the VET sector on the significance of sustainable waste management and the environment while improving the capacity of VET providers/trainers to implement activities in the field of environmental education with a focus on sustainable waste management and increase the levels of competences of VET providers on preparing and implementing a green education action plan.

DO – Digital Onboarding

Written by Nikolina Frangoullidou on 13/05/2024. Posted in Projects & Initiatives.

Numerous studies have proven the importance of onboarding for the successful induction and integration of new hires in any company/organisation. Since the COVID pandemic, organisations unable to provide onboarding in less traditional people-led, face-to-face ways were faced with challenges.

The aim of the project Digital Onboarding is to create a methodology and provide tools for this very important process (to both employers and employees), as well as training for those implementing digital onboarding in their organisations (e.g. HR), in order to maximize efficiencies and effectiveness of onboarding, especially in cases of frequent or large-scale recruitment. Successful onboarding results in higher employee satisfaction and retention rates and this project aims to help this.

The project DIGITAL ONBOARDING objectives are:

Develop Digital Onboarding Methodology for setting new hires for success and decrease time for them to become proficient in their new roles.
Identification of a set of open source tools suitable for digital onboarding purposes like e-Learning, VR, Automatic translation, multilingual Text-to-Voice Synthesizers.
Develop a training course on the Digital Onboarding Methodology and tools.

The Latest Updates from Switch Off Project in Its Third Newsletter

Written by Nikolina Frangoullidou on 10/05/2024. Posted in Project News.

As the Switch Off team remains dedicated to supporting worker’s well-being during remote work, the past few months have been filled with new exciting updates. From a series of impactful meetings to training sessions filled with thought-provoking discussions, the project has made an exemplary progress towards empowering HR professionals and managers to better support their staff and implement practices for better work-life balance in hybrid and remote working settings.

Read more about the progress of the project in its latest newsletter below and stay tuned for the upcoming events!

Youth-Well: Working Together for Resilient and Democratic Youth

Written by Nikolina Frangoullidou on 10/05/2024. Posted in Projects & Initiatives.

The Youth-Well project tackles the challenges at the intersection of European youth, mental health, democracy and resilience. One of its biggest goal is to connect young people across participating Member States so they can take their future, their mental health, and their participation in democracy into their own hands. Youth-Well also helps young people set up their own initiatives and projects which equally advocate for mental health and active citizenship.

Youth-Well among other things offers:

Advocacy activities across Europe for the European youth
Training manuals for youth workers on mental health and democracy
An e-learning platform on leadership skills
International conferences for youth advocates

UxGE Initiative Progresses: Online Training Course Development Underway

Written by Nikolina Frangoullidou on 10/05/2024. Posted in Project News.

In a bid to cultivate a generation of environmentally conscious leaders, the United for a Green Europe (UxGE) project convened its 2nd Transnational Coordination Meeting in Virginia, Ireland, from April 23rd to 24th, 2024.

With a vision to equip youth leaders with the essential competencies for shaping a sustainable future, the UxGE project’s 2nd Transnational Coordination Meeting charted significant milestones towards its objectives. In particular, the gathering, aimed at fostering coordination and progress, saw pivotal discussions on the development of an Online Training Course to empower youth leaders in advocating for a greener, more inclusive Europe.

Tasked with addressing youth leaders, the course will encompass modules on Leadership, Critical Thinking, Initiative, Entrepreneurship, and Environmental Challenges. Emphasising a holistic approach, the consortium will oversee the course’s design and execution, aiming to deliver a comprehensive educational tool that fosters both personal growth and environmental awareness.

The meeting’s success signifies a significant stride forward for the UxGE initiative, marking a concerted effort to nurture a cadre of youth leaders poised to spearhead positive change in Europe’s environmental landscape. With plans set in motion, the project remains steadfast in its mission to cultivate a generation of empowered advocates for a greener, more inclusive, and sustainable Europe.