Promoting LLL in HE by implementing innovative practices in RPL - EDUPROHigher education institutions and lifelong learning education keep searching for new ways of coexistence and cooperation. The important task of finding the right framework and right solutions to recognize prior learning outcomes resulted from everyday life experience, work environments and numerous social practices became a priority task in integrating HE and LLL.HEIs in Poland are currently in the stage of intense search for their own strategies and solutions when it comes to integrating LLL and RPL. Erasmus+ creates possibilities of learning from the experiences of more advanced partner institutions in EU, analysing their policies and strategies and build its own systems and tools of RPL while allowing European partners critical view of their own practices through action research process and the exchange of their experiences in the field. EDUPRO project was responding to the need of: widening participation in education for adult learners ( over 25 years old), promote and validate learning in non-formal and informal learning settings (i. e. workplace learning), create new curriculum and educational programmes for learners without prior academic experiences. Added value of the project was the involvement of other stakeholders (employers, local government, NGO’s) in the process of shaping key competences and skills essential for the market, local communities and active citizenship practices. There were four HEIs involved in the project, all of them experienced in participation in international research projects: DSW (University of Lower Silesia) – non state academic HEI established in 1997 in Wroclaw, Poland. University of Algarve, Portugal - HEI well known for its reach network of international cooperation and strong ties with local stakeholders. University of Warwick (UK) – one of the biggest and most prominent HEI in Great Britain with reach offer in LLL. University of Gdansk – one of the top state founded HEIs in Poland.Activities within the project led to create and test best practices and solutions (organizational, institutional, procedural and staff related) in LLL and RPL based on more advanced partners’ experiences, and to analyse current state of the art in RPL in EU based on resources of HEI. Main tasks of the project were: sharing experiences between partners, sharing resources and working materials, comparative studies between institutions as LLL leaders (case studies, action research, documents analysis), experimental implementation of RPL solutions in Poland based on recommendations for Polish practitioners in HEIs, creating an educational offer for learners from non-academic environments (non- traditional learners of all age and background).The outcomes of the project are both intellectual (institutional profiles, recommendation, research report on action research, guidelines for staff, website, papers and articles) as well as promotional and linked with dissemination of the project results (conference, workshops for the stakeholders). Long term results of the project are: raising awareness of LLL significance as a key learning practice through disseminating the outcomes of the project after its finishing, involving every possible open access resources to promote it.Long term results of EDUPRO are focused on HEIs and address the necessity to open up towards new groups of learners with diverse learning experiences, social and cultural capitals as well as new learning resources.

"We have achieved the goals we set out to do; our project is about finished. We have identified parameters relevant for student retention at our quite diverse institutions, investigated these through interviews, questionnaires and observations (with each partner assigned to a specific role/task). The data obtained has been scrutinized, and we have concluded on what ended up being the must fruitful keywords - ""care"" and ""flexibility"", as well as teaching methods. Concerning our distribution of tasks beween partners: Coleg Cambria and Axxell has been visited and investigated. They both are big institutions with retention success. University of lower Silesia has been leading into designing observation grids etc, and elaborating data. Campus Vejle has lead the project, and have been primary producing the ebook, and the website. Publisher Systime was to write the ebook with partners assistance, but Campus Vejle overtook this task almost completely.Our conclusions on retention lead to trial runs and some changes in retention relevant areas, as described by the respective partners here:Campus Vejle: CV has made changes into the “care”-area: A new student coach Louise Seremet Sørensen has been employed. This coach has the same function as the pastoral coaches at Coleg Cambria. Thus CV has separated the care function from the teachers, as our research implied that the double-function was no good approach. Campus Vejle has also increased the frequence of care-taking interviews with students. On the flexibility side CV has widened the array of profiled classes to students individual needs, so that each new student has a wider range of choices. I.e we have now the profiles “minus 20 year class”, “gaming class” (we have just moved our E-sport students who gets access to E-game facilities into new and specialized classrooms), and we are anticipating an “ADHD-class” (we shall find a better name for this class). Statistics from april 2019 shows that retention has improved significantly at Campus Vejle during over the past year, and as we have not made any major changes besides the above mentioned, we are prone to think that these changes have had an effect.Axxell: The project had a big impact on Axxell and the way we work with students. The benefits of working in an international project is that you through networking with the project partners can establish good contacts with your peers. You get to share best practices and ask recommendations on how to implement what you see/learn.One of the biggest impacts of the project was the way the Welch partner worked with a method that was/is called Pastoral Coaches. Through the project Axxell was able to learn and see how Pastoral coaches work and the impact they have on students. During the project Axxell developed a new group of staff called Examenshandledare. The idea for Examenshandledare came from the Pastoral coaches and they work now in a similar manner at Axxell. By introducing Examenshandledare we have become better at making sure that the students are cared for and Axxell has become better at recognizing risk factors for students dropping out. Even though Axxell has become better at this, due to Learning for Life, we still think we have a lot to learn about and hope to be able to participate in a European project working on establishing tools that helps prevent students from dropping already from the first day students begin their education. The 2 participants from Axxell, Unni and Henriette, were working as teachers when the project begun but by the end of the project they had been selected to work in the newly established positions of Examensledare, together with 4 other persons selected for this position. Unni and Henriette has educated the other Examenhandledare to the way a pastoral coach works and have thus implemented it in Axxell.From Denmark we learned the importance of creating welcoming surroundings/areas for students where they can work while working on project or just hang out during their breaks. Due to the project we have made changes to public areas at Axxell, trying to make them inviting and making students feel more comfortable and at ease. We’ve come to realise that it is important that students feel comfortable at school and that they have areas where they can socialize together. Another impact the project has had on Axxell is that we learned how to become better at making the students voice heard. We have now involved students in the planning of curriculas and also we become better at educating students in providing constructive feed-back in a way that will support them and other students learning.University og Lower Silesia: Regarding the implementations of particular solutions in our institution, I would like to remind, that our role in the project was to provide with analytical and pedagogical perspective. Also, we are the tertiary education institution, thus we haven't planned to implement particular organizational solutions as an outcome of the project. However, we claim, that as a result of the project we gained the knowledge about different modes of organization of the vocational education and we promote ""care"" and ""flexibility"" as an asset way to organize vocational education in Poland. We do it through presentations on seminars and conferences, preparation of academic papers, public discussions about best ways for vocational education development. We plan to establish the Centre for Skills Development at the ULS, which will be providing support for vocational education institutions in Poland according to better adaptations to nowadays expectations of the labormarket and economy. The experiences (the ""Flexibility"" and the ""Care"" modes in particular) learned out of the Learning For Life project, will be the essential part of the recommendations we will disseminate. In this respect we will cooperate with Technical Schools and Basic Vocational Schools. Moreover, as I am the expert of the Ministry of National Education of Poland for the vocational education issues, it is possible to promote outcomes of the project on the level of national educational policy. For the beginning it can be use in works on the Integrated Skills Strategy, which is the strategic document elaborated by Polish government in cooperation with the OECD. Its aim is to strenthen the skills development and usage system in Poland, and the vocational education, allong with LifeLong Learning and LifeWide Learning Perspective are crutial parts."

EMPLOY promotes the enhancement of the employability of students in higher education from a non-traditional background (both younger and adult) through improving the efficiency of transitions into the graduate labour market. With the development of a mass higher education system across Europe the student population has become more diverse by age, gender, class, ethnicity and disability. The issue of employability is a central policy concern of the EU, national governments and a key goal of the Bologna Process (The European Higher Education in 2012: Bologna Process Implementation Report) and there is also emerging evidence that graduate employability is a problem across Europe. This situation has been affected by the economic crisis but at different levels across Europe so that, for example, it is more difficult for graduate students in Portugal to find employment than graduates in Sweden. Research shows that non-traditional students are particularly affected in terms of graduateness. For non-traditional students the transition into employment often takes longer than ‘traditional students’ and there is the likelihood of entering employment which is below degree level and, therefore, less meaningful. There is also a mismatch between graduate credentials and employers' expectations. The project involves six partners from a range of countries from north and south Europe. We define non-traditional students as including those from low-income families, under-represented ethnic and socio-economic groups, mature students, first generation into HE and people with disabilities. EMPLOY centrally aims to improve the efficiency of transition into the graduate labour market of those who enter higher education from non-traditional backgrounds, by developing two European toolkits that presents best practice by HEIs and offers guidance to students on improving their employability. This will be achieved by using the voices, experiences and perceptions of participants (students, university staff and employers) through biographical approaches and in-depth interviews to identify best practices, policies and guidelines to be used in two handbooks. One handbook will be aimed at non-traditiional students in higher education while the other will be aimed at employers and university staff. The website and the use of social media, such as Twitter and podcasts, will be important in promoting dialogue and outcomes of the project. EMPLOY has a strong dissemination and exploitation strategy to ensure a wide European impact.The project will offer new insights into the relationship and different perspectives on employability and competences in relation to non-traditional students in HE. Importantly, this project aims to work for a more inclusive graduate labour market for non-traditional students across Europe.

Context Consider a typical image or description of an innovation in social robotics; There is always much attention paid to the newly-developed robot, to the team of researchers that has contributed to its development, and to the service user/patient/pupil/client that is interacting with the robot. Yet often, at the side or back of the picture, is the social professional (teacher, nurse, social pedagogue, occupational therapist ...) who will, in the future, work alongside the social robot. What is the impact of this innovation on their day-to-day work, their relationship with the client, with the robot, and on their own professional identity? Has their education and training even prepared them for this eventuality? How should they react? The use and potential use of artificial intelligence, decision support systems and social robotics is increasing across Europe. While the technological challenges are substantial, progress is being made in key areas and numerous prototypes and marketable products have been developed; and discussions and debates have commenced on the ethical, economic, philosophical and social challenges. While acknowledged that these technologies will be used by, or alongside, a broad range of social professionals, there has been little consideration of how this might impact on the everyday work, career development and professional identity of such professionals. Minimal consideration has been given to how these challenges can be incorporated into the education and training of such professionals, including curriculum content; pedagogy and standards. Objectives This project sought to draw on a broad range of experiences across Europe to address this deficit, and to generate tangible and useful outputs that will support innovative curriculum and pedagogical development in this field. ParticipantsThe participants are six HEIs in Ireland, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands and Denmark, a Danish local municipality and an Irish national social care organisation in the field of dementia. There is a broad span of expertise and knowledge across the consortium, in the fields of social robotics, social care, social service delivery and pedagogy, as well as in participation and management of EU projects. Description of undertaken activitiesThis project has undertaken a number of activities and produced a number of resources that have and will contribute to a broader understanding of the use of social robotics in the field of social care. Scoping reviews of existing knowledge; active workshops including a user-centred design workshop; case studies; position paper; academic articles; curriculum design and development of two (1x10; 1x20 ECTS) module descriptors; public symposia, project website. Results/impactA considered response and contribution to key European policy debates; at the local and national levels, an increased critical knowledge of the potential use of social robotics in the social care field, and how to organise/facilitate teaching, learning and development in the field. Long term benefitsA social professional workforce in Europe that is better placed to respond to the development of social robotics in the care field, with better outcomes for practitioners, service users and developers within Europe's emergent robotics industries.