Professional Development Courses for Engineering Management and Leadership SkillsThe wider objective of the project was to improve Macedonian engineering manager’s performance through improvement of their management and leadership skills. The target group consisted of engineering managers, engineers entrepreneurs or engineers who wished to become managers, from Macedonia and the neighboring countries with similar context. The professional development courses for management and leadership skills improved their competences, linked to their professional profiles, increased opportunities for professional development, and increased the motivation and satisfaction in their daily work.The major aim of the project was to jointly develop and implement professional development courses for engineering management and leadership skills, which addressed European standards for management and leadership, as well as was built on rigorous research evidence and principles of adult education. The professional development courses for management and leadership skills was modular and practice-oriented, and overcame skills mismatched and increased management and leadership competencies of engineers working on managerial positions in Macedonia, and in the region prospectively. The second aim of the project was to develop learning environment, online courses, webinars, which offered flexibility and was adapted according to learning preferences of adult. The project was also oriented towards training of adult trainers, on relevant topics in adult education. Successful realization of the project activities provided integrated professional development courses for management and leadership skills to be developed, implemented and evaluated. These courses were tailored made according to the assessed needs and expectations of engineering managers in Macedonia and the region, as well as analysis and benchmarking of the management and leadership standards in Europe and adult training courses in this field. Also, specially designed learning environment met the needs of the adult learners, providing flexibility and innovative approaches of delivery of these courses. All professional development courses for engineering management and leadership skills were taught using contemporary training methods, such as problem based learning, game based learning, case study method, etc. Professional development courses were organized using blended learning concept – a combination of traditional and e-learning concepts. All course materials and activities were available to adult learners through a distance learning system. The excellent quality of training, learning and examining methods, utilizing the possibility of new media, significantly contributed to high quality learning opportunities. The professional development courses were developed based on EU wide transparency and recognition tools,in line with EU policy in the field of adult learning. In order to ensure the quality and recognition, the professional development courses for engineering and leadership skills were accredited by Ministry for education and science in R.Macedonia. Certification of the courses enhanced the sustainability of the project and offer opportunity new adult learners from Macedonia and the region to take the courses and improve their work performance by improving their management and leadership skills. Project results and lessons learned were disseminated using several medias: web portal, internet, social media, engineering networks, publications, events, open days, conferences, etc.

PROSPER comes in response to the documented need for infusing Social Economy and Social Entrepreneurship into Higher Education and will particularly focus on countries where the concept of social economy enjoys a moderate level of recognition (Poland, Greece and Bulgaria) and is little known (Austria and Croatia) (CIRIEC,2017). Indicatively, in Poland needs in the field of Social Economy urge for the establishment of permanent links with research community (Institute of Social Policy, 2014), Croatia, Bulgaria and Greece report some of the lowest rates of employment in the sector (1%, 2,8% and 3,3% respectively) and EC (2014) presses for measures that could spread Social Entrepreneurship education in Austria. Additionally, Social Entrepreneurship is currently embedded within Higher Education with a quite narrow approach that has mainly a subject-specific focus and application in business studies. Within this context, it is difficult to leverage its full potential and offer holistic solutions to urgent societal issues. We need to empower and equip people from all educational backgrounds to become social entrepreneurs and develop a sense of purpose that is based upon creating social value through entrepreneurship.Recognising these needs and studying the latest innovation trends in education, PROSPER aspires to offer a transdisciplinary educational Programme based on the gamified blended learning course “Tackling real-world challenges through Social Entrepreneurship” and the teachers’ PROSPER educational toolkit that would be facilitated and complemented by the PROSPER platform for Social Entrepreneurship Education. PROSPER educational programme will be supported by the following educational approaches:•Game-based learning: building upon the strong potential of gamification approaches to create value and impact on people’s behavior, PROSPER aspires to bring students from any discipline closer to their communities and empower them to create their own sustainable solutions•Service-learning: drawing upon the several studies that identify service-learning as a suitable approach to teach Social Entrepreneurship, our project aims to utilize service-learning to offer actual and real-world learning experiences facilitated by short-term placements in social enterprises.PROSPER will develop an innovative, transdisciplinary and effective educational programme for Higher Education that will be based on the above tangible results:-the gamified blended learning course on “Tackling real-world challenges through Social Entrepreneurship” including 6 interactive modules on social entrepreneurship adapted to be applied in various disciplines through blending gameplay and real-life experiences gained through of service-learning. More than 50 students and teachers will test the course and more than 25 service-learning projects will be developed with the collaboration of more than 100 social enterprises and community actors in the 5 pilot countries;-the teachers' training toolkit for supporting the implementation of the course facilitating the smooth and effective implementation of the course. The toolkit will support teachers coming from diverse fields of study, embed social entrepreneurship into their curriculum following our projects’ interactive and innovative methodology combining the virtual game-based learning environment with real-world opportunities through service learning. It will contain 6 handbooks that will be both printable in the form of handbooks and also transformed into eBooks. More than 25 university teachers will be trained through the transnational training workshop on how to use this toolkit and apply for the course within their curriculum; -the PROSPER social entrepreneurship online platform that will facilitate students’ learning through collaboration, knowledge and experience sharing as well as the open access to more than 100 educational resources that will be produced during the project lifetime. Through online channels of communication, it will also foster interaction between teachers, students and social entrepreneurs, as more than 120 stakeholders and target groups will be engaged to the project activities through the platform and more than 100 social enterprises and community organisations will be registered on the platform and offer short-term placements for students.

CONTEXT AND BACKGROUNDThe DEAPS project will facilitate creative learning opportunities for children (5 to 16 years) in schools by transferring the knowledge of Artist Educators (writers, actors, dancers, musicians, visual artists) to a school context. Whilst the importance of young people’s creative thinking skills in Europe is recognised (OECD, 2018; PISA, 2020), it is also acknowledged that the creative arts have been marginalised within European school curricula (Wyse and Ferrari, 2015; Bamford, 2014). Young people from higher social economic groups mitigate against this through extra-curricular activities, but those from areas of disadvantage often miss out. Research also points to a rise in mental health issues experienced by young people across Europe, with 29% of 15-year-old girls and 13% of 15-year-old boys feeling low more than once a week (WHO Europe, 2018). Research in the partnership demonstrates a clear link between young people engaging in the creative arts and experiencing enhanced wellbeing through engaging authentically in learning (Stephenson and Dobson, 2019). Across Europe, there is a range of evidence to support the link between the creative engagement of young people of all ages in schooling and wellbeing. With younger children, the EU Early Childhood Education and Care Project (2016) demonstrates how increased creative engagement helps foster a sense of self; with older children, research (Federico, Bartolucci and De Carol, 2019; Downes, 2018; Chemi and Du, 2018) shows how increased creative engagement impacts on early school leaving (ESL). By facilitating the knowledge transfer of a range of Artist Educators to teachers working with 5-16 year olds, DEAPS will help teachers develop their skills as Teacher-Artist Educators and strengthen the profile of the teaching profession. In addition, DEAPS will also see Artist Educators collaborating with parents in order to help parents support the creative development of their children. These measures will improve young people’s wellbeing, engagement in schooling at all ages and positively affect ESL (European Commission, 2014) and the economic and social cohesion impacts caused by ESL (Honeyball, 2011; Balcescu and Zaharia, 2018).OBJECTIVES DEAPS aims to ensure the positive mental health of young people and reduce ESL by providing spaces for engagement with the creative arts in schools. This will be achieved by our diverse partnership working alongside Artist Educators with a range of artistic practices to transfer their knowledge to teachers and parents of children between 5 and 16 years of age. This will see teachers “crossing boundaries” (Dobson and Stephenson, 2020) to adopt a Teacher-Artist Educator identity.The first two Intellectual Outputs (IOs) will be Toolkits for Teachers and School Leaders. To help parents and carers support the creative engagement of their children, the third IO will be an audio-visual guide. Finally, to develop preservice teachers’ ability to creatively engage young people, the fourth IO will be an immersive educational game for teacher trainers to use with pre-service teachers. The four key objectives of DEAPS are:1.To facilitate Artistic Educators to work productively in a range of school settings to provide creative learning opportunities for young people;2.To disseminate the practice of Artist Educators to the full range of adults working with young people (teachers, leaders, teacher trainers, parents and carers);3.To help schools and teacher trainers embed the practice of Artist Educators throughout their curriculum;4.To make a contribution to wider policy and research discourses about creativity and education.PARTICIPANTS AND METHODOLOGYA participatory design methodology will be used for outputs, closely involving the target groups. During the planning phase, focus groups of 16 persons will be set up by each international partner involving key groups - Artist Educators, teachers, school leaders, preservice teacher trainers, parents, policy makers – in order to determine a Framework for how Artist Educators work in schools. The production phase will then take place in schools, with Artist Educators in each partnership working with a class of children, a teacher, a curriculum leader and a group of parents or a teacher trainer, to begin to develop the IOs through practice. In the evaluation phase, 50 representatives from target groups will help refine the outputs.IMPACTDEAPS will have impact across a number of institutions, developing the practices of the full range of adults involved in the education of young people. Partner institutions will strengthen their understanding of creative practice. In the long term, the dissemination of the outcomes will strengthen the profile of the teaching profession. Having more Teacher-Artist Educators in schools will impact positively upon young people’s mental health and engagement, reducing ESL.

siehe oben

The KnowHub project will reconnect universities and enterprises in the Western Balkans to support the development of innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem through knowledge transfer. This cooperation will sustain and further grow the research and practical teaching capacities of the targeted universities, will increase the international competitiveness of the enterprises and will provide students with practical experience enhancing their (self)employability. This will be achieved through setting-up of Commercialisation Hubs at the European University of Tirana and University of Vlora in Albania, University of Sarajevo and University of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina and at the University of Montenegro. The Hubs will join knowledge, resources and infrastructure from different university units and centres serving as a one-stop-shop for cooperation with industry. Each Hub’s placement, strategy, business plan and portfolio of instruments will be tailor-made to the needs and capacities of the universities from the project. This will enhance the full potential of each university and the Hubs’ sustainability. Within the scope of this project the Hubs and the Partner Country Universities (PCUs) will develop capacities in Rapid Prototyping and Lean Manufacturing through study visits and trainings, as well as peer-mentoring from the EU universities. At least15 enterprises will be engaged in university-enterprise cooperation projects including more than15 professors and 45 students. The project will also develop the Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) capacities at the PCUs. Academic staff will be trained (≥25 professors) in order to increase both the commercialisation of research through entrepreneurial activities (start-ups and spin-offs) and to embed I&E topics and skills into (≥25) technical courses. The first generation of (≥50) students active in the Hubs will be trained on STEM Bootcamp increasing their (self)employability.