<< Objectives >>By means of our developed innovative self-service teaching and learning material, we optimally bridge theory and practice and raise “greening” competences of teachers and pupils (secondary school level 1). This shall lead to greening of schools (and further spheres of the target groups) with a positive impact on the environment especially climate mitigation, enhancing the school’s microclimate, contributing to a sound learning environment and raising awareness to the significance of greening.<< Implementation >>We plan to ●develop teaching & learning material focusing on greening topics like soil types, microclimate, plant species and ecological cycles with focus on three European climate and vegetation zones (Alpine, Mediterranean, north coast),●validate the material in workshops with school representatives, ●derive a guideline for integration into national curricula in Austria, Germany and Spain and●disseminate the results in partner countries and beyond<< Results >>●Teaching and learning material with hands-on experiments for secondary school level 1, fostering learning and applied environmental protection using the example of school greening ●Target group feedback and validation to the teaching & learning material ●Applicability in the school context through a guideline for matching national curricula ●Dissemination materialThe results shall be available in English, German, Spanish and Basque, digitally accessible and OER licensed.

The availability of information across Europe about certain economic sectors’ and companies’ demands is a complex, but key area when facing youth unemployment, low employability or mismatches between supply and demand. The European Commission has presented a package of concrete measures to promote the recovery of employment in Europe including a number of recommendations for member states to mobilize all available resources to emphasize job creation by strengthening the link between education and work. In response to this there is clearly a key role for labour market observatories throughout Europe to better coordinate strategies between employment and training policies and economic and territorial development strategies, and further there is a need to understand how more resources and tools could be made available for them. SIMOVET was conceived to tackle the mismatches in the supply and demand of qualified people by supporting the decision making process in order to better adapt the vocational training offer. This has been achieved by improving the current information systems responding to companies’ and economic sectors’ quantitative and qualitative demands. Established as a strategic partnership of 5 expert institutions in the field of labour market monitoring and the provision of support to the formation of training and employment policies, SIMOVET is grounded in the exchange of know-how and the implementation of pilot projects intended to improve the current labour market information models. The project’s target audiences are the policy makers involved in the decision-making processes in the area of local, regional, national and European VET systems, as well as training providers, job seekers, workers, youngsters needing career advice, and so on. As shown on its website, among other results of the project, the “Database of best practices” and its “Evaluation report”, include 26 useful information tools for labour market analysts to use due to their practical approach, focused in future implementations by the participants themselves or other organisations. Combined with the “Lessons Learned” report, they are key assets for VET policy makers.SIMOVET has developed 5 “Pilot Projects”, which implement new information methods based on the good practices gathered beforehand and adapted at a regional level. The “Case Studies” showcase the projects and explain the main results and impacts. The projects are the start of a new working method in each region and its impact can be appreciated in the application of this information in the decision making process in the area of vocational training.The project has also shown the benefits of involving key agents to promote essential changes, since “Regional Working Groups” have been created in each region involving labour market experts, training/educational experts and policy makers. The workshops have demonstrated the opportunities of the information tools and the growing need of establishing long term links between the vocational training system and the labour market. At the same time, these links have been strengthened by the final events which have taken place in each of the beneficiaries’ regions and where other relevant economic agents have participated.Moreover, SIMOVET has developed 4 “Career guidelines” which include everything from the explanation of how regional labour market information systems work to sectorial information related to the description of skills and occupations. It is estimated that this product will reach tenths of thousands of users, in the form of training providers, career advisors, job seekers, workers, young people, and so on.Since all partners are active members of the European Network of Regional Labour Market Monitoring (ENRLMM), this cooperation has enabled the transfer of knowledge to around 28 countries, nearly 600 institutions, as well as European organisations active in VET policies: European Parliament, DG Employment, DG Education and Culture, CEDEFOP, etc. This transfer of knowledge to other European regions will have a direct impact in the applicability of these practices, and other observatories and organisations will be able to put into practice these improvements in their own labour market information models. At the same time, it will help to improve the employability of youngsters and to build more competent and skilled workers across Europe achieving a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy delivering high levels of employment, productivity, competitiveness and social cohesion, in accordance with Europe 2020 Strategy.

"As identified in the initial project proposal, the Promoting Green Games project sought to develop an educational digital game & associated resources to innovate & support improvements in the area of sustainability education in schools, along with a toolkit for teachers to aid in the integration of this game in the classroom. The project achieved this primary goal by creating a game & associated resources to support the introduction, integration & support of sustainability (&/ or climate action) education & activity within schools for both students & for teachers. The developed project outputs have been subject to testing, feedback & re-development a number of times over the course of the project to align them as closely as possible to the needs of the target audience & education sector & the main outputs (primarily the game & associated training material) are currently freely available on all major mobile formats & in public repositories such as the iOS store & Google play store. Feedback from pilot participants indicated an extremely positive opinion towards the use of the game for teaching & learning.The project has exceeded expectation in a number of key areas. In particular, the project has developed a large number of resources, beyond the initial targeted expectations identified in the project proposal. In particular, the project has developed a number of online platforms (3 in total, beyond the single platform - O5 - defined in the proposal) in order to diversify and promote the individual elements of the project - the developed project game (http://penjiithegame.com/), the teacher back-end supporting the game (https://teachers.penjiithegame.com/) and the ""official"" online platform housing all developed resources (http://greenskillsgame.eu/). The project has developed a large and varied amount of training material as part of the game development process and has made this material across multiple formats and media, ranging from the in-game learning resources to classroom-based posters, to online animations. The project has developed an innovative digital game, which not only serves as an engaging tool for supplying and raising awareness about key sustainability/ climate action areas - including climate change, plastic pollution, biodiversity, the SDGs, climate justice, household water, food and energy waste - but has, as part of this development, created an innovative approach supporting sustainability and climate action education in which Game-Based-Learning can be used as part of a flipped classroom approach to support climate action education inside of and outside of the classroom and which can ultimately support teachers and students in creating genuine impact and action. This innovative approach arises from the presence of a “Teacher Back-End”, linked to the developed digital game, through which teachers can release specific levels to students so that students can learn about one or more of the 4 key climate action areas covered by the game - either in-class or outside the classroom. Teachers can then further build on students’ in-game learning by accessing a range of curated existing climate action education resources, alongside bespoke climate action education resources developed as part of the project, through the teacher back-end website and/ or project game website in order to deepen student learning through in-class activities and supports. Teachers can also, as a fourth step, utilise a database of climate action initiatives aimed at primary and secondary schools available on the the game website and teacher back-end to identify suitable initiatives which their students and/ or schools can become involved in, in order to create genuine impact. The project results have been validated with a large audience - primarily the key target audience of teachers and students in primary and secondary schools, but also with organisations/ institutions charged with supporting sustainability/ climate action education alongside policy makers, education representatives, public representatives, etc. Feedback on the project outputs has been uniformly positive and ongoing activities look to embed the resources in the area of sustainability/ climate action education for schools across Europe. The project was widely disseminated to a large range of participants across multiple channels locally, nationally, across Europe and internationally - through face-to-face meetings, conferences, festivals and events, through piloting activities and trainings and through a wide range of online means. The developed project outputs are freely available and have been developed and provided so that they remain freely available indefinitely on open online portals such as the Google Play store and Apple iOS store, (where the digital game has currently amassed in excess of 500 downloads), maximising access and visibility not only to the target audience, but to the general public as well."

<< Background >>The EU launched an unprecedented, ambitious initiative “The European Green Deal” (EGD) as an integral part of the EU Commission’s strategy to implement the United Nations 2030 Agenda & the sustainable development goals. Reliable, comparable & verifiable information plays an important part in enabling consumers to make more sustainable decisions & reduces the risk of ‘greenwashing’. As part of EGD initiatives, companies will be required to report against a standard methodology & to assess their impact on the environment. In current practice, the Non-financial Reporting Directive (NFRD, no. 2014/95/EU) lays down the rules on disclosure of non-financial information by companies & is fully transposed in all EU Member States (including partners’ countries). Companies are required to include non-financial statements in their annual reports from 2018 onwards, regarding operational, social & environmental data. However, as the reporting obligation applies only to certain types of companies over 500 employees, the proportion of businesses disclosing non-financial information is very low. Moreover, several problems were identified, raising a question mark referring to the company’s capacity in delivering such reports; various analyses reveal that in many cases, information is provided at a general level and/or data are incomplete and non-comparable. Moreover, most SMEs and other organizations have been struggling to report on a voluntary basis due to their insufficient capacity and understanding of the issue. Nevertheless, the new Corporate Social Reporting Directive (CSRD) is currently in the legislative process that extends its scope to all companies over 250 employees and certain SMEs, which will be required to report on non-financial aspects of their business since 2024. The number of companies subject to the mandatory reporting will thus be many times higher and the managers and responsible employees will have to cope with new challenges. Therefore the project aims to fill a gap in VET programmes dealing with knowledge in sustainability strategic approach & reporting & build up a common approach for VET teachers & learners across the EU to respond to the requirements of the future & flexible job market, to: - Develop partnerships amongst educators, businesses & other stakeholders aimed at promoting work-based learning in all its forms & supporting VET learners in acquiring & developing skills & key competences in sustainability reporting & foster employability; - Introduce open education & innovative digital practices making education available for all & facilitating new learning methods by development of a new e-Learning platform; - Facilitation of the recognition & validation of competences for the SECuRe Manager job, covering the needs of companies, by the creation of an innovative VET course. Implement/test during short-term trainings & demo trainings the learning content & learning materials developed.<< Objectives >>The general idea of the proposed project is the creation of a new Vocational Educational Course & a corresponding Professional Skill/Competency profile, in line with ECVET, that will enable professional staff in a private and/or a public body & VET teachers, to become a certified SECuRe Managers (or specialized Trainer), able to either shape/establish a complete department focusing on sustainability strategy, reporting & related activities. The project will focus in developing knowledge, competences & strengthen key skills contributing to SECuRe education & promote open & innovative practices in the digital age, efficient use of Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) in education, improving their teaching capacity through a creativity training program. The objectives are: - Develop partnerships amongst educators, businesses & stakeholders with the purpose of supporting VET learners in acquiring & developing skills & key competences in sustainability, CSR/financial data & SDGs reporting & foster employability. - Introduce open education & innovative digital practices & make education available for all & facilitate new learning methods, by development of a new e-Learning platform developed to assist the integration of sustainability issues through companies’ activities & manpower. - Facilitation of the recognition & validation of competences for the SECuRe Manager job, covering the needs of companies, by the creation of an innovative VET Course including gamification aspects - Implement/testing during short-term trainings & demo trainings the learning content & learning materials developed.<< Implementation >>The consortium will introduce a project management approach that will be based on the principles of Adaptive Project Framework concept. The key activities will be broken into four main areas: the initiation (starting the project on the right foot), the Intellectual Output/phases boundaries (commitment of resources), ad hoc direction (monitoring progress, providing advice & guidance, reacting to exception situations) & project closure (confirming the project outcome & controlled close). In order to achieve the timely & qualitative completion of the project, a coherent management approach, techniques & tools for managers to administrate, monitor & control the project resources, will be utilized. All partners will be involved in the delivery of intellectual outputs, they will be achieved by caring on activities according to the Work Plan & by applying specific methodologies & methods. The sequence of the activities follows a logical approach until the achievement of the final outcomes of the project. Those are connected to the main intellectual outputs as follows: The SECuRe Knowledge Repository (KR). Knowledge repositories help learners to connect with information & expertise globally via online searchable libraries, by providing a central location to collect, contribute & share digital learning resources for use. We will try to organise this collection by topics, so participants will have facile access to tailored information. The KR architecture will allow further enclosure by all partners of new released information, which is continuously developing in this area. Moreover, VET Teachers will be able to consult an open education resource in order to prepare for further courses, & stay updated to novelties. Development of the SECuRe VET Course; focusing on: Elaboration of the professional job profile for SECuRe Manager – according to the levels defined in the EQF job profile level, meaning a solid & realistic base for the training program development, which is explained in the project outcome 2. The Learning Outcomes will be structured in accordance with the standards outlined according to EQF) & ECVET. Development of SECuRe ICT elements: website & e-Learning platform. The ICT support tools are going to be developed simultaneously based on the elaborated content & will be tested in different phases of the project, the train the trainers course, the demo training & finally within the experimental online training. SECuRe Demo training of the draft course, all partners will undertake the following activities: (a) information, organizations & commitment of the target groups to participate in the demo training. (b) performance of the demo training in all countries (c) collecting feedback (d) summarizing feedback for further improvement of the course. Demo training will be performed in all countries, with the participation of all partners & the feedback shared among them with the final purpose to improve the course. SECuREOnline experimental course, the foreseen activities refer to preparing the content & make it ready for moving online, incorporation of interactivity in the content & conduction of the experimental Online Training. Project dissemination. Outputs: Communication & Dissemination Plan, common info tools developed to communicate results. According to the strategy, partners will have clear tasks & a timeframe to complete them. Five multiplier events are foreseen in all participating countries & are planned in systematic manner to disseminate the intellectual outputs & involve stakeholders at key steps of the project. Those will have the aim to involve the local stakeholders. Representation from all stakeholders is necessary in order to ensure that all interests are reflected in the course. A quality plan will be developed which includes qualitive and with it quantative measures in every activity.<< Results >>The foreseen results of the project are: - Development of the SECuRe Knowledge Repository - Development of the SECuRe VET COURSE prepared for certification in line with the European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System (ECVET) framework, - The course will be offered as a Free Open Educational Resource & will be accessible on the SECuRe e-Learning platform during the project lifetime & afterwards. By using modern, digital technologies & tools & software, the course aims at offering work-based learning & training to the companies’ staff, motivating & maximizing enjoyment & engagement of the staff to a “greener” & more sustainable behavior, meant to improve a company’s sustainability performance. Application of work based learning of SECuRe VET course within five pilot demos meant to collect feedback to be used to improve the Course. Massive online experimental online course for final validation of the SECuRe Educational Programme - SECuRe project is expected to have a significant impact on partners’ organizations, VET providers & institutions, consultants & professionals from any economic sector, & other relevant stakeholders that will be involved throughout the project lifetime & beyond. It is worth noting how the project will have an important impact in changing daily functions of enterprises, through the new role of certified staff/managers/trainers in SECuRe VET Course, & therefore, transforming, reshaping & reducing companies & organizations carbon footprint & environmental & social impacts.

<< Background >>Our project has been designed to support the European Union by addressing two priorities. The first priority is “Addressing digital transformation through the development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity”. All of the partner institutions are members of the European Network for Regional Labour Market Monitoring (ENRLMM) and as a network, we have lobbied for many years for more nuanced use of labour market intelligence (LMI) within regions and within educational institutions in the current digitalized context. Our Network has over 400 members from all countries of the European Union and is financially self-sustaining. It is the expert European network on the use of Labour Market Intelligence in regional and local geographies and it will fully support this project. Our lead partner, the West University of Timisoara is a very active member of the Network and the host of ENRLMM Big Data Knowledge Hub. This is a collaborative platform for mutual exchange and learning where all the members of the EN RLMM can look for guidance when aiming to use big data in their labour market.LMI is critical for understanding the new challenges on the labour market and to help HEI to increase the capacity and readiness to manage an effective shift towards digital education. Additionally, it helps to develop the appropriate digital skills and competencies through better matching of education supply to demand and for forecasting and fore-sighting skills needs. Within this priority we will seek to support digital transformation through the development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity in three areas that the Network has identified are a priority for Universities and Higher Education institutions: a. Matching education/skills supply to local and regional labour market demand (covering topics such as ecosystems, partnerships, forecasting, real-time Labour Market Intelligence); b. Fitting curriculum content to a rapidly evolving world of work (employer-input, fore-sighting etc.) and the provision of new types of course (higher VET, 2-year degrees, etc.); c. Evidencing impact and outcomes for policymakers (such as employability, graduate tracking, internships and placement provision).Up-to-date labour market intelligence is also critical to the HEI Priority “Stimulating innovative learning and teaching practices”. This is our second priority and within the project, we will explore how Universities can develop student-centred curricula and ensure that their offer tackles the skills needs of the current and predicted European workforce and what lessons around this can be disseminated across the sector.<< Objectives >>The long term benefits and outcomes we seek can be summarised as:1. Greater and more nuanced use of LMI within European Universities with this more evidence-based provision leading to benefits for learners, the Universities themselves and the economy and societies that benefit from the future efforts of the learners/graduates;2. Policymakers and key stakeholders who are better able to positively influence university provision (boosting the impact of the demand side) leading to a virtuous circle where both see the benefits from more closely aligned, better-evidenced, provision;3. Widening the appreciation of how LMI can be used both within Universities and by those looking to understand the importance and potential impacts and benefits from Universities.The primary audiences for our project will be European Universities which we will reach through partner networks, such as ENRLMM, EUniverCities; careers guidance networks; Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals. We will also strengthen the links with those seeking to influence university education delivery (such as the demand-side - including regional development agencies and employer groups), reached through networks such as EURispes, EESC, and OECD, all of whom work with the ENRLMM.<< Implementation >>Within our project, we are going to map the essential LMI sources at the national level and explore how HEI in Europe are using them (to match the education/courses; to inform the content of the taught curriculum, and to evidence new and emerging requirements from policymakers). We will cover the largest 7 EU countries: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Romania, Netherlands; plus, Belgium, Estonia, Austria, Sweden, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Czech Republic, and Greece. This will ensure good representativeness, as all parts of the EU will be covered (Western / Eastern / Nordic / Mediterranean countries). We will explore the state-of-the-art in each of these themes through a mixed methodological approach embracing: A major European Higher Education survey; a series of literature reviews; interviews with university practitioners and policy makers/leaders; building good practice case studies and testing our findings through a series of major final conferences and events. These findings will be combined into a Training Course mainstreamed through Europe’s expert network of labour market observatories (ENRLMM) and offered to those seeking to use efficiently LMI. To support the decision-makers from HEI in using labour market information, an LMI Hub will be developed to aggregate LMI sources useful for HEI and a guide will be made available to help HEI to use LMI in planning their activity.<< Results >>We envisage a number of major outputs, including a report with LMI sources at the European level, desk research, and survey-based research (and associated Report) exploring evidence-building through LMI within Universities (how do they use it, what for, and to what end); a training course (on how European Universities use the LMI, promoted through ENRLMM International Conference 2022 and a series of smaller National Conferences); and three dedicated parallel publications on 1-3 above made freely available through the ENRLMM, each with accompanying good practices, case studies and an Executive Summary to help identify lessons for policymakers.Our HUB (Intellectual Output 3) will host all of these major outputs.We are anticipating Outcomes that will focus initially on Universities (and HEIs) but will have lasting impacts on the individuals learning within these institutions and on the labour markets into which they enter. Our project is seeking to ensure that Universities are making the most appropriate best practice use of labour market intelligence to help with curriculum design; career advice and guidance; and extra-curricular support for students to ensure that their skills match those currently in-demand in the workplace. We therefore also anticipate new curricula, closer links with employers and the development of new extra-curricular support within European Universities. To help achieve this we will seek to proactively link with the Networks recently established as part of the European Universities Programme, which are seeking similar objectives and can learn from interaction with the LMI experts within this.