The Hellenic American Union participates in transnational projects in the area of lifelong learning. These are co-funded by European institutions, such as the European Commission. Below is a description of projects in which the Hellenic American Union has participated or is currently engaged.
European Programs
IDEA- Internationalization and Digitalization European Approach
IDEA is a 24-month initiative that intends to support SMEs’ internationalization and their ability to penetrate foreign markets through digital channels. It includes the design and development of an innovative and interactive training material that will strengthen the digital skills of workers, the pilot training of 80 workers and 16 trainers in the participating countries and the development of Digital Internationalization Guidelines to guide SMEs in their digital transformation. The project is implemented by 9 partners in Greece, Italy, Spain, Slovenia and Poland.
E-Learning for International Commerce Digital Marketing (E-ICOM)
E-ICOM is a 24-month initiative that brings together vocational training centers, organizations participating in vocational training programs and Chambers of Commerce from Spain, Italy and Greece, which cooperate for the development of a MOOC course in Digital Marketing for students, professionals and entrepreneurs interested in International Trade.
DIVINT - Diversity, Integration, Training
DIVINT - Diversity, Integration, Training is a 24-month initiative that aims to empower national language teachers and trainers to cope with diversity and boost intercultural education in Europe through language education. The project wants to provide vulnerable groups of newly arrived young people (refugees, asylum seekers and migrants) with access to intercultural language training in order to allow them to master the host-countries languages and simultaneously social, civic and intercultural competences; in one-word living-together & doing-together competencies.
SMILE – Sales Management Inter-culture Learning
S.M.I.Le – Sales Management, Inter-Culture Learning is a 24-month initiative that intends to create, test, validate and disseminate, as a new educational standard, the emerging vocational profile of the Cross Cultural Sales Agent, a key figure of b2b sales process, in intercultural contexts, both in-house and on the field, for operations of strategic and operational commercial negotiation abroad. The SMILE project has been selected as an Erasmus+ Good Practice Example!
Μarketing, Internationalization & Development
The M.IN.D project has been funded with the support from the European Commission and it aims to create a stable, European network between institutional, economic and training actors to analyze, design, test, validate and disseminate a European framework to qualify an «International Marketing Manager» vocational profile. It also aims to validate and diffuse training standards and the didactic framework developed in the MIND project and to increase digital integration in learning. The project is implemented by 11 partners from Greece, Italy, Spain, France and Turkey.
Cooperation for Innovation and Exchange of Good Practices
The project idea is based on the fact that the quality of the trainers’ and teachers’ innovative practices and methodologies will strongly impact on VET systems’ overall quality and attractiveness. The XXI Trainer Project addresses the urgent need to implement reforms on trainers’ and teachers’ qualification processes in the realm of lifelong learning in order to develop skills and competencies related to new job opportunities, new market needs as well as new target groups.The project is implemented by 6 partners from Greece, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Romania and Belgium.
Introducing Marketing Principles in the Agricultural Sector
Farm Inc. is an EU co-funded projects which upgrades the skills and competences of agricultural entrepreneurs, so as to better brand and market their products. The project delivers an innovative training tool on marketing strategies in agro-food sector including a thorough toolkit that can be used both by trainers and learners. The project is implemented by 7 partners from Greece, Italy, Latvia, Belgium and Cyprus.
Training possibilities and better employment opportunities for unskilled and semi-skilled employees
CORE-VET is a 24-month initiative that is co-funded by the European Commission (Education and Culture DG, Lifelong Learning Programme). It aims to provide VET possibilities and better employment opportunities in tourism for unemployed people and underperforming employees with limited qualifications, by improving their skills and competences in three occupational areas: Reception and Front office Services, House Keeping Services, and Restaurant and Bar Services. A training tool targeting the core skills and competences needed in the three occupational areas will be produced including teaching and learning material and a user friendly e-learning platform. The project is implemented by eight partners from Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Romania, and Austria, who represent the Education, Training and Consulting sectors.
Training TAXI drivers for a safer and more competitive 24h on the road profession
‘Taxistars’ is a 36-month initiative that has been funded with support from the European Commission and the Lifelong Learning Programme, under the Leonardo da Vinci sub-programme. It will design and develop innovative, ICT-based educational material for professional taxi-drivers, taking into consideration the training needs and the special characteristics of the profession. The project aims to improve vocational education and training in the field, help ensure a safer, more effective and competitive taxi-sector and enable professional taxi-drivers to provide high quality services. It will be developed by a transnational consortium of 9 expert actors in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain.
Enhancing digital literacy and competence for people in risk groups
The project “This is IT” is a 36-month initiative co-funded by the European Commission under the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). It aims to help people in social risk groups upgrade their ICT skills and become engaged in an increasingly digital society. The project uses innovative approaches that rely on volunteers who help these risk groups access and use ICT tools and material. The project has been developed by a transnational consortium of 11 partners from Greece, Norway, Belgium, Poland, Turkey, Switzerland, and Lithuania.
Making entrepreneurship a sustainable option for ex-young offenders
The Fresh Start project is a 24-month initiative co-funded by the European Commission under the Directorate-General for Education and Culture. The project aims to develop a specialized train-the-trainer course to equip European VET trainers with new skills that they can then use in their own training as they help young offenders develop entrepreneurial skills. The project’s ultimate goal is to help young offenders cope with discrimination, social exclusion and limited professional options as they attempt to re-enter the labor market after release from prison.
Comenius 3.1: EVINSET
The Comenius 3.1 EVINSET 3-year project was successfully completed in September 2000. This project was aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of staff development and in-service training programs. One of the outcomes was the publication of a manual. The purpose of this manual is to assist persons in charge of facilitating staff development, either within educational institutions or as an external provider. An offshoot of the project is the Comenius 3.2 program, which offers training to teachers from all European Union countries. This program is suitable for teachers in Europe who are involved in staff development at their schools. It is usually held in Athens at the Hellenic American Union. The training in this program is based on research that was developed during the 3-year project. Partners participating in the project were from the UK, Belgium, Finland and Greece. Partners participating in the project were from the UK, Belgium, Finland and Greece.
Lingua D: COCTALE
The COCTALE project focused on the development of communicative competence testing templates for the advancement of language Learning in Europe. The project team worked on developing a data base for language testing on line, a test generator which teachers can use for developing their own tests on line and finally an extensive metadata for identifying and classifying different types of tests. Partners participating in this project were from Belgium, UK and Greece.