Digital Innovations for Growth Academy Erasmus Project

Project Title

Digital Innovations for Growth Academy

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Digital Innovations for Growth Academy (DIGA) project meets the strategic need defined in the Bruges Communique to improve the capacity of Vocational Education and Training to respond to the changing requirements of the labour market and to adapt VET to keep pace with shifts to new technologies, work organisation and internationalisation.

Learning from the experiences of previous successful Leonardo ToI projects it was recognised that within the Business Skills VET sector Enterprise Trainers and Educators require an in-depth knowledge in the deployment of digital tools, ICT and the internet to enable them to effectively help SME learners to become digitally competent and to be able utilise the knowledge within business processes and address the new digital innovation context. The project:
1. Developed the ICT and digital skills, knowledge and capacity of VET trainers to enable them to support entrepreneurial learners, entrepreneurs and SMEs more effectively encouraging greater adoption of digital and ICT tools.
2. Developed a VET learning programme to support the changing needs of the EU workforce/economy in particular through the integration of ICT and digital literacy – the DIGA Learning Programme
3. Ensured that the DIGA Learning programmes is equally open and accessible to women and men learners.

The DIGA Project partnership consists of 7 organisations from Bulgaria, Ireland, Lithuania, Norway, Slovenia, Spain and UK. Drawn from higher education, social and enterprise sectors partners sought to harness the strengths of each to contribute to developing a high quality learning programme. Together the partners have high levels of expertise in research, vocational education and training curriculum and programme development, quality and impact assessment, dissemination and experience of developing programmes that meet the needs of women, as well as men, and of ensuring gender equality is built into the development process. The partner organisations are:
Bulgaria – Bulgarian Centre for Women and Technology (BCWT)
Ireland – University of Limerick (UofL)
Lithuania – Social Innovation Fund (SIF)
Norway – European Centre for Women and Technology (ECWT)
Slovenia – Economic Institute of Maribor (Human Resource Development Centre EIM, HRDC)
Spain – Inercia Digital (ID)
UK – The Women’s Organisation (TheWO) (Lead partner)
http://digaproject.eu/partners/

The key activities and outputs of the DIGA project involved:
• Undertaking comprehensive research and analysis into the digital training needs of enterprise trainers and educators and exploration of good practices and policies.
• The production of DIGA project research reports in 5 European languages http://digaproject.eu/research-resources/
• The creation of a VET curriculum for enterprise trainers and educators – the DIGA Learning Programme.
• The development of comprehensive materials and resources to support the delivery of the DIGA Learning Programme, produced in 5 EU languages.
• The design and development of the online open-access DIGA Learning Programme, available in 5 EU languages http://digaproject.eu/learning-programme/
• The production of a DIGA Learning Programme Guidance on how to approach the delivery of the programme, an introduction and overview to the DIGA Project, comprehensive information and materials, available in 5 EU languages.

Overall, the DIGA project successfully achieved all its original objectives. Findings from research and evaluation activities demonstrate the positive impact of the project on partner organisations and Enterprise Trainers and Educators (ETEs) / VET practitioners
For example, partner organisations have developed tacit knowledge and instilled shared digital learning within and across partner institutions and are better placed to make informed decisions drawing from the project’s research and delivery experiences.
For ETEs, the impact in terms of their personal and professional development was found to include:
• Demystification of the language and jargon of digital in an applied entrepreneurial context and as a result better equipped to incorporate digital as part of the business narrative – moving digital from the peripheral to a core business function.
• Acquisition of new learning on the overarching digital EU policy which provided context and an insight into its impact on digital practices in the entrepreneurial context – ETE now see the reason why digital is so important and that it will be a critical entrepreneurial function.
• Greater confidence and ease in proactively discussing digital tools across business functions – making digital part of the discussions between ETE and their clients.
• An expanded range of contacts and business networks for new business or ‘go to people’ for ongoing digital learning.
DIGA Project Evaluation report, http://digaproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DIGA-Project-Evaluation-FINAL.pdf

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 349077,35 Eur

Project Coordinator

The Women’s Organisation Ltd & Country: UK

Project Partners

• INERCIA DIGITAL SL
• SOCIALINIU INOVACIJU FONDAS
• UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK
• SDRUZHENIE BALGARSKI TSENTAR NA ZHENITE V TEKHNOLOGIITE
• EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR WOMEN AND TECHNOLOGY (ECWT) FORENING
• EKONOMSKI INSTITUT MARIBOR, EKONOMSKE RAZISKAVE IN PODJETNISTVO D.O.O.