Playing 4 Soft Skills Erasmus Project

Project Title

Playing 4 Soft Skills

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal)

Project Summary

In the context of an increasingly globalised world and rapid technological change, employers do not only merely look for technical knowledge (so called ‘hard skills’) when selecting candidates, but tend to rather prioritise those characteristics involving personality traits, such as creative thinking, communication, negotiation, flexibility, which determine so called transversal or soft skills. Furthermore, as recognised by the Council Recommendation 22/05/2018 on key competences for lifelong learning, transversal skills are particularly relevant for the development of those key competences enabling young students to become active and responsible citizens in today’s society. While the role of creativity and non-formal education in helping students to develop such skills has been recognised, education providers, including those in the field of VET, would highly benefit from the inclusion of such learning approaches in their school curriculum.

The Playing 4 Soft Skills project aims to address the existing gap in market demand concerning transversal skills by introducing creative learning, non-formal education and digital tools in the context of vocational education providers with the objective to enhance students’ awareness and ability to recognize and develop relevant transversal skills. More precisely, the specific objectives of the Playing 4 Soft Skills project include:
1) Enhance students’ awareness of existing soft skills by actively engaging them in non-formal learning activities and provide with useful tools and material in order to assess and further develop such transversal skills in the context of a playful learning environment.
2) Provide teachers with supportive tools and meaningful training on methodologies aimed at enhancing students’ acquisition of specific soft skills through non-formal education and equip teachers in order to act as effective facilitators during the implementation of non-formal learning activities.

The project will target current VET students (aged 14-19) and teachers working as part of VET programs across the European Union. More precisely, the Playing 4 Soft Skills project aims to reach around 1000 students and 300 teachers across Germany, Italy, Spain, Latvia, Poland and other EU countries.
The project will build on the expertise of partner organisations working in the field of non-formal education, creative learning, digital technology and innovative thinking in order to involve students both as participants and feedback providers and teachers in the role of facilitators. The project aims to benefit VET providers, teachers, educators and policy makers with a series of project results which can be transferable to other educational contexts across the EU.

The project results will include the following intellectual outputs:
(1) Soft Skills Evaluation Report identifying the most relevant transversal skills to be developed in the context of learning activities with a set of relative indicators in order to measure progress, which will be produced after confronting students and teachers needs with expectations from employers in terms of soft skills;
(2) Soft Skills Game Manual for participants explaining the rules, context and objectives of a new educational game tailored to the activation and development of transversal skills and based on innovative game formats developed by project partners;
(3) Soft Skills Training Notebook, a guiding instrument for teachers providing training on pedagogical aspects related to non-formal education, explaining in details the role of facilitators and outlining instruments for progress evaluation;
(4) Soft Skills Training App, an interactive tool aimed at enhancing students engagement in learning activities and foster soft skills activation and self-evaluation.

By involving students in non-formal education activities, they are expected to develop a deeper understanding of transversal skills and further acquire the ‘key competences’ allowing them to grow as responsibile citizens and to be competitive on the job market. Thanks to the support provided by the digital app, students will be challenged to express their creative potential and ability to interact, communicate and emphatise in the context of both real and virtual scenarios. Such activities will also be beneficial to teachers as they will acquire further knowledge and expertise in the field of soft skill activation and non-formal learning, therefore refining their teaching skills in a crucial area for the future of education and training. Overall, project results aim to have a wider impact outside the boundaries of the project as these will provide with relevant outputs to be used by VET providers, educational institutions, policy makers and public authorities for the inclusion of non-formal education and creative learning as part of school curriculum and education policies at local, regional, national and EU level.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 295858 Eur

Project Coordinator

BERLINK ETN GMBH & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Izglitojoso spelu un metozu asociacija
• Salus Publica
• il Salone dei Rifiutati
• VSIA Rigas Turisma un radosas industrijas tehnikums
• Axonforce srl
• Escuela de Arte San Telmo