![](http://prepare-net.graz4u.at/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/capture2_1-1.png)
Project timeline: 2018-2020
The primary goal of EduZWaCE Strategic Partnerships is to support collaboration, the exchange of information and good practices, enabling stakeholders to deepen and spread out knowledge, develop and reinforce networks, increase their capacity to operate at transnational level, and share and confront ideas, practices and methods.
The project tackles social inclusion by helping to address diversity
and promote –in particular, through innovative and integrated
approaches– equality, including gender equality, non-discrimination and
social inclusion through education and training (ex., training for
representatives in the waste reuse/repair centres).The capacity building
activities will enhance the access, participation and learning
performance of disadvantaged learners, and will support new approaches
to reducing disparities in accessing and engaging with digital
technologies in formal and non-formal education, including gender
differences in relation to ICT.
The project will enhance the
VET–business partnerships, aimed to promote and build up key competences
of VET teachers and learners (lifelong learning, non-formal and
informal), raise awareness in governments (local, national and
regional), and spread results through project platform, the partners,
networks, and the media. The stakeholders as well as VET educators, do
not have enough knowledge and skills required for the transition to
ZW&CE. Therefore, we have decided to broaden their competences and
skills by facilitating cooperation and learning of ZW&CE principles,
methods, benefits, and good practices towards ZW&CE. We shall offer
them information to guide students through this fast developing area in
a form of a Course structure. The information is of great value for the
global economic development, increased resource efficiency and
environmental protection.
Structure and methodology
EduZWaCE will develop an innovative, open educational
resource (OER) in the form of a platform and content for lifelong
learning needs, enabling VET teachers to adapt a general framework to
different groups of students and sectors. By focusing on the EduZWaCE
model (requirements, principles, methods and co-creation of solutions),
the Course will prepare the students to get qualified as ZW&CE
Managers and ZW&CE Technicians and for implementing the ZW&CE
strategy of any sector and size business Professional learners’ will
have the chance to log in into the platform, use the diagnosis tool and
present their case studies, based on pre-established formats and provide
selected information to other users, that will allow them to cooperate
and co-create CE solutions. The project is complementary to previous
projects carried out by partners and other organisations, dealing with
CE, and to the activities of the UN, EC, Ellen MacArthur Foundation and
other CE initiatives.
Focus 1 utilisation will address professionals from companies, local authorities, and other stakeholders.
EduZWaCE
Knowledge HUB In individual chapters, the course will address: (a) CE
related legislation and standards, the EU and national strategic
documents and related scientific literature and reports, (b) Selection
of existing methods, tools and practices; (c) Case studies and good
practices on resource efficiency, eco-design, waste prevention, reuse
and recycling.
EduZWaCE Online Course – the VET course will focus on
the topics and priorities of the new CE Package and its Action Plan,
and will put it into practical context. The focus will be on the action
to “closing the loop” of product lifecycles through better design,
greater reuse and recycling, and economically beneficiary business
models and will approach four essential components:
1. Production
processes – the Course will cover the principles of resource efficiency,
and cleaner production and will provide the methods, principles and
tools for materials efficiency and waste prevention in companies.
2.
Product design – the Course will address concepts such as life cycle
thinking, the principles of eco-design and it will provide good practice
examples on how to make products more durable and easier to repair,
upgrade, remanufacture, and dismantle.
3. Value creation in Circular Economy –new oppprtunities for businesses through closed loop supply chanins and reverse logistics
4.
Diagnosis Tool and Co-creation of CE solutions – this section will be
created for users to log in, present their own case studies based on
pre-established formats, and interact with other learners/users for
identification and co-creation of CE solutions.
Focus 2 utilisation will address technicians and workers from reuse/repair/recycling centres and will consist of training materials (dismantling schemes, repair methods) for repairing/reusing/treating/dismantling different types of waste such us: plastic, waste of electric and electronic equipment, batteries, wood, etc.
Work planning and timetable
The results of the project will have 6 parts, developed successively during the 24 months:
1.
EduZWaCE Knowledge HUB based on literature, norms review and case
studies. Literature and legislation about waste, zero waste concept,
critical raw materials, CE will be collected. The list will contain
European and national legislation, EU and UN information, standards,
books, articles, good practices, case studies, YouTube presentations,
freeware software, under the creative commons license. Special attention
will be devoted to Ellen MacArthur Foundation reports (e.g., “Towards
the Circular Economy” (20122014), “A Circular Economy Vision for
Competitive Europe” (2015). The structure of the Knowledge HUB will be
defined to be logic and easy to use, the platform will be accessible
free of charge for all users, based on log-inn.
2. EduZWaCE skill
card sets (Focus 1 and Focus 2) for further certification. The two skill
card sets will illustrate the skills & competences profiles to
fulfil ZW&CE Manager and ZW&CE Technician job profiles. The
skill sets will describe the competences in terms of skill units (U-a
list of certain activities that have to be carried out in the
workplace), which are themselves defined by skill elements
(E-description of one distinct task or work method). Each element
consists of a number of performance criteria (S-description of the
minimum level of performance a participant must demonstrate in order to
be assessed as competent) and an expected level of cognition. In
designing the skill card sets we will start from identification of
similar courses, inputs of target groups and direct interaction,
identification of the existing gaps, scenario analyses of potential
success/failure of the new course on the market. The two skill card sets
will be delivered in Excel format with a detailed description.
3.
EduZWaCE VET curriculum and interactive training platform structure. The
information collected will be systematically ordered and the training
curriculum contents will be elaborated based on the EduZWaCE skill card
sets. The EduZWaCE training platform structure will be designed as a
skeleton of a future online open platform and will propose two levels
course: Focus 1, the course for ZW&CE Manager and Focus 2, the
course for ZW&CE Technician. The EduZWaCE platform – a virtual
learning environment for all, will consist of: 1) knowledge HUB
(described above) to store, access to, and use of learning resources
(content management); 2) Course planning, assessment and personalisation
of the learning experience (Course mapping and planning); 3) Two
proposed courses materials (Focus 1 and Focus 2) (4) EduZWaCE diagnosis
tool (5) managed access to learner information and resources, tracking
of progress and achievements (learner engagement and administration,
communication and collaboration through e-mails, notices, chats, blogs).
4.
The ZW&CE Diagnosis Tool designed to investigate internal and
external opportunities for CE in participating organisations. The
internal opportunities will address the following elements: (1) level of
integration of CE objectives into the core business strategy; (2) key
materials of concern, risks and opportunities in relation with key
materials and CE (3) Actions implemented towards CE; (4) Benchmarking,
progress of CE and Key Performance Indicators prefered business model
compatible with CE system. The external opportunities section will deal
with: (1) identification of partners from the value chains (2) CE
roadmap and context (3) synergies and co-creation of solutions for CE.
5.
Workshops – Two workshops will be organised in each country: the first
workshop will attract VET institutions, VET teachers and trainers, VET
learners, professionals from companies (at least 15 participants) and
will have as main purpose to create awareness around CE topic, present
the structure and functionalities of platform, benefits for users, and
collect written feedback from participants. The feedback will be used to
improve the EduZWaCE platform and design the content of the CE course.
Workshops minutes including feedback shyntessys will be retained by all
partners and discussed in the proximal project meeting and further
considered for improvement. The second workshops (at least 15
participants) will address the registered users of OER and other
regional stakeholders, introduce the draft concept of the diagnosis
tool, ask them to self asses internal and external opportunities and
identify synergies and mastermind cooperation and co-creation of CE
solutions
6. Implementation/piloting of draft course. Focus 1 and 2
of the Course will be field tested in at least two countries by UM (
Focus 1) with 20 VET Teachers and students and StadLabor (Focus 2) with
15 VET teachers, representatives from reuse/repair centres. Pilot
training sessions will be organised at the partner’s premises and will
collect written feedback to be used to improve the Course drafts. On the
basis of this evaluation, the final draft of the Course will be
prepared.
The final deliverable will be offered as a VET course draft
(Focus 1 and 2) in the form of an online platform, which will combine
theoretical study with hands-on practical work (self-assessment, case
studies), and will be designed for further qualification and
certification of the skills and competences needed to successfully
develop a career in the ZW&CE, as ZW&CE Manager and ZW&CE
Technician.
Outputs
EduZWaCE Knowledge HUB
EduZWaCE Platform
EduZWaCE Course Focus 1 and Focus 2
EduZWaCE Diagnosis Tool
Lead partner
• AKETH-EG-Developmental Centre of Thessaly (Trikala, GR), through its actions is fighting unemployment, by providing quality and certified education/training, opening up new training opportunities, offering counselling & personal development. As acredited VET centre, AKETH-EG act as training provider, examination and consultant and will be responsible for project management, communication, dissemination of EduZWaCE in Greece
Other partners
• NCSPC (Timisoara, RO) is a promotor, educator and
supporter of practical application of eco-innovation in companies. NCSPC
is acting as CE Stakeholder (selected by EU Commission) in Ro and will
work for building up the ZWECE skill card, will design and perform
synergies workshops to support businesses to use the OER platform and
co-create the CE solutions and will disseminate the project in Romania.
•
ATMOTERM (Opola, PL), environmental software development and
consulting, has in-depth environmental knowledge and work experience in
the development of National/Regional/Local Waste Prevention Programmes,
including CE perspectives. Atmoterm will contribute develop the ICT
solution of the OER and the project webpage;
• Global Reach (Athens,
GR) experienced in technology and knowledge transfer to industry and
educational institutes, comprising of technology
research&development, business planning and project management,
e-learning courses. GRE will contribute to the design and
functionalities of the OER, development of the ICT solution in
cooperation with Atmoterm
• StadLabor (Graz, AU) it’s a consultancy
company experienced in resource management, sustainable consumption,
design thinking, joint development of solutions and VET education.
StadLabor works with several cities to develop the of “Smart City”
approaches, including housing, urban technologies, urban production,
energy, materials and waste flows and the establishment of the
“Upcycling Centers” where used goods are repaired, upcycled (better than
before) and brought back to the market.
• Enviros Energy and
Environmental Consultancy (Prague, Czech) is providing assistance in the
field of energy, environmental and business consultancy, including
resource efficiency (RE), waste and CE. Enviros has experience in
international projects and is a founding member of the Czech national
platforms for RE&CE. Enviros will contribute to the development of
the OER structure, diagnosis tools, and adaptation of training
materials.
• LNEG – National Laboratory of Energy and Geology
(Lisbon, PT) has carried out R&D and training in the areas of
eco-design, design for sustainability and circular economy oriented to
products and product-service systems. LNEG created recently a resource
center on life cycle approaches and CE to support the business and
scientific communities.
• Prospektiker-European Institute for Future
Studies and Strategic Planning (San Sebastian, Spain), has been involved
in developing training courses, eg. Design for Sustainability
(sinDesign, Innedic), Life Cycle Assessment methodologies in
energy/waste management/building sectors (LCiP – Life+), supporting the
the Regional Government with the development of the Circular Recycling
HUB as one of the three main pillars of the Gipuzkoa Institute against
Climate Change in the area. Prospektiker is participating at the moment
in the development of the KATCH_e Erasmus + (2017-2019);
• EKOrast
(Bratislava, SK) has been involved in assessing the industries in SK and
Czech for identifying the challenges and opportunities for CE within
Moveco project; that supported a big number of companies to adopt
eco-efficiency measures during EcoProfit projects
• UM, University of
Maribor (SI) has experiences in energy, water and material recycling,
process modelling, simulation, integration and optimisation, RE,
sustainable production indicators, VET programmes modernisation.