Third transnational meeting in attendance – Porto/Gondomar – Portugal

The fourth transnational meeting ( third in attendance) took place in Porto and Gondomar – Portugal, hosted by Portuguese partner Associação Social Recreativa e Cultural Bem Fazer Vai Avante. We started in Porto in a meeting room offered by Casa das Associações – FAJDP and we continued after lunch in the headquarter of ASRCBFVA (Rua Manuel Alves Vieira, nb 19, Gondomar)
There were 7 participants from all 7 partner organisations in attendance.
Aims:

• preparing the second interim report
• analyse the feedback of participants to the local ToTs and how to improve the IO2
• familiarise with the local context Portuguese partner is working in

The meeting started with a welcome speech from mr Fernando Duarte, Executive Director of Associação Social Recreativa e Cultural Bem Fazer Vai Avante. He presented us some activities of the organisation, especially those dedicated to seniors.
Then the coordinator (representative of Pro Xpert) lead the discussions about reviewing the evidence of administrative documents (travel documents, timesheets, contracts etc.) needed for the second interim report. We checked what documents are already uploaded on the google drive (here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1e4__emxU7a3gQNfCgeZgQeoF3TxgvTRZ) and ask partners to complete this task (as no one hasn’t all the documents updated) We also reviewed the financial rules and the bilateral agreements signed with each partner.
After the coffee break each participant had an about 10 minutes presentation related to the local ToT-s and how to improve the IO2. We also discussed a few elements related to IO, the platform, as all participants to the TPM had some consultations with their participants to C2 and C3 the day before.
In the second part of the day we visited one of the places managed by our Portuguese partner: ”The Social Centre” – a place fur supporting seniors by organising different social, recreational and cultural activities for them (like dance classes, music band, chess club etc). Some of the members of this centre will take part in the local piloting activities for senior artisans.
In the evening we have a common dinner with participants to C2 and C3.

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The Second Joint Staff Training Event

The third LTT took part in Porto, Portugal, together with the second one. It gathered 7 professionals in adults’ education – 1 from each partner’s organisation.
The training aimed to reinforce participants’ knowledges, abilities and behaviours gained during local activities for piloting IO2 by offering them an international experience and direct contact with senior adult learners.
The agenda (available here https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1DAGFjqlSuRmFLGwJSsDGlA5sXevjy3H0) included theoretical presentations and practical activities. But most important was the interaction between the two categories of participants – professionals in adults’ education (taking part in C3) and senior artisans (taking part in C2). In fact we planned these two activities in the same time as an essential pillar in the project architecture, that offered an unique opportunity both to professionals in adult’s education and senior artisans to act together in a multicultural environment and begin their transformation into ”change-makers” in their communities. or senior artisans it worked in an excellent way and the trainers (who also acted as group leaders for them) had a relevant contribution in this direction.
The activity begun with a warmup exercise that allowed participants to introduce themselves, their previous experience in adults’ education topics and share, in a few words, some impressions about the local ToT they took part. Then we have presentations of the second draft of IO2 (after processing the feedbacks from participants to the LTT in UK). After the coffee break we split participants in two groups who worked to improve the chapters from IO2 related to entrepreneurship, taking into account the feedbacks collected from professionals in adult’s education after the local ToTs. A similar workshop took part right after lunch, focused on the chapter related to digital competencies. In the last part we presented the results of the working groups, a Q&A session and we explain participants the ”homework” for next day: to discuss with the senior artisans participants in C2 and collect their impression related to the international dimension of the activity (we recommended a few guiding questions like ”What did I learn from one or some other participants? What did the others learn from me? Did I really feel uncomfortable because of the language barriers?” etc). This ”homework” aimed not only to add an extra evaluation tool to the blended mobility but also to facilitate and strength the contact between professionals in adults’ education and senior learners.
The second day included training activities related to non-formal education methods and tools aiming to increase European Citizenship and awareness at the level of Eurosceptic senior learners. We started with a presentation, ”The added value of European dimension of the project” (available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1m7yEvnqOKTB9RUFJg54T5BBiP2-BCXLU) and then we introduced participants in the digital platform https://seniorcrafts.nkey.it/, explain them how to support the senior artisans in main an account and what relevant aspects they need to take into account when they wrote their CV. After the coffee break we had a workshop where each participant presented a case study – a non-formal education method/tool that he/she used before with good results in activities focused on increasing European Citizenship and awareness at the level of Eurosceptic senior learners and after participants created a picture(matrix) with comparative SWOT aspects for each method.
After lunch we had a workshop focused on improving the chapters from IO2 related to European Citizenship and awareness, taking into account not only the feedbacks collected from professionals in adult’s education after the local ToTs but also the presentations and activities developed in the previous day. In the last part participants shared their „homework” and, based on this, we discussed about the impact of European dimension of the project on senior artisans who take part in C2, after the first day.
The last three days participants worked together with senior artisans who took part in C2. In the third day the trainers supported artisans in learning how to use the Internet in general and the platform (IO3) in particular. They wrote a report about the main issues artisans faced with in their work. The fourth day all participants visited relevant places for the activity of our Portuguese partner and last day we we gathered here both participants to C2 and C3 at the headquarter of Associação Social Recreativa e Cultural Bem Fazer Vai Avante, in Gondomar.
The activity has contributed to reaching the first objective of the project, ”enhancing the professional development of 154 adult educators by equipping them with important knowledge, improved abilities and behaviours”

The Blended Mobility for Learners ”New Artisans’ Workroom”

The second LTT took in Porto, Portugal, together with the third one.
It gathered 18 senior artisans in attendance – 3 from each partner’s organisation, except for Real Time whose participants (4 persons) joined on-line. Even some partners didn’t finish the local piloting activities of IO2, they have already the list with senior artisans to be involved in these events and they selected participants for the blended mobility from these lists. So we had a very heterogeneous group regarding the studies (from gymnasium to master degrees) occupations (from farmers to architects) and area of handicrafts (from making jewelleries and homemade food to metal arts). Thus, despite all these differences and the low (or missing) level of English, a particular „chemistry” linked the group since the first moments and participants worked together in a very efficient and friendly way.
The activity begun with a presentation of each national group – for overcoming the language barriers we asked participants to draw what they consider representative for their team. Then we have presentations about the project (partners, outcomes, what we expect from the participants). We underline the importance of the international dimension of the project, in order to make participants familiar with the context. We also encourage them to communicate with others, to create connections and networking.
Then we introduced participants in the digital platform https://seniorcrafts.nkey.it/, explain them how to register and show some examples.
After the coffee break, we discuss about the importance of the stories in selling a product and our colleague from Real Time had a short lesson of how to make a perfect photo. In the afternoon we focused on how to create the perfect ”story that sells”. Participants had a ”homework” – to take some pictures until the next day.
The second day we met one hour earlier with one representative of each team and prepare (in another room) the exhibition with hand-made objects brought by participants. The working day started with a discussion about the pictures participants made as ”homework” (they had to make at least 5 pictures of an object/person/building etc. as follows: one wide shot, one medium shot and 3 close ups). Then we had a presentation about ”Tips&Tricks for the best picture/movie” and after we allow participants to walk around the exhibition, talk each other about their products and try to estimate the price for one or more products. The afternoon started with a session aiming to develop entrepreneurial competencies – after a short presentation about the main elements include in the price of a product participants worked individually to calculate the price of a chosen product. In the last part of the day we had a networking exercise – in two groups participants had the task to identify common aspects in their products and try to create an ”European product” including an element from each country. We had two wonderful products – a bag with traditional motifs from each country (the Italian participant who has a small business in this field promised that she would really produce a prototype of this) and a pottery jug with two rosters (one Romanian and one Portuguese) enriched with a silver jewellery made by one Spanish participant, surrounded by a small piece of lace made by Polish lady, a leather handle with a Tuscany model, a wooden support made by British craftsman and filled with Maltese wine.
The next day participants we had distance learning activities – participants worked by themselves on a computer, basically they created an account on the platform and upload pictures and text. The professionals in adults’ education that took part in C3 supported them in this experiential learning process (as a part of their own learning). They had the permanent contact with the trainers from Pro Xpert, Nkey and Real Time.
The fourth day was also dedicated to distance learning activities, together with articipants to C but we practiced the photo/video making during the 3 site visits organized by our Portuguese partner – to the CINDOR (Professional Training Centre for the Goldsmith and Jewellery Industry), to the Filigree Museum of Gondomar and to a local family business (from over 100 year old) in making filigree jewelleries.
The last day we had the activities at the headquarter of Associação Social Recreativa e Cultural Bem Fazer Vai Avante, in Gondomar, we gathered here both participants to C2 and C3. We organized here a co-creation space – participants to C2 and C3 presented their proposals for improving the intellectual outputs and for future activities in the project and afte.
Then we filled evaluation questionnaires, watched some movies/stories created by participants in the third day and gave the certificates.
The activity has contributed to reaching the second objective of the project, ”increasing the entrepreneurial and ICT competencies at the level of 280 senior artisans and fostering European identity and awareness both at their level and at the level of at least 21 small communities they are living in”

Second transnational meeting in attendance – Pisa – Italy

The third transnational meeting took place in Pisa – Italy, hosted y Italian partner Nkey, in a meeting room offered by Chamber of Commerce of Nort-Western Tuscany
There were 12 participants from all 7 partner organisations in attendance. The host organisation – Nkey – also invited other 2 staff members who presented the beta version of IO3
Aims:

• self-evaluate the project progress in the last 5 months (since te previous TPM), compare the planned results with the achieved results
• define the final structure of O2 and O3
• review evolution of local ToT-s organised by each partner (after C1)
• review the dissemination plan (each partner will present the dissemination activities developed especially after C1)
• familiarise with the local context Italian partner is working in (visit some local artisans)

The meeting started with a welcome speech – from mr. Valter Tamburini (CCIA, Chamber of Commerce of Nort-Western Tuscany). He congratulated us on the project and highlighted that we can always call on the support of the organisation he leads.

Then we were happy to see again Elisa Guidi whom we met in Cagliari at the international conference. Elisa is the president of Centro per l’Artigianato Artistico e Tradizionale della Toscana and Regional European President of World Crafts Council Europe She presented us the ”Crafting Europe project” https://www.craftingeurope.com/ an initiative cofounded by EU’s Creative Europe Programme, that could be both a valuable resource and a relevant dissemination channel for our project. She also assured us of her full support.

Next presentation was about ”Master craftsmen and workshop schools; experience bundles” – held by Sabrina Perondi from CAN (national crafts network). She was very glad to hear about our project and offered to support Italian partner in organizing the worshops for senior artisans, so they already planned the first workshop to take part in January 2023.

After these presentations about the Italian context and some European initiatives related to artisanship we continued with discussions about our project. First our colleagues Gianmarco Rossi and Silvia Fergosti from the Italian partner NKey presented us a beta version of IO3. They offered to host this version as they already have a wide domain so all participants had the opportunity to see a draft of how the final digital archive (IO) could loo ike (https://seniorcrafts.nkey.it/craftsmen/)We continued with a presentation of the second version of IO2. The representative of Pro Xpert – Romanian coordinator that also is in charge with coordination this IO – presented some conclusions after processing the feedback from the first LTT (in Reading – UK) and some local ToT (developed in Spain, Italy and Romania)

First transnational LTT

The first training took place in Reading, UK. It gathered 14 professionals in adults’ education: 2/partner’s organisation.
Real Time leaded the training, supported by Nkey that developed the parts related to entrepreneurship and Pro Xpert that developed the parts related to project description, theoretical framework and European Citizenship and awareness topics (as shown in the agenda available here https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1IWKXr1IvAgHt-r0QP3Mt0KBBCz29Rpvv).
The main aim of the training was to make participants familiar with IO2 (testing it, in this way, at transnational level of professionals in adults’ education) and to initiate them in the project (partners, activities, expected results etc.) and in the theoretical educational framework. In this respect almost all partners (except for those from Malta and Spain) sent one participant also involved in the project management, so the participation to the training gave them a much clearer picture of the whole project and it was an extra guarantee for their involvement by the end of the project.
The agenda included theoretical presentations and practical activities. But most important, both for achieving the learning objectives of the LTT and for the whole architecture of the project, were the co-creation spaces from the end of each day. These were in fact two hours aiming to make participants more familiar with the theoretical concepts presented during the day, by allowing them to work together to propose and create non-formal educational activities for achieving the proposed learning outcomes at the level of senior artisans.
The first two and the last day activities too part in a training room owned by Real Time. The third day and fourth day we were in different places as shown below.
The first day was dedicated to the project and didactical approach (based on Kolb’s experiential learning cycle and lead by ProXpert. We started with an official welcome (by the director of Real Time) and presentation of the meeting’s agenda, then we had an icebreaker aiming to allow participants to introduce themselves and their expectations from the LTT. The next presentation included information about the project, partners, outcomes and, after a short break, we had 2 hours dedicated to theoretical framework – general presentation of IO2 (underlying the three levels of testing) and introduction in Kolb’s experiential learning theory. The second part of the day was dedicated to practical activities – right after lunch break we presented some examples of exercises, games and other activities for practicing the Kolb’s learning cycle and in the last part we ha the co-creating space described above.
The next days started with an icebreaker consisting in an informal exercise of evaluation the previous day and a Q&A session. The second day continued with a description of the target groups – senior artisans each partner will work with. As partners didn’t identify yet the groups to be involved in the third level of testing the IO2 (local trainings for senior artisans) they just described their plans relating the type of persons to be selected in these activities (and at the end of the day, in the co-creating space, we created a draft of the ”learner’s profile“ to be involved in the local piloting activities for senior artisans). After the coffee break we introduced the theoretical framework – Entrepreneurship and EntreComp. The second part of the day had the same structure with the previous but focused on entrepreneurial competencies.
In the third day we were hosted by The Museum of English Rural Life – University of Reading, one of the local partners of Real Time. The theoretical framework was focused on ICT and DigiComp. The second part of the day had the same structure with the previous but focused on digital competencies, most of all on visual part (pictures and movies). The practical activities were focused more on creating pictures/movies with different exhibits from the museum and the co-creating space was developed in the museum’s garden (as the weather allowed us to have the activities outside)
In the fourth day we were hosted by Reading Borough Council – other local partner of Real Time. The theoretical framework was focused on European Citizenship and awareness and the practical activities were similar with those from previous day. Participants visited the institution and benefitted (in the co-creating space) by the support of two employees from there.
Last day participants worked together, in three working groups (one to define a proper design for the local piloting activities

First transnational meeting in attendance – Wroclav, Poland

The second transnational meeting (in fact the first in attendance) of the project New Educational Approaches for IT and Entrepreneurial Literacy of Senior Artisans  took place between 6^th – 7^thJuly 2022 in a place made available by our Polish partner on Wrocławskie Centrum Wspierania Organizacji Pozarządowych Sektor3, Legnicka street 65, Wrocław.

Another Italian Story: Gian Luigi and the art of vintage musical instruments

Gian Luigi is one of the very few repairers of vintage electric musical instruments left in Italy.

Just as vintage cars are no longer repaired by the dealer, vintage musical instruments need specialized people who take care of their mechanics and aesthetics. The new digital-only instruments do not have the sound and charm of analogs which are therefore highly sought after. When they broke down, and frequently, in the 1950s to 1980s, each city had its own specialized technician. Now it is increasingly difficult to find who can restore them to their former glory without causing damage.

An Italian Story: Fulvio Pacitto – the last shipwright?

Fulvio Pacitto started working at the age of 15, out of the great passion he had for boats, which was transmitted to him by his maternal grandfather, Ferdinando Carboni; his grandfather was part of the old crews of risicatori, the boys who earned their living racing to be the first to reach the merchant ships arriving at the port, gaining the right to unload the goods.

Kick-off meeting at MAD for Europe

MAD for Europe is extremely glad to take part in this KA2 project for helping seniors artisan and facilitate their participation at European level.
In fact, after the KOM meeting of February, we organised on 07th March an internal meeting with our staff members, volunteers and 2 artisan from Madrid.

First transnational project meeting – online

One of the most important lesson learnt during COVID-19 crisis was the importance of ICT skills and the necessity of a wider scale virtual connection among people all over the world.

Unfortunately, the technology advances much faster than the capacity of human being to adapt to its requirements.