The project concept and expected results were presented during the winter school on the topic “Inclusion and Diversity” as part of the European University Alliance “INVEST”. Young teachers from Slovak Republic, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Finland and France have learnt about the methodology behing the project and they took part in the Community of practice. This activity enriched the European dissemination and exploitation of the project results.

The project results were promoted during the International scientific conference on “Leadership an Organisational development”. It was hosted by the biggest university in Bulgaria – the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohdridski”. The project consortium was represented by  prof. PhD Pilar Gutiez Cuevas – President of ASOCIACIÓN MADRILEÑA DE PROFESIONALES DE LA ATENCIÓN TEMPRANA, Madrid, Spain and Mr. Andrean Lazarov from Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team. They have participated in different pannels of the conference, where they have introduced different components of the project realisation – the serious educational game “It’s time to work”, the Pre-employment guidance handbook and the infographic cards for students. Serious interest was presented by educational institutions from all over Europe, but also Canada, Dubai, UAE, Japan, Ukraine and Moldova. This will guarantee wider exploitation of the project results even beyond the project lifetime.

The Spanish Final Multiplier Event was held on 27 October 2025 at Autonomous University of Madrid. The event was organised by UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID in collaboration with ASOCIACIÓN MADRILEÑA DE PROFESIONALES DE LA ATENCIÓN TEMPRANA, Madrid, Spain.

The event was opened by the core project team on behalf of UAM – Prof. PhD Melchor Gomez, Dr. Moussa Boumadan and Dr. Roberto Soto Valera. They have presented the project concept, realised results and the ontology behind the development of the serious educational game.

Prof. Gomez presented also the comparative analysis of the pre and post test results.

The project partners presented the results from the project realisation in Bulgaria (by Mr. Andrean Lazarov from Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team and Mrs. Nevena Apostolova and Mrs. Violeta Guyzeleva from 94 School “Dimitar Strashimirov” Sofia) and in Turkiye (by Mr. Taha Berk Dincel and Ms. Aynur Sude Kesik from World Innovative Sustainable Solutions).

Prof. PhD Pilar Gutiez Cuevas presented the post-results from the Spanish piloting as well as highlighted on best practices in the field of mental health and wellbeing for students and teachers.

Special guest of the event was Prof. PhD Cristina Sanchez Romero – Chair of the Master degree programmes in digitalisation and inclusion at UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE EDUCACION A DISTANCIA, Madrid, Spain . She presented the Interactive digital tool to university students including those with disabilities towards supportive and preventive measures of aggression and bullying as part of the A-CHAT Erasmus+ project as well as the results from the national initiatives such as CYPERPROXY and METAVERSE.

More than 90 people attended the event and they were able to test autonomously the serious educational game of the EMPLOGAME project. At the end of the event, potential sustainability actions were discussed as well as each participant received promotional materials of the project, specially provided by the AMPAT team.

The final transnational partners’ meeting was held on 27-28 October 2025 in Madrid, Spain. The meeting was hosted by two of the project partners – UAM and AMPAT. The meeting was important part of the finalisation of the project activities in terms of measuring the impact of the project results and consolidation of the results from pilot implementation phase.

Over 330 students from marginalised groups (comparing to 80 initially planned) have been able to participate in the career guidance sessions, organised by the project partners and to validate their pre-employment skills via the serious game, developed by the project consortium. They have been supported by 237 trained teachers (instead of 80 initially planned) in Spain, Bulgaria and Turkiye.

The reached impact was concluded as following:

• Improved pre-employment job skills and readiness to enter the labour market of students with fewer opportunities
• Improved knowledge, skills and competences to support the career guidance at schools by teachers and pedagogical counsellors
• Improved self-esteem, self-confidence, motivation and believes of the above students
• Improved believes and parental support provided to family members towards the potential success of their pupils.
• Improved results of the school intervention to prevent potential labour market dropouts.

Thanks to the conducted piloting phase, teachers are able:

• To determine what knowledge, skills, and work behaviours (soft skills) their students with fewer opportunities have to offer to prospective employers
• To develop the problem solving and communication skills of their students and to enable them to successfully compete for jobs and develop healthy relationships in the workplace
• To suggest to students to explore career options in relation to current labour market trends
• To implement sessions, where their students will be able to refine and practise their job seeking skills, including how to generate online and paper applications, produce a CV, and interview successfully
• To provide feedback on in-demand with regards to the observed behaviors in a simulated work environment via game.

 

The team of World Innovative Sustainable Solutions, Istanbul, Turkiye together with Regional educational directorate of education – Esenyurt Milli Egitim Mudurlugu, Istanbul, Turkiye have organised two multiplier events – on 9th and 22nd of October 2025 in Istanbul, Turkiye. Totally 100 people (teachers, university students ,HR department representatives, directors) attended both two events. Both events were very beneficial for the successful exploitation and multiplication of the project results by schools and educators from all over Istanbul. Dedicated cooperation agreements were signed with schools and educational institutions.

On 8th October 2025, the final multiplier event of the EMPLOGAME project has been organised in Sofia, Bulgaria by the Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team. More than 70 students from marginalised communities and those with learning difficulties together with their teachers and pedagogical counsellors have participated.

The main project deliverables – the Serious educational game “It’s time to work” (Desktop and mobile version), info cards as well as the Pre-employment support & guidance handbook for teachers have been presented as well as the results from the pilot implementation phase in Bulgaria.

Teachers and students who participated in the pilot implementation phase shared their opinion about the impact, which the project made to them. Definetely, the career guidance process has been improved in the participating schools and several of students, who are at their last grade, already implemented labour market skills into conducted interview with career advisors to ensure their smooth labour market inclusion upon graduation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The team of WINSS met with the Human Resources representatives and made a training session together. They experinced the game and gave feedbacks about what kind of skills they are looking for in the job market recently.

 

The project and its deliverables were presented by Mr. Andrean Lazarov from Bulgarian Inclusion Support team at the webinar organised by the Human Resources Development Centre (the Bulgarian National Agency of Erasmus+ programme) and the accompanying activity “National VET Expert Team” . The event was attended by an exceptional interest from over 220 teachers and educational experts from all over Bulgaria, including representatives of the Regional Departments of Education, educational mediators, representatives of the non-governmental sector, NAVET, etc.

During the event, key innovations and good practices for the development of digital competences in vocational education and training (VET) were presented and discussed. Mr. Lazarov presented thematic aspects related to the preparation of teachers and students for work in a modern digital environment through implementing gamification as an approach for inclusive and motivating education. The serious educational game and the career guidance handbook were throughly presented and potential exploitation negotiations were expressed by the participants, including those from Regional educational directorates from different regions in Bulgaria.

The webinar stimulated dialogue and exchange of experience between educational institutions, IT specialists and business representatives. At the end of the event, future topics for appropriate events were also discussed, including the ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence, GDPR regulations, etc. The serious educational game “Emplogame” was presented as a good practice for supporting students with fewer opportunities and disadvantaged people on their path to career guidance and preparation for the labor market, in direct connection with Europass documents.

The project was promoted during networking sessions, individual talks and workshops at the 35th Annual International Conference and Fair – EAIE 2025 organised by the European Association for International Education. The event was held in the period 9-12 September 2025 in Gothenburg, Sweden, where more than 7000 educational professionals and students from all over the world have participated.

We were able to extend the dissemination and promotion of the project to an international level during series of individual meetings with rectors, vice-rectors and directors of international officies of universities from Abu Dhabbi, Qatar, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, China. The interest towards the project results was significant. Thanks to that, the partners received new invitations to speak at international events.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can access the QR code above to read new publication available about the project. It was done by the team of UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID, Spain as the Project coordinator.

You can download the latest mobile version of the EMPLOGAME on Google Play via following link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asgames.emplo&hl=es

Prof. PhD Pilar Gutiez Cuevas from AMPAT team (project partner) presented the EMPLOGAME project during International seminar “The role of intelligent systems and artificial intellegence to education” , which was held on 1 and 2 August 2025, Asunsion, Paraguay. Special focus was on the results from the pilot implementation phase as well as potential exploitation of the project results in Paraguay by local schools, which has been negotiated.

On 15th and 16th of May 2025, the fifth Istanbul transnational partners’ meeting took place with the participation by all partners. Core aspects discussed were about the status of the realisation of the pilot implementation phase in Spain, Bulgaria and Turkiye as well as the new versions of the game for mobile devices – Android and iOS.

The partners reviewed the preliminary results from the feedback gathering tool based on Kirckpatrick’s methodology. Overall we have very good results towards validation of the pre-employment skills of marginalised students in the partners’ countries – students with Roma origin, refugees as well as students with learning difficulties and disabilities.

The partners also discussed the preparation of common articles and presentations during EU and international conferences as well as discussed the organisation of the final multiplier events in September-October 2025.

Common workshop for recent and future teachers was organised as part of the First CITEM International congress organised by UAM in cooperation with AMPAT, BIST and 94 SU (project partners). During the workshop session, we have presented the project deliverables and trained the participants how to use them in their daily practices. We were able to collect feedback as well as to negotiate future participation in dissemination and exploitation activities.

On 21st and 22nd April 2025, the fourth transnational partners’ meeting were held in Madrid, Spain. It was hosted by both UAM (project coordinator) and AMPAT (local partner).

The partner went through all work packages, where they have discussed the progress and planned the next steps. Special attention was put on the new version of the serious educational game for validation of pre-employment skills of marginalised countries. The partners took into account the feedback provided by both teachers and marginalised students aged 14-18 in Spain, Bulgaria and Turkiye, which were implemented into the new version.

The partners presented their involvement in recent dissemination and exploitation activities as well as discussed future plans.

Marginalised students aged 15-18 from Bulgaria are continuing their pre-employment preparation via individual and group sessions with their teachers and pedagogical counsellor as well as by exploring the 4 levels of the serious game produced by the project. In total 60 students so far participated from 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov”.

 

The team of AMPAT was invited to deliver special training for future teachers (recent students at Pedagogical and Social studies programmes) at the Catholic University of Paraguay. The training event was held on 4th and 5th of April and was delivered by Prof. PhD Pilar Gutiez Cuevas and Prof. PhD Castellar Lopez Guinea from AMPAT. They have presented the serious educational game as well as the Pre-employment toolkit. Exploitation agreement was signed between AMPAT and the organisers.

 

The project was presented as best practice example during International conference organised by National agency of Republic of North Macedonia. The conference was held in the period 5-7.03.2025 in Ohrid. The aim of the event was to bring together career counselors from across the educational spectrum — from primary education to universities — who are actively working on issues of career guidance, inclusion and support of vulnerable groups in the educational process. The discussions focused on new trends in career counseling, the specifics of approaches for different professional and social groups, good practices and ways for sustainable inclusion of vulnerable groups.

Special focus was done on the presentation of the Pre-employment supportive handbook and the serious educational game.

The piloting and pre-employment validation sessions through the serious game are progressing very successfully. Students from Roma community as well as those with mild disabilities and special educational needs are motivated and engaged in the game scenarios. Listen above video testimonial of one of them as well as photos from different sessions.

The project was presented during the annual realisation of 11ª edición de la Conferencia Ibérica de Innovación con Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (ieTIC 2025). The session about “Emplogame: Gamificación y aprendizaje basado en juegos para la mejora de la empleabilidad juvenil en contextos de vulnerabilidad” is available also at the following link: https://canal.uned.es/video/67cad6c43613275fc1049732

The pilot implementation phase is progressing well in Bulgaria. This is evdient from the teachers’ workshop, which was held at 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” in Sofia, Bulgaria on 27 February 2025. The workshop was opened by the Principal of 94 SU, Mrs. Lidiya Yarnova and Mr. Andrean Lazarov from Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team, who was the moderator of the workshop.

The main aim of the workshop was to share feedback from the pilot career guidance sessions with students with special needs (students from marginalised communities and those with learning difficulties). For the time being 60 students are involved in 6 groups aged between 14 and 18. During each of the sessions, the students are receiving career guidance tips by the teachers and the pedagogical counsellor as well as they are validating their pre-employment skills via the serious educationa game of the project.

The piloting phase will continue in the next months, where each of the students will complete the four stages of the game. The participants also discussed the Star outcome star model of Kirckpatrick, which is used to record the student progress in soft and transversal skills. Follow us for more information in the next months.

On 10-11 February 2025, the third transnational partners meeting was held in Istanbul, Turkiye. The meeting was hosted by World Innovative Sustainable Solutions – Istanbul, Turkiye. The meeting was dedicated to the finalisation of the beta version of the serious game “I am ready to work” and to the planning of the pilot testing phase.

The partners reviewed and reported also all realised activities in all work packages including planning the next project steps.

The team of WINSS talked about the cooperation between municipalities and civil society and our projects in an event of Sisli Municipality and UN. They agreed to meet again to develop cooperation with the education departments of the municipalities
regarding the Emplogame project.

The team of WINSS organised a small-scale multiplier event with parents and people with disabilities in Istanbul. The event took place on 30 November 2024. Feedback was gathered for the project results as well as negotiations about involvement in the forthcoming pilot tryouts were elaborated.

Dr. Roberto Soto from UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID, Spain represented the project consortium during SIMO EDUCACIÓN 2024, which was held on 20 November 2024 in Madrid, Spain. SIMO EDUCACIÓN, the International Exhibition of Educational Technology and Innovation organized by IFEMA MADRID in collaboration with EDUCACIÓN 3.0, presented best practices from teaching experiences developed in various educational institutions throughout Spain. This was the final phase of a process in which a jury analyzed more than 200 high-quality proposals, of which 35 passed an initial selection and, ultimately, 14 won in their respective categories. EMPLOGAME was among the winners as best practice.

Dedicated to the project results article has been published on the topic “Game based learning y serious games para el desarrollo de habilidades blandas y la integración laboral de jóvenes en riesgo de exclusión social: el proyecto EMPLOGAME”. InNuevos horizontes en educación: investigación e innovación educativa para una escuela digital(pp. 63-70). Dykinson.

You can find it at: https://www.torrossa.com/it/resources/an/5846851

Our project coordinator – Prof. PhD Melchor Gomez and the project manager Dr. Moussa Boumadan has participate during the 2nd International Congress on Research, Transfer and Innovation in Education, which was held on 13 September 2024.

They have presented the game ontology and the serious game developed under the project which was highly appreciated by the audience.

On 22 and 23 May 2024, in Sankt Pölten, Austria, the 33rd Annual conference by EURASHE on the theme: “Stronger together: Promoting transnational cooperation” took place. Mr. Andrean Lazarov, the CEO of the Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team was among the key panelists together with Mrs. Sophia Eriksson Waterschoot – the General Director for Youth, Education and Erasmus+ at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture as well as representatives of Šiauliai State UAS, Thomas More UAS, Burgenland UAS, under the moderation of Mr. Michal Karpišek – member of the European Alliance E³UDRES².

Mr. Andrean Lazarov with Mrs. Sophia Eriksson Waterschoot – the General Director for Youth, Education and Erasmus+ at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture

During his speech, Mr. Lazarov presented the advantages of the Erasmus+ programme towards transnational cooperation and gave particular examples with different EU projects, where BIST is involved.

Mr. Andrean Lazarov with Mr. Hannes Raffaseder – President of EURASHE

 

The project team of Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) – the project coordinator, successfully presented the project during the XVII International Congress of Education and Innovation, which was held on 11-13 April 2024 in Santiago de Chili. The event was a great opportunity for networking, dissemination and exploitation of the project results on international level.

On 21st and 22nd March 2024, at 94 SU “Dimiter Strashimirov” the transnational partners meeting of the project was held.  The meeting was opened by the host partner – Mrs. Latinka Kovacheva – Principal of the 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” Sofia and by the project coordinator Mr. Melchor Gomez from Autonomous university of Madrid, Spain. Special music performance was given by students of 94 SU.

Main scope of the meeting was the review of the new improved version of the EMPLOGAME serious game “I am ready to work”. The partners discussed the outcomes from the focus groups feedback in Bulgaria, Spain and Turkiye and agreed on next amendments. They have discussed the new scenarios for the next game levels.

The partners discussed the progress of the five work packages by their leaders. Overall the project is in line with the work programme and is producing valuable learning results.

At the end of the meeting, the partners received certificates for participation and the project action plan was updated.

 

On 20 March, 2024 (Wednesday) in the Great Hall “prof. Asen Zlatarov” of the Federation of Scientific and Technical Unions (FNTS) in the city of Sofia, the final event of the project was held. During the event, the EMPLOGAME project was disseminated in the presentations of Mrs. Latinka Kovacheva and Mrs. Penka Nikolova (from 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” Sofia), Mr. Andrean Lazarov (from Bulgarian Inclusive Support Team” Sofia) and Mrs. Figen Sekin (from WINSS – World Innovative Sustainable Solutions, Istanbul, Turkiye). More than 50 people took part in the event, including principals of vocational schools, teachers, pedagogical counsellors, students (including participants in the pilot phase of the project), as well as representatives of the Union of Bulgarian teachers and academics.

The event was also attended by Mr. Dervis Celik – from Esenyurt” Regional Education Directorate in Istanbul, Turkey. He emphasized the importance of the project, as well as offered new opportunities for cooperation with Bulgarian partners.

The EMPLOGAME project was disseminated as part of the VISAGE4JOBS final multiplier event, which was held on 15 February 2024 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The two Bulgarian partners – Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team and 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” presented the first version of two major project results – the Pre-employment toolkit for marginalised students and the draft level of the EMPLOGAME serious digital game “I am ready to work”. 40 representatives of the project’s target groups took part in it, including teachers, psychologists, pedagogical advisors, career consultants, representatives of vocational training centers.

The event was opened by Mrs. Latinka Kovacheva – director of 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” Sofia, who is also the coordinator of the project. She welcomed all the guests and gave an introduction about the achievements of the project. Mr. Yordan Krasev – a representative of the Union of Bulgarian Teachers, also took part in the opening, who expressed gratitude for the successful implementation of the project and emphasized the role of the union in the dissemination of the results created within the framework of the project activities.

Special part of the presentation was dedicated to the short-term impact of the project by Mrs. Penka Nikolova from 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” – Sofia. She emphasised on the impact to teachers and students.

During the last part of the event, Mrs. Latinka Kovacheva initiated a discussion on the possibilities of using and distributing the project results among other schools, including 93 SU “Alexander Teodorov-Balan”, 7. SU “Sveti Sedmochiselnitsi”, 15 SU “Adam Mickiewicz”, 102. “Panayot Volov” Primary School, “Stefan Noikov” Foundation, 106. “Grigoriy Tsamblak” High School, 148. “Prof. Dr. L. Miletich” High School, Nayden Gerov Secondary School, ChSU “Prof. Nikolay Rainov”.

The CEO of the Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team – Mr. Andrean Lazarov participated during the INVEST Conference at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne. The event was held on 23 January 2024, at the Aula of the university in Reims, France. He presented the EMPLOGAME Pre-employment toolkit and the first version of the serious game “I am ready to work”  The event was attended by academicians, staff and PhD students from universities in Greece, Finland, Spain, Italy and Bulgaria. In the informal part of the event, potential for transfer of the outputs to the context of their countries was discussed.

Mr. Andrean Lazarov was welcomed by the Rector of the University, who is also the Chairman of the University of France – the union of universities in France Prof. Guillaume Gelle.

The project team from the 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” Sofia under the lead of its principal Mrs. Latinka Kovacheva participated during final dissemination event of “Together again” Erasmus+ project. The event was organised by 93 SU “Alexandar Todorov – Balan” Sofia. During the event Mrs. Kovacheva presented the first project results of EMPLOGAME – the first level of the serious game and the pre-employment toolkit.

On 12 December 2023, the Ministry of Education and Science in Bulgaria organised the a forum “Education for Tomorrow” with a focus on digital education. The event was opened by the Minister of Education in Bulgaria – prof. PhD Galin Tsokov. The set of the conference was to present good practices for effective use of digital technologies, tools and content to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Participants had the opportunity to get acquainted with inspiring examples of this, as digital technologies are successfully applied in the educational sphere. Mrs. Penka Nikolova – Project manager from the 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” presented the project concept and distributed project flyers.

The national seminar was organised by the National agency of Erasmus+ in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian National VET team. It was focused on students and their teachers from vocational high schools in the region within the framework of the “European Year of Skills – 2023”.

The consortium was represented by Mrs. Penka Nikolova from 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” and Mr. Andrean Lazarov (moderator of the event and CEO of the Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team) who demonstrated tips and good practices in creating the professional resume (through the Europass tools) and motivation letter for a successful career. They conducted practical sessions based on EMPLOGAME training toolkit. In the framework of the workshop, Mrs. Nikolova consulted teachers about common mistakes and advice in career development and preparation for the labor market, as well as provided guidelines for overcoming them with a view to easier access to the labor market in Bulgaria.

The project, which is coordinated by UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID, Spain and partnered by the Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team and ASOCIACIÓN MADRILEÑA DE PROFESIONALES DE LA ATENCIÓN TEMPRANA (AMPAT), Madrid, Spain was presented during the XVII International congress of the organisations working in the field of education, which was held in the period 08-10 November 2023 in Oviedo, Spain.

In the dedicated panel called: “Inclusive education in the 21st century: recent practices and solutions for teachers and students with special needs” was chaired by prof. Pilat Gutiez Cuevas and prof. Crisalida Rodriguez Serna from AMPAT with the participation of  Andrean Lazarov from Bulgarian Inclusion Support team. Prof. Pilar Gutiez Cuevas  presented the project concept and the first project results with regards to the game based development and its impact on students from disadvantaged communities.

The congress was organised by the University of Oviedo and included more than 200 participants from Europe and Latin America (academicians, business representatives, teachers, lecturers, NGO representatives, policy makers). During the first congress day, the team of Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team presented the key outcomes of the project, especially appreciated by the giant name in the didactics of Spain – prof. Antonio Medina Rivilla from UNED | Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia and the key organiser prof. Emilio Álvarez Arregui – President of UNESCO Spain . Possibilities for exploitation of the key project results in Spain and in Latin America were discussed.

Dedicated article about the project, its concept and results was also published with ISBN: 978-84-18482-96-0

More information at: https://www.cioie2023.org/es/programa.php 

 

The partners met on 7th November 2023 in Madrid, Spain to discuss and improve the development of the serious game “I am ready to work”. During the meeting, the partners from UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID, Spain (project coordinator), ASOCIACIÓN MADRILEÑA DE PROFESIONALES DE LA ATENCIÓN TEMPRANA, Madrid, Spain,  94 High School “Dimitar Strashimirov”, Sofia, Bulgaria, World Innovative Sustainable Solutions, Istanbul, Turkeye and Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team, Sofia, Bulgaria, improved the scenarios as well as developed additional parts of the technical specification of the game avatars and functionalities. The new improved version is expected to be delivered in the beginning of December 2023.

Thanks to the kind invitation of the UARD – Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team was invited as keynote speaker at the INVEST WINTER SCHOOL 2023 – “AN INTRODUCTION TO NATURE-INCLUSIVE AGRICULTURE”, which was held in the period 08-15 October 2023 in Heerenveen and Leeuwarden in The Netherlands. The topic was “The inclusive urban agriculture as an approach towards social entrepreneurship”. Students from bachelor and master degrees from Slovakia, Bulgaria, Greece and Finland took part in the school. Major point of interest for them was the existing policies and good practices into social entrepreneurship in Bulgaria. The pre-employment training material, developed under the EMPLOGAME project was presented, where the opportunities for social entrepreneurship are dully explained.

On 05 September 2023, a meeting with young teachers was organised at the University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski”. Mrs. Nevena Apostolova from the team of 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” Sofia presented the project concept and the draft version of the project deliverables meant to contribute to further validate pre-employment skills and to foster digital competence of low skilled and marginalized students to foster better transition to the labour market. The teachers provided feedback and suggestions for modifications, which will be reported to the project consortium and will be taken into account.

 

The team of the 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” under the chair of the Principal and project coordinator Mrs. Kovacheva and Mrs. Nevena Apostolova discussed with the teachers about the recent version of the scenarios for the production of the serious game. The teachers contributed with suggestions for further improvement and were happy that are involved in this very important initiative for their students with special needs. During the meeting, the next steps of the project development was also discussed.

The CEO of the Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team – Mr. Andrean Lazarov was invited to participate together in a Breakout session about the INVEST Fellow programme during the 32nd Annual EURASHE conference. The event took place on 8-9 June 2023 and was hosted by the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest (UPB). During the event series discussions were held about the inclusive Higher education together with the new EURASHE President, Mr. Hannes Raffaseder, CEO of the St. Pölten University of Applied Science and the Rector of UPB Prof. Mihnea Costoiu. Both of them expressed interest towards the project and it was agreed to invite them for one of the project multiplier events.

During presentation of the project session:

with the new EURASHE President, Mr. Hannes Raffaseder, CEO of the St. Pölten University of Applied Science:

with the Rector of UPB Prof. Mihnea Costoiu:

 

Erasmus University Rotterdam (a key partner of the Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team) has been working on the fundamental topics of inclusion, diversity, equity and access for more than seven years. Their dedicated and institutionalized IDEA Center now consists of more than 20 specialists that develop and execute our institutional and integral approach on inclusion, diversity, equity and access. The IDEA Center has taken on a pioneering role, nationally and in Europe helping initiate IDEA-structures at universities, disseminating our knowledge and expertise.

During the week, various national and international speakers – including Prof. Lina Gálvez Muñoz (European Parliament), Alfred Herrera (University of California, Los Angeles), Prof. Eveline Crone (Erasmus University Rotterdam – EUR), Fanny Passeport (Education Development Officer at Erasmus X, EUR) & Dr. Dirk Deichmann (Associate Professor, EUR) and our CEO Mr. Andrean Lazarov – together with academicians, researchers, PhD students and disability organisation representing participants shared practical insights and knowledge on topics such as (academic) outreach, student engagement, inclusive education & Universal Design for Learning, inclusive HR, inclusive communication and monitoring & research.

During the panel workshop “Integrating Universal Design for Learning into your course” we have presented the recent development in the field of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is an approach that allows instructors to proactively design their course content and pedagogical strategies to anticipate a wide range of needs. Rather than seeing students as ‘average’, they are considered as ‘variable’. By acknowledging and welcoming diversity, instructors adopt a pluralistic approach that honors learning differences. When applying UDL, the instructor provides multiple ways of engagement, representation, and action & expression. Concrete examples from EUR applications (and reflections) in a ‘Design Thinking’ course at RSM (in fall 2022) and contributions from the Bulgarian inclusion support team recent and past development were presented. The concept and expected results of the recent EMPLOGAME project were disseminated to the audience.

More information and detailed programme is available here: https://www.eur.nl/en/research/information-form-idea-international-knowledge-week/idea-international-knowledge-week-wednesday

Our team member was invited to participate as key speaker during the plenary sessions at the European conference “Transversal Skills for Work and Life: Strengthening Guidance and Validation” which was held between 18-19 April 2023 in Paris, France.

The main aim of the conference was to build bridges between research, policy and practice for guidance and validation of transversal competences in Europe. Both in work settings and in daily life, there is a growing need for individuals to develop high-level competences to address complex challenges. Transversal competences set the foundation for personal development, resilience, the ability to communicate and work constructively with others, problem-solving, and the ability to manage one’s learning and career. Yet transversal competences are not always valued or made visible in guidance and validation processes for disadvantaged learners.

The ongoing TRANSVAL-EU project — co-financed by Erasmus+ KA3 Policy Reform – Policy Experiments coordinated by OeAD, Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalization (Austrian National Agency of Erasmus+ programme) – one of the largest policy experimentations in Europe — aimed to bridge this gap in guidance and assessment in validation of non-formal and informal learning (VNFIL). The TRANSVAL-EU research conference  provided opportunities for researchers to share and discuss state-of-the-art research in the field of validation of non-formal and informal learning (VNFIL) of transversal skills, including in conference panels, workshops, and a networking reception.

The team of the Autonomous University of Madrid (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) as coordinator of our EU project: “Game based learning to validate pre-employment skills and to foster digital competence of low skilled and marginalized students to foster better transition to the labour market” (EMPLOGAME) hosted the kick off meeting on 13 and 14 April 2023 in the Faculty of Education in Madrid, Spain.

Together with our partners representing academicians, schools, educational directorates and NGOs from Spain, Bulgaria and Turkey we have discussed the game ontology and scenarios for the development of the serious game “I am ready to work”.