In July 2022 Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (Villah, Austria) held a management meeting and a trainings meeting within the scope of Erasmus+ KA2 project “Digital Competences Framework for Ukrainian Teachers and Other Citizens” (dComFra) (598236-EPP-1-2018-1-LT-EPPKA2-CBHE-SP).

Meeting was held in a blended form, and participants had a chance to meet in person firstly since the pandemic started. Overcoming the challenges both of global pandemic and war in Ukraine, consortium members continue their active work on the project tasks regarding digital competences enhancement for Ukrainian teachers and citizens.

On July 25-26 management and coordinating meeting took place. This meeting was devoted to review project achievements and current issues upon project tasks implementation. Particularly, it was discussed range of questions regarding DC-offices work under war conditions in Ukraine, equipment evacuation from universities appeared to be within active military operations areas, the continuation of the pilot trainings and the final project conference organization.

Project partners have presented statistics upon the pilot training results and survey results regarding project quality. Also, the results of a project partners regarding project dissemination activities as well as results of project partners participation within different European digital initiatives activities (such as Digital Weeks, Code Weeks, Safer Internet Weeks, etc.) were discussed.

Starting from June 27, project teachers participated in trainings devoted to modern practices for digital competences development. Within these trainings the quality of developed 22 modules content was discussed and analyzed.

International partners presented their review and analysis of innovative teaching technologies, shared their experience in organization of educational process under pandemic restrictions and in modern distant learning technologies implementation.

Olena Chaikovska, Serhii Bronin and Maryna Tolmach have presented report on “DigComp 2.2: Digital competences framework for citizens”. Integrated framework DigComp 2.2 provides 250 new examples, skills and attitudes which aimed to help citizens work with digital technologies confidently, critically and safely. DigComp 2.2 takes into account such novel technologies as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Big Data, as well as novel requirements to remote work which has led to new increased requirements to level of digital competences among citizens.

One of the most important training tasks was presentation and discussion upon educational modules for digital competences training developed within the scope of the project and which were used during pilot trainings for project target groups. So, each developer has presented his or her module along with statistics on number of training materials developed, number of pilot training participants, their results and feedback.

Discussion on implemented approaches and achieved results during pilot project implementation allowed suggest final recommendations for learning modules improvement.

Within the meeting it became possible to express gratitude from Ukrainian partners to colleagues and friends from Czech University of Life Sciences, which on the very beginning of the war raised personal funds, purchased basic necessities to help civil defenders of Ukraine. Ukrainian national project coordinator arranged delivery of these extremely needed necessities to addressees in Ukraine. It was really the first chance to express gratitude to our Czech colleagues’ care in person, although, unfortunately, in a hybrid mode.

In the end of the meeting the certificates were awarded to all the meeting participants.

As a present to Ukrainian delegation, colleagues from Carinthia University of Applied Sciences organized a tour to the Landskron Fortress upon completion of official meeting activities. Meeting participants visited barrier-free park Affenberg Landskron and unique park Adler Arena Burg Landskron. The Landskron Fortress enchanted with its magnificent views of the Villah surrounded by the Alpine mountains and blue lakes.

Those were busy, productive and wonderful days. They were busy because of the number of scheduled meeting events, reports and discussion subjects. They were wonderful because, after quarantine restrictions, despite military activities and difficult time for travelling, colleagues, participants and project coordinators finally had a chance to meet. After all, for the 4 years of project implementation, representatives from 5 EU and 7 Ukrainian universities really became a united team and real Erasmus family.

We would like to thank to the administration and staff of the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (CUAS, Villah, Austria) for the excellent organization of events within meeting, hospitality and warm welcome!

We believe in Ukraine and work together for a result for Victory! Everything is and will be Ukraine!

#ErasmusPlus #ErasmusUA #StandWithUkraine #dComFra