Projects

About the project: The COST project is considered one of the most important scientific research and development programs in Europe and the world, and VERN' University has been participating in the activities of this project since 2018. The aim of the project is to connect nationally funded research projects from a specific field and institutions from the science and higher education system with partners from EU member states and associated countries in the implementation of research projects through the so-called COST actions. VERN' University teachers have so far, within the framework of COST actions: participated in the initiative "Indoor Living Space Improvement: Smart Habitat for the Elderly" (Mr. Sc. Hrvoje Belani and Mr. Sc. Igor Ljubi); participated in the InfoScience workshop on COST Action projects (group of lecturers); participated in editing the global communication glossary "OPINION Glossary" (Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sc. Tamara Kunić).

Project website: #COST Action

Project description: This investment covers the development and implementation of educational programs at all levels and the acquisition of new knowledge and skills necessary for doing business in the tourism and hospitality sector in selected forms of tourism, destination management organizations (DMOs), etc., with an emphasis on green and digital transition. In order to ensure appropriate training and the necessary knowledge and skills for performing jobs in tourism, and thus ensure the quality of service provision and the development of innovative tourism products and sustainable tourism focused on digital and green transition, it is necessary to educate employees, as well as those who want to work in tourism. Local residents, especially vulnerable groups, will be particularly encouraged to learn and work in tourism. This also includes encouraging the development of a set of skills to enable people to design and create products and services and manage them in an environmentally sustainable manner, but also to provide employers with the necessary qualified workforce. The education and training programmes developed must include a contribution to the green transition aimed at strengthening the capacity of the system for resilient and sustainable tourism, acquiring specific knowledge related to environmental issues, sustainable development and the circular economy. When it comes to smart, sustainable and inclusive tourism growth, with an emphasis on economic cohesion and jobs, new educational programmes and education will contribute to addressing the issue of the shortage of a quality workforce, as well as facilitating employment. This will strengthen economic and social resilience and resilience to the crisis.

Description of the service provided: Development and implementation of an educational program for destination management in accordance with legal regulations in tourism and development and implementation of training of trainers including curricula, programs and materials. The subject of the procurement is divided into two phases, of which phase 1 contains the preparation of educational programs, and phase 2 the implementation of educational programs. The project was in cooperation with the Institute of Tourism.

Duration: 20. 9. 2024. – 17. 7. 2025.

Client: Ministry of Tourism and Sports

Link: Certificates awarded to participants of the Training of Trainers for Tourist Destination Management program

Project description: The aim of the project is to ensure additional training and development of new and upgrading existing competencies that will enable training participants to provide a higher level of services aimed at integrating vulnerable groups into the labor market and standardizing work approaches. Through special and intensive training, counselors will acquire a higher level of competencies necessary for conducting in-depth counseling, defining work potential and profiling unemployed persons in order to segment them and direct further support that the user should receive from the Employment Service. This project will contribute to the organizational structure, optimization of the work of counselors and improvement of the effective integration of vulnerable groups into the labor market, development of human resources that will participate in the integration activities of vulnerable groups, and sustainability will be ensured through continuous development of counselors' capacities for working with vulnerable groups after its completion. Workshop leaders will acquire the competencies necessary for classroom, interactive and online transfer of professional knowledge and teaching of adult participants.

Description of the performed service: Education of counselors for work with vulnerable groups: preparation of teaching materials, maintenance and evaluation of educations, services, activities and actions related to the analysis of positions of counselors who work with vulnerable groups.

Duration: 22. 11. 2022. – 30. 6. 2023.

Client: Croatian Employment Service

Link: The completion of the CES project to encourage the integration of vulnerable groups in the labor market was marked

Project description: Education of HZMO employees in Microsoft Excel to acquire additional knowledge, basic and advanced skills.

Description of the service provided: Training of HZMO employees in Microsoft Excel to acquire additional knowledge, basic and advanced skills. Basic level of training for working in Microsoft Excel - the goal of the training is to train participants to independently create spreadsheet calculations, graphs and process data by sorting. Participants must learn to work with arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), percentage calculations and functions (minimum, maximum, average, summation, counting and IF functions). Advanced level of training for working in Microsoft Excel - the goal of the training is to train participants to use more complex options for creating spreadsheets. Basic level in a total duration of 20 school hours divided into 5 (five) working days. Advanced level in a total duration of 20 school hours divided into 5 (five) working days.

Duration: 20. 1. 2025. – 11. 3. 2025.

Client: Croatian Pension Insurance Institute

Project leader: European Foundation for Education

Program: Interreg, Danube Transnational Program (DTP)

Brain drain in the Danube region is one of the biggest social challenges with serious consequences for the entire region. The constant loss of young talents for the sake of better academic and economic attractiveness in Western European countries results in a decrease in the number of the population, and it is expected that by 2050 the population will decrease by 15% in the mentioned region. EDU-LAB aims to improve institutional capacities in order to increase the relevance of graduates on the labor market and retain more young talents to study and work in the Danube region. More attractive employment opportunities will be key in the future to encourage young people to stay in their home region, and such opportunities will result in an education system that is better coordinated with the needs of the labor market. A qualified workforce will improve the competitiveness of companies and restore local and regional economic development. This project was also recognized by the European Commission, which declared it through EUSDR as one of the 9 most strategically important projects for the Danube region.

EDU-LAB addresses 3 areas with major social challenges:

•  Education system and policies
•  Labor market policies
•  Demographic changes and migrations

Project partners:

• Technical University Sofia, Bulgaria
• Bulgarian Industrial Association - Union of the Bulgarian Business, Bulgaria
• Municipality of Vratsa, Bulgaria
• Institute for the Study of Societies and Knowledge, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
• Knowledge at Work Foundation, Croatia
• Kecskemét College, Hungary
• German Business Club Transylvania, Romania
• "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu, Romania
• Technical University of Košice, Slovakia
• German-Slovak Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Slovakia
• Automotive Industry Association of the Slovak Republic, Slovakia
• University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Regional Development Agency of Northern Primorska Nova Gorica, Slovenia
• Mechanical Engineering Faculty, University of Sarajevo, BiH
• LiNK Mostar, Association for Entrepreneurship and Business LINK, BiH
• Development Agency of the Una-Sana Canton, BiH
• Department for Development and International Projects, Government of Zenica-Doboj Canton, BiH
• Agency for Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance, BiH
• "Mihajlo Pupin" Institute, University of Belgrade, Serbia
• Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, Serbia
• Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Serbia
• Ministry of Education and Science, Bulgaria
• Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, Slovenia
• Danube Rectors' Conference, Belgium

Project website: www.interreg-danube.eu/edu-lab

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Project holder: Association VSŠ-SI

Programme: Erasmus+

Project partners:

• European Association of Institutions in Higher Education (Belgium)
• Celje School of Economics (Slovenia)
• Czech Association of schools of professional higher education (Czech Republic)
• Knowladge Innovation Center ltd (Malta)

The project addresses the need for quality internships for students during their studies and the correlation between internships and rapid employment rates and readiness for work in the company. The project aims to develop and improve "Work based Learning Quality"; cooperation between students/higher education institutions/SMEs during internships; create a system that will enable an easy, fast and efficient way of contracting, monitoring and evaluating internships.

Project website: https://apprenticetrack.eu/

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Program: Erasmus +, Capacity Building in Higher Education

Project leader: Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel

Project partners:

• Oranim Academic College of Education - the Kibbutz Movement, Tivon, Israel
• Sapir Academic College, Sderot, Israel
• Tel-Hai Academic College, Tel Hai, Israel
• The College of Sakhnin for Teacher Education, Sakhnin, Israel
• University of Pune, Pune, India
• Edulab Educational Exchange pvt ltd, Chakala, India
• Lokmanya Tilak jankalyan shikshan sanstha, Nagur, India
• Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur, India
• Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
• The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
• Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
• Israel Venture Network, Herzeliya, Israel
• Ashoka India: Innovators for the Public, Bengaluru, India
• DNA Cascais, Cascais, Portugal

The SILICE project aims to develop a platform for promoting socially innovative ideas and international cooperation at a regional level between the EU, Israel and India. It also seeks to tackle issues such as gender equality and equal opportunities for women.

The project will develop a creative and supportive environment in partner higher education institutions by establishing SinnoLABs (Social Innovation Labs) that will contribute to the development of social economic enterprises in their diverse forms that play a major role in increasing the competitiveness and efficiency of the Israeli and Indian economies in many ways. The key activities of the project are the establishment of creative centers (SinnoLABs); improving the skills and competencies of SinnoLABs employees to support social entrepreneurship and bring them closer to higher education institutions; designing training programs on learning social entrepreneurship; implementing pilot activities organized by SinnoLABs and creating a network of professors and practitioners to encourage social entrepreneurship and cooperation between enterprises and higher education institutions.

Project website: www.silice.org

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Project leader: Electrical Engineering School Varaždin

Programme: ESF

Project partners:

• Varaždin County
• Sračinec Elementary School
• Elementary School Sad
• Mobilisis doo
• Association of ALL

Digital fabrication is the process of designing and making a model/mockup/prototype using digitally defined data, using CAD/CAM (Computer Aided Design/Manufacturing) and 3D technologies. On the basis of professional development and cross-sector cooperation (schools, universities, associations, local companies/industry), the "Digital Fabrication Laboratory" will be developed as a multidisciplinary program (2D/3D design, programming, electronics, robotics) that guides gifted elementary school students through: (A) development of conceptual solutions/sketches through child-friendly "design-thinking" and "start-up" methods; (B) converting conceptual solutions/sketches into digital solutions with didactic software; (C) digital solutions are made into concrete objects with the use of industrial/didactic equipment. The program will be implemented as an extracurricular activity for gifted elementary school students in the equipped Center of Excellence for New Technologies (CENT), working with teacher-mentors and peer-mentors (gifted high school students) and the principle of "equal opportunities in education" (e-tools, equal opportunities for girls).

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Project leader: Local action group Međimurje valleys and hills

Programme: ESF

Project partners:

• Faculty of Organization and Informatics Varaždin
• College of Agriculture in Križevci
• ACT grip
• Local Action Group Škoji

The general goals of the project are the development of rural local communities through the initiation of socially innovative sustainable micro-entrepreneurial activities using local resources and the initiation of the local economy and the stopping of migration from rural to urban areas, especially highly educated young people. The project aims to increase the number of students with acquired practical knowledge and skills for solving specific social problems and community development. A sustainable partnership of higher education institutions and civil society organizations will be developed with the aim of educating socially responsible and active citizens. This will create the foundations for the development and continuous implementation of a program of socially useful learning that is directly applicable in the initiation of development activities, and the role of educational institutions as an active stakeholder in raising the quality of life in the local community will be strengthened. At the same time, the capacities of civil society organizations from local communities will be strengthened, as well as the capacities of students who, through the developed methodology of pop-up rural social-innovative hubs as a model of socially useful learning and mentoring and volunteer programs, will encourage sustainable development activities in selected local communities.

Project website: http://lag-medjimurskidoliibregi.hr/projekti-u-tijeku/pop-ruralni-drustvo-inovativni-hubovi/

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Project leader: Glasgow Caledonian University

Program: Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliances

Project partners:

• The Melting Pot (UK)
• Social Innovation Exchange SIC (UK)
• University of Aveiro (Portugal)
• Sabta Casa de Misericordia de Lisboa (Portugal)
• Social Impact Lab Duisburg (Germany)
• University of Deusto (Germany)
• Business Innovation Brokers S. Coop (Spain)
• Social Innovation Lab (Croatia)

The SIKE project responds to the need for higher education institutions to become proactive in driving social change through knowledge exchange and social innovation. The project aims to demonstrate the potential that higher education institutions have to use their knowledge to influence social change in a direct, meaningful and sustainable way. By developing new paradigms and tools for knowledge exchange that encompass social innovation, social entrepreneurship will be encouraged and effective support will be provided to local communities.

Project website: https://sike-eu.org/

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Project holder: Laurea University of Applied Sciences (Finland)

Program: Erasmus+ Strategic partnership for higher education

Project partners:

• Technologiko Expedeftiko Idryma Oprou (Greece)
• Fachhochschule Kiel, Faculty of Business Management (Germany)
• Linnaeus University (Sweden)

The aim of the VISIT project is to develop existing and new innovative services with small and medium-sized enterprises on European islands in order to improve the capabilities of local communities through cooperation in an international strategic consortium. Each higher education institution involved in the project also includes an island from its own country in order to develop knowledge and skills related to tourism and the economy through student internships, and at the same time create the prerequisites for solving challenges such as seasonality and emigration.

The islands involved are Vis, Oland, Paxi, Corfu and Nauvo-Korppoo. The main activities of the project include the formation of an international strategic consortium of higher education institutions in the project and the mentioned islands; development of new and improvement of existing services on the islands; training of students and support to medium and small enterprises on the islands; improvement of entrepreneurial skills of all involved; development and implementation of student internships on foreign islands.

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