To achieve a sustainable Europe, the environmental, social and cultural objectives have to be rebalanced against the financial and economic ones. The role of creative and critical thinking, fostered by arts and cultural activities, also plays a key role if we want young people to regain trust in Europe. DiCultYouth Strategic Partnership focuses on creating synergies between the creative sectors of culture, education and technology aiming to boost the digital skills of young people and to help ensure that education systems and cultural organizations make the most of new technologies in order to enhance the employability of the new generation. Branding all young people as digital natives we also risk excluding vulnerable young adults from digital skills provision. Thus, in case we want more opportunities for young people to get on, we have to raise Europe’s productivity. In a digitally-driven economy, that means ensuring that everyone has the skills they need to flourish, with nobody left behind. Cultural institutions have not been able to fully adopt the digital technology in order to become part of the information economy. This innovation gap has received little attention while the social expectation of heritage content positioned within the information economy grows. This gap in digital skills in the cultural heritage sector is going to be the objective of our research in all five European counties which will lead to the creation of an on-line game ‘gamifying culture’ and to the creation of an e-learning training course addressing the needs of young people in this new digital and demanding era. More concretely the DiCultYouth Project aims at: - Preparing young professionals and open new pathways to careers into the cultural sector by developing essential IT knowledge and skills required in heritage-sector careers. - Developing digital literacy of young people while trying to combat youth unemployment through a multi-assessed e-learning programme, for young people with fewer opportunities in order to up-grade, up-skill or re-skill their digital competences to meet the needs of labour market. - Strengthening the exchange of knowledge and practice between research centers educational and training institutions and Ngo’s - Analyzing and interpret the concept of cultural heritage, through conducting a state of play review in all involved countries in order to map the ICT skills and the level of knowledge required by cultural institutions with regard digital skills. - set up a network platform where various cultural organizations, stakeholders, agencies, relevant public services etc. will offer guidance and advice for future employment Target Groups End users: Disadvantaged young people (including unemployed, newly arrived immigrants and young refugees, early school leavers etc) willing to work in the cultural sector or pursue a career in the cultural heritage sector, any non-degree-young person who seeks to acquire knowledge and the skills necessary to ensure their success in professional environments and young persons with an educational background in humanitarian studies. Stakeholders: cultural organizations, policy makers, local and regional authorities, labor market which will benefit from digitally literate young people through the provision of high quality non-formal learning To achieve the aims mentioned the DiCultProject will proceed to the elaboration of three intellectual outputs: - The conduction of a comparative analysis by assessing the current situation in all participating countries and by conducting a cross-functional skill gap analysis to identify current and future roles and required skill in the cultural sector. We will also determine the maturity level of cultural organizations and define the activities that have to be adapted in order to increase the level of maturity with regard to digital skills. - The elaboration of a learning on line game which will provide much potential for innovative, effective and accessible contemporary teaching and learning inspiring young people to learn more with regard to our European cultural heritage and thus raise their cultural awareness - Design and delivery of an on-line training course which will help young people develop their digital skills, covering a range of non-formal modules related to digital culture and cultural heritage. The online training module will consist of a series of non-formal learning activities, educational tools, background text, cases studies and simulation games.
To achieve a sustainable Europe, the environmental, social and cultural objectives have to be rebalanced against the financial and economic ones. The role of creative and critical thinking, fostered by arts and cultural activities, play a key role if we want young people to regain trust in Europe. Digitalisation and culture for new generations (DiCultYouth project) implemented between November 2018 and January 2021. The DiCultYouth project focused on creating synergies between the creative sectors of culture, education, and technology to boost the digital skills of young people and help ensure that education systems and cultural organisations make the most of new technologies to enhance the employability of the new generation and support youth with a background in humanitarian studies to pursue career opportunities in cultural heritage-related fields. The project worked towards achieving the following specific objectives over the past two years: - To prepare young professionals and open new pathways to careers into the cultural sector by developing essential IT knowledge and skills required in heritage-sector careers. - To develop the digital literacy of young people while trying to combat youth unemployment through a multi-assessed e-learning programme for young people with fewer opportunities to up-grade, up-skill, or re-skill their digital competences to meet the needs of the labour market. - To strengthen the exchange of knowledge and practice between research centres, educational and training institutions d NGOs. Analyse and interpret the concept of cultural heritage through conducting a state of play review in all involved countries in order to map the ICT skills and the level of knowledge required by cultural institutions with regard to digital skills - To set up a network platform where various cultural organisations, stakeholders, agencies, relevant public services etc., to offer guidance and advice for future employment Particularly, to achieve the objectives above, DiCultYouth developed three tangible intellectual outputs: IO1 Map Digital Skills in the Cultural sector: The comparative analysis describes the participating countries' current situation and a cross-functional skill gap analysis to identify the current and future roles and required skills in the cultural sector. The maturity level of cultural organisations was also assessed, and activities that have to be adapted to increase the level of maturity concerning digital skills were defined. This output constitutes the theoretical basis for the development/assessment of the following two Intellectual Outputs. IO2 Gamifying Culture: A fun and engaging game that puts the player in the curators' role, cultural heritage specialists to learn cultural content and develop digital competences and cultural awareness. It is based on five principles: intrinsic motivation, learning through intense enjoyment and fun, authenticity, self-reliance and autonomy, and experiential learning. The game provides much potential for innovative, effective and accessible contemporary teaching and learning, inspiring young people to learn more about our European cultural heritage, thus raising their cultural awareness. IO3 Online training course: IO3 aims to utilise Europe’s talent and social assets in a lifelong learning perspective while addressing young people's needs on basic digital skills related to the European cultural heritage, as identified in the research IO1. The DiCultYouth consortium designed and delivered an online training course to help young people develop their digital skills, covering a range of non-formal modules related to digital culture and cultural heritage. Furthermore, throughout the lifecycle of the project, partners have undertaken the following activities: 1. Project Management 2. Quality Assurance of Outputs 3. Project F2F Meetings 4. Project Online Meetings 5. Dissemination, multiplication, sustainability All partners completed all foreseen implementation activities. The activities were positively evaluated by target groups who expressed that the project could have a tangible impact on their local communities. These activities have led to developing skills and competences of disadvantaged young people, including unemployed, newly arrived immigrants and young refugees, early school leavers etc. Moreover, the project has supported the development of digital skills in all partner countries by providing all the relevant stakeholders with access to tangible education materials that can support them in engaging with this framework through practical and engaging educational activities such as the Online Game the Online Training Course. Dissemination of outputs resulted in the development of synergies and cross-fertilisation between the creative sectors of culture, education, and technology. Overall, during the project's lifecycle, all partners involved over 10.000+ participants through different activities.