Project's first objective was to develop a digital education ecosystem in the partner organisations, by building capacity and critical understanding on how to exploit the opportunities offered by digital technologies for teaching and learning and by developing a digital transformation plan. For this the project planned for the project partners to implement a digital transformation in their respective Sea Schools, tailored to their needs and abilities and by combining the partner's experiences and strengths. The project's second objective was to support the provision of flexible and high quality education and training in Sea Schools, adapted to correspond to the requirements of the digital era and the COVID-19 impact, by sharing all knowledge, experience and good practices acquired by performing the digital transformation in the partner organisations, with other sea schools and other VET organisations. For this the project partners wanted to develop a methodology to track and document their own digital transformation including its planning, and make it a plan/ template that can help other Sea Schools and VET providers to use this experience and methodology for implementing digital transformation in their organisations.
The European Commission initiated as part of the development of the Digital Education Action Plan (2021- 2027) a public consultation process (OPC) from June to September 2020 which highlighted the impact of COVID-19 in education and training as almost 60% of the respondents mentioned that they had never used distance/online learning tools before COVID-19, while more than half of respondents admitted that they wish to improve their digital skills following their recent experience. Sea Schools, which all partner organisations are, used to provide theoretical courses mainly a pure classroom courses, but because of the pandemic restrictions in 2020 and 2021, most Sea Schools were only allowed to teach these classes in summer months and only with a reduced number of students. This situation pushed Sea Schools and other VET providers often into existential difficulties if they were lacking the skills and knowledge of how to move their business and their courses into the online environment. Therefore it has become unavoidable for Sea Schools to start the digital transformation of their education and training, but most were struggling because the lack of knowledge and experience in digital transformation as well as time pressure.