The purpose of the project “E-DESIGN – European Digital Education for Social Inclusion and Global Neighbourhood” is to contribute to promoting social inclusion and combating social inequalities among disadvantaged groups, especially migrants and refugees, through strengthening their digital competences in order to enhance their labour market opportunities and social participation according to the objectives of the European Pillar of Social Rights and ET 2020.

The aim is to enhance sustainable structures of volunteer work in communities and schools to improve societal structures for reaching out to underprivileged groups. By creating a free and easily accessible offer of digital education, the target groups get interested in participating and thereby also get in contact with other people from their community to further promote social inclusion.

The universal challenge the EU points out, which we address in our project is to enable future employees as soon as possible to acquire the skills demanded by a fast changing labour market 4.0. In this way, employment and social participation can be realised in an increasingly digitalised world. For this reason, it is crucial to make efforts to prevent digitally excluded groups from losing touch within this development.

Through the establishment of decentralised structures of digital education via the aspired ICT Training Hotspots in social areas, schools and other suitable places like public libraries of the communities in the regions of project partner organisations, E-DESIGN aims at improving access to ICT training and strengthening digital competences of disadvantaged groups.

Moreover, the aim is to enhance sustainable structures of volunteer work in communities and schools to improve societal structures for reaching out to underprivileged groups. By creating a free and easily accessible offer of digital education, the target groups get interested in participating and thereby also get in contact with other people from their community to further promote social inclusion.

The development of ICT Training Hotspots can provide digitally excluded people the opportunity to consolidate knowledge, competences and skills to cope with situations related to ICT market as well as the general job market. Through the attractive designed learning offers of the ICT Training Hotspots , it is possible to recruit heterogeneous groups of participants in rural regions in order to promote processes of social integration. With bigger sense of empowerment by achieving valuable skills participants will handle situations which could otherwise be seen as difficult.

• will develop knowledge and skills to create and implement their own ICT based projects and consequently present these in job interviews for their new job;
• will develop critical thinking and civic competences;
• will feel more motivated for challenges like design thinking and problem solving;
• will be more conscious of the European dimension (the chances digital skills arise on the whole European job market) and its demands and benefits for the individual.
• will create national and international synergies;
• will develop skills to cope with the demands of social inclusion;
• will perceive the importance and added value of the digital skills for their future careers as well as facing challenging digital experiences together as a group as opportunities to learn more about each other’scultures and languages;
• will develop autonomy;
• will create a European mentoring program with a high dissemination potential;
• will integrate a network of European youngsters facing similar challenges and seeking joint solutions;
• will learn to cooperate transnational;
• will develop the key competence to initiate independently non-formal learning activities.