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Virtual Reality for STEM Entrepreneurship Training
Start date: Feb 1, 2016, End date: Jan 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

STEM sector and ICT industry are demonstrating great growth and the interest of youth people to study STEM, their entrepreneurship skills and spirit has become of strategic importance for the economy and the society of all countries. Demand for STEM professionals is expected to grow by 13% till 2025, while the average growth forecast for all occupations is expected to be around 3%. In addition to the STEM sector development, youth entrepreneurship is vital for creating employment and sustainable growth and has become a priority in the EU policy agenda as a tool to combat unemployment and social exclusion as well as stimulating innovation among young people. However, in spite of the growth of the EU STEM sector, the percentage of youth who decide to study STEM is alarming low. Moreover, In spite of the increasing recognition of entrepreneurship as a source of job creation, empowerment and economic dynamism, there have been no systematic attempts to look at it from a youth angle, towards STEM sector. So, the scope of VR4STEM project is twofold. First, it aims to respond to the need of attracting young people in STEM education, mainly by offering modern and attractive learning technologies, such as the virtual reality, and second to assist them gain entrepreneurship skills, build strong entrepreneurship background and spirit and meet the growing needs of STEM sector. VR4STEM will utilize innovative educational ICT, like virtual reality, to enhance the efficiency and the attractiveness of STEM entrepreneurship education, attract youth interest and enhance their entrepreneurship skills and competencies. First, several courses for STEM entrepreneurship will be designed and developed, covering the innovative and special characteristics of entrepreneurship in the STEM domain, and promote opportunities for youth entrepreneurship in STEM and ICT industry. Second, an 3D virtual world environment will be developed with innovative educational infrastructure, offering immerse and efficient learning opportunities, engaging the learners in various educational activities and learning scenarios and offering an attractive, entertaining and efficient way to learn STEM entrepreneurship domain.The partnership consists of 5partners and includes public and private actors with relevant and complementary experience and skills that secure the success and the high quality of the implementation and the results of the project. UPB, a long-term leading organization in the field of coordinating youth training in various fields and also in STEM, will coordinate the project and has experience in project management. UPAT has expertise in Virtual Reality and intelligent educational systems and will lead the development of the 3D Virtual World (VW) educational environment. NewEdu possesses valuable knowledge and experience in entrepreneurship training and will be the main content provider. eTS has great experience in developing educational infrastructure in 3D virtual environments. CTI will take over the task of piloting the educational environment, the courses and training activities and will lead the dissemination plan.The project has three phases: Design, Implementation and Evaluation. Design will take place during the first eight months with main objectives to identify the needs in Entrepreneurship Training for young people interested in STEM domain and then design a suitable curriculum for addressing them by utilizing state of the art technologies. Implementation of the STEM Entrepreneurship courses will take place next, with an aim to prepare the learning material and integrate it in a 3D VW educational environment that will be developed. The final phase regards testing extensively the developed educational environment through various pilot learning activities, evaluating it and using the results to improve and finalize it.The main results are:-Requirements analysis report on STEM Entrepreneurship Training and State of the Art reports on the use of Virtual Reality in Education and especially for youth training-A curriculum for STEM Entrepreneurship Training based on the Analysis and taking into account the about state of the art reports and capabilities of Virtual Worlds-Open Learning materials (texts, presentations,multimedia,3D objects) for courses-Project website and Content Repository, hosting all the learning materials-The 3D VW educational environment is the main output of this project, hosting all the STEM Entrepreneurship learning materials as well as the learning scenarios-User’s Guide for using the 3D VW-Plan, Report and Evaluation of The Piloting activities carried out to ensure the quality of the 3D VW, the learning materials and activitiesThe project will modernize and enhance the performance and effectiveness of youth entrepreneurship education in the field of STEM and also can reinforce the effective and attractiveness of Europe’s youth education with the utilization of innovative educational technologies.

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