Improving Cybersecurity readiness of the European Vocational education and training sector

"Context The European Union is facing an epochal challenge represented by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many sectors are strongly hitted by this crises and education is certainly one of them. More and more users are now forced to use online classes or training, so the importance of recognizing the everyday threats to our security is now more important than ever. This topic is recognized as fundamental also by the European Commission that every year organize a European Cyber Security Month, of which website already includes some educational material and specific awareness campaigns as the ""Get cyber skilled"" on in 2018. ObjectivesThe main objective of CYBER.EU.VET is to strengthen the European VET capacity to recognize and manage cybersecurity threats (e.g. phishing attacks, botnets, financial & banking frauds, data fraud) in a historical context where online training is more and more utilized. The first specific objective will be to have more prepared VET educators on cybersecurity threats management, given their central role in the knowledge transfer of good practices and skills to their students.The second specific objective is to increase awareness among VET teachers, students and their families as well on the importance to recognize such daily risks, that can have a both economic and social impact on all the European citizens.Target Groups - VET teachers- VET Students- Students families- VET institutions- Public authorities Main activities:- Drafting of a comparative research analysis in order to collect - Development of Awareness training material on cybersecurity (including educational game) through innovative educational gamification event (Gamejam)- Publishing of a training for trainers toolkit for VET through a collaborative training sessions with VET educators;- Publishing a ""Cybersecurity handbook with best practices, training material and future implementation guidelines;- Multipliers events to promote the project results and the 2021 and 2022 European Cybersecurity Month initiatives.Main expected results will be:- improved teaching skills capacity on this topic in the VET sector- an overall increased awareness among teachers, students and their families as well on the importance - a better institutional understanding of these challenges- an increased visibility of the previous and current European projects and events on cybersecurity as the annual European Cybersecurity Month and similar projects funded by Erasmus Plus and other European programmes.Expected participants and beneficiaries - 2000 VET students will download and use the educational game on cybersecurity- 28 VET educators directed involved in the collaborative creation of the training for trainers toolkit- 100 VET educators will benefit from the training for trainers toolkit- 10.000 European citizens downloading the awareness training material on cybersecurity- 50.000 European citizens will be informed about cybersecurity threats for the educational sector and daily life through social media posts or media articles publish by the partners.Long term impact From a long term impact point of view, the Cybersecurity Handbook for VET institutions will represent a guide for any organization interested in exploiting the projects results or further develop them. It will contain the lesson learned in this project in order, for other organizations, to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Furthermore, given the horizontal interest and importance of such topics, this handbook could be used not only in the VET sector, but also in primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions.Furthermore, the concept of merging guidelines and training within the same educational game application opens the possibility for unlimited and distributed adoption, regardless of age, language and experience levels. Moreover, adopting an open source design for the application will grant a constant update on new materials and training, helping the users to stay up to date with future threats."