PARTNERS

The project partners of Skills4Cities are from Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Spain and  Austria.

Project Coordinator
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Cluster Sofia Knowledge City (CSKC) main aim is to initiate and actively participate in the process of transforming the city of Sofia from a traditional administrative capital into an intelligent city that builds and maintains a sustainable high quality of life and good governance by supporting the development of business based on innovation and knowledge. CSKC mission is to bring together the business of the intensive sectors of knowledge with those of the municipality, the scientific, development, educational and financial organizations for realization of the concept through the implementation of the Strategy for Smart Specialization of Sofia. Through its activities Cluster Sofia city of knowledge aims to create prerequisites for turning the city into a national and regional center for education, modern research, innovation and entrepreneurship, based on new intelligent technologies by mobilizing own and attracted resources. Being an open association of unlimited number of interested representatives of business, science and education CSKC envisages to organize its own capacity to efficiently use the human and material resources of the city in creating an innovative ecosystem based on the experience of leading cities of Knowledge in the world.
http://www.knowledgesofia.eu

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Project Partners
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ARIES Transilvania (Transilvanian Branch of the Romanian Association for Electronic Industry and Software) is the strongest IT industry driven structure based in Cluj-Napoca, North-West of Romania and is currently composed of 120+ member SMEs, as well as public administration structures, universities and catalysers. The main focus of ARIES Transilvania is to represent the best interests of its member companies from the IT&C field, and to continuously develop the IT&C field in Transilvania. ARIES Transilvania is providing services and support for its members related to: access to funding, matchmaking and internationalization, capacity building and international cooperation projects in the areas of R&D and innovation. 
http://www.aries-transilvania.ro

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The International Business School (IBS) is a modern profiled higher education institution established in 1991. IBS is accredited by the National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency of the Republic of Bulgaria and is one of the top 10 universities in Bulgaria in the area of Business Administration, Economics and Tourism. Distance learning education at IBS has its tradition and leading role not only in the overall system of higher education institutions in Bulgaria but it is also highly appreciated outside Bulgaria. IBS has a long-standing membership in the EDEN (European Distance and E-Learning Network) and is a member of GUIDE (Global Universities in Distance Education) as from its establishment in 2005. IBS is actively involved in international initiatives for the development of open and distance learning and has become a reliable partner with expertise at all levels of creation, development, and management of Distance learning education. The new building of the Distance Learning Centre in Sofia offers the most contemporary conditions for study, social contacts, and artistic endeavors.
www.ibsedu.bg

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IDEC is a training consulting company located in Piraeus, Greece. Its activities consist of training, management consulting, quality assurance, evaluation and development of ICT solutions for both the private and public sectors. Clients of IDEC are both SMEs and the bigger Greek companies of a wide variety of sectors. It co-operates with more than 800 institutes all through Europe and with about 300 experts on specific fields. IDEC has extensive experience in European projects, either as coordinator or as a partner from different European programs and Initiatives. IDEC has consulting experience in developing quality management systems in Greek training centres and has been accredited as a lifelong learning center. It organizes in-service training courses for teachers and trainers, study visits and informal learning activities for students in initial education and training and provides training courses and work placements for students in vocational training and people in labor market. The main areas of expertise are management consulting, business plans, entrepreneurship, SMEs, quality management, certification, design of training contents based on ECVET, software and multimedia development, internet applications, distance learning, e-business, and e-commerce. In the field of Lifelong learning, IDEC has experience in European policies regarding LLL and in particular EQF, ECVET, Europass, EQAVET, validation of non-formal and informal learning and in national reforms of education and training systems. It has successfully undertaken the contract with CEDEFOP “Europass, ECVET and EQF for documentation, validation, and certification of learning outcomes”.
http://www.idec.gr

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​ECQA GmbH was founded 2015, out of an initiative and several European projects. The ECQA GmbH is an expert Organisation in certifying job roles and providing exams (online and on premise) for other organisations (iNTACS®). Working with international experts to certify job roles worldwide and to network with experts on the needs of markets and companies, guarantees the impact on the market. Additionally the ECQA is using their experts on Vocational Education Training to support Training organisations and Project groups that often seek help in the design of their trainings to stick to EQF/NQF . Another important part is the constant check for possible ways for the certification of prior knowledge (formal, non-formal and informal learnings).
www.ecqa.org

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GAIA is the Association of Applied Knowledge and Technology Industries in the Basque Country and brings together over 280 companies in this sector. Its objective is to be a benchmark in Collaborative Innovation for the creation and implementation of globally competitive solutions based on own Knowledge and Technology (Consulting, Engineering, Electronics, Computing, Telecommunications and Gamification).
http://www.gaia.es

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