The 5^th partners meeting was organized at the beginning of the last 6-month period of the project (M32, July 6^th, 2020). The meeting was initially organized to take place in Cyprus but, due to COVID-19 situation, it was decided to be moved online via ZOOM. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss

• the dissemination activities,
• details of the certification process,
• and the work-based training phase

and how these phases are affected by COVID-19.

Also, partners discussed project sustainability options and details of organizing the Final Conference, which should mainly address the main stakeholders of the project but not be restricted to academic audiences. In addition, partners discussed the possibility of requesting an amendment to the project’s eligibility period and extend its duration for 2 more months (shift project end date to 31/1/2021).

The project has entered its last 6-month period (June - Nov 2020) and this period is focused on disseminating the produced results and completing the last phase of the training, which is the work-based learning. SEnDIng partners monitor and overlook the trainees in the participating companies making sure that the 4 months of work-based learning are adequately supported and companies have entered the phase where their trained employees can start to be productive on Data Science and/or IoT related projects. Companies were encouraged to assign to their trained employees their own projects so that this period is valuable for them and is not considered as idle time from company regular tasks. In addition, and in the cases where companies did not have their own DS or IoT projects, SEnDIng has offered a set of representative projects for trainees. this period also focuses on the certification process which will start upon completion of the work-based learning and this option will be given only to those trainees that have successfully completed all three SEnDIng Training Program phases, either DS or IoT respectively. Given the current situation with the pandemic the certification will be either done face-to-face following a very strict safety protocol, or remotely, using an online platform with a sound authentication mechanism. Regarding dissemination, the central event is the Final Project Conference which will be organized online.

The final conference of the SEnDIng project will take place online on Saturday 21 November 2020. The main aim of the conference is two-fold:

• to present the results of the project and how they can be exploited by relevant stakeholders, i.e. higher education institutes, VET providers, enterprises and professionals that are involved in Data Science and IoT projects and
• to bring together the main stakeholders in order to present initiatives in the domain of education and training on Data Science and IoT and discuss the current and foreseen challenges and how they can be best addressed.

We thus welcome the participation of educational institutions, VET providers, policy makers, enterprises and professionals (either individuals or associations) that have relevant experience or interesting information to share on the topic of the significant gap identified in the Data Science and IoT related skills and the high market demand for such skills.

For more information about the conference (i.e. preliminary agenda, registration, etc.) please visit http://sending-project.eu/index.php/en/final-conference.

The SEnDIng project organizes the special session "Education and training on Data Science and IoT" during the second day of the 24^th Pan-Hellenic Conference on Informatics (PCI 2020). Ιn order to limit the spread of COVID-19, PCI 2020is scheduled to be held as a Digital-conference from 20 to 22 November, 2020.

We welcome submissions from all topics of education and training applied to Data Science and IoT, including (but not limited to) the following:

• VET programs on Data Science or IoT
• Academic curricula on Data Science or IoT
• Post-graduate programs or courses on Data Science or IoT
• Best practices on Data Science or IoT education and training
• Work-based learning on Data Science or IoT
• Data Science or IoT educational and training policies at national and international level
• National and international projects related to Data Science or IoT education and training
• Training needs of the labor market related to Data Science or IoT

For more information about the special session (i.e. important dates, submission guidelines) please visit: http://sending-project.eu/index.php/en/final-conference/sending-special-session-at-pci2020.

The Lisbon Council and International Data Corporation launched the Report: “The European Data Market Monitoring Tool Key Facts & Figures, First Policy Conclusions, Data Landscape and Quantified Stories”. This report presents a set of indicators measuring the data professionals, the value of the data market, the number of data supplier and data user companies and their revenues, and the overall impact of the data economy on EU GDP. All indicators are presented for the years 2018 through 2020 and forecasted to 2025 according to three alternative potential scenarios: Baseline, High Growth and Challenge scenarios. According to the report the value of the Data Economy, which measures the overall impacts of the Data Market on the economy as a whole, exceeded the threshold of 400 Billion Euro in 2019 for the EU27 plus the United Kingdom, with a growth of 7.6% over the previous year. Moreover, according to the latest estimates, the number of data professionals in the EU27 plus the U.K. reached 76 million in 2019, corresponding to 3.6% of the total workforce, with an increase of 5.5% over the previous year.

You can access the complete report here.

The SEnDIng project has prepared training material for transversal skills development. The aim of this training material is two-fold: (a) to help prospective learners to build their transversal skills that are developed upon academic and experiential learning and (b) to prepare them for engaging within the business environment in a creative way, communicating effectively with the internal and external environment of a business and acting in a collaborative way.

The training material includes 5 modules:

1. Effective communication and presentation (TS-EM1)
2. Change management (TS-EM2)
3. Team working (TS-EM3)
4. Goal setting (TS-EM4)
5. Creative thinking (TS-EM5)

These modules introduce learners to a portfolio of skills and competencies required for effective communication and presentation, adaptation to changes, teamwork, goal-setting and thinking out of the box.

You can access the training material here.