The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the delivery of Education and Training all over the world: almost 1.6 billion learners from pre-primary to tertiary education, including VET, were affected (UNESCO, “COVID-19 Impact on Education”, 2020), while education and training providers have been forced to adapt to digital tools to maintain services to learners.

Students’ engagement in learning has been seriously challenged and, worldwide, a risk of a potential hysteresis of the COVID-19 crisis in education was acknowledged (Saavedra, J., “Educational challenges and opportunities of the Coronavirus pandemic”, Worldbank Blogs, 2020), defined as a long-term learning loss due to: the erosion of students’ basic academic skills due to lack of practice; the difficulty in re-engaging with education activities; their demotivation as they fall further behind; the curbing of their educational aspirations due to the uncertainty of the learning environment (OECD, “Education and COVID-19: Focusing on the long-term impact of school closures”, 2020).

The OECD highlighted the need to focus on keeping students engaged in learning to limit hysteresis, a mission that requires education and training providers not only to adopt system and technology innovations in the context of social distance regulations and travel restrictions but also to rethink their training strategies in digital environments.

In this context, Sparks, a Partnership for Digital Education Readiness project, co-founded by the Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Union and implemented by six organizations from Greece, Italy, Spain, Polan, Portugal and Romania, aims to develop a new Conceptual Framework for Game-Based e-Learning Programs and E-Learning platform to let VET providers deliver innovative online learning experiences with the use of gamification, and boost their learners’ motivation and engagement in learning.