In January 2022, Don Bosco Sint-Denijs-Westrem is sending four students of the 7th year of construction and planning techniques on an internship to Perpignan in the south of France.
They will work a few weeks in local construction companies and thus further improve their skills in site supervision and calculation.
In addition, their fluency in the French language will undoubtedly be sharpened. They are looking forward to an internship that will be a great asset to their future CV.
The thematic discussion on the topic Capacity Building of VET STAFF was moderated by Ms Darina Petrunova and Mrs Vanya Neycheva from European Center for Quality, Bulgaria.
In total 5 good practices -2 from Bulgaria and 3 from Belgium were presented. The good practices were related to the improvement of VET staff skills through participation in international teaching activities and working meetings and structured VET trainings.
The thematic room gathered in total of 33 participants – many VET teachers, project coordinators; 3 management representatives and other stakeholders. Representatives from Belgium, Italy, Bulgaria, Albania, Ukraine joined the discussion. According to the participants the most suitable types of staff, mobilities are structured VET training and job shadowing. Moreover, 22 participants responded and highlighted that the main obstacles they face for participating in VET staff mobility projects are the language barriers and insufficient opportunities.
To conclude it can be stated that the content presented during the event was engaging and beneficial for the participants and space for networking was provided.
ENNE Project coordinated an international online conference on November the 9th named VET4FUTURE.
The conference introduced to the future of vocational education thanks to Mr. Luca Pirozzi Policy Officer for VET at EAECA (Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency of the European Commission)
The ZOOM event organized into 5 breakout rooms each of these dedicated to a specific thematic:
In the ZOOM breakout room dedicated to “Sustainability and contribution of VET to the achievement of UN agenda 2030 SDGs” the VET European schools members of the ENNE Network presented and shared their “best practices” in order to show how it is possible to boost ideas and collect contributions for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nation.
To celebrate the formal establishment of the 5 VET networks, ENNE’s project partners have decided to organise an online Conference, during the European Vocational Skills Week, to foster a first meeting between their VET communities, where they could interact and work towards their common goal – the Enhancement of VET quality and attractiveness.
Arts & Skills was responsible for moderating the thematic session “Recognition and Validation of Competences in Work Based Learning”.
National or international WBL programs are targeted to bridge the gap between the learning environment and real work environment, and different WBL strategies provide career awareness, career exploration opportunities, career planning activities and help students attain competencies such as positive work attitudes and other employable skills.
The recognition and validation of competencies in WBL environments refer to the identification and appreciation of the skills and competencies that an individual acquires through a work-based learning experience.
Although, WBL experiences can have different forms ((apprenticeship, internship, service learning, school-based enterprise, or industry projects) they should be well planned, monitored and assessed properly to become relevant for
The European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET) is one of the most relevant EU frameworks developed to help the VET community implementing high-quality WBL programs:
The implementation of ECVET was referred during the best practices presented by six of our network members, from Portugal, Italy and Germany, who shared with the audience good practices implemented by their VET organizations and related to WBL experiences.
Ms. Sonia Barani, from the “Italienische Handelskammer für Deutschland”, Germany, presented the MeMeVET project (mechatronics and metallurgical VET for sectors‘ industries) and its outcomes. The project, implemented in 5 countries (DE, IT, ES, BG, SK) aimed at tackling some of the main issues impeding free mobility of workers and VET learners of the sector in Europe. One of the main issues is related to the difficulty of having one’s competencies and know-how recognized in another EU country. Another one, concerns the gap between the training and learning offer of VET institutions and the real needs of the labour market.
Ms Joana Soares from EP Felgueiras, Portugal, shared with the participants their experience in VET-Business cooperation at local and regional level concerning Curriculum development; Matching supply and demand of technicians; Development of technological devices (e.g. Robots) for the local industry; Social Inclusion and Monitoring of trainees after the completion of the course.
Ms. Margherita Battaglini, from ITE SCARPELLINI – Foligno, Italy, offered an overview of their experience with the implementation of ECVET not only on Transnational, but also National WBL experiences.
Ms. Alessia Montanucci, from I.O. Salvatorelli Moneta Marsciano, Italy, presented a mobility experience developed in Malta in 2019, that involved 15 students from the 3rd and the 4th year of high school. The internships were held at local businesses: museums, shops, state agencies, cruises for tourists, etc. which she had the opportunity to accompany for the whole training period.
From Portugal, Mr. Edgar Costa, from Vocational School Bento Jesus Caraça, shared how they adapted mandatory WBL experiences that should have been developed in a real working context, to a successful simulated business context due to the confinement imposed by COVID 19.
Mr Ferenc Naacke from “Berufliches Schulzentrum für Wirtschaft in Dresden, Germany, presented the “Healthy Lifestyle” Project and the approach that allowed their organization to implement 70 internships abroad, in 8 different countries, for students from the Social Insurance Course, whose training focuses mainly on administrative work of social insurance clerks, but not on the background knowledge in advising insured people on the prevention of diseases.
This session showed us how diverse work-based learning strategies can be and how multiple approaches can be addressed by VET organizations to improve and enhance VET quality and attractiveness.
We hope we have brought some inspiration to our audience for further projects and cooperation among our VET Community.
Recognition and Validation of Competences in Work-Based Learning: Resources available
Digital transformation and distance learning have been a hot topic since the Covid-19 outbreak.
This was also clear during the inscriptions for this theme at VET4FUTURE.
We give you a brief overview of the good practices that were shared.
BLEFT is an EU project for the development of e-learning modules in forestry. In Saxony (Germany) the official LernSax was put into service during the lockdown. Students and teachers worked online and found each other on this well-equipped platform for lessons, meetings, etc.
In Portugal, the Escola profissional C.J. de Campanha should find a new way to publish student work in graphic media. For this they used a virtual exhibition. Italian Fondazione Lepido Rocco bundled a lot of good practices on the website from which we discovered a CLIL training and the Sherwood project.
Finally, we have introduced to google classroom thanks to the tourist vocational school Aleko Konstantinov from Bulgaria.
Digital transformation and distance learning: Resources available
Der erste von 20 Grundsätzen der Europäischen Säule sozialer Rechte ist der allgemeinen und beruflichen Bildung und dem lebenslangen Lernen gewidmet:
“Jede Person hat das Recht auf allgemeine und berufliche Bildung und lebenslanges Lernen von hoher Qualität und in inklusiver Form, damit sie Kompetenzen bewahren und erwerben kann, die es ihr ermöglichen, vollständig am gesellschaftlichen Leben teilzuhaben und Übergänge auf dem Arbeitsmarkt erfolgreich zu bewältigen.”
In ganz Europa finden wir zahlreiche Initiativen, Projekte und Programme, die die Inklusion benachteiligter Menschen in die Bildung und damit in die Arbeit unterstützen. Sie zeigen auch, dass die Umsetzung sozialer Inklusion in der Bildung und speziell in der Berufsbildung auch von der Struktur des Bildungssystems und der jeweiligen nationalen Politik in den einzelnen Ländern abhängt. Im Folgenden werden wir drei bewährte Ansätze vorstellen, die während der Konferenz VET4FUTURE präsentiert wurden.
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein
Agreement number: Nr 608964-EPP-1-2019-1-IT-EPPKA3-VET-NETPAR