The first ENAC Emilia Romagna Vet Skills Competition in Palma de Mallorca
Maura Massari, business economics teacher, tells us about her experience.
And so we come to the end of a journey in which we played a leading role, both as organisers and participants: the first VET SKILLS COMPETITIONS held in Palma de Mallorca from 28 November to 2 December 2022.
It all began in the spring of 2022, when our vocational education and training (VET) coordinator asked during a staff meeting if we would be interested in participating in/organising Skills Competitions for our Administrative and Secretarial Operator course. I, a teacher of accounting and office practices, and my colleague Sabrina, a computer science teacher, immediately agreed, and in no time at all, we found ourselves involved in organising an international project.
It is not just a matter of “preparing the children” by giving them the right skills, but also of thinking about the entire organisation of the event, from the topics covered to the location, the participating teams, the methods of administration, the scoring… in short, everything involved in planning such an important and new event. The challenge has now been accepted, and every spare moment is spent looking for ideas and activities that might be useful, reading articles and doing research.
Through Enac Nazionale, in the person of Simona Puggioni, who oversaw the entire project, we were put in touch with Marie Angels from the San Josep Obrer Diocesan College in Palma de Mallorca and Anne Ploeg from Drenthe College in Assen in the Netherlands. Together with our Erasmus project coordinator, Emanuele B., we began to lay the foundations for the event.
The many online connections and shared folders in Drive allowed us to divide up the tasks, keep an eye on the progress of the work, think about team-building activities, and organise a connection with the classes that would remain at school, so that everyone could participate and contribute in some way.
With anxiety growing as the departure date approached, we arrived at Bergamo Orio al Serio airport on the fateful day of 27 November 2022: we had six students, not seven (one girl was not feeling well and did not travel), but it didn’t matter, we would make it work anyway! We boarded the plane: four students had never flown before, so the excitement was palpable… but this too was part of the experience, part of the indelible memories that would remain in their minds.
The next day we meet our opponents (the Spanish team and the Dutch team), but they are not opponents, they are people to work with, to produce something with, to communicate with, and here lies the problem: we have to speak in English! Help! I can’t do it… I don’t know how to say it! We look at each other fearfully, then slowly begin to breathe more calmly and in no time we create a WhatsApp group with our new friends… it’s done! Now we can have fun with them too!
The days pass, fantastic even if a little tiring. Some of the girls take turns feeling unwell, Rebecca has a fever for three days, but despite the absences, we carry on with our task, we do what is required of us, we even manage to speak more and more in English and with less fear, it’s a success!
But who won?
In the end, communication, mutual assistance, collaboration, English and professionalism prevailed!
The students produced catalogues, flyers, presentations, appointment forms, invoices, transport documents, sales reports and graphs. They answered questions about the European Union, but above all, they shared their skills and knowledge to achieve the result.
And what did I learn as a teacher? What will I take away from this experience? Certainly, excellent collaborative relationships with other teachers, which will not end with the competition but will continue in the near future. Certainly, many ideas for improving teaching and also a refresher in English, which I studied at school many years ago and never used again.