Project ESW – EARLY SCHOOL WORKERS

The project

The education systems of many countries need to be radically overhauled in order to remain competitive. Innovative approaches are needed to combat early school leaving (ESL) and the failure of young people to acquire key skills.
The UK’s UTC model seems capable of responding to these new challenges. It is a group of vocational schools that are implementing a pedagogical approach strongly focused on student activities, based on the Project Based Learning model. Each UTC, in collaboration with a local university and businesses, works to develop a curriculum that allows students to have experiences similar to those they would have after school, also integrating three types of learning:
technical
academic
practical
All aspects of life at these colleges are built around a specific methodology called PiXL Edge, a model that allows students to develop skills that will be useful for the rest of their lives and for their future professional activities (Leadership, Organization, Communication, Initiative, and Resilience).

Goals

• The project aims to further strengthen the key and technical-professional skills of young people attending VET courses by analyzing and adapting the English UTC model to the Italian, Spanish, and German contexts.
• In this way, the project aims to respond to a common need of European VET systems:
  • to increase the levels of key skills among young people and consequently reduce the skills gap;
  • to promote new partnerships and organizational models for WBL approaches.

Activities and methodologies

There will be four phases during the project, each involving the creation of specific outputs:

Developing a model for transferring the English UTC model;

Transferring the model and adapting it to VET centers in other countries by designing training courses (curricula) for each sector and professional field, combining national standards with innovative elements from English schools;

Testing and implementing this model, i.e., validating and adopting the UTC model in selected VET centers in Italy, Spain, and Germany;

Monitoring and evaluating learning outcomes.

Partners

Comunication

Official Website
Facebook

The European Commission’s support for this project does not constitute an endorsement of the content of this website, which reflects solely the views of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Project REX VET – From a rookie to an expert

The project

On the one hand, working life is becoming increasingly multicultural, while on the other, the labor market is becoming increasingly international, requiring international skills and competences.
Vocational education and training (VET) teachers must therefore possess these skills in order to guide and prepare students. The REX VET project aims to promote opportunities for continuous professional development for VET teachers, thereby enhancing the quality of VET programs.
The partnership consists of two Finnish training centers and others from Estonia, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain. Luovi (Finland) is the project coordinator. The main target audience is teachers and staff of the VET centers involved in the project and, secondarily, the management of the centers.

Goals

• Increase ownership of internationalization activities within VET institutions and involve more teachers and staff members in this type of activity. Involving more teachers in internationalization activities is crucial to raising awareness of the European context, developing new curriculum planning processes and new curriculum models, and helping students understand other cultures.
• Develop and recognize the skills and competences needed in an increasingly globalized world.
• Promote the professional development of VET institution staff in terms of the skills needed for internationalization, such as better knowledge of the European Union, greater knowledge and understanding of VET systems in other countries, greater knowledge of languages and managerial skills, and, finally, greater awareness of the skills needed in an intercultural world.
• promote synergies between the internationalization activities of institutions, organizational strategies/development, and the continuous professional growth of staff.

Activities and methodologies

There will be four transnational meetings to work on the creation of tools and disseminate the results.
In addition to evaluation and dissemination throughout the project duration, five multiplier events (workshops, etc.) will also be organized. Finally, a learning, teaching, and training activity will also be proposed to test the tools developed and gather feedback for their improvement.
Results:

• Digital learning badges (open badges) to document and recognize learning and skills acquired on the topic of internationalization.
• The online training course will support staff development from beginner to expert level, and the open badges can be transferred and used to document the skills and competences acquired.
• Mapping of the international skills of staff in the organizations participating in the project;
• Personal development model for VET staff on the topic of international skills;
• Training module to support the development of VET staff skills;

Partners

Outputs

Training package to support the skills development:Training module
Mapping the international skills of the staff in partner organizations
Personal development path model in international skills for staff in VET
Open badges

Comunication

Official Website

The European Commission’s support for this project does not constitute an endorsement of the content of this website, which reflects solely the views of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Project Digital and Online Creativity Education – DOCE

The project

The current crisis linked to the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for modernization and digital transformation of education and training across Europe. While many institutions have adequate resources and considerable knowledge and experience in providing students with effective distance/online teaching and learning, others are not so fortunate.
During this global crisis, educators have had to adapt and learn very quickly—in ‘real time’—how to plan and deliver an engaging and inclusive ‘remote’ curriculum, while helping their students adapt to the enormous change in the way they acquire new knowledge and skills.
The aim of this 18-month project is to advance and strengthen the capacity of teachers in vocational education and training centers to develop and deliver effective, high-quality, and inclusive digital education within the creative sector.

Goals

• Developing accessible digital approaches to provide effective assessment methods.
• Developing teachers’ ICT skills to support both synchronous and asynchronous teaching.
• Developing teacher coaching strategies to enable them to support other colleagues in their organizations.

Activities and methodologies

The focus of the project is to develop teachers’ skills in creating and implementing engaging, effective, and transferable strategies for online, blended, and distance teaching and learning. The project will support teachers in acquiring and developing these skills/knowledge through the organization of training weeks in which they can use accessible online teaching tools and share ideas, digital resources, experiences, and best practices. During the training events/best practice exchange meetings, experts will be on hand to hold masterclasses and share innovative practices.

In addition, the project will also seek to develop the digital pedagogical skills of participating teachers so that they can train other colleagues in their organizations throughout the duration of the project and beyond. The aim of the project is for participating teachers to become “digital champions” for their centers and for their learning to benefit as many teachers as possible, enabling them to provide high-quality online distance/blended learning to their students.

Partners

Comunication

Official Website

The European Commission’s support for this project does not constitute an endorsement of the content of this website, which reflects solely the views of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Project Creative Skills 21

The Project

In addition to professional skills, schools should teach certain transferable skills that enable students to become good workers, entrepreneurs, and citizens. In recent years, these skills have been defined as “21st-century skills.” Soft skills such as creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork, and decision making are common and necessary skills for many professions.
The creative industries sector is no exception, even though it is a very specific sector where particular emphasis is placed on certain soft skills such as creativity, autonomy, and a strong entrepreneurial spirit.
Based on this assumption, the project aims to focus on the soft skills relevant to the creative industries and incorporate them into current training courses, thereby updating the skills of both teachers and students.

Goals

• the implementation of 21st century skills for the creative industries in the strategic agendas of training institutions, including through the involvement of international networks;
• professional development for teachers involved in training courses related to the creative industries.

Activities and methodologies

The project will organize training events for technical teachers in the creative industries to teach the 21st-century skills most relevant to this sector, which can be applied immediately by guiding students in practical projects to pass on these skills.

In this way, teachers will receive ad hoc training from experts in the field and, at the same time, put what they have learned into practice with students enrolled in training courses.

• Tools and practical exercises (project work, etc.) will be implemented and tested on a representative sample of students and teachers.
• Eight partners will work together to train teachers during six learning weeks organized into three events, each lasting two weeks

Two intellectual outputs will be created during the project.
On the one hand, a report on “21st century skills for the creative industries” will be produced, combining the documentary research available to date with the involvement of experts from the creative industries sector.
On the other hand, a guide (in paper and electronic format) will be produced with practical examples and exercises for VET teachers on how to teach the 21st century skills required by the creative industries and how to implement them in VET learning programs and curricula.

Partners

Output

The Guidebook of the CS-21 project
21st century skills for the creative industries
CS21 Lisbon
CS21 Finland
CS-21 St. Gallen
CS-21 Madrid
CS21 Newcastle
CS21 Ghent

Comunication

Official website
Instagram

The European Commission’s support for this project does not constitute an endorsement of the content of this website, which reflects solely the views of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.