Early School Workers

VET systems need a radical renovation to be competitive. In fact, it is clear that Young people need to acquire specific competences to be successful in the world of work and it is necessary to address and prevent the Early School Leaving (ESL) problem, as well as the lack of key competences among young people.The UTC (http://www.utcolleges.org) approach seems to be capable of addressing these challenges.

In these schools knowledge and skills are acquired through the resolution of real problems or projects. Their approaches deliver an innovative training concept, which is able to narrow the gap between knowledge and competences acquired at school and those required by the companies.Each UTC is backed by employers and a local university who work with staff to develop an innovative curriculum that gives students first-hand experience of what life is like after school, also integrating three types of learning: technical, practical, academic.

All the aspects of these colleges are built around a specific methodology called PiXL Edge, namely a model that gives students the possibility to develop skills useful for the rest of their lives and for their future professional activity (Leadership, Organisation, Communication, Initiative and Resilience).

The project aims at supporting the renovation of VET systems in Europe with the ultimate goal of tackling Early School Leaving and increasing the employability of youngsters while fostering their active role in the society.

In this way the project tries to provide an answer to a common issues faced by European VET system:

1. increase the level of key competences among the youngsters and reduce the skills gap;

2. promote new partnership and WBL organizational models/approaches

The project aims at analysing the UTC model, with its theoretical and practical features, and it fulfils the following goals:

1. Elaboration of a model (organizational and educational variables) transferable to all contexts;

2. Transfer this model and adapt it to VET centres in other countries implementing new training pathways in professional sectors by combining national standards and the innovative aspects of UTC model;

3. Test and validate the model;

4. Monitoring and evaluating the learning outcomes.