Prosperity of the country depends on how many of its inhabitants are in work and how skilled and productive they are in using their skills. According to CEDEFOP studies nearly 6 million young people in the EU are unemployed while 36% employers cannot find workforce with required skills. The strategic framework for European cooperation in Education and Training 2020 draws attention to changing processes in labour market and spotlights needs of high- quality education and training, matching the skills gaps to the needs of enterprises and ability to adjust process to vast development of technologies, and recognition of European 2020 energy objectives and transition to a low carbon economy. MODUVET project partner countries aim to tackle builders skills gaps cooperating with local vocational education and training institutions, employer organisations, and institutions with regulatory functions of VET. Specific VET system regards sector-specific labour market needs in building workforce. Core perspective focus is on sustainability in modular buildings related to cost- effectiveness, net-zero operations, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, economics and sustainability from a whole building perspective. During the project the partners will examine and analyse the current curriculum offered by educational and training institutions across the countries and create innovative, recognisable, up-to-date curriculum based on ECVET and EQAVET principles in sustainable manufacturing. Partners will collect best practices based on innovative curriculum content, pedagogical styles and methodology, students learning styles and skills assessments strategies. With that a development of new vocational education programme: a constructor of modular houses will form the core of this project. The programme will have several types - 1, 1,5 and 4 year. During the second year of the project the one year long programme will be fully tested. And during the third year that programme will be carried through accreditation. Project outcomes will be evaluated and disseminated to all stakeholders regarding quality assurance plan, suitability of educational contents, assessments and development of VET. It will be beneficial for VET providers in perspective of sharing information and knowledge, creating and implementing a high-quality VET skills development curriculum.
Prosperity of the country depends on how many of its inhabitants are in work and how productive they are in using their skills. According to CEDEFOP studies, nearly 6 million young people in the EU are unemployed while 35% of employers cannot find workforce with required skills. The processes and the focus of the job market are shifting and there is a growing need for a professional education that is not only high-quality but also capable of reducing the skills gap by adjusting the skills taught to the needs of the market. The most creative and progressive architects of Europe and the world have been, for some time now, using wood to realise their architectural and construction ideas. Also in Latvia, the appreciation for wood due to its properties is growing—it is an easy to use material in construction with relatively low costs, it is ecological, it breathes and smells good. Taking into account the market situation in the construction industry, as well as the fact that there is a shortage of qualified workers in this sector, able to satisfy the market demand, an Erasmus+ strategic partnership project was written and implemented, „Development of vocational education programme in engineering of sustainable and eco-friendly modular houses “ (MODUVET). The aim of the project was to develop an innovative, widely recognisable vocational education programme for building sustainable and eco-friendly modular houses, based on the common principles for evaluation of vocational education/qualification and for recognising the qualifications throughout Europe, ECVET and EQAVET, as well as on the market demand. Five partner organisations from three countries participated: [1] Ogre Technical School (Latvia)—professional education competence centre, the coordinator of the MODUVET project. [2] The association “Latvian Association of Dry building and Finishing Companies and Craftsmen” (LSAB) (Latvia)—an association representing the interests of its members at the level of policy makers, in order to promote business in the sector. [3] SIA JuN (Latvia)—a company with a considerable experience in manufacturing wooden construction buildings and with a keen interest in attracting qualified workforce. [4] Bildungsberatung & Vermittlungsagentur in Österreich (Austria)—an education and employment consulting agency that finds education programmes best suited for its clients, as well as companies for practice placements. [5] Jugendförderverein Parchim / Lübz e.V. (Germany)—a German professional education establishment that involves itself actively in issues related to raising the standards of education and tackling skills gaps in Europe. As the budget of the project was cut, the innovative, widely recognisable and useable education programme was developed in Latvia only, applying Latvian rules and regulations. The role of the Austrian and German partners was to present the available education programmes for construction sector in the respective country, to consult during the development of the education programme, to assist in preparing it, and to participate in the dissemination of results thus promoting the sustainability of the project. From 1st September, 2015, till 31st August, 2018, the main activities carried out and the results achieved in the project were: 1) organisation of four international meetings; 2) carrying out learning activities for teaching staff of the partners and the representatives of the companies; 3) developing modular programmes “Construction work” with the qualification to be gained “Building structure assembler”; programmes are flexible and adaptable to any specific education programmes required in a market situation; 4) getting approbated, in close cooperation with the industry representatives (companies), the further education programme “Construction work” with the qualification to be gained “Building structure assembler”; 5) developing a number of learning materials and visual aids for implementing the programme; 6) developing technical documentation for the learning module, as well as building the learning module as a part of the qualification practice; the module is to be used in the learning process. Implementation of the construction plan is foreseen as a result of a further implementation of the education programme, providing sustainability and popularising the results achieved in the project; 7) popularisation of the project activities and dissemination of the project results. As a result of the project, Ogre Technical School has developed a new, innovative and sought-after by employers education programme that will help to increase the number of students in the school. This education programme is easy to adjust to the needs of other EU member states’ construction sectors by any vocational school in the EU. During the project, the connection and cooperation between the project partners was strengthened, both among the employers and the vocational education establishments.