Vocational education and training in Slovakia is undergoing significant systemic changes that have transformed „school based education system" towards "company based education system", in order to align practice with the knowledge, skills and competencies of graduates of secondary vocational schools. Education reform, improvement and development of dual vocational education can significantly lead to reducing the high unemployment of graduates of vocational schools, which is one of the key national priorities of the Slovak Government. An analogous situation in the field of vocational education is in the Czech Republic, where a debate among stakeholders is ongoing. In the contrary, the German-speaking countries have dual system at place historically for many decades. For this reason, the project partners have been chosen from these countries, and are active in the field of vocational education in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria. The project is complementary to the national project of development of vocational education and training (in Slovak called "RSOV") realized by Ministry of Education SR, State Institute for Vocational Education, and employer associations. The innovation part of the project arises in its process of creating outputs, as it engages diversity of key actors involved in the vocational education who operate in different sectors (schools, companies, professional organisations, state representatives). The project aims to help bridge the mismatch between the fundamental and cross-cutting skills, propose measures to improve the quality of the institutions involved in the dual education and a methodology and training course for instructors who are or will prepare students for their future professions. Target groups are primarily small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the energy and electrical engineering fields (we aim to reach nearly 1,000 SMEs in SK, CZ, AT) from the network of project partner institutions, the professional associations of electro - energy sector (cca 15 organizations from the CZ, SK, AT) and secondary vocational technical schools (50 schools in Slovakia and Czech Republic), which together play a critical role in the effective functioning of the dual system. The project will create three intellectual outputs. The first is the concept of development of the dual system for small and medium-sized enterprises in the electrical engineering and energy field. Methodology of the output consists of qualitative and quantitative surveys (questionnaires and personal interviews) among small and medium businesses, employers, professional associations from the electrical and energy industry in Slovakia, Austria and the Czech Republic. The aim is to identify, quantify and analyse the costs and benefits of training students inside of the company, to describe various possible evaluation and assessment systems of pupils involved in the dual system, and how to apply them in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In addition, the analytical part should lead to proposition of legislative changes into Slovak and possibly also in the Czech legal system as well as proposition of measures to increase the motivation of small and medium-sized enterprises to enter in the dual system. During the course of the conception we plan to organise six workshops with the relevant representatives of VET from different sectors in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The second output will consist of updating of the six workbooks in terms of content and form, and their distribution to the vocational schools in the form of e-books. The third output is to design and test methodology for the training of trainers and prepare materials for the accreditation of training course for instructors in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Well trained instructors are also one of the cornerstones of an effective functioning of VET. We expect a deeper dialogue between key partners in VET in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, which can lead to approval of proposed legislative changes, with particular emphasis on the involvement of small and medium-sized firms as well as completing administrative capacities in all key partners involved in VET (companies, professional organizations, educational organizations providing services, technical STS). The project may result in a creation of a new institution that will provide services to the corporate sector such as: management of the “apprentices market”, selection of apprentices, the production of infomaterials for instructors, training materials on educational programs, acquisition of companies for the dual education, organizing trainings (vocational, educational) for instructors to help ensure rotation of students, support companies in managing funds for trainings, certifications, marketing-specific learning and teaching tasks and many other areas, in which firms do not have the capacity. Total requested budget is 269 612.00 EUR. Duration of the project is scheduled for 30 months.
Project was implemented since September 2015 till the end of February 2018 and was implemented by all project partners. Aim of the project was to help to bridge the disparity between basic and cross-cutting skills in the fields of electrical engineering and energy, to propose measures for improvement quality of institutions involved in the system of dual education and to develop a methodology for instructors working in companies who are preparing pupils in VET. Another objective was to update 6 text books for secondary vocational schools (SVS). All project goals were met in full. We see the impact of our project already at present, as our outputs are of particular interest to the professional public. All 3 planned project outputs were created: O1 - Proposed concept for the development of a system of dual system for small and medium-sized enterprises. The methodology of O1 creation consisted of qualitative and quantitative surveys (questionnaires and personal interviews) in SMEs, employers, professional associations of electro-technical and energy industries in SK, AT & CZ. The intention was to propose concrete measures and constructive proposals to amend the existing VET Act of 2015. Many of our proposals were accepted by the Ministry of Education SR during the commenting process to this Act. O2 - Updating of six secondary technically-oriented textbooks in terms of content and form in the form of e-books. EkoFond, together with the CZ partners and ŠIOV, successfully managed the update 6 textbooks for SVS students in the electrical engineering and energy fields. The following textbooks were created: Technology 1, 2, 3, 4, and Energy Resources and Equipment 2 and 3. O3 - Creation and testing of the methodology for instructors working with pupils in VET in companies – 20 methodologies & 84 working sheets were prepared in SK & CZ languages to be used by instructors in companies. The target groups were primarily SMEs in energy and electrical engineering fields, their professional organizations, as well as SVS, which together play a decisive role in efficient functioning of the system of dual education. The target group did not change during the project and we managed to address it through activities and implementation of intellectual outputs. The project and budget management was executed by the main partner-EkoFond. All project partners managed their parts of the project, including budgets. During the project, various managerial and organisational activities were implemented, including 6 transnational meetings as well as meetings with experts to implement individual outputs. All project partners involved experts proposed in the application form. Project management was performed by experienced managers. Mainly internal staff of the partners worked on the individual project outputs. EkoFond, ŠIOV and SEES involved in O2 output - updating and creation of learning texts - many teachers from SVS and expert for examination of the texts. The reason was the need to combine practical experience of teachers and practitioners. Project dissemination: EkoFond has prepared a dissemination plan. A project website in SK and EN was created www.edes.ekofond.sk, which provides all information about the project, its partners and the project outputs. The section “Documents” lists all internal documents - minutes from all transnational meetings together with invitations, programs, photos, presentations and attendance lists, as well as invitation, program, lectures, attendance list from the final project conference. This part can only be accessed via: login: ecofond, password: Ekof2016. As part of project sustainability, partners will continue to use all project outputs: O1 - In SK there is currently running a commentary to amendment of Act No. 61/2015 Coll. on VET. Recommendations to the key partners and comments on the proposal for the amendment of the above Act were made in a joint opinion with the AZZZ at the Ministry of Education SR. O2 - one of the target groups of the project were secondary vocational technical schools, which will use the created e-textbooks for teaching. E-textbooks will make an important contribution to improving the quality of education, as many textbooks for these fields of study have been absent for many years. We plan to initiate a launch for a competition at the Ministry of Education SR for these textbooks to obtain the status of the national textbook approved by the Ministry - "the approval clause of the Ministry", thus becoming available for each school in SR. Availability of created materials will be secured through the created project website. O3 - developed 20 methodologies and 84 worksheets will be used by the target groups also after the end of the project. The community of professionals involved will be able to update their content, which will lead to the creation of quality educational materials in line with the current knowledge and practice and will improve the employability of graduates.