In Slovak republic, car industry belongs to one of the preferred and government – supported industrial sectors. Car producing companies and industrial parks create 200 000 work places, which creates 9% of the total employment rate. Car production subsequently requires other experts, who sell the cars and provide high quality service. This area offers more than 10 000 additional job opportunities. The above numbers affect also vocational education system, setting up concrete requirements for: • Qualified VET teachers and practical workshop leaders in 87 schools in Slovakia, providing relevant training programmes in automotive professions (ISCED 3C), (ISCED 3A) • Necessity of Innovative, high quality teaching materials reflecting the work market needs Based on the constantly emerging new trends, in accordance with EU legislation, new problem, therefore, emerged in VET: to provide students of vocational technical schools, university students and also institutions providing continuing education with updated content, with priority focus on following newest trends and innovations related to car and vehicle construction in detail, reacting to new environmental approaches. To verify and confirm this need, in March 2015 Secondary automotive school Jana Jonasa Bratislava carried out the online research, targeting 87 secondary vocational schools in Slovakia, from automotive professions. From 71 respondents, 78,9% confirms the need to integrate the topic of new trends and innovations into current school curricula. 94,4% of the respondents would welcome the new teaching methodologies and 93% would use interactive learning screens focused on innovations with their students. The results of this research declare that the need for innovative teaching materials focused on innovations and new trends in car industry, reflecting the needs of the 21st century, is obvious in all targeted Slovak automotive schools. Proposed project, "STEP AHEAD - The support of Professional development of VET teachers and trainers in following of New trends in Automotive Industry“, is, therefore, built on the real and concrete needs confirmed by 71 respondents of the online research, providing one of the possible solutions to actual situation. In the proposed project, in addition to providing intensive training programme for Slovak VET teachers, supporting concrete skills, we envisaged 2 main outputs and following objectives: 1/ To provide vocational and language teachers and subsequently students of targeted car related professions with innovative teaching materials: • O1/200 Interactive learning screens - ICT & CLIL based teaching materials focused on new trends in Automotive industry • O2/20 support teaching methodologies - ICT & CLIL based innovative methods, enhancing digital learning 2/ To increase their knowledge and improve the skills (communication in foreign languages, digital competence, learning to learn competence, altogether 3 out of 8 key competences specified within the EU framework) of project participants through: • 2 intensive trainings focused on introducing innovations and new trends from car industry, while introducing ICT tools to be used for education • 3 national conferences for project outcomes` dissemination and implementation Project outputs will be developed in partnership of 5 institutions: SOŠA Bratislava, INAK oz (SK), NAPA Trucks (CZ), Institute of Motor Industry (UK) and Automotive Technician Training (UK). All 3 international partners will provide basic teaching materials and expert supervisory. Project addresses following target groups: • 11 teachers of STREDNÁ ODBORNÁ ŠKOLA AUTOMOBILOVÁ, Bratislava and subsequently 250 students, • 15 teachers of vocational subjects and foreign language teachers of Automotive professions from 5 other Slovak schools, who will be involved in trainings and development of O1, O2 • 25 teachers of Automotive professions from 8 Slovak schools, not directly involved in the project, who will be involved in testing of O1, O2, with 400 students • 500 teachers of Automotive professions from total number of 87 schools, covering these professions in Slovakia, in the position of future users of teaching materials, with approximately 21 750 students in these professions • 120 participants of 3 conferences, organized by the project • 10 key staff members of partner institutions involved in the project • other potential beneficiaries in all project countries. We believe that proposed project, by its nature, has a potential to significantly contribute to increase of quality of Slovak VET. We also expect increased knowledge, skills and motivation of all project participants, in the area of innovations and new trends in Automotive industry, as well as in the area of using innovative ICT based methods, approaches and tools in VET teaching.
In Slovak republic, car industry is an important part of Slovak economy that creates approximately 200 000 work places (9% of the total employment rate). The above numbers affect also vocational education system, setting up concrete requirements for: - Qualified VET teachers and practical workshop leaders in 87 schools in Slovakia, providing relevant training programs in automotive professions (ISCED 3C), (ISCED 3A) - Necessity of Innovative, high quality teaching materials reflecting the work market needs Education materials, provided to schools by „Edičný portál MŠVVaŠ SR“, https://edicnyportal.iedu.sk/sk/hlavna-stranka, lack vocational textbooks targeting automotive professions, especially those covering the topic of innovations and new trends in automotive industry. Based on the constantly emerging new trends, in accordance with EU legislation, new problem, therefore, emerged in VET: to provide students of vocational technical schools and institutions providing continuing education with updated content, with priority focus on following newest trends and innovations in automotive industry. To verify and confirm this need, in March 2015 the project coordinator carried out the online research, targeting 87 secondary vocational schools in Slovakia, from automotive professions. From 71 respondents, 78, 9% confirmed the need to integrate the topic of new trends and innovations into current school curricula. 94,4% of the respondents would welcome the new teaching methodologies and 93% would use interactive learning screens focused on innovations with their students. The results of this research declare that the project "STEP AHEAD - The support of Professional development of VET teachers and trainers in following of new trends in Automotive Industry“ is therefore built on the real and concrete needs confirmed by 71 respondents of the online research. Project provides one of the possible solutions to actual situation – by developing two main project outputs: O1/ 519 Interactive learning screens - ICT & CLIL based teaching materials focused on new trends in automotive industry: hybrid cars, electric vehicles, new technologies, long - distance diagnostics, vehicle construction versus emissions decrease. All 519 teaching materials, developed in the form of online interactive learning screens, include multimedia – videos, photographs, interactive presentations presenting new trends and innovations in automotive industry. O2/ 25 support teaching methodologies - ICT & CLIL based teaching materials focused on new trends in automotive industry. The methodologies are used in hand with concrete learning screens (O1) as resource teaching materials. Methodologies include the suggestions for concrete lesson structure, timing and activities and recommendation for teaching materials to be used to cover the topics. These results were developed during the training programs in the Czech Republic and UK with the active involvement of training participants (teachers of vocational subjects, language teachers). Vocational experts (trainers) provided by project partners introduced the topic of new trends and innovations in automotive industry as well as the innovative teaching methods of CLIL, blended learning, E-A-R approach and integration of ICT tools into education. After the theoretical part, the training participants implemented acquired knowledge into practice – and developed sample materials of interactive learning screens and teaching methodologies under the supervision of trainers. To be able to identify improvement of learners’ skills, the evaluation questionnaires were used. In addition to providing specific knowledge and skills, following three key competences were supported through trainings: communication in foreign languages, digital competence, and competence in learning to learn. Project therefore, fully complies with horizontal priority of "Professional development of VET teachers and trainers", while also enhancing digital integration in learning and teaching process. Developed products O1 and O2 were placed in dissemination platform that serves as an Open Education Resource. Therefore, the users of the platform have not only opportunity to work with products after the end of the project, but also may create their own teaching materials and upload them to the platform. On this bases the platform will be updated and reflect to the newest trends and innovations in automotive industry. Over all implementation of the project was realized by consortium of 5 partners: project coordinator - SSOSA DA (SK), INAK (SK), IMI (UK), ATT TRAINING (UK), and NAPA TRUCKS (CZ). All partners have many years experiences in the field of project management, international cooperation, development of innovative teaching materials, blended learning and providing of vocational trainings.