Disadvantaged and disabled people need new forms of training and education. In the transition from ‘school to work’ the integration of different practices is connected with the idea to help these target groups, give them self-confidence, increase their competences etc. At this point, mobilities in general create new possibilities for this target group. In contrast to traditional training areas, mobilities can help to achieve employability as well as develop social- and self-competence. This can be affiliated to the disclosure and support of hidden competences by a productive curiosity or resilience.Against this background, the project objectives are in line with the program EU priorities ‘Inclusive education, training and youth’ and ‘Further strengthening key competences in VET curricula’. It contributes to realize a better participation in the work life of disadvantaged youths with a need for assistance in the transition from school to the life of work. It also contributes a gradually development of an inclusive VET system by providing high quality mobilities for disadvantaged youth in modern international Vocational Education and Training arrangements. The consortium with eight partners from Finland, France, Germany, Spain and Turkey provides excellent multi-professional expertise, special knowledge and relevant experiences: VET schools (Berufskolleg Reydt-Mülfort, Raision seudun koulutuskuntayhtymä), training provider (Stiftung Bildung und Handwerk), school authorities (Bezirksregierung Düsseldorf (coordinator), Dirección General de Formación Profesional Inicial y Educación Permanente. Junta de Andalucía, Tekirdag il Milli Egitim Mudurlugu, Rectorat Academie de Lille) and the University of Paderborn are dealing (beyond others) with concepts / practices to promote equality and inclusion of disadvantaged youth in cooperation with companies. All partners have substantial knowledge in VET, UPB in the field of teacher education and didactics.The method will follow the approach ‘Arena of Innovation’ (AoI). It brings researchers and practitioners together in order to solve problems occurring within the context of pedagogical day-to-day practice. AoI represent an inter-space between science and practice. This arena is where the development of innovations or didactical prototypes takes place – accompanied, in cooperation with researchers. The approach will be implemented in four phases: (a) Building an adequate network and working on a project culture; (b) transfer of knowledge and experiences within the partnership; (c) designing / re-designing application-orientated innovations; (d) distribution of innovation (good practice).The project myVETmo is facilitating learners’ competence development combining two important action fields within VET: (1) Designing learning mobilities for youth with problems in the transition from school to work and (2) establishing necessary structures and organizational forms for inclusive learning and working environment in VET. The project aims to increase the recognition of European learning mobilities for inclusive education in VET, and to bring hidden competencies of the learners to the surface so that they can be recognized by companies and training providers. Products are:1. Students Navigator (SN). It offers support for the process control of the preparation, implementation and post processing of mobility. SN is required to support self-determined learning in the framework of mobility in an inclusive project contexts.2. Video-based self-presentation (VPS) supports a strength-based dispute with own resources and learn and work experiences and offers a link to the labor market, while the target group is developing their competencies.3. Guidelines for inclusive mobility describe the design and implementation of mobility for disadvantaged youth. They reflect the special characteristics of the target group from the very beginning.All partners will disseminate (following the guidelines of the ERASMUS+ program) project results to stakeholders in their own institutions, the training sector on regional level, the economic sector in the partner regions (companies), multipliers in VET and to decision makers on regional and national level by a corporate identity strategy, project information e.g. on the partners’ websites, regular newspaper articles, multiplier events as well as transfer of information to other projects and networks.Students will benefit from concepts that will be realized by the VET schools and provider (employability). Teachers and trainers will increase their abilities to support their students continuously in reality based learning environments. The VET institutions will develop better strategies concerning inclusion and innovations. The involved school authorities can better deal with the chances and challenges of inclusive mobilities in VET. The project could also help to transfer the idea of inclusive VET also to companies.
The aim of the myVETmo project was that European stays and traineeships abroad in vocational education and training (mobilities) are no longer reserved for mostly high-performing young people who are already in dual vocational training, for example. In the sense of an inclusive VET, it is important to make this possible for all young people. In particular, we have to open up opportunities for those who have had little access to educational opportunities of this kind. Teachers and trainers have to develop their social- and self-competence and to increase their employability. In the spirit of a broad understanding of inclusion, the myVETmo project focused in particular on disadvantaged young people who require special individual support in various areas. The learning and practical experiences abroad were to be accompanied individually, but at the same time gave the students the space to make individual explorations and to discover and experience supposedly hidden / unconscious competences ('hidden competences'). This 'balancing act' between personal care (on-site) on the one hand and on the other hand the self-regulation of the learners had to be taken into account during the development of the three intellectual outputs of the project: 1. The ‘Students' Navigator’, a web application, should serve the learner as an orientation during the stay abroad, give hints, but also address the communication and timely assistance of caregivers. 2. As part of the internship / stay abroad, the students developed a self-introductive video (‘Video-based Self-presentation’), which can be used, for example, in later application procedures. 3. At the project implementation level, quality standards and ‘guidelines for inclusive mobilities’ have been developed and reflected in the process. The cooperation of the partnership was organized according to the methodical approach "Arena of Innovation". In this approach, researchers join practitioners of vocational training, which provides the basis for high quality results, e.g. innovative means in initial vocational training and further education. The international team developed the instruments for preparation, implementation and post-preparation of regional and international phases of practical training. The European partners from Finland, France, Germany, Spain and Turkey, i.e.school authorities (Bezirksregierung Düsseldorf (coordinator), Dirección General de Formación Profesional Inicial y Educación Permanente. Junta de Andalucía, Tekirdag il Milli Egitim Mudurlugu, Rectorat Academie de Lille), a University (University of Paderborn), two VET schools (Berufskolleg Reydt-Mülfort, Raision seudun koulutuskuntayhtymä) and a training provider (Stiftung Bildung und Handwerk) were collaborating on inclusive targets for the development of ‘inclusive mobility’ in their regional VET: high-level educational supply for learners who need special support. The VET schools in the project and/ or associated to project partners tested the tools and implemented them into their pedagogical work. All local teams discussed and contributed to the guidelines for inclusive mobilities. The testing by students and teachers included the design, functions, handling, communication and feedback and finally summarising reflections and follow up. Testing institutions gave feedback by sampling the degree of satisfaction with the specific tools and asking for suggestions on how to improve them. After the first testing, we re-designed the tools. It can equally be determined that work experience abroad requires a special effort by disadvantaged youths. We see it as a special feature. Now the mobility of disadvantaged groups is based on the special dedication of educational institutions and their staff and is just in some exceptional cases an explicit ingredient of training and exercise programs. However, an integration of preparation, companionship and post processing in the professional exercise programs seems to be an important precondition considering the intense pedagogical coordination effort. Apart from product development, the project also fostered competences of stakeholders in vocational training regarding digital instruments in inclusive vocational training. MyVETmo intended to enable institutions focusing on such training to include practical learning phases (also abroad) in their curricula to provide their students with better transition to work and further education. Young people with special needs took part in national and international internships. Their institutions could develop local and regional supporting structures and digital instruments for the acquisition of key competences in vocational training. More details and the results of myVETmo you can find under http://www.myVETmo.eu.