The project aims to raising versatility of VET curricula in the field of crafts and design, thus enhancing the quality of education on local, regional, national and EU level. The project was designed, keeping in mind future labor market prospects of students of crafts and design. It aims to developing transversal competences of the participants, concentrating not only in field- specific professional skills but also in developing key competences like entrepreneurial mindset and skills along with ICT-proficiency, cultural and linguistic knowledge, and social skills to follow the labour market trends. The purpose of the project is to encourage entrepreneurial thinking and initiative by implementing an innovative training method which blends different sectors of crafts and design with digital processing, product development, entrepreneurship, and cultural heritage of different European regions. At the same time, it allows the participating organisations to share ideas and experiences, learn from each other and cooperate in implementing innovative work methods for further use in curricula. Methodological idea of the project is to blend visual motives from each partner's cultural heritage or other cultural or regional features into patterns which are used in product development. To improve both contact and digital distance team-working skills, students are working in multicultural teams, staying in the same team throughout the project. The task of the teams during the project is to go through product development process from ideation to end product and its marketing strategy. Throughout the process, students are tutored by design and ICT teachers of the organisations as well as trainers from local design companies and sales developers (pop-up sales, web-sales). Entrepreneurship coaching is provided by representative of European business and innovation centre participating in the consortium. The project is implemented by arranging 3 contact- and one online-workshop. Team-work and communication is continued between the workshops in order to continue working on the product and its production issues. The teams will find local companies for production and decide together where the production will be performed. The end products will be finished by the final workshop and exhibited in the course of it. Each participating organisation will arrange a local dissemination event involving partner companies, educational institutions of the same industry and region, industry unions, local authorities and other stake-holders. Core team of the project involves 4 VET students and 2 trainers (teachers/other experts) of crafts and design from each organisation and 1 entrepreneurship coach. Tangible outcomes of the project are pattern designs inspired from cultural heritage or other area-specific visual motives and end products in which the patterns are used. The products will be defined by student-teams in the course of project activities. As a result of the project, the participants will have increased entrepreneurial mind-set and skills, and therefore better labour market prospects; increased cooperation and communication skills both in- and outside own industry; improved cultural awareness and language skills as well as social and team-work skills; increased level of digital competence to be applied in the field of crafts and design. The participating organisations will have better tools to support competitiveness and employment among students of crafts and design; increased readiness to integrate good practices and new methods into crafts and design studies; increased capacity to work at international level; stronger and more active educational network of crafts and design on European level.Dissemination of project results is carried out mainly by promoting the end products, exhibiting pattern designs and products, using project web-site and organisations' web-pages, arranging local disssemination seminars. Sustainability of project results lies in further use of methodology or its modules in VET curricula of crafts and design education; further usability of pattern designs and product prototypes; raised number of graduates in creative entrepreneurship; increased European networking; and increased motivation of participating in international activities.
Context/background of the project The impulse for this project came from the need to increase labour market potential of VET students of crafts and design. Among growing problems in Europe is unemployment of young people. Consequently, VET institutions have high responsibility in providing education and training that would meet the needs and trends of the society's labor market. Entrepreneurship and transnational networking, including distance team-working and ICT-based practices, are increasingly more important in creative industry labour market in addition to increasingly aiming to high standard professional skills. The project aims to contributing to the labour market adequacy of crafts and design education. Therefore, the project deals with increasing versatility of VET curricula in participating organisations, thus enhancing the quality of crafts and design education on local, regional, national and European level. Objectives – improving students' entrepreneurial skills for better labour market potential – improving students' classical and ICT based crafts and design skills – increasing participants' social competences to contribute to their cooperation and teamwork skills both in- and outside industry – enhancing participants' cultural and linguistic skills to raise their cultural awareness and competence to work on international level – sharing ideas and increasing EU partner network, thus raising the participating organisations' potential to provide competencies for better performance on EU labor market – modernizing pedagogy, raising quality and versatility of the participating organizations' VET curricula in terms of professional, digital and self-employment skills as well as knowledge on product design and cultural heritage. Tangible outcomes of the project will be – designed patterns inspired by cultural heritage or other culture-specific visual motives – deliverables (product prototypes) of different fields of crafts and design, representing regional cultural heritage or other visual features. Number and profile of participating organisations Altogether, 5 organisations took part of the project: Tartu Art School (TAS), a vocational institution, Lybecker Institute of Crafts and Design (PRAVET), vocational studies, Instituto di Istruzione Superiore G. Mazzatinti, which is State High school offering five different courses with different curricula, Escuela de Arte y Superior de Diseño y de Conservación y Restauración de Bienes Culturales de Burgos (EASD), which offers both vocational and degree studies, and finally, ASOCIACION PARA LA GESTION DEL CENTRO EUROPEO DE EMPRESAS E INNOVACION DE BURGOS (CEEI-Burgos) which is a business consulting, incubating and innovation centre. Description of undertaken main activities Amongst the main activities of EntreVET were a Virtual Studio on cultural heritage in digital design, three Learning, Teaching and Training activities and two transnational project meetings. In addition, local dissemination activities, exhibitions of the products with patterns, regular management meetings in Skype, consulting and coaching between workshops, ongoing product and pattern development. Results and impact attained Results on the level of participants: – increased entrepreneurial mind-set and skills, and therefore raised labor market potential – increased cooperation and communication skills both in- and outside own industry better understanding of cultural heritage and diversity, better cultural awareness, understanding of cultural diversity and linguistic skills – improved social and team-work skills – increased level of classical and digital competence to be applied in the field of crafts and design Results on the level of organisations: – due to successfully implemented methodology, an innovative entity of studies or its modules to be integrated in VET curricula of crafts and design education, more versatile curricula. Therefore better tools to support competitiveness and employment among graduates of crafts and design field. – increased motivation to integrate good practices and new methods into crafts and design studies – increased motivation of staff and capacity of organisation to work at international level – stronger and more active educational network of crafts and design on European level, increased opportunity for sharing good practices and innovative initiatives. Tangible outcomes of the project, that is: –a collection of digitally designed patterns inspired by cultural heritage or other culture-specific visual motives – deliverables (product prototypes) of different fields of crafts and design, representing regional cultural heritage or other visual features.