ContextThe Bruges Communiqué for 2011 - 2020 underlines the importance of investing in people’s skills and ensuring they remainrelevant to labour market needs. Moroever, it is pointed out that today's pupils and students will still be in the beginning of theircareer in 2020 with at least 30 years to go in their professional live, and some of them in occupations that do not exist today andothers perhaps in occupations that are disappearing.The European Council in its informal meeting in January 2012 agreed that Member States should increase "substantially the numberof apprenticeships and traineeships to ensure that they represent real opportunities for young people, in cooperation with socialpartners and where possible integrated into education programmes". Experience suggests that this form of education can meet thetwin goals of improving individuals' employability and increasing economic competitiveness. Member States and social partnerscommitted themselves in the Bruges Communiqué, the European agenda for cooperation in vocational education and training(VET), to the objective of including work-based learning in all initial VET courses. As mentioned in the Rethinking Education Communication and the Youth Employment Package, the value of VET – and notably of dual training systems - in facilitating youth employment is clearly acknowledged. Creating opportunities for high-quality work-based learning thus lies at the heart of current European education and training policies. In February 2013, the European Council confirmed that the highest priority should be given to promoting youth employment and invited the Commission to establish a “European Alliance for Apprenticeships”. It also announced the creation of a dedicated Youth Employment Initiative, open to regions with high youth unemployment rates, with a financial support of EUR 6 billion. Problem to be addressed and consequencesIn this context, Partners identified the folowing problems to be addressed: - the supply of apprenticeship and traineeship places in the EU continues to be under-developed. The picture varies greatly by country. Those enrolled in apprenticeships in the strict sense, represent33% of secondary VET students. 24 EU countries have schemes in place where learners spend more than 50% of their time learning in the workplace, but the scope of the schemes varies widely. - the permeability between iVET and cVET often represents an important challenge for individuals in pursuing their professional training. - a lack of workplace experience and the related skills and competences is one of the factors contributing to the "skills gap" in the EU today. While 5.6 million young people in the EU suffer the consequences of unemployment, 36% of employers' report that they struggle to find new recruits with the skills they need. Project aim and objectivesThe project aims at developing a European teaching and training Toolkit for practically supporting the implementation of work based learning in all stages of iVET. Moreover, the project will support the implementation of quality assurance mechanisms for WBL in iVET in the fashion sector with a specific focus on feedback loops between iVET and cVET systems.PartnershipThe project brings together 9 partners from 4 European countries, forming a transnational cooperation partnership with a balanced regional geographical representation of the Erasmus+ area and with qualitative representation for Romania. Moreover, the project is highly supported by the Nord-Est Regional Agency for Development in Romania (please see attached the Letters of Associate Partner)Methodological approach and key outputsSince the very beginning of the project partners will define the concrete methodological strategies and approaches for disseminating the state of art of WBL implementation in the sector and existing good praticies in the field. The consortium will design and launch the project official website. Then, Partners will develop the contents of the Work based Learning Toolkit. The next step will be to define the Quality Assurance Guidelines and tools and the training programme for teachers and in-company trainers. These outputs will be validated during the project consultations and testing phase and will be fine tuned at the end of the project, made available online, on the website. These results will be included in the final publication of the Project and will be further exploited with open licence. Impact and long term benefits:- increase the awareness of providers and business sector concerning WBL and QA characteristics, benefits, challenges and existing good practices- further it will put WBL and QA on the agenda of providers and companies in the sector- enable providers with practical guidelines, tools and instruments in the field of WBL implementation in the fashion sector- support a more systemic approach to quality within sectoral iVET.
Context The European labor market is undoubtedly facing major changes. It is not certain that the skills and qualifications provided by the European education system are capable of meeting current and emerging needs, which means that there is a possibility of continuing imbalances and gaps in supply and demand for skills. The European Commission (EC) has launched the "New Skills for New Jobs" initiative to provide a general framework for the implementation of policy actions in the European Union (EU). Building on this initiative, the EC has highlighted the need to enhance the attractiveness of VET, for example through "An Agenda for New Skills and Jobs: o European Contribution to Full Employment" and "A New Impetus for European Cooperation in education and training to support the Europe 2020 strategy "(EC, 2010a; 2010b). Following the analysis of needs and shortcomings made by partners to prepare this proposal, the main problems identified were: - Practice traineeships in the EU continue to be underdeveloped. The situation varies greatly by country. Those enrolled in apprenticeship, strictly speaking, account for 33% of secondary VET students. 24 EU countries have programs where students spend more than 50% of their time at work, but the scope of the systems varies greatly. - Efforts are needed to invest in expanding apprenticeships and in internships in countries where opportunities for this type of learning remain very limited. - The permeability between IVET and CEFP is often an important challenge for individuals in pursuing their professional training. - Lack of experience at work, skills and professional skills is one of the factors contributing to the "skills gap" in the EU today. While 5.6 million young people in the EU suffer the consequences of unemployment, 36% of employers' reports refer to the fact that they are struggling to find new recruits with the skills they need. The project aimed at the homogeneous and systemic application of WBL principles at the level of the VET provider, the development of VET programs (both EIT and CEFP), guaranteeing transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications, increasing employment opportunities, lifelong learning behaviors and mobility for learning and work within the sector. Purpose The project aimed at developing a European Training and Training Instrument to support the practical implementation of labor-based learning at all stages of education and training. Furthermore, the project supports the implementation of WBL quality assurance mechanisms in VET in the fashion sector, with a specific focus on feedback loops between iVET and cVET systems. Project objectives were as follows: - The qualitative increase in the VET offer, leading to more professional qualifications for the labor market and hence higher insertion capacity. - Greater professional collaboration between VET providers and businesses as part of the learning process. - Increasing the level of interest among businesses and VET providers, adopting learning methods based on work experience, as learning tools. -Developing a European-level technical education and a set of tools to support and apply on-the-job learning at all stages of textile education and training. Partnership The project brought together 9 partners from 4 European countries, forming a transnational cooperation partnership with a balanced geographical representation of the Erasmus area and a qualitative representation for Romania.The project partners were companies, VET providers, chambers of commerce, universities, schools, from Romania, Italy, Bulgaria and the Netherlands. The main activities of the project were: the development of the management and quality plan, the definition of bilateral cooperation agreements with partners, the organization of virtual partner meetings, the development of operational, administrative and financial management (including organization of partner meetings, project brochures and other dissemination materials, exploitation and sustainability strategy and IPR agreement. The results obtained within the project were: -Report on the Implementation of Learning and Quality Assurance in VET in the 4 partner countries in the fashion sector. - Set of tools to support WBL to implement concrete WBL (learning-based learning) programs in IVET. - Quality assurance guidelines and tools for WBL. - Learning program for IVET teachers and trainers (tutors, mentors, coaches) in WBL and Quality Assurance. Impact: supporting iVET programs to align quality initiatives with European sectoral education and training policies,help providers in this sector and local / regional / national authorities understand the level of change needed for VET providers and delivery to align WBL and QA with existing WBL and QA policies, promoting awareness-raising of work-based learning and quality among stakeholders in the sector, creating a space for cooperation and trust between iVET providers at national and European level.