VET training especially for low skilled young people and people with socio-economic disadvantages is a European VET priority, is certainly seen as one of the most important factors to tackle youth unemployment throughout the European countries and is part of a quality initiative for the VET systems in whole Europe. VET provision for low skilled young people is, however, a complex pedagogical challenge. It becomes very obvious that what the (partially quite theoretical and not very modern) VET systems have to offer in terms of content, methods, approaches, instruments, skills and competences very often miss their recipients. VET trainers clearly report, that they find it hard to reach young peoples’ brains with classical methods, theoretical topics and of course the complexity of professions and professional competences in many sectors is steadily growing which makes the VET training also not easier. However, one core quality challenge is clearly hidden in this VET training process which needs to be addressed and would lead to a huge professionalization and quality improvement of VET training processes for low skilled young people and of course also to a professionalization of VET trainers themselves. Taking a closer look at habits and communication processes (that includes learning processes of course) of young people we can identify that: • Text based communication, reading and writing of complex texts tend to disappear • Communication and interaction are short, using key words, slang words, shortcuts and terms etc. • Communication and interaction are fast and immediate • Communication and interaction are to a high degree: digital! According to recent youth studies the indicators clearly show that if VET training for this group of people wants to be successful and really enter the communication ways and processes of young people, it has to make full use of the digital instruments available and used by the target group and this is a problem of VET training all over Europe (see e.g. “Being young in Europe”, Eurostat, 2015). Paper based, presentation based, front side teaching based, offline based, theory based, even classical e-learning based (!) VET training is not able to enter and utilise these communication channels of young people. In many cases VET learning processes are running somehow parallel to core communication processes of the target group and this leads to fatal consequences. However, this is not a matter of technical infrastructure which is of course available and there for use. It is a matter of comepetences of VET trainers to make full use of these instruments, embed them in VET didactics and training plans. It is about bringing the "e" into learning and this is the main objective of the PROMOVET project. The main aims of the PROMOVET project are: 1) Implementation of an investigative research with young low skilled VET learners, VET trainers and experts for ICT in education and training 2) Development of a web-based compendium of tools VET trainers about the “e” in VET training 3) Development of a training programme for VET trainers about ICT instruments, impact, advantages and disadvantages as well as proper selection of tools in VET didactics especially for low skilled young people as learners 4) General quality improvement and professionalization of VET trainers through better and well selected involvement of ICT in VET training processes 5) Realising a participative VET training approach where young learners become teachers of VET trainers about modern ICT based instruments in communication and learning The main intellectual outputs of the project are: IO1) Investigation research about frequently used ICT and social media based interaction, communication and learning instruments of young (low skilled) people IO2) Webbased compendium of existing tools and instruments together with estimations of pros and cons, possibiliuties and examples to use them in VET didactics for download IO3) VET trainer training programme: 5 days training programme for VET trainers on how to use most recent ICT and social media based instruments in modern VET didactics especially for young low skilled learners. These outputs will be supported by one multiplier event as well as one transnational Learning/Teaching and Training activity implementing an inclusive training approach where young low skilled learners become trainers of their VET trainers for the purpose of ICT based and social media based tool use in modern VET didactics. The partnership of the project is consisting of 7 organisations from 6 European countries (AT, IT, IE, ES, CY, FI) which are mainly VET training centres, expert organisations in IT based didactics and research as well large European networks. The main target and impact groups are VET trainers in the partner countries, young low skilled learners, labour market authorities, social partners and VET policy makers on local, regional, national and European level.
VET training especially for low-skilled young learners and people with socio-economic disadvantages is a European VET priority and, as such, is certainly seen as one of the most important factors to tackle youth unemployment throughout the European countries. It is part of a quality initiative for the VET systems accross Europe. VET provision for low-skilled young learners is, however, a complex pedagogical challenge. Quite frequently, the current offers from the European VET systems in terms of content, methods, approaches, tools, skills, and competences miss their recipients. VET teachers/trainers report that they find it hard to reach the young peoples with classical methods, theoretical topics. In addition, the complexity of professions and professional competences in many sectors is steadily growing, which adds to the complex and challenging situation of VET training and its processes. If we want to improve the quality of the VET learning process for young (low-skilled) learners and add to the professionalisation of VET teachers/trainers, taking a closer look at the communication habits and processes of young people can help: text-based communication involving reading and writing of complex texts tends to disappear; communication tends to focus on key words, slang words, shortcuts, emojies, etc, thus getting shorter and shorter; communication and interaction processes are becoming fast and immediate; communication and interaction have become digital to a high degree. According to recent youth studies, indicators clearly show that if VET training for young people wants to be successful, it needs to make full use of the digital tools available and used by the target group. So far, paper-based, presentation-based, traditional teacher-/trainer-centred, offline-based, theory-based, and, even, classical e-learning-based VET training has not been able to enter in and utilise the young learners' every-day communication channels. Often, VET learning processes run parallel to core communication processes of the target group, which then can have negative consequences in the teaching/training process. Usually, the technical infrastructure and its availability is not the reason. It is, however, a matter of comepetences of the VET teachers/trainers on how to make full use of their learners' "smart" and IT-based communication tools and embed them in VET didactics and training processes and plans. It is all about truly bringing the "e" into learning - the main objective of the PROMOVET project. Therefore, the main aims of the PROMOVET project were: (1) the implementation of an investigative research with young low-skilled VET learners, VET teachers/trainers and relevant education stakeholders and decision-makers; (2) the development of a web-based compendium of "smart" ICT-based tools and platforms to be used by VET teachers/trainers in VET training; (3) the development of a training programme for VET teachers/trainers on the didactically valuable use of "smart" ICT-based tools and platforms, their advantages and impact and their selection, particularly for teaching/training processes with low-skilled young learners; (4) a general improvement of quality and professionalisation for VET teachers/trainers through a well-selected involvement of ICT in the VET training process; and (5) the realisation of a participative "inclusive" VET training approach, where young learners become their own teachers'/trainers' teachers with regard to the use of modern "smart" ICT-based tools in the learning process. In order to reach the project aims, the partnership developed three intellectual outputs: (IO1) PROMOVET Investigation Research on modern "smart" ICT- and social media-based tools frequently used by young (low-skilled) learners. (IO2) PROMOVET Web-Compendium of modern "smart" ICT- and social media-based tools featuring, amongst others, a description of their advantages and disadvantages and videos to demonstrate their potential for use in VET didactics. (IO3) PROMOVET Curriculum, a 36-hours' training programme for VET teachers/trainers on how to include modern "smart" ICT- and social media-based tools in VET didactics for young low-skilled learners and featuring an inclusive training approach. These outputs were supported by a multiplier event, a transnational learning/teaching/training activity and pilot courses in all partner countries. The project partnership consisted of seven organisations from six European countries (AT, CY, ES, FI, IE, IT), mainly VET training centres, expert organisations in IT-based didactics and research and large European networks. The main target and impact groups were VET teachers/trainers, young low-skilled learners, labour market authorities, social partners and VET policy-makers on local, regional, national and European levels.