BACKGROUND Despite years of massive research effort and numerous development projects the actual practices in education continues as usual. Previous study from the sector shows that up to 50% and 70% of the teachers expresses that they have not changed their daily practice as a result of participating in development projects (The Vocational Education Lab & Damvad 2012). Even though the need for transformation is massive, in Europe the practice of teaching is always the same. The way curriculum describes learning is changed and reformed, improving the job relevance of vocational education, BUT it seems that this does NOT guarantee a corresponding didactic development improving the processes in learning. It is however important to develop pedagogics in order to support dual mode education. When innovation becomes the core part of the agenda “dual mode” becomes an important arena – This again calls for the development of new practices and learning environments constituting the knotworks between different learning arenas. There is an urgent need to introduce new models of innovation and inclusion in VET and in all educational system, especially if they are connected with the achievement of the EU 2020 goals declared by the Europe 2020 flagship initiative “An Agenda for New Skills and Jobs”(ensure that people acquire the skills needed for further learning and the labour market through advanced and innovative VET) but also in 2015 Joint Report about ET2020 strategy, Opening Up Education policy, Riga conclusions about VET and Erasmus+ horizontal and VET-specific priorities. REASON FOR THE PROPOSAL The elements the proposal is based on are: - introduce new models of innovation in VET system, and the only effective way is to move the focus on teachers and educators active in the VET system. They need to develop and change their way of teaching in order to change the student skills and increase drastically the students employability. - The selected methodologies/approaches are: Inclusive and Disruptive Learning, Work-Based Learning, Creative Problem Solving Methodology and TRIZ, Shared-Learning approaches (Co-working and FabLab). The PROJECT PROPOSAL is about innovation in VET and would like to explore innovation in VET in Europe and create several guidelines (interactive, practical and easy-to-use tips) about the ways to introduce a revolution in a job-oriented VET system. OUTPUTS/RESULTS The project aims to: • Explore and discover from across EU successful GOOD PRACTICE examples about innovation in Learning and teaching • Produce an EVIDENCE-GATHERING report starting from the emerging needs analysis done by a FOCUS GROUPS via INTERVIEWS (stakeholders form VET sectors, teachers, students but also enterprises recruiting form the VET sector) and aimed to let emerge the challenge and the disruption coming from the innovation in VET • Promote the development, testing and implementation of INNOVATIVE PRACTICES/METHODOLOGIES in VET thanks to 4 Intellectual Outputs focused on evidence-gathering, emerging needs analysis, methodologies and toolkit about: Inclusive and Disruptive Learning, Work-Based Learning, Creative Problem Solving Methodology and TRIZ, Shared-Learning approaches (Co-working and FabLab). • Stimulate a change in the Educational System coming from innovative and disruptive METHODOLOGIES and APPROACHES after a PILOT TESTING period • Transfer the knowledge about the METHODOLOGIES through a series of interactive REPORTS AND TOOLKITS describing the methodologies, explaining in detail how to implement them in VET, introducing challenges, tips and providing a suggested quality management system • Create a WEBSITE integrated with Blog, APPs and Social Networks containing a DATABASE OF MATERIALS TRANSLATED into all partners’ National languages to promote and encourage extensive exploitation and dissemination • Disseminate the project outputs and results throughout EU with a database of OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES available through open licences • Arrange a series of MULTIPLIER EVENTS involving a large number of stakeholders to foster exploitation and dissemination of PROJECT Intellectual Outputs. IMPACT ENVISAGED The partnership will bring together partners coming from several countries and their stakeholders, both academic and private, with the synergic power to reach a very large and diverse audience. The double-route to follow in the project is: - Transfer innovative and disruptive methodologies/approaches for VET to any interested parties (VET sectors, teachers, students but also enterprises recruiting form the VET sector, formal education system, higher education system, adult learners, Erasmus + projects etc.) - Recognise and validate the knowledge within partner staff thanks to ECVET system and a Memorandum of Understanding to validate an “European Expert in INCLUSIVE AND DISRUPTIVE LEARNING” profile.
Despite years of massive research effort and numerous development projects, the actual practices in education continue as usual. Previous studies from the sector show that up to 50% and 70% of teachers state that they have not changed their daily practices as a result of participating in development projects (The Vocational Education Lab & Damvad 2012). Despite the need for significant transformation, the practice of teaching in Europe remains the same. Curriculums describing learning and objectives are changed and reformed, hence improving the job relevance of vocational education and training (VET), but this does not guarantee a corresponding didactic and pedagogical development improving the processes in learning. It is therefore important to develop tools and practices to better support both students and educators alike, in order to best prepare the future workforce for the skills needed in the workplace. Moreover, it is of paramount importance to develop tools and practices which can be easily facilitated by VET teachers and staff. This led to the creation of the InnovatiVET project, who pursued the following objectives: 1. Explore the potential of innovative and active pedagogies such as interdisciplinary teaching and collaborative methods 2. Promote the development, testing and implementation of educational tools and innovative teaching methodologies, in order to improve educators’ industrial currency, as well as students’ skills, thus improving their employability. 3. Encourage enterprises to actively participate in the developed methods 4. Provide open and digital educational resources for the VET sector 5. Increase the synergies between formal and non-formal education system Therefore, within the InnovatiVET’s project framework an international team (from Denmark, Finland, Italy, Slovenia and the United Kingdom), produced a set of accessible educational materials, provided as online and paper publications (in 5 languages): - Evidence-gathering report, focusing on emerging needs and identifying key problems from the VET sector regarding educational practices - Work-Based Learning practices in Europe - Creative Problem Solving and Design Thinking - Co-working spaces (FabLab) All Intellectual Outputs were supplemented with a series of good and best practice reports, as well as 10 pilot educational experiments in 5 countries to test the educational tools and methodologies. Outputs were disseminated towards target groups - mainly the VET sector, but also other relevant stakeholders such as private and public organizations, as well as secondary and tertiary educational institutions. The most important dissemination activities were several multiplier events (seminars and workshops) hosted by each partner country, where over 300 stakeholders from over 100 institutions were directly introduced to the project outputs. Furthermore, by means of our website, app and social media site, newspaper and media articles, press releases, intra-organizational meetings and other outlets, more than 33.000 stakeholders in partner countries and beyond were reached out to. The outputs are freely available on multiple platforms, and the wide dissemination of the outputs will aid (VET) educators, teachers, students and companies interested in fostering better cooperation with schools, in order to better prepare schools for the challenges faced by a modern workforce. A far-reaching effect was thus achieved. The project contributed to: - Renewing educational practices by means of experimentation and providing innovative methodologies beyond traditional teaching curricula - More VET schools providing innovative teaching methodologies, thus fostering industrial currency for both student and educator - Promoting partnerships: Enterprises actively participated in developing, testing and collaborating with VET schools in the developed methods - Providing open and digital educational resources for the VET sector - Increasing the synergies between formal and non-formal education system