WBL experiences in all forms (apprenticeships, traineeships, dual schemes and jobshadowings) at local, regional, national or transnational level equip VET students with a broad range of skills which opens doors to personal fulfilment and development, social inclusion, active citizenship and employment. These include key competences and transversal skills and such as digital competences, entrepreneurship, critical thinking, problem solving learning to learn.. WBL experiences provide VET students, teachers and trainers with relevant skills development should be pursued by further promoting all forms of work-based learning, such as traineeships, apprenticeships, dual schemes and jobshadowing for VET, developing further partnerships with all stakeholders at local, regional, national and transnational level . At the same time, the initial and continuous professional development of VET teachers and trainers should be strengthened, including by means of placements in business and industry or other VET schools to keep abreast of developments in the field. WBL experiences are usually related to a small (or anyway insufficient) number at local, regional and transnational level, and as a consequence they lack of effective networks of VET providers and enterprises and that it hasn't been studied the real impact of the effects of WBL experiences on the skills and employability of VET students, teachers and trainers of VET providers. NEEDS -VET providers need to ameliorate the cooperation between them and companies to provide a market oriented training offer and business driving learning paths to VET students, teachers and trainers to turn the kills mismatch into competitiveness in VET -The amount of traditional classroom based activities is still too high. VET providers needs to provide VET students with enhanced Work Based Learning experiences in all forms (apprenticeships, traineeships and dual schemes) at local, regional, national and transnational level to promote to personal fulfilment and development, social inclusion, active citizenship and employment -To demonstrate the real impact of WBL experiences on the skills and employability of VET students and teachers to motivate enterprises VET students, teachers and trainers and VET providers to participate in this experiences -To offer the high quality WBL experiences at local, regional, national and transnational level OBJECTIVES -Improve the cooperation between VET providers and companies so as to provide a market oriented training offer and business driven learning paths to the VET students, teachers and trainers creating an effective network of collaboration at local, regional, national and transnational level -know the real impact of WBL experiences on the skills and employability of VET students and teachers to motivate enterprises VET students, teachers and trainers and VET providers to participate in this experiences. -Offer quality work based Learning opportunities at local, regional, national and transnational level to VET students and improve apprenticeships, dual schemes and traineeships' effectiveness at local, regional, national and transnational level -Offer quality work based learning opportunities to VET teachers at local, regional, national and transnational level and trainers for their continuous professional development. -Improve the attractive of the VET training offer and of Work based learning in order to match the needs of the companies and the expectations of the trainees -To motivate policy makers and social partners in all member states to promote WBL in all it forms OUTCOMES -Project website -QQVET transnational network - Impact study on WBL experiences(apprenticeship, traineeship, dual scheme, jobshadowing) at local,regional,national or transnational level. -QQVET documentary series -Recommendations pack for VET students, teachers, trainers, VET providers, enterprises and public bodies PARTNERSHIP The project will involve 7 institutions of 7 different European countries. The partnership is composed by institutions with experience in working with WBL and can ensure the quality of the project results. IMPACT 5850 stakeholders -I-VET teachers, trainers and students -VET providers -Enterprides -Social partners -Public bodies in charge of education and employment The project respond to the European Commission’s communication, Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes identified since 2012 quality apprenticeships and work-based learning as a strategic priority and for the purpose activated the European Alliance for Apprenticeship (EAfA) and it’s also rooted within the objectives of ET 2020, Rethinking Education, the Bruges Communiqué, in the Riga conclusions , as well as in the New Skills Agenda for Europe that invite companies, social partners and VET providers to promote work-based learning in all its forms and to make WBL approaches more effective, targeted to the labour market needs
Context/background of the project: The economic situation affects all European countries, especially the group of young people that sees a growing skills gap in the EU labour market. Experiences abroad such as apprenticeships, traineeships and dual schemes are a very useful opportunity to ameliorate this situation and to offer youngsters soft (entrepreneurship initiative, critical thinking, problem solving, learning to learn) and hard skills needed for a future jobs, as well as to have their first contact with the labour market. So WBL experiences in all forms (apprenticeships, traineeships, dual schemes and jobshadowings) empower VET students with a wide range of skills which opens doors to personal fulfillment and development, social inclusion, active citizenship and employment. Objectives: The QQVET project had its bases on this situation explained above, having the objective of improving the cooperation between different stakeholders (VET institutions, teachers, companies and students) in order to provide a market oriented training offer and business driving learning paths to VET students, teachers and trainers to turn the skills mismatch into work opportunities. More in details the objectives of the QQVET project were: - to improve the cooperation between VET providers and companies so as to provide a market oriented training offer and business driven learning paths to the VET students, teachers and trainers - to identify the real impact of WBL experiences on the skills and employability of VET students and teachers in order to motivate enterprises, VET students, teachers and trainers and VET providers to participate in this experiences. - to offer quality work based learning opportunities to VET teachers at local, regional, national and transnational level and trainers for their continuous professional development - to improve the attractiveness of the VET training offer and of Work based learning in order to match the needs of the companies and the expectations of the trainees - to motivate policy makers and social partners in all member states to promote WBL in all it forms Number and type/profile of participants: different types of stakeholders were involved directly and/or indirectly in the activities organized by the project: - more than 300 students - more than 180 teachers - more than 120 companies - more than 30 VET directors - 50 organizations part of the transnational network: VET schools, associations, companies, no profit organizations public bodies, school associations, among others. Around 600 of the participants have been identified as participants with lower opportunities such as the students participating in the preparation of the IO1 - The Impact study. Some of them are students with educational difficulties or belong to vulnerable social groups. Also part of the attendees of the multiplier events organized in each partner country and dissemination events were coming from vulnerable social groups Description of undertaken activities: 1. Creation of IO1: Impact study on WBL experiences (apprenticeship, traineeship, dual scheme, job shadowings) at local, regional, national or transnational level. The project partners produced an impact study that shows the strengths and weakness of WBL experiences and that covers the expectations of all target groups from the 6 European countries. 2. Creation of IO2: A documentary series that shows the different target groups of the project and meet the expectations and needs of VET trainers and students and represent real scenarios. 3. Creation of the project website: in the first months of the project a website has been created and continuously updated and improved during the entire period of the project. The website contains all the material produced during the project, freely available to be downloaded. 4. Creation of a transnational network of VET providers, companies, social partners and public bodies 5. Creation of a recommendation pack for VET students, teachers, trainers, VET providers, enterprises and public bodies - a practical document for stakeholders and beneficiaries 6. Transversal Activities: all partners were involved in carrying out activities related to the effective implementation of the project: coordination, reporting, dissemination, sustainability, evaluation Results and impact attained: The project impacted in different ways on all the stakeholders to whom the project addressed through activities organized during the project, as well as thanks to the high potential of transferability of the project's outputs, helping in this way to improve the implementation of effective quality VET mobility activities to make them acquire more quality and effective experiences to better prepare VET students to enter into the job market. Long-term benefits: the results of the project are expected to have a long term benefits on the VET sector through a strong cooperation between companies, VET providers, teachers and students.