According to Eurostat and other European sources, youth unemployement is one of the major problems in Europe, the southern countries being the ones that most suffer from this situation. Therefore, a decision was taken by a group of different stakeholders to carry out a project that might contribute to improve this situation. The first decision was to form a partnership from diverse parts of Europe that faced different levels of youth unemployment: Germany, with the lowest rate (6.5%), Lithuania and Turkey (13.1% and 18.5%) holding a middle position and Portugal, Italy, Spain and Greece with the highest rates (from 40.1% to 44.2%) The second decision was to form a partnership made up of VET training centres and administrative or economic institutions. It was considered that that both type of stakeholders working together could achieve much better results than working separately. The third decision was to identify big areas of work that could lead to a solution. Three major areas were identified and four operational plans were drawn. Also, actions plans were devised: 1. Improving professional competences, by means of professional orientation and of the internationalization of the professional experience. The partners of the project observed that there are many existing publications and materials related to orientation and guidance but they are not adequately systematized which makes it complicated to search and select the most adequate materials and resources. This difficulty is more evident when it comes to look for resources elaborated in other countries. And as for international mobility, evidence was found (European Commission) that five years after graduation, the unemployment rate of young people having studied or trained abroad is 23% lower than that of their nonmobile peers. Consequently, actions to improve both professional orientation and students’ mobility should be devised in the project. 2. Adapting the profiles to the real demands of the companies, by means of implementing and increasing the dual learning offer. The Declaration of Riga (2015) stated that, in order to increase employablitity, work-based learning should be promoted. But, a CEDEFOP study pointed out that this had been timidly introduced in some European countries but had not yet been implemented in most of them. Again, there was a long way ahead and the partnership decided to look for ways to contribute to its implementation. 3. Fostering the entrepreneurship initiative and self employment. We believe that the approach given to this issue in most VET training centres over Europe is mainly theoretical, being mostly centered into entrepreneurial management rather than centered into the product. We also believe that efforts should be devoted to improve the abilities of our trainees in the creation of sustainable entrepreneurial projects, as according to our own data the lifespan of most of them does not exceed the period of three years. Attention should be paid to this issue and new ideas came out that would lead to better results. Next, the target audiences were identified and the expected results for each of the areas were decided. Among others, these include the creation of a work placement mobility network that will foster learners’ mobilities and will guarantee a correct management of work placements abroad; an European job pool that will allow users to look for labour demands all over Europe; an entrepreneurial business management course that will be made available for all centres in Europe and entrepreneurship labels and prizes for VET schools and VET learners that will give visibility to the actions carried out by all of them. The project is quite ambitious and the number of partners, as well. Nevertheless, a well established management structure and periodical management meetings have been devised in order to guarantee its correct development. Staff training activities have also been planned in order to enlighten all partners and provide enough information and insights in all the issues of the project. We do believe this will ensure the correct development of all the products. Finally, in order to guarantee dissemination and sustainability of the products, a community, EROVET (European research on VET) made up of different stakeholders, such as VET centres, companies and economic and administrative entities will be created. By becoming members and by guaranteeing a correct management and funding of the network, EROVET will be the framework that will allow, not only the perdurability of all products but also a constant anylisis, rethinking and updating of documents and products related to Vocational Education and Training.
According to Eurostat and other European sources, youth unemployment is one of the major problems in Europe, the southern countries being the ones that most suffer from this situation. Therefore, a decision was taken by a group of different stakeholders to carry out a project that might contribute to improving this situation. The first decision was to form a partnership from diverse parts of Europe that faced different rates of youth unemployment. The second decision was to form a partnership made up of VET centres and administrative or economic institutions as it was considered that working together could achieve much better results than working separately and the third decision was to identify areas of work that could lead to solutions. Three major areas were identified and four operational plans were drawn up. Action plans were also devised: 1. Improving professional competences by means of professional orientation and internationalization of the professional experience. The partners of the project observed that there are many existing publications and materials related to orientation and guidance but they are not adequately systematized which makes it complicated to search for and select the most suitable materials and resources. This is more evident when it comes to looking for resources elaborated in other countries. And as for international mobility, evidence was found (European Commission) that, five years after graduation, the unemployment rate of young people having studied or trained abroad is 23% lower than that of their non-mobile peers. Consequently, actions to improve both professional orientation and students’ mobility should be devised in the project. 2. Adapting profiles to the real demands of companies, by means of implementing and increasing the dual learning offer. The Declaration of Riga (2015) stated that, in order to increase employability, work-based learning should be promoted. But, a CEDEFOP study pointed out that, while this had been timidly introduced in some European countries, it had not yet been implemented in most of them. So, the partnership decided to look for ways to contribute to its implementation. 3. Fostering the entrepreneurship initiative and self-employment. We believe that the approach to this issue in most VET centres in Europe is mainly theoretical, focused mostly on entrepreneurial management rather than on the product and we believe that efforts should be made to improving the abilities of our trainees in the creation of sustainable entrepreneurial projects. Eight partners from seven different countries comprised EROVET: • GlobaLleida, an entity of economic promotion in Lleida (Spain) • Five VET centres: Ortaköy 80.Yıl Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi in Ankara (Turkey), Escola Profissional Amar Terra Verde in Vila Verde (Portugal), IISS des Ambrois in Oulx (Italy), Vilnius Tourism and Commerce School in Vilnius (Lithuania), and Institut Escola del Treball in Lleida (Spain). • Two administrative entities: Dieythynsi Deyterobathmias Ekpaideysis N. Rodopis in Komotini (Greece) and Landkreis Osnabrück Fachdienst Bildung in Osnabrück (Germany). The Results attained are: • Result 1: Orientation White Paper • Result 2: EROVET Job Pool • Result 3: EROVET Mobility Network • Result 4: Work-based Learning Guide • Result 5: EROVET Entrepreneurship Prize • Result 6: EROVET Entrepreneurship Label • Result 7: EROVET Entrepreneurship Business Management Course • Result 8: EROVET community A well-established management structure and periodical Management Meetings (MM) were devised in order to guarantee the correct development of the project. The following meetings have been held: • 1st MM in Vilnius (Lithuania) from 6 to 8 November 2017. Host partner: Vilnius Tourism and Commerce School. • 2nd MM in Vila Verde (Portugal) from 1 to 2 March 2018. Host partner: Escola Profissional Amar Terra Verde • 3rd MM in Mamak, Ankara (Turkey) from 21 to 22 May 2018. Host partner: Ortaköy 80.Yıl Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi • 4th MM in Osnabrück (Germany) from 25 to 26 October 2018. Host partner: Landkreis Osnabrück Fachdienst Bildung • 5th MM in Lleida (Spain) from 8 to 10 May 2019. Host partner: GLOBALleida Training Activities (TAs) were also planned in order to enlighten all partners and provide information and insights into all the issues of the project: • 1st TA in Vila Verde (Portugal) from 26 February to 2 March 2018. Host partner: Escola Profissional Amar Terra Verde. Topic: Orientation • 2nd TA in Mamak, Ankara (Turkey) from 21 to 25 May 2018. Host partner: Ortaköy 80.Yıl Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi. Topic: internationalization of the professional experience – mobility network and job pool. • 3rd TA in Osnabrück (Germany) from 22 to 25 October 2018. Host partner: Landkreis Osnabrück Fachdienst Bildung. Topic: work-based learning • 4th TA in Lleida (Spain) from 25 February to 1 March 2019. Host partner: INS Escola del Treball de Lleida. Topic: entrepreneurship