Many countries in the European Union have been affected by high youth unemployment rates in the last years. The reason is, on the one hand, the economic difficulty resulting from the 2008 crisis. But part of the problem are one-sided vocational training systems. In many member countries, the vocational training system is not sufficiently oriented towards the labour market, which is why this form of training is not very attractive to secondary school graduates. For this reason, the European Commission recommends the implementation of work-based learning in the vocational training systems. The Erasmus+ Project “Dual VET Partners in Europe” picks up good practices from vocational training in Germany, where the companies are much more involved, and from Spain and Italy, where the theoretical part is more developed and access to training is easier than in Germany, where students have to pass a selection process. The consortium coordinated by the Escuela de Idiomas Carlos V (EICV) aims to identify and find ways to introduce training components or "building blocks" based on the workplace and the economic reality of each country into the vocational training. The Project will last 24 months and start in September 2017. Apart from the coordinator (EICV), the consortium and strategic partners comprise social partners, companies, authorities and schools from Germany, Italy and Spain. The project pursues the following objectives: - Moderating exchange and collaboration between all agents of vocational training: companies, VET schools, schools, unions, employer organizations and Chambers - Involving the companies more in the training - Promoting the duality of training: connecting the training at the school with the training in the companies - Training the trainers in the companies and VET schools - Identifying possibilities to incorporate practical modules or "building blocks" in the existing VET systems and elaboration an action plan (x-step plan) to present to educational authorities and decision makers. - Designing a model to regulates, evaluate and examine the practical training using ECVET tools for a greater transparency and international comparability of Vocational training The project is directed at the multipliers of vocational training: companies and schools. Approximately 40 teachers and employees will receive trainer training. Furthermore, there’ll be an educational trip to Germany to get to know the German VET system first hand. During all the activities as well as remotely throughout the project, there'll be opportunity for networking and exchange. At any moment, each company and each school can count on an equivalent partner organization in the other two countries which serve as mentors and provide support and advice during all activities. Overall, the project improves the closeness to the professional practice and the relevance for the labour market of vocational training systems in the three countries. A greater orientation towards the needs of the economy increases the employability of the apprentices and reduced the risk of youth unemployment.
Our Project "DualVet partners in Europe" arose due to the detected need to adapt the Vocational Training Systems in Italy and Spain to greater "work-based learning". For that purpose, we counted on the experience of our German partners who are adapting for years the vocational training to the needs of the labor market. Indeed, the apprentices benefit of a training combining the school and the company. The Project has had a high institutional draft. We knew that to achieve the objectives of our Good Practice Exchange Project, we had to involve local and regional Public Administrations. They are the biggest and best not only multipliers, but also decision-makers to improve and adapt the vocational training system in Italy and Spain. The actions, activities and meetings carried out have made it possible to achieve the following objectives: 1. Cooperation between all vocational training providers has been encouraged. This has been achieved through the training and learning activities where we have managed to connect business representatives with schools and public education administrations. Transnational meetings have also served to involve. 2. Companies have been encouraged to become more involved in training. This has been done not only with the partner companies of the Project but also with others who have participated in the training and apprenticeship activities. They have been trained in how to incorporate new forms of monitoring and evaluation for apprentices. This has been explained by experts in the field who have been or are tutors in German companies. 3. In order to realize a real duality of learning, companies and schools have been taught how to design Training Programmes in a coordinated way. They have also been informed how teachers update their knowledge through the collaboration of companies. 4. The training of apprentices in companies and schools has been carried out by informing about the requirements and regulations that the Hannover Chamber of Commerce in Germany applies in the training and accreditation of tutors and the training companies. For the diffusion of all the actions carried out during the Project, We have had important media at the regional level, dedicating even television and radio programs to our Project, in addition to appearing on important web pages in the field of vocational training in the three partner countries of the project, which has allowed the scope to be greater than that foreseen in the Project Application. All this training that the partners have received has been applied in the design of Training Plans concerning the Dual Vocational Training in Italy and Spain. These Plans have been designed so that they can be implemented and we have presented them in Italy to the Department for Training and Equal Opportunities in Campania, in order to obtain the five-year technical diploma in Mechanics, Mechatronics and Energy plus the Certificate of skills of the Mechanical Operator (EQF 4). In Spain it has been presented the possibility of carrying out a Pilot Experience with the Design of a Training Plan of three years with contracts of training and learning of the specialty of "Logistics and Transport" to the current Andalusian Government, in particular the Directorate-General for Vocational Training of the Ministry of Education. This Experience would be supported and advised by German experts in both the business and educational fields. The training plans of "Logistics and Transport" and " Mechanics " have been tested and have therefore been modified by professional training agents of Germany, Italy and Spain who have participated and have been involved in learning, teaching and training activities and transnational meetings held during the 24 months of the Project. The impact that has been achieved is as important as the beginning of the first steps so that in a region like Andalusia there will be the will to reach an agreement with Ministries of Lower Saxony in Germany and thus implement the necessary steps to receive advice and make the necessary adaptations in the current Vocational Training in Andalusia. This project will therefore be continued by the joint actions that will continue to be carried out safely between Andalusia and Lower Saxony and possible between the region of Campania and Lower Saxony, and also because a new Erasmus+ KA202 Project has been approved, led and coordinated by a Public Vocational Training School in Andalusia, where tools to measure quality in the Dual Vocational Training in Spain and Italy are to be designed and analyzed.