A briefing for head teachers, governors and staff in education settings, published in 2014 by Public Health England, states that it is already proven that students with better health and wellbeing are likely to achieve better academically, as well as that effective social and emotional competencies are associated with greater health and wellbeing, and better achievement in life. Within the VET sector teachers and trainers predominantly focus on developing students’ vocational knowledge and skills. Nevertheless, educational and professional accomplishment is determined to a great extent by good physical health, emotional wellbeing and opportunities for personal development. High quality, inclusive and flexible VET provision may prevent and remedy early school dropout, as well as contribute to enhancing students’ employability and potential for success in life. The WELLVET project aims is to: • equip VET teachers with innovative knowledge and competences on how to enhance their students’ motivation to learn, practice and work; • to contribute to increasing the attainment levels among VET students; • to assist VET institutions and decision makers in recognizing the interrelation between emotional wellbeing of students and their success in acquiring vocational knowledge and skills for higher employability; • to foster a truly inclusive education and training based on addressing the common need for wellbeing among students and trainees, with particular focus on those from difficult or disadvantaged backgrounds. Our transnational cooperation will involve six organisations supported by five associated partners, from five countries – the United Kingdom, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece and the Czech Republic. As a result from this project, a bespoke online training course will be developed, which will: -transcend the role of the VET teacher from a “knowledge and skills provider” to a mentor, offering holistic support for students’ emotional, social and physical wellbeing. -offer horizontal strategies to be applied across all vocational fields and subjects to contribute increasing students’ motivation, attainment levels and wellbeing. -produce a strong added value for VET teachers and encourage them to reflect on their own physical and emotional wellbeing as first condition for better occupational performance. We expect that more than 1600 individuals will benefit from or will be target of the activities organised by the WELLVET project. As part of the implementation, we envisage extensive testing and evaluation to confirm the applicability and potential for multiplication and transferability of our course. Among the impacts we expect to achieve are: VET TEACHERS • improved knowledge base on how to enhance students’ motivation to learn, practice and work through health and wellbeing mentoring; enhanced skill base to apply innovative holistic methods and techniques in VET to support the teaching process; enhanced competency levels to foster inclusive education where each student’s wellbeing matters; expanded professional development opportunities to match students’ real needs for comprehensive support. VET STUDENTS • enhanced physical, mental and emotional wellbeing leading to increased attainment levels and subsequently employability; enhanced motivation to learn, practice and work. OTHER STAKEHOLDERS • enhanced awareness of the necessity to foster students’ wellbeing in order to support their vocational and personal development; enhanced knowledge base on how to apply innovative methods to impact the VET system and enhance further its quality. We strongly believe that inclusive education and training is built on caring for each and every student, getting to know and analyse individual needs not only with regard to knowledge and skills, but also in relation to how and what students feel about themselves, the school environment, their professional aspirations and personal development. We are also convinced that WELLVET can contribute to transforming VET into a system that caters for all students, irrespectively of their ethnic background, aptitudes, aspirations, since what is common for all of us is that wellbeing is the basic drive for our motivation to learn, work, live.
A briefing for headteachers, governors and staff in education settings, published in 2014 by Public Health England, states that it is already proven that students with better health and wellbeing are likely to achieve better academically, as well as that effective social and emotional competencies are associated with greater health and wellbeing, and better achievement in life. Within the VET sector teachers and trainers predominantly focus on developing students’ vocational knowledge and skills. Nevertheless, educational and professional accomplishment is determined to a great extent by good physical health, emotional wellbeing and opportunities for personal development. High quality, inclusive and flexible VET provision may prevent and remedy early school dropout, as well as contribute to enhancing students’ employability and potential for success in life. The WellVET project aimed to: • equip VET teachers with innovative knowledge and competences on how to enhance their students’ motivation to learn, practice and work; • to contribute to increasing the attainment levels among VET students; • to assist VET institutions and decision-makers in recognizing the interrelation between emotional wellbeing of students and their success in acquiring vocational knowledge and skills for higher employability; • to foster a truly inclusive education and training based on addressing the common need for wellbeing among students and trainees, with particular focus on those from difficult or disadvantaged backgrounds. Our transnational cooperation involved six organisations from five countries – the United Kingdom, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece and the Czech Republic. As a result of this project, a bespoke online training course was developed, which: - Elevates the role of the VET teacher from a “knowledge and skills provider” to a mentor, offering holistic support for students’ emotional, social and physical wellbeing. - Offers horizontal strategies to be applied across all vocational fields and subjects to contribute to increasing students’ motivation, attainment levels and wellbeing. - Produces a strong added value for VET teachers and encourage them to reflect on their own physical and emotional wellbeing as first condition for better occupational performance. As part of the implementation, extensive testing and evaluation to confirm the applicability and potential for multiplication and transferability of our course involved numerous target beneficiaries across the different countries. The benefits to these so far have been: for VET teachers - improved knowledge base on how to enhance students’ motivation to learn, practice and work through health and wellbeing mentoring; enhanced skill base to apply innovative holistic methods and techniques in VET to support the teaching process; enhanced competency levels to foster inclusive education where each student’s wellbeing matters; expanded professional development opportunities to match students’ real needs for comprehensive support; for other stakeholders - enhanced awareness of the necessity to foster students’ wellbeing to support their vocational and personal development; enhanced knowledge base on how to apply innovative methods to impact the VET system and enhance further its quality. We anticipate the further benefit as a result of teachers implementing what they have learned for VET students as an enhanced physical, mental and emotional wellbeing leading to increased attainment levels and subsequently employability; enhanced motivation to learn, practice and work. We strongly believe that inclusive education and training is built on caring for every student, getting to know and analyse individual needs not only concerning knowledge and skills but also with how and what students feel about themselves, the school environment, their professional aspirations and personal development. We are also convinced that the WellVET course can contribute to transforming VET into a system that caters for all students, irrespectively of their ethnic background, aptitudes, aspirations, since what is common for all of us is that wellbeing is the basic drive for our motivation to learn, work, live. The WellVET course and learning platform developed as the sole intellectual output of the project utilised perspectives from 5 different countries, involving a pilot study with 25 international participants. What we have achieved as a result is an online training programme consisting of 10 units which comprise our holistic approach to health and wellbeing. The learning methods used are designed to help VET teachers be able to implement the knowledge gained in supporting VET students. We see this as having long term benefits for students staying in education and having improved life outcomes.