2018 is the European Year of Cultural Heritage, so it is time to highlight the many social and economic benefits of heritage learning. We know how important VET is to preserve, protect and share this heritage, but in this project museums and VET institutions are exploring the other side of the question: how can cultural heritage institutions contribute to VET. Museums have increased their social impact in the recent years by passing on skills, rather than just knowledge and information. They also support young people’s career choice and finding satisfaction in work not only by teaching about the different professions but by providing volunteer and apprentice work opportunities. However, there is no official training for museum professionals for working with VET and background literature is scarce. The organizations allied in this partnership have already started this process but would like to continue by building new relationships internationally as well as nationally and locally. The objectives of this project is • to explore best practices of museums working with VET; • to encourage museums to engage in a permanent and structural form of collaboration with VET institutions; • to build museum/heritage professionals capacity to identify the learning potential of cultural objects in a VET context and therefore • to widen their educational offer, as well as • to increase and diversify their audience by working out new education sessions or other activities for the target groups in order • to strengthen student's professional identities through historical examples. It also targets • to build VET teachers capacity for competence oriented education in a museum/heritage context, • to provide VET students with opportunities of discovering the cultural heritage of their region and acquiring key competences in an innovative and creative way thus increasing learning satisfaction. This project also proposes • to promote heritage education as an ideal means to acquire the competences required by VET curricula by disseminating collected best practices and experiences learnt from the pilot sessions and other activities; • to examine the use of IT tools in museums to support VET because this age group is the most skillful in using IT devices and it seems a “special language” in which they communicate, therefore museums should also learn and use this language; • to form a network of specialized museums. Partners plan to achieve these goals by sharing best practices and specific methods used at VET heritage education at 8 joint staff trainings. At these trainings museum professionals will also learn about combating dropping-out from VET, which will increase their awareness of the topic as well as their contribution to the VET sector. VET professionals will be further informed about opportunities in cooperating with heritage sites and the vast amount of resources they can provide for formal VET programmes. During these training and learning events participants will experience an increase in their professional confidence and language skills. Participation at trainings can show different European perspectives on shared challenges, and it can even change attitudes on specific issues in vocational education or on museums’ social role. The training materials will be produced in English and will be widely distributed and shared through professional networks. Participating museums will also design museum education sessions and other activities in their native languages for VET students (a min. of 3/museum) and test these with at least two groups. These sessions will become part of their regular educational offer. Another tangible outcome of the project will be the collection of best practices shared in a digital publication. Target groups for the project: Primary: Museum professionals who work with adult audiences /teenagers in VET (reach directly: 30 – indirectly: 700) Secondary: Teachers of VET institutions (reach directly: a min. of 48 - indirectly 500) Tertiary: Students of VET institutions (reach directly: 480 during project – thousands in the long run)
Thanks to the Erasmus+ KA2 application, we had the opportunity to get to know each other and learn from each other, exchange good practices, and create new international collaborations. Eight partner institutions (from six different countries) organized programs and trips to get to know each other's culture, professional profile, local practices of education, and methodology of knowledge transfer. Our project formed a network of specialized museums. The organizations built new relationships at international, national, and local levels. Explored and shared best practices of museums that work with VET institutions. Encouraged museums to engage in a permanent and structural form of collaboration with VET institutions. We built our museum professionals' capacity to identify the learning potential of cultural objects in a VET context. In addition to the staff of the partner institutions, representatives of other institutions, schools, museums and vocational training organizations were present at these events. International knowledge sharing has been achieved. The aim of the organized programs was to train and develop the participants and their environment. We communicated in English, learned new information about other European countries, organized training events, and several partners also gave presentations in English for an international audience. New contacts have been established between institutions and professionals. The participating institutions were also active at the local level. We contacted and co-operated with several organizations involved in international training about vocational education. Local programs, museum visits, and lesson plans had been prepared. We widened their educational offer, as well as increased and diversified their audience by working out new education sessions or other activities for the target groups in order to strengthen students' professional identities through historical examples. We built VET teachers' capacity for competence-oriented education in a museum context. We provided VET students with opportunities to discover the cultural heritage of their region and acquire key competencies in an innovative and creative way thus increasing learning satisfaction. We promoted our cultural heritage education as a good opportunity for the competencies required by VET curricula by disseminating collected practices and experiences that we learned from pilot sessions and other activities. We examined some IT tools in museums to support VET because this age group is the most skillful in using IT devices and it seems a “special language” in which they communicate, therefore museums should also learn and use this language. Partners achieved their results, practices, and specific methods used at VET heritage education at eight joint staff training. One of them was canceled, because of the pandemic situation, but thanks to partners’ good cooperation, it was made up in combined training. During these training and learning events, participants experienced an increase in their professional confidence and language skills. Training materials were produced and shared in English. Participating in museums designed museum education sessions, projects, and other activities and tested these with groups. These sessions became part of their regular educational offer. Another tangible outcome of the project is the collection of best practices that are shared in a digital publication. We reached in the project more than 50 museum professionals who work with adult audiences or teenagers in VET. We were not able to measure exactly that how many professionals reached by the project indirectly, but in our training events, meetings, travels, and dissemination activities (Facebook, Instagram, websites, prospects, radio reports, informative emails, discussions personally with colleagues and representatives of VET institutions, and with online shared summaries and final publication, etc.) this number approximately has to be more than thousand. Vocational education teachers also were involved in the project. We directly reached more than one hundred of them and indirectly at least one thousand during the three years. Partners worked week by week with VET students, thousands of them were reached during the project. The E-VOKED project also shaped our thinking. It turned our attention to vocational education, VET students, and teachers. In the future, we want to develop as many programs, projects, and lesson plans as possible for vocational schools, because we learned that supporting vocational education is an essential interest for all European countries. Strong relationships have been built with partner organizations, which will be continued after the project. Most of the project’s results were summarized and disseminated in our final publication.