AIMS The project aims to provide effective and necessary training and support for VET teachers to enable them to identify and respond to skill-gaps in the labour market, but also involving other relevant stakeholders - students, parents, teaching staff, and particularly employers experiencing difficulties finding skilled workers to fill vacancies. OBJECTIVES The consortium will develop, test and deliver standardized, comprehensive toolkits packaged as a set of teaching, collaboration, and communication methods and a rapid curriculum development methodology for VET teachers, to be used in conjunction with potential employers to identify skill-gaps, and to design, develop and deliver up-skilling training for students. The toolkit will be tested within the IT sector, but the standardized version will be equally applicable to other vocational education subjects. RESULTS Five intellectual outcomes are planned, all of which will be produced by a community of people from schools and business. The five intellectual products support TWO main RESULTS of the project. (i) A Reacti-VET Training Package for Teachers, with content developed in 6 modules and in four languages (HU, IT, EST, EN) - O1 Reacti-VET Training Package for Teachers (content development) - O2 Upskilling Training for Teachers (pilot) - O3 Standardization & accreditation (ii) Reacti-VET Upskilling Training and Methodology - O4 Design and Implementation of Reacti-VET Upskilling Training: involving teachers, students, companies and schools to identify skill-gaps in selected occupations, to collaboratively design upskilling curricula, and to collaborate on content development using OERs. - O5 Responsive VET driven by teachers designing and developing an upskilling course for students, organising project-based exams, developing the Reacti-VET methodology, scheduling the training, and establishing an online platform for delivery, TARGET GROUP: VET teachers BENEFICIARIES: VET students, employers PARTICIPANT COUNTRIES: HU, IT, UK, EE PARTNERSHIP The consortium comprises seven partners from four countries - European vocational schools, organizations and companies, with the core aim of using the capabilities of the partners to transform VET into being ‘labour market responsive’. As pilots will be focused on IT occupations, the consortium includes schools and companies from the IT sectors. PROJECT BACKGROUND Vocational education is perceived as “occupations-specific education and training geared towards securing a supply of skilled labour” (CEDEFOP). Daily we hear of ‘skills gaps’ - the mismatch between skills supply and demand in the labour market. The problem cannot be solved by the education alone, but vocational education is one of the key activities tasked with supplying an answer. THE PROBLEM VET schools simultaneously have to meet two opposing requirements: to remain true to tradition, delivering stable, tested knowledge approved by relevant parties in society and the economy; and to equip students with set of skills and competences relevant to newly emerging demands. Despite great efforts by national and European policy makers to drive VET schools into ‘rethinking’ their curricula and teaching methods, changes have been slow to keep up with labour market requirements. In most European countries VET qualifications are based on standard curricula that precisely define what is taught, leaving little freedom for teachers and schools to train for just-in-time labour market demands. Most systems also have lengthy and complex accreditation procedures, so the approval of a new curriculum - or even the modification of an existing one – can take a long time. IMPACT The experience and best practices of the consortium will be captured in two main products. 1. The Reacti-VET Training Package for Teachers will be available online in 4 languages. it will: • be accredited • contribute to the professional development of teachers • help teachers to transform traditional teaching using creative and innovative contemporary methods • develop teacher competences to embrace the potential of OERs in the rapid development of short, up-skilling training • train teachers in effective collaboration, both inside and outside the school • support students to take more responsibility for their own learning performance and processes • develop 21st century skills and key competences within students. 2 Reacti-VET Upskilling Training – which will be tested within the IT sector, but the generic methodology will be applicable to other fields of vocational education. The impact will be: • to help reduce skills-gaps; • to better position students in the labor market; • to increase SME access to a large, skilled workforce able to respond to new and fast changing demands in a competitive job market.
BACKGROUND Vocational schools simultaneously have to meet two opposing requirements: to remain true to tradition, delivering stable, tested knowledge approved by relevant parties in society and the economy; and to equip students with a set of skills and competencies relevant to newly emerging demands. Despite great efforts by national and European policy makers to drive VET schools into ‘rethinking’ their curricula and teaching methods, changes have been slow to keep up with labour market requirements. In most European countries VET qualifications are based on standard curricula that precisely define what is taught, leaving little freedom for teachers and schools to train for just-in-time labour market demands. Most systems also have lengthy and complex accreditation procedures, so the approval of a new curriculum - or even the modification of an existing one – can take a long time. OBJECTIVES The main goal of the project was to develop a new methodology which enables leaders and teachers in vocational education to address skill gaps identified by the labour market, which itself is changing at a pace never experienced before. The focus of the underlying methodology aimed at exploiting the hidden pedagogical potential and creativity within vocational schools by establishing collaboration among all relevant stakeholders, i.e. teachers, students and companies alike. TARGET GROUP: Teachers and trainers of the vocational education PARTNERSHIP The consortium comprises 7 partners from 4 countries (Hungary, Italy, Estonia and United Kingdom) with long and collective experience of vocational education, 21st century teaching methods, curriculum and eLearning developments. Each partner added extra value to the developments: Jobsacademy its best practice in working together with industrial partners, AICA (Associazione Italiana Informatica e Calcolo Automatico) its expertise in applying EU standards (like DigComp), CAPDM Ltd. brought its professional competences in designing and implementing online courses, the Estonian VET provider BCS worked in the pilots together with the teachers of the Hungarian Vocational School partners. Last but not least iTStudy Hungary controlled and directed the professional work and added its professional experiences in the 21st century teaching methods, and e-learning developments. ACTIVITIES The activities were structured around 5 intellectual outcomes focused on needs-analysis, curriculum, learning content development for teachers, elaborating the innovative "Responsive Project Methodology" aimed at turning VET from being supply-driven to "demand-driven ", piloting all results with the target group, and disseminating the products and experiences online for VET teachers in 4 European languages. The quality of the results and the effectiveness of the collaboration was ensured by project- and quality management processes, continuous monitoring and evaluation supported by digital tools. RESULTS AND IMPACT ATTAINED, LONG-TERM BENEFITS The indicators we reached demonstrate the impact of the project: 560 teachers, 87 students and 25 companies involved into the surveys and the pilots, more than 300 pages published in four European languages (EN, EST, HU, IT) online (curriculum, online course, 2 e-books), more than 100 dissemination activities, 350 external participants on the face-to-face and virtual multiplier events. However, the most important result providing feedbacks about the impact of the project results as a whole, were the two months long pilot projects in Hungary and Estonia. “We can see now what knowledge we can realistically expect from a newly graduated and job-seeking employee in the indicated area when hiring. I would definitely recommend this form of cooperation to other VET schools and employers because it can help build a living relationship between them.” (Employer) Long-term impact The beneficiaries of the project results in the long term are VET students, industrial stakeholders, the employers and even VET schools. The VET schools establishing responsive projects make a step towards the demand-driven vocational education, the students completing the mini-course and conducting project work on real problem will have better chance for staring start their professional carrier successfully, and the companies have better chance for finding employees with vocational and soft competences they need. The feedbacks received from the target group and beneficiaries clearly demonstrate that the Reacti-VET products contribute to equip VET students with the skills and competences to thrive in the evolving labour market. While the project was designed in 2018, its objectives are now-days even more relevant than they were at that time, and included into the strategies for the next period of 2021-2027. Project portal: https://reactivet.itstudy.hu/ (dissemination platform for visitors) E-learning platform: https://rvet.itstudy.hu/ Contact:: [email protected]