Currently, vocational training is gaining importance and it is obtaining a specific weight at a European level even in countries where it was not well considered; the truth is VET is currently expanding and diversifying according CEDEFOP, and it is increasing the number of students according Eurostat. In addition, there is a globalization of the economy, and that means that European market has to be extremely competitive against other markets (Asian or North American market); that can´t be done or not only with the improvement of raw materials or increasing the labor force, it needs that the professionals has the top needed skills in each job position to achieve the best possible performance. Those skills should be acquired during the training professional phase, and that means that the VET in Europe should try to improve their standards and make efforts to train top world professionals, but also, there are the possibility to learn those skills afterwards while they are working There are job positions which need that the new professionals achieve to acquire high-level skills on it in order that Europe could compete with other markets. For that this project is focused in some traditional and emergent related job positions about Construction, Habitat and industry 4.0. During the project, it will be involved top professionals of renowned prestige which are giving the clue for being a successful professional and improve the employability according the acquisition of 3 top high-quality skills. That information will be prepared and available. The presence and the advice of this recognized people will be included in the contents that it will developed for training those skills; video-pills, practical exercises, slides, observation clues and games, among others, will be available for potential learners in Carpentry, Bricklaying, Wall and floor tilling, Cabinetmaking / Joinery, Domotics, Design technologies and 3D printing. All this content will be available in an open-source multilingual platform with free access and with the possibility of acquiring the skills by self-leaning by the own pace of the learner. After texting the content with VET learners and professionals with different background, it will be prepared a guide with priorities and an action list to the VET regulatory authorities in different European countries to implement the training of those skills and the developed tools inside the official curriculum These results will be achieved in a 30-month project. These results will be open access and the partners will ensure that free access for the public to the whole material with the publication in different open platforms but with the sustainability of this information in the own project website and e-learning platform These available outputs could be used by potential learners (VET students and professionals), Teachers and trainers, Educational administration representatives, Stakeholders and decision makers and Experts in human resources, but they will be available for general public and it exists the possibility of transference to other sectors if there are transversal skills UNDER CONSTRUCTION brings together 6 partners from 5 different countries: Portugal, Spain, Netherland, Italy and Germany with complementary skills and with necessary background to achieve the goals of the project The coordinator is APLOAD, from Portugal, whit important expertise in Landscape Architecture and in Evaluation & Social Planning and managing projects in more than 30 countries worldwide. WORLDSKILLS FOUNDATION (Spain) is the promotor of the idea and they have contacts to successful young and senior professionals and important knowledge about skills and different professional areas. University of Erlangen with their Innovation in Learning Institute – ILI (Germany) develops and adapts flexible and mobile learning systems for optimizing the learning process; they are going to design the research and the new training methodology. CETEM (Spain) is a VET provider and research center in habitat sector; they are going to develop the open multilingual e-learning platform due to their experience in different European projects. MATERA HUB (Italy) who has more than 20 years’ experience in supporting public and private institutions acting in the educational field, they are providing the part of creative skills which are usually forgotten. Also, they have important contacts with top professionals. MERK (Netherland) has an important background in the construction business and moreover in their training, their staff has experience in WorldSkills International competitions in contact with the best teachers and young students, which is an extra value for this project The project will have an available website in order to consult any extra information
The project started from the idea that VET is currently expanding and diversifying, according to CEDEFOP, and it is increasing the number of students, according to Eurostat. In addition, there is a globalization of the economy, and that means that European market has to be extremely competitive against other markets (Asian or North American market); that can´t be done, or at least not only, with the improvement of raw materials or increasing the labor force, it needs that the professionals collect the top skills required in each job position to achieve the best possible performance. Those skills should be acquired during the training professional phase, and that means that the VET in Europe should try to improve their standards and make efforts to train top world professionals, but also, there are the possibility to learn those skills afterwards while they are working. There are job positions which need that the new professionals achieve to acquire high-level skills on it in order that Europe could compete with other markets. For that this project is focused in some traditional and emergent related job positions about Construction, Habitat and Industry 4.0. Having this in mind, the partnership elaborated a plan to build up on top performers main skills of Carpentry, Bricklaying, Wall and floor tilling, Cabinetmaking, Domotics, Design technologies and 3D-Printing in order to ensure: the most applicable skills would be identified by the most adequate stakeholders; a coherent training programme would be developed following such needs’ assessment; the training programme would be fed by the applicable contents and materials in due respect for their quantity (good enough to supply for the needs) and quality (good enough to achieve the desired skills’ upgrade on users); the training programme would be available online in order to target as much users as possible; the training programme would be understood, validated and able for further use by the applicable stakeholders. This chain of intentions was achieved by setting-up the project according to the initially estimated activities which led to a very significant amount of training products (including the pedagogical contents for the seven construction and industry domains and an open-access e-learning platform offering the courses). The involvement of stakeholders and of target-groups (in a larger amount than the initial estimations) finally granted the results the confirmation about their relevance and applicability within their applied contexts (of each participating country). The available outputs are able to be used by potential learners (VET students and professionals), Teachers and trainers, Educational administration representatives, Stakeholders and decision makers and Experts in human resources, but they are also available for general public. The ‘Under Construction’ project brought together 6 partners from 5 countries: Portugal, Spain, The Netherlands, Italy and Germany with complementary skills and with necessary background to achieve the goals of the project, which were fully achieved against the constraints of the pandemic crisis emerged during the project’s mid-term, and representing a huge challenge for the partners, who were forced to find new and unexpected continha plans and measures in order to ensure the project’s feasibility and compromise with the initially foreseen results. The project set up a website as a hub to liaise users and interested parties to the entire range of results: https://www.underconstructionkeyskills.eu/