Connecting VET for the European Digital Single Market (Connecting EU) is an interdisciplinary intercultural project involving six EU partners from three fields of vocational education: engineering (BE/CZ), ICT (FI/ES), and business administration (DE/AT). Goods and services are designed, produced, and distributed internationally – mainly using ICT. Thus it is vital for future specialists in any field to have a basic understanding of ICT-based production, distribution, and communication processes as well as competences necessary to master such interdisciplinary, intercultural (communication) situations. Connecting EU intends to prepare students for the EU Digital Single Market by improving digital literacy, imparting ICT skills, including migrants and opening up education (Europe 2020 Strategy). It aims to adapt teaching and learning to future technological, economic, environmental, and social challenges resulting from Europeanisation and globalization. At the same time, Connecting EU is a consequence of the need to integrate migrants into the national and European job market. These aims will be achieved in two stages by (1) creating three teaching/learning arrangements (a Web Shop, a Smart Innovative Factory, and a MOOC) that provide teachers/students with tools to impart/acquire European digital vocational competences (in English) and by (2) documenting the didactic processes designed to master these (learning) situations ("European Digital Learning Situations"). Stage 1 The specific competences needed in this interdisciplinary and intercultural digital working environment are: ICT, process automation, business administration, and intercultural communication (in English). a) A Web Shop will be set up that markets (fairly traded) goods as well as services (remote ICT consultancy/repair provided by selected courses of the technical partner schools). b) A Smart Innovative Factory (SIF-400, Training equipment for industry 4.0 from SMC) will be used to develop a selection of the following: web services, smart devices, identification systems, augmented reality, artificial visions, energy saving solutions, industrial management systems. This SIF allows to choose products via the web shop, to fill a container, to store products, to label, to mark, to pack and to stock product holders, to deliver products, to recycle, and to manage production. The SIF combines didactic and innovative technical approaches (Internet of Things that connects the web shop to the industry: production, robots, cloud applications, preventive and predictive maintenance, and connection IT). c) A short MOOC (on 3D printing in the SIF) will be produced in English (based on Content Language Integrated Learning). It is also meant to be a tool for successful integration (of migrants) into the EU job market by improving (their) communication competence. Stage 2 The teaching/learning experiences made in stage 1 (integrating ICT into European manufacturing and business administration) are documented in "European Digital Learning Situations" to make them available to others. We will make use of the EQAVET building blocks to conceptualize the experiences made in stage 1 by singling out, describing, structuring, providing methods for teaching, and finding ways to assess the (basic and transversal) competences that are necessary for doing the jobs envisaged by Connecting EU. Competences will be assessed against current EU standards (EQF, CEFR, and ECVET). The pool of potential EU specialists in technology is limited thus they need to travel more extensively - unless they risk losing business to huge multinational conglomerates. Thus, tapping into the pool of migrants and training them in tech jobs might reduce the scarcity of technically-minded employees. Preparing the next generation of specialists for an innovative digitalized economy that takes the competences online to where they are needed without wasting time and energy on unnecessary transport is a contribution to developing a sustainable economy. Offering high-end online after sales (technological) service could also protect European SMEs against being squeezed out of the market by multinationals. VET in the EU has to react to the changed future demands anticipated by the DSM to prepare students for future jobs (that are European, digital, ecological, and inclusive) in order to maintain Europe's competitive edge. The European Digital Single Market requires digital competences (technological/administrative and intercultural/communicative) as well as an entrepreneurial attitude towards work in increasingly diverse societies based on tolerance and systemic thinking. Connecting EU provides the intercultural, cross-sectoral setting that reflects these challenges in teaching/learning arrangements ("European Digital Learning Situations") that require teachers and students to operate a Web Shop, to work in the SIF-400, and to compile a MOOC.
Connecting EU intended to prepare students for the EU Digital Single Market by improving digital literacy, imparting ICT skills and opening up education. It aimed to adapt teaching and learning to future technological, economic, environmental and social challenges resulting from Europeanisation and globalization. As the European DSM requires digital competences as well as an entrepreneurial attitude towards work in increasingly diverse societies, Connecting EU provided the setting that reflected these challenges by following an intercultural and cross-sectoral approach which aimed at bridging the divide between technical and business-related VET. Consequently, students and teachers from three sectors of VET (business administration, technology, and engineering) worked together in order to operate a Web Shop, to work in a SIF-400 and to compile a MOOC. Competences were trained in real intercultural environments using and producing OER teaching/learning materials specifically tailored to suit the requirements of the DSM. Such practical experience was used to single out, describe, structure, provide methods for teaching which are compiled in European Didactic Learning Situations.
As goods and services are designed, produced, and distributed internationally, mainly using ICT, it is vital for future specialists in any field to have a basic understanding of ICT-based production, distribution, and communication processes as well as competences necessary to master such interdisciplinary, intercultural (communication) situations. However, as the European VET system is very specialized and the different disciplines tend to focus on the training of experts in the respective sectors, there is often a lack of understanding of the complex processes of the integrated DSL. As English is the lingua franca of the European DSL, there is also a need to improve specific language and intercultural competences. Moreover, it is indispensable for future specialists of all disciplines to have certain digital skills that enable them to participate in the complex system of international business and trade. Connecting EU addresses exactly these aspects and aims to prepare students from different VET disciplines to work in an integrated DSM.