Proposed project "Introduction Of Dual Education System And Identification Of Its Quality" (IDES) will be realised by partnership of 5 subjects from 4 countries (Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia). The aim of the project: to strengthen the key practical competences and skills of young people during their study at secondary vocational schools (VET institutions) and also after their graduation to be more competitive and better prepared for labour market in order to better utilize local human resources, to increase economic development of rural areas and to prevent brain drain. Objectives: - To analyse and compare the dual education systems and related experiences of involved, which will result to recommendation for national level decision makers (if necessary, to legislative changes too). - To highlight the perspective of vocational educational training in the form of awareness among the general public - to define steps toward better awareness of VET institutions and their approaches (incl. dual education) among pupils, their parents and companies. Target groups: - young people at final year of primary school, their parents, teachers, students of VET institutions and industry – one of the project objectives is to inform them understand and accept the combination of professional-vocational training and academic training, a.k.a. dual education system, which ultimately drive economic sustainability. - government, regional government – another project objective is to analyse and compare dual education systems in involved countries and to set recommendations for improving the systems for the second target group Most important activities will be finished by production of intellectual outputs: O1 - Comparative analysis of dual education systems of involved countries and country specifics recommendations for policy makers – legislative environment is not optimal for the WBL development. Better motivation of schools and companies (also motivation of potential students) depends on many factors, from which financial, contractual and other legislative conditions are one of most important. Proposals for improvements can be inspired by experiences of all relevant stakeholders, but significant source of inspiration can came from abroad. It is also reason, why project partners were selected from Latvia, Poland and Slovenia. Comparison of dual education systems, together with opinions of relevant stakeholders will provide source for recommendations for improvements in all aspects influencing environment of VET and work-based learning. O2 - Communication strategy and communication tools – in involved countries, there is problem with interest of potential VET trainees in VET institutions and also WBL and dual training system. This problem will be addressed by communication strategy, which will propose communication mix with aim to provide information to potential VET trainees and companies which can join dual education system. Two important communication tools will be also delivered – Videos of best practice examples of working dual education system (3 promo videos per involved country) and Promotional brochure about dual education system with practical examples (country specific). Impact Output 1 will be used on regional level and provided to central government. Recommendations will be based on comparative analysis and via established channels and forums transferred to national level with aim of improvement of legislation and other relevant national documents. Output 2 will provide proposal of tools usable by many schools in involved regions. List of tools and details about communication tools will be available for all VET institutions. Training events will also create motivation for activity for participating stakeholders, which will be transferred to local level.
The aim of the project was to analyze and compare the systems of dual education (DES) in the participating countries and to emphasize the perspective of vocational education and training (VET) in the form of increasing public awareness - to define steps to better inform about VET institutions and their approaches (including DES) among pupils , their parents and companies. For this reason, we mainly focused on the following target groups: pupils in the last year of elementary school, who choose a secondary vocational school and have the opportunity to join the SDV, their parents, companies involved in the SDV, but also potentially those who can join the SDV. One of the goals of the project was to increase their awareness, so that mainly pupils and parents understand and accept the meaningfulness, importance and benefits of the combination of vocational education and academic education (which is exactly SDV), because such education responds to the current needs of the labor market. The target group was also the government, regional self-government in order to analyze and compare SDV in the countries involved and to establish recommendations for improving these systems at the national level for each partner.
The analysis of needs showed an important problem with the interest of potential vocational education and training (hereinafter VET) students in VET institutions and also in the dual education system (hereinafter DES). It was very difficult to show primary school students and their parents why it is beneficial to join and complete a VET program, including information that these programs are tailored to relevant companies in the region, so that the graduate can be sure of his future employment without a problem high unemployment after high school. Directors and teachers of VET institutions communicated with primary schools and provided them with information, but in many cases, primary schools were not able to absorb this information from several VET institutions at the same time. There was a strong need to strengthen the position of the SDV and spread awareness. That's why we created this project, which, in addition to educational activities serving to exchange proven knowledge, also included two intellectual outputs (Comparative analysis and Communication strategy), which we prepared transnationally, and thus this approach ensured the transfer of methods from abroad (successfully used in some regions).