European education and training systems continue to fall short in providing the right skills for employability, and are not working adequately with business or employers to bring the learning experience closer to the reality of the working environment. These skills mismatches are a growing concern for European industry's competitiveness (Industrial Policy Communication Update COM, 2012, p:582 ). By 2020, 20% more jobs will require higher level skills. Education needs to drive up both standards and levels of achievement to match this demand, as well as encourage the transversal skills needed to ensure young people are able to be entrepreneurial and adapt to the increasingly inevitable changes in the labour market during their career. The scope and pace of reforms needs to be scaled up so high quality skills can support both growth and jobs (EU Commission Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes, 2012, p:2). Skills mismatch refers to a discrepancy between the demand and supply of skills on the labour market. In other words a situation in which the skills sought by employers are different from the skills offered by job-seekers or workers. In order to achieve excellence in VET, curricula must be systematically renewed, delivery must be constantly modernized and businesses, especially SMEs, must be actively involved. VET must be able to react to the demand for advanced vocational skills, tailored to the regional economic context. Within this context given, this project aims to develop a platform through which vocational education systems and the labour market, especially the SMEs, communicate interactively, while one side voting for/valuing the skills they need and the other side, that's the vocational systems answers by updating the current curriculum. Also, the training content developed on skills analysis and mapping through the ECVET Skills Platform is considered to serve the quality of vocational education and training systems, giving the experts responsible for teaching technical skills the mission of teaching also the personal and conceptual skills. Target group of the project is vocational education and training institutions, teachers/trainers in VET, SMEs, employers, decision makers, non-governmental organizations and trainees. It aims at creating a channel among the members of the target group to keep them updated about the needs and requirements of the firms and the provided skills at educational institutions. During the project, the first step will be to identify qualifications of CNC Machining according to EQF as Level 4. Then, secondly, defining the expectations of the firms will be taken together with the opinions of technical teachers. In this context, ideas and expectations from firms and individuals in decision-making positions in the labour market will be gathered and a list of the necessary skills required will be established. Then, with ECVET Skills platform that will be installed on the internet, a ranking of importance will be listed by firms. This is the most innovative part of the project. Following this, the training curriculum in vocational high schools for CNC Manchine will be renewed and/or developed in order to ensure the most needed top ten skills. Trainers will be trained on this platform and will be informed about how they should implement their education. Then, hese trainers will apply the top ten skill-building training curricula on the qualification list from the digital platform. The students and teachers will be able to access into the videos and teaching materials on the platform and assess their own learning with the rubric provided. Therefore, they will have higher self-esteem in terms of qualifications and the market can be more satisfied in with hiring more qualified employers. On the other hand, top ten skill lists created by firms; and all teaching materials and videos created in a dynamic fashion can be downloaded openly to all individuals in order to ensure that the created platform reaches wider population. Thus, as students, teachers, and trainers easily access these information, the widespread impact of the platform will be increased. Establishing a vocational education and training curriculum and extensive content by using an online web portal to develop a system for skills and qualifications that are supposed to be based on the needs of the labour markets is the innovative wall of the project. One of the pioneering innovative elements will be enabling countries to obtain the skill ranking of CNC machining. The proposed web portal can be seen as one of the most key innovations of the project, since it will be accessible by all related stakeholders.
The objective of the ECVET Skills Platform projects were to; - contribute to the right skills-match - support VET systems in their ability to fulfill the labor market need in terms of righ skills-supply - make the market's skills-demand more visible - contribute the high quality VET provision - contribute to high (long-term) employability rates and resilience of labor market To achieve these goals, the ECVET Skills Platform initiative focused primarily on CNC (Computer Numerical Control) Machine Operation, and as a result produced outputs on skill mismatches that both VET students, teachers and SMEs can benefit from. This project was carried out at an international level, because it had the chance to deal with issues and conditions common to almost all EU countries, such as skills gaps, changing skills in a digitalized world, improving the quality of employment systems across Europe.
Numerous people are working in positions that do not utilize their strengths, and 40% of companies in Europe have difficulty locating employees who possess the necessary skills. Different perspectives on the viability of the transition from education to employment are held by educators, employers, and students alike. Despite the fact that over 13 million students participate in VET annually, estimates in numerous Member States suggest that there may soon be a scarcity of individuals with VET credentials. The road to success and employment is paved with skills. People can achieve their potential and are prepared for high-quality work with the appropriate skills (EU Commission, NEW SKILLS AGENDA, 2016). An imbalance between the supply and demand of skills on the labor market is referred to as a skills mismatch. In other words, a scenario in which job searchers' or employees' talents diverge from the skills that employers are looking for. Excellence in VET requires continuous curriculum renewal, ongoing delivery modernization, and active participation from businesses, particularly SMEs. One of the main objectives of the ECVET Skills Platform project was to produce solutions to eliminate these skill mismatches.