The immediate aim of the project is to investigate which vocational guidance procedures the partner organisations use to promote and improve the reputation of VET. After getting to know them, we want to learn from each other by examining the possibilities of implementation. The partnership consists of five organisations active in both VET and vocational guidance. In the application coordinated by the Heves County Chamber of Commerce and Industry we have planned complex learning processes. The project is based on mutual learning; our common goal is that the participants acquire new knowledge that they can apply directly in their work. We believe that the partner organisations have a unique and specialised knowledge in the field of VET and vocational guidance. In this way, each partner can learn a lot from the others. International project meetings are intended for this purpose, where everyone can present their own good practice to the partnership members. - Heves County Chamber of Commerce and Industry: Involving enterprises in vocational guidance, matching education and labour market needs. - Aspire-Igen Group Limited: Career guidance in VET - Ballymun Job Centre, theme: Quality assurance in VET - Berufsschule für Baugewerbe: Motivation in VET - Gymnázium Kráľovský Chlmec: VET in the grammar school In this way, all types of institutions dealing with VET and vocational guidance are represented in the partnership. In those areas where we need further joint development, we organised 2 Short-term joint staff training events. Accordingly, we focus - through the organization by the HKIK - on how we can use social media to enhance the reputation of VET. We also analyse - through the organisation by Aspire-Igen Group Limited - the topic on which the project mainly focuses. During the training, we analyse effective reaching out techniques in vocational guidance. These activities underpin both our short- and long-term goals. After all, our goal is to increase the effectiveness of the information that reaches students and we believe that this new communication will spark their interest. Our long-term goal is to increase the number of enrolments in VET. This is an important issue not only at national but also at EU level. The collection of good practices produced as a result of the project will include the good practices of the partners and a feasibility analysis of the projects per country. The collection will be available to a wide range of professionals, as the target group ranges from primary school students to adults changing careers.
The partnership is made up of five organizations that are both active in vocational education and training and career guidance. Complex learning processes were planned in the project, which was coordinated by the Heves Vármegyei Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Learning from each other is the basis of the project, the common goal is for the participants to acquire new knowledge that they can directly apply in their work. Each partner organization has unique and special knowledge in the field of vocational education and training and career guidance, so the participants learned a lot from the other partners. Therefore, increasing the efficiency of organizations and professional development emerged as a primary common goal. Another goal of our implementation was to promote internationalization and support lifelong learning. The work in vocational education and training is not only an internal matter of the participating organizations, since effective professional education also serves national economic goals.
The project idea was the result of an institutional need in summer 2019, which is why the Heves County Chamber of Commerce and Industry wanted to act as main applicant. As part of our governmental responsibilities, we organise hundreds of vocational guidance events each year. However, we have to struggle with the disinterest of students in VET and an insufficient number of followers of our social media platforms. Since we didn’t find a suitable and effective solution to this in Hungarian practice, we wanted to cooperate with partner organizations that have developed unique solutions in certain areas that are very useful for us and for other organizations with which our chamber is in daily contact. The partner organizations involved in the project struggle with similar problems and work on similar developments. The result of joint work is not only useful for these 5 organizations, as it offers solutions to the problems of many institutions both domestically and internationally. With the implementation of the project, we wanted to ensure that the partner organizations learn from each other which career guidance procedures and methods are used to promote and improve the reputation of vocational education and training.