Context We expect our teachers to train their VET students to become resilient global citizens who can manifest themselves in an increasingly international working environment. The reality is that less than 10% of the students attend education regarding internationalization. The main reasons are limited financial resources (Erasmus+) and reluctance of many students to go abroad for a longer period of time. The vast majority of our students are therefore not or hardly immersed in the internationalization relevant to their work context. It is therefore necessary to link education to Agenda 2030 for sustainable development and specific 21st Century Skills. Up until now, internationalization education has often had an ad hoc character. An important reason for this is the lack of an accessible toolbox for structuring internationalization education in the curriculum. Due to COVID-19 or similar future crises, we expect the group of students who will exchange with another country to become smaller. The importance of internationalization @home education will increase in order to acquire international competences. The toolbox BUILD@HOME can meet this need. Objectives The main objective is to develop an easy to use toolbox BUILD@HOME that enables teachers and students to create or follow education that closely matches the curriculum/learning objectives, learning needs, talents and core qualities of the student. All this in the context of the required international competences and Agenda 2030. The toolbox is designed for every type of education and for every type of student. We want to offer extra handles for new applications in Technical courses and Students with fewer opportunities in the broadest sense of the word. Consortium ROC NIJMEGEN (coordinator, The Netherlands), DA VINCI COLLEGE (The Netherlands), LUOVI (Finland), HELSINKI VOCATIONAL COLLEGE (Finland), HETEL (Spain), UNISER (Italy) and ROSKILDE TECHNICAL COLLEGE (Denmark). Description of activities - 01: Toolbox BUILD@HOME pilots Global Competences and new applications in Technical Courses. - 02: Training program BUILD@HOME for teachers. ‘Cascaded’. Train the trainer short course. - 03: Virtual classroom BUILD@HOME pilots Global Competences and new applications in Technical Courses - 04: Students with fewer opportunities BUILD@HOME Methodology to be used The methodology used is demand and purpose oriented. ROC NIJMEGEN works already according to this approach 'Verdraaide Organisaties' (Marius Buiting and Wouter Hart, 2012 ). This means that the content of the toolbox is not dictated beforehand and top down but will be designed by the teachers and students themselves. The expected impact is: - On partner organisations. The project results in an innovative way of working, shaping new contents and applying up to date methodology and by following a bottom-up approach where students and teachers co-design. - On VET teachers directly involved (35-50). They feel equiped in designing and implementing educational programmes internationalization. - On VET teachers not directly involved. At least 20 teachers from each school (140 in total) will be trained by their colleagues to apply the principles of BUILD@HOME in their own lessons, using the toolbox and virtual classroom BUILD@HOME. - On VET students directly involved (310-400), the project will offer them the opportunity to contribute to shape the education methodologies in their colleges, and to work in an international context, with the consequent development of global competences such as digital tools for on-line work, English, intercultural understanding and communication, self-management, adaptability. - On VET students not directly involved, they will still benefit from the increased knowledge and skills of their VET teachers and from the possibility offered by their colleges of having an international dimension in their education. Longer term benefits The desired impact on local and regional level is that every participating VET school has structurally incorporated the toolbox BUILD@HOME in education so that every student can gain international experience in regular lessons, without having to travel abroad. The toolbox BUILD@HOME is in line with the ECVET recognition. The aim is that the developed training BUILD@HOME is shared with the EfVET. It is expected after the project period that at least 100 teachers of VET schools will attend training every year. The teachers who followed the training will also provide training for about 10 teachers in their own VET school. As a result, approximately 1500 teachers have been trained to apply the principles of BUILD@HOME and will use the toolbox BUILD@HOME.
With this project we intended to achieve the following aims: - Increase the level of awareness towards the necessity of international competences - Highlight the reality of acquiring such competences through virtual based education, instead of only physical - Increase the level of qualification of students by providing a tool for the acquiring of such competences - Implement this new model into educational organizations - Reinforce cooperation between VET schools. We wanted to develop an easy to use toolbox Build@home that enables teachers and students to create or follow education that closely matches the curriculum/learning objectives, learning needs, talents and core qualities of the student.
European VET schools are tasked with making their students agile and resilient in an increasingly internationalised society and labour market. The reality is that due to limited financial resources (Erasmus+), reluctance of students to go abroad for long periods and other obstacles, a large majority of students are not or hardly immersed in internationalisation. This is especially true for students with fewer opportunities. The current offer is not sufficient and internationalisation is inadequately embedded in the curriculum. Our project lied within the idea that internationalization needs a permanent place in education, regardless of the profile of the student. The aim was to create a virtual platform (toolbox) to improve and support international competences without the need of an experience abroad and to form teachers on the use of this tool. This necessity has also been highlighted with today’s pandemic situation, as the incapability to go abroad has been made obvious. We wanted to create a toolbox which we believe will improve and enrich the quality of our internationalisation education. In one's own school, city, region or country and online/virtual and blended and for all students.