In the current global context of complex economic challenges, there is growing interest in how workplaces develop and use skills, and this involves understanding the nature of the skills demanded by employers, and therefore the need of VET-business win-win cooperation has become more pressing. Cooperation between businesses and VET is very important for both the quality of education and for making sure future employees have the skills which labour market needs. By organising the VET provision close to the labour market, the skills needs can be more directly communicated and solved and does not (necessarily) depend on skills surveys or skills forecasting models. Despite, as concluded by a recent study from EC, there exists several constraining factors to successful VET-business cooperation across Europe, and in particularly in BRIDGES’ participating countries (North Ireland, England, Ireland, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Poland and Cyprus), including: lack of effective dialogue between business, providers and government; insufficient ownership of the real needs of businesses and to a lesser degree, of providers; high costs of training making companies, in particular SMEs, reluctant to invest; lack of information about benefits of and opportunities in VET; limited business’ and learners’ participation due to still a lower attractiveness of VET (at least when compared with other educational paths). With a view to the above-mentioned challenges, partners recognise the need of upskilling their VET professionals and have an effective employer engagement internal policy and agenda. In this frame, BRIDGES project will provide a bespoke framework, blended CPD programme and digital resources to support VET providers and professionals in improving WBL through effective employer engagement. The following objectives, activities and participants are defined: -Supply VET providers with a bespoke 4-level employer engagement framework: i) Building Educational Capacity; ii) Co-designing Curricula and Career Pathways; iii) Leading and Networking; iv) Enhancing Internationalisation; -Upskill 64 VET professionals in effective employer engagement that has the required impacts, through a blended CPD course and digital resources; -Engage 40 associated partners and key stakeholders by involving them in development, validation, dissemination and exploitation actions; -Promote the excellence and attractiveness of WBL and VET among VET providers, professionals and stakeholders, through BRIDGES Community of practice and multiplier events in all partners' countries, targeting more than 210 participants (including VET providers, VET professionals, employers, but also Social Partners, HE and AE providers and professionals, chambers of commerce, employers’ associations, public bodies, decision and policy makers). Expected outcomes of the BRIDGES project are: - Knowledge acquired on efficient employer engagement pathways by partners’ organisations and other VET providers involved in the project; - Skills gained on employer engagement by VET professionals involved in the project; - Increased use of the BRIDGES virtual learning environment and community of practice; - Reinforced links, synergies and cooperation among partners’ organisations but also other VET providers and their network of employers; - Increased awareness of VET and WBL as an attractive way of education and employability; - Enhanced capacity of VET providers and professionals to proactively engage with employers to identify and respond to their specific skills needs; - Deep-rooted strategic partnerships with local, national and international employers of every size to work in designing and delivering VET solutions that meet their current and specific skills demands, whilst planning for those of the future; - Increased appropriation, transferability and scalability of the project and its outputs (available as OER is six languages - english, portuguese, german, spanish, polish and greek) by VET providers and professionals, but also by other educational players, such as AE and HE in other European countries; - Expanded awareness of VET and WBL as an attractive way of education and employability, across Europe.
Along with the needs mentioned above, the BRIDGES consortium experienced first-hand the challenges faced in WBL activities and in building sustainable cooperation with employers. By implementing this project, we aimed to firstly upskill VET professionals by providing a bespoke employer engagement framework. Secondly the creation of a CPD programme and a set of digital learning resources, including good practices videos and a community of practices to support VET professionals in improving WBL through effective employer engagement. Thirdly, to engage associated partners and key stakeholders in the development, validation, dissemination and exploitation actions, through the Local Experts Groups, the BRIDGES Community of practice and the multiplier events in all partners' countries and in order to promote the excellence and attractiveness of WBL and VET and to enhance the capacity of VET providers and professionals to proactively engage with employers to identify and respond to their specific skills needs.
To address the gaps highlighted in employer engagement and work-based learning which was identified at the International Conference on Employer Engagement in Education and Training as well as, the fact that WBL had been chosen by the 27 EU Member States, the five European Union Candidate Countries and the three European Economic Area countries as one of their top priorities for 2020. Slow economic recovery, rapid transformations in technology, and emerging mismatches between employer needs and worker skills, among others make business and VET partnerships critical. As concluded by a recent study from EC (2017,https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=8053&furtherPubs=yes), several constraining factors exist to successful VET-business cooperation across Europe and therefore the needs that were addressed included upskilling VET professionals and having an effective employer engagement internal policy and agenda, supporting VET professionals in improving WBL through employer links and creating awareness of VET and WBL as an attractive way of education and employability, across Europe. We applied for this project with 4 specific objectives to achieve and 3 intellectual outputs to develop to ensure that the needs were addressed