The core target of ESSENCE was a trans-national job and education profile for a European Sound Specialist (ESS) at EQF level 5. We wanted to understand the labor market demands and expectations of sound specialists in different countries, how sound engineering at this level is taught and certified there (specifically in places without or with a less pronounced EQF5 gap than in Germany), and how our emerging ESS vision would fit into those different VET cultures. For VDT as coordinating partner, our secondary goal was to develop skills in running projects under the ERASMUS+ framework and to learn from our partners, whose abilities in this area were already quite advanced. Traditionally, the educational focus of VDT had been limited to academia. Having witnessed dramatic shifts in work environment and conditions over the last decade, we began to understand the importance of vocational education and training in relation to the pursuing the social, aesthetic and sound quality ideals set out in our bylaws. Lastly, we wanted to build skills in dealing with established methods and tools for professional profiles in the European Union, most notably with the ESCO data structure and dictionary, to help with our own national VET projects.
Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the live event industry harder than any other sector, we were facing a mass exodus of qualified personnel. At the same time, career perspectives and qualification offerings for specialisation (to help retain people for our industry) either meant leaving work for a multi-year stint in academia, or "picking it up as you go" as in the early rock'n'roll years. Needless to say, the latter approach is neither suited to the rapidly advancing technical demands and ever more abstract reasoning and troubleshooting skills required of today's sound engineers, nor to the changing labor market, where long-term mentoring relationships (which would enable such training on the job to progress to more advanced levels) are harder to come by. Meanwhile, as two partners were already rolling out national sound engineering qualifications at EQF level 5, we felt that a broadening of one's view and learning from one's peers throughout Europe would make those efforts better and more resilient. Lastly, we wanted to improve mobility for sound specialists by creating a common baseline of required competences that would enable sound engineering skills to be certified and recognized across borders.