The project successfully achieved its objectives by responding to the evolving needs of training systems, meeting the challenges of the pandemic and contributing to the development of effective, inclusive and future-proof teaching materials and methods in the context of practical work. One of the major achievements was to ensure continuity of driver training even in the event of a lockdown. This was ensured by the creation of a training environment for VR for vehicle inspection. The trainees had access to the environment through Meta Quest glasses from their own location. The instructor entered the same environment from his workstation and was able to guide the student through speech and examples. Distance learning was therefore technically successful and made it possible, for example, to reduce travel between home and school, which met the ecological objectives and reduced the carbon footprint. The project also tested teaching materials produced using other technologies, such as 360 images and video. These were also tested successfully and learning was facilitated through remote access.
We aim to respond to critical needs that emerged during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and its impact on vocational education and training across Europe. The primary motivation was to modernise and enhance the digitalisation of education, in particular in response to the challenges faced during distance learning. The lack of adapted tools and training materials and the high drop-out rate of young people during the distance learning phase underlined the urgency of developing comprehensive solutions. In Finland, early school leaving and delays in certain fields of education prompted our application, as it was difficult to carry out practical exercises during the closure of educational institutions. Given the importance of the continuity of driver training, particularly in view of the shortage of drivers in transport companies, we wanted to ensure that training could continue even in the event of a lockdown. The aim was to support independent learning through distance learning and to reduce the carbon footprint by minimising travel between home and school. We aimed to increase self-learning by facilitating practical tasks at a distance and by developing guides to support the use of training materials.