The project sought to contribute to "promoting interconnected higher education systems' by reinforcing and promoting collaboration between higher education, in the form of vocational teacher education, and vocational schools, together with the industrial and public sectors. This collaboration was enhanced by the twin aims of LeadVET: 1) developing leadership and 'boundary spanning' abilities for professionals in the relevant fields, 2) developing tools and models for more effective networking across sectors. Its concrete objectives relate to "contributing to innovation in VET' The concrete objectives are: objective 1/PR1: identify tools for mapping networks and networking activities across vocational ecosystems objective 2/PR2: Create a model and mentoring system to bridge the theory-practice gap in vocational teacher education objective 3/PR3: Increase the potential for recruitment of quality candidates for VET teacher education.
The EU’s Osnabrück declaration emphasizes the importance of vocational training for European competitiveness, sustainability, employment, fair distribution, democracy, and value creation. The declaration also states: “It is necessary to promote VET as an attractive and high-quality pathway for jobs and life. In particular, attractiveness can be achieved through adaptability, flexibility, high quality, inclusiveness, and permeability of training pathways.” The concern about the lack of recruitment of vocational teachers in a European context is also a topic in the OECD report “Teachers and Leaders in Vocational Education and Training” from 2021. The overarching ambition of LeadVET is to enhance vocational teacher education (VTE) and vocational education and training (VET) by developing sustainable university-school partnerships, together with leadership and networking skills for professionals in the field. Within VET, the connection between educational and occupational practices is crucial, as VET- Teachers work at the intersection of these practices. Overall, LeadVET contributes to Improved recruitment, retention, training and leadership skills and job satisfaction, for vocational teachers.