Digitally enriched curriculum bridging formal and non-formal VET Erasmus Project

Project Title

Digitally enriched curriculum bridging formal and non-formal VET

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal); ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

CONTEXT
Formal vocational education of young people is usually disconnected from their engagement in extracurricular activities. Schools and out-of-school learning environments rarely come together to develop a programme that would cross their borders. This results from different agendas pursued by the formal and non-formal education sectors. School programmes are driven by national curricula giving teachers little time to go beyond the particular content of their course and its predefined schedule. On the other side of the scene there are non-formal education providers offering a range of courses which can be adapted to needs and interests of learners in a particular context and time. The key question of this project is how to bridge this gap and develop approaches which would open fields of cooperation between teachers and trainers for the benefit of young people preparing for their vocational careers.

GENERAL OBJECTIVE
The project aimed at bridging formal and non-formal education environments to support young people to develop digital competences relevant for their vocational careers.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
– Strengthen partners’ cooperation with other organisations across the formal and non-formal VET sectors
– Provide opportunities for students to extend their learning of vocational subjects beyond school
– Design flexible learning pathways focusing on competent use of digital technologies used in their future professions
– Validate the approaches through piloting them during the project lifetime
– Elaborate the findings from the pilots and publish them
– Propagate the methodology widely to encourage growth of similar initiatives

MAIN TARGET GROUPS
Young people in initial VET
– Preparing for occupations in which competent use of digital technologies is important
– Having limited opportunities to participate in extracurricular enrichment programmes due to their distant location, price, etc.
– In need of support to develop competences essential for employment

VET teachers and trainers
– Seeking opportunities to extend/improve their programmes
– Working in schools or non-formal education organisations open to innovation at the interface of initial VET, lifelong learning and youth work

Decision makers in the VET field
– Headmasters and managers of the above in charge of planning courses
– Local/regional authorities deciding on financial support to non-formal learning programmes

MAIN OUTPUTS
– Learning pathways involving students preparing for vocational careers in a range of learning experiences that enrich their school curriculum. Each partner team designed and implemented at least 3 such scenarios in close cooperation of formal and non-formal education providers. The learning outcomes were thoroughly evaluated to gather data for the main project publication.
– Publication: Digitally enriched curriculum bridging formal and non-formal VET. It covers the following themes: 3D Modelling, From manual to digital prototyping, Introduction to the Internet of Things, IoT in Agriculture
The publication, issued in 4 languages (GR, IT, PL, EN) is available as OER on the project website https://www.digi-vet.eu

OUTCOMES AND IMPACT
– Students preparing for vocational careers: improve their learning outcomes in the area of digital skills (3D design, 3D printing, IoT in particular), further develop their transversal competences and acquire more positive attitudes both to school and out-of-school environments as a result of the above.
– VET school teachers: improve pedagogies through linking their curricula to continuing learning pathways, enriching their classes with focus on digital technologies, create more inclusive learning environment taking into account the varied students’ competences, experiences and interests, gain new opportunities for networked learning in a European dimension thus raising appreciation of EU educational projects.
– Trainers from non-formal VET sector: better focus their training programmes for young people on knowledge, skills and competences relevant for their vocational careers, reinforce their capacity for European cooperation and networked learning, increase their willingness to integrate good practices/methods from other contexts.
– At systemic level: new input to the vocational education reform debate, strengthened argumentation for flexible learning pathways across the borders of formal and non-formal VET in the area of digital skills.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 83299,86 Eur

Project Coordinator

Centrum Edukacyjne EST & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Centrum Ksztalcenia Zawodowego i Ustawicznego nr 2 w Wadowicach
• INSTITOUTO TECHNOLOGIAS YPOLOGISTONKAI EKDOSEON DIOFANTOS
• Centro Machiavelli S.r.l.