Erasmus : Building Up Skills Erasmus Project

Project Title

Erasmus : Building Up Skills

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; Open and distance learning; Research and innovation

Project Summary

Building Up Skills (ErasmusBUS) was a Strategic Partnership under the leadership of Akdeniz University. It was a consortium made up of two universities, four VET schools and two NGOs engaged in research and innovation in education.

The project proposal was conceived in 2018 and indeed the project started one year before the COVID19 pandemic.
With hindsight, the partners had foresight and consciousness that education is almost always reactive to change in society, industry, technology and the labour market. ErasmusBUS wanted to reverse this tendency by making education providers become constructive proactive players stimulating continuous professional development throughout one’s career. This change was imagined to be possible through Modular Learning in Distance Education.

The COVID19 pandemic is halfway through the project lifetime and this:
– gave higher relevance to the importance of distance learning due to necessity with the closure of schools,
– placed blended learning top of mind of policymakers in education as the way forward (and we were all late on this process) and
– introduced a new avenue of discovery for the ErasmusBUS partners to see Modular Learning as part of blended learning not only to widen knowledge but also to deliver core educational content in the process of implementing curricula in VET but also to put lifelong learning from early years straight into post-school years.

ErasmusBUS:
– introduce Modular Learning methodology in VET so that trainers and students acquire a better understanding and background knowledge about their profession,
– created OERs on cross-sectoral Technical Design so that learners acquire knowledge on the fundamentals of design in air conditioning, electrical, mechanical and hydraulic engineering and these were tested by trainers and students in the automotive industry in a Work and Learn balance, therefore, creating the mindset for continuous professional development,
– carried out observations and analyses of the Work and Learn balance activities in the project and carried out further research to publish a strategy document on lifelong professional development through Modular Learning called MODULearn.

The Work and Learn balance activities included trainers who followed the OERs produced while they work and students who practised the same balance in parallel to their studies in school or during their training mobilities in which they worked in the enterprise, studied Technical Design through distance learning. Students were also mentored and coached in the culture of continuous professional development during their careers.

The research for the publication of the MODULearn strategy document was carried out:
– within the partnership tapping in-house expertise,
– during the pilot activities in school and during student training mobilities/apprenticeships,- through desk research and
– through cross-project cooperation with another Erasmus+ project REBEL (VisMedNet is a key partner) that has and still is carrying out research on distance and blended learning environments and strategies in the post COVID19 pandemic.

MODULearn is an open invitation to innovation in VET and HE in the hands policymakers, professionals in education management and the design of training paths. Now even in the post-project lifetime, the document is the subject of debate and dialogue even with the partnerships of two other E+ KA2 Projects BIG InternPrize and Mapping Teacher Training (also coordinated by Akdeniz University) given the common ground in new learning dynamics.

This intensive cross-project cooperation was not planned at the start of the project lifetime but it was an opportunity that the partners grabbed given timing (with the project extension) and the COVID19 pandemic and mindsets being more open and experienced with blended learning as a necessity and no longer a possibility.

ErasmusBUS started a process of experimentation and innovation in the automotive industry transferable to other sectors and crafts through MODULearn strategy to create an impact on learners and professionals and in general, is a strategy for robust links and smooth transition from formal education in VET to lifelong learning and training for upping of skills and competences in line with social, technological, economic, environmental, political and values drivers of change outside the school.

During the project lifetime,
– IO2: 12 E-Learning Videos and 12 Handouts were prepared on Airconditioning, Electrics, Hydraulics, and Mechanics. 8 sample videos and online quizzes were prepared.
-15 students from 3 partners ( with 3 accompanying teachers from each partner) attended short term blended mobility in Malta. They studied IO2 online and did work & learn in Malta.
-5 students from Greek partner could not travel and did blended mobility in their local city because of COVID-19.
-Total 49 students and teachers tested IO2 Online Module on Cross Sectoral Technical Design.
-Total 132 participants attended 4 Multiplier Events.

Project Website

http://erasmusbusproject.internprize.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 164783 Eur

Project Coordinator

AKDENIZ UNIVERSITY & Country: TR

Project Partners

• Antalya Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi
• VisMedNet Association
• LICEUL TEHNOLOGIC AUREL VLAICU LUGOJ
• MAG-UNINETTUNO S.R.L.
• Regional Directorate of Primary and Secondary Education of Western Macedonia
• Associazione ValIda
• CPrFPE SALESIANOS PADRE ARAMBURU