Industrial VET Hub Erasmus Project

Project Title

Industrial VET Hub

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: Gender equality / equal opportunities; Cooperation between educational institutions and business

Project Summary

The 4th industrial revolution has brought new technological changes an a generalised skills mismatch at the EU labour market, mainly on the industrial sectors of electronics, mechatronics, ICT or metal works. Europe encounters high difficulties to fill in new occupations that, along with the existing gender imabalances within, impacts negatively in youth employment rates across the continent.

The “Industrial VET Hub” (IVH) was the first of its kind to become an international partnership of VET schools from Northern (Denmark), Central (Germany), Eastern (Estonia) and Southern (Spain) Europe by focusing on the role of VET as the best education system for youngsters, and especially females, to gain the specific high-level skills demanded by the industrial companies and better adapt to these and future challenges of the sector.

The general objective of the Industrial VET Hub was therefore to build a transnational partnership based on the cooperation of European VET experts to exchange good practices and make strategic recommendations on how to tackle the industrial skills mismatch and how to address industrial gender imbalances at the education and the industrial sector.

Regarding participants, a total of 8 project participants represented the 4 partner organisations, who participated directly in the transnational meetings, activities, identification of good practices and making the recommendations. Also, a total of 22 teacher participants were selected by each partner organisation to participate in the staff training activities (both physical and virtual, being a maximum of 2 industrial teachers per country, with at least 1 women per organisation positively discriminated as an exemple of gender balance in the project.

Regarding activities, these were undertaken by phases to achieve particular results and linked to specific deliverables done at the end of each project phase:
Within Phase 1, all partners collected key facts and data about the proportion of women studying industrial VET, women employed in industrial occupations or gender wage gap in the sector resulted in a higher openness to other EU contexts and was reflected in the “Infography on the initial situation of industrial VET, skills and gender gap”: https://industrialvethub.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/ind-vet-hub_version-5-3.pdf;
Within Phase 2, partners guarantees quality assurance along the project;
Within Phase 3, all partners identified and exchanged the best practices located in each country at company, VET and secondary schools, with special attention to gender, resulted in a productive exchange among partners and was compiled into the “Manual of Good Practices on Industry, VET & Gender”: https://view.genial.ly/601953f56e2cb50d83c934b4/guide-manual-of-good-practices;
Within Phase 4, partners elaborated the recommendations aimed at industrial companies, VET schools, youngsters/societies and authorities/decision-makers, resulting in a collaborative work and professional exchange of expertise in the subject, compiled into the “Guide of Recommendations”: https://industrialvethub.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/guide-of-recommendations-v3-def.pdf;
Within Phase 5, staff from partner organisations participated in short-term joint training activities that gave them the opportunity to exchange different local, national and international points of view and the creation of a stronger network of trust among project partners on the nexus between VET, industry and gender.

Regarding impact, partners got more knowledgeable about the relationship between VET, industry and gender in Europe but also in their own territories. By working together in this transnational partnership, they got also deeper expertise on how to make targeted recommendations, and gained strong reputation for being the first partners of this sectoral VET Hub aimed at tackling societal challenges in Europe. Also, by learning from other International good practices, staff participants got more awareness about the need to find female teachers to work in technical disciplines as role models and how to motivate girls to study technical fields in-school.

Regarding benefits, different EU VET organisations worked together in the field of skills mismatch and gender underepresenration in industrial VET studies, that could not be solved separately. By sharing their experiences, best practices and making recommendations they developed new ideas to create experimental learning approaches to better promote industrial vocations among females and adapt VET to the rapid evolution of the industrial scenario in Europe. Todayu, partners are therefore in the position to offer their companies, VET staff, youngsters and local authorities with practical knowledge on what works better and how this can be undertaken step by step in each context, that in the long term will help to invest in the future of youngsters and females in particular.

Project Website

https://industrialvethub.wordpress.com/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 46051,28 Eur

Project Coordinator

XARXA FORMACIÓ PROFESSIONAL & Country: ES

Project Partners

• TARTU KUTSEHARIDUSKESKUS
• Mercantec
• Berufsbildende Schule Westerburg