Furniture and Language innovative integrated learning for sector Atractiveness and Mobility Enhancement Erasmus Project

Project Title

Furniture and Language innovative integrated learning for sector Atractiveness and Mobility Enhancement

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: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

One of the problems of the furniture sector in EU is the inability to attract young workers. The problem is not likely to disappear due that it has been estimated that the total additional workforce requirement between 2010 and 2025 is of 1.5 million. Thus, what could be a good opportunity for people willing to enter the labour market is becoming a great problem for the sector.

Additionally, although a shift of employment in the furniture industry from EU15 to the EU13 is taking place, the EU15 still concentrates two-thirds of the workforce. This matter requires mobility of workers but one of the main issues to deal with regarding mobility is foreign language competence.

In response to the aforementioned needs, the project will develop a new innovative VET curriculum and course (in offline and interactive online versions), combining CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and LSP (Language for Specific Purposes). This training will merge the learning of basic furniture sector knowledge and foreign language knowledge in order to achieve the following objectives:

– Attracting young workers to the furniture sector by providing an innovative, ICT-based training in basic sector knowledge.
– Reducing furniture sector labour market entry barriers with de development of a CLIL training for both acquiring basic sector knowledge and language competences. This training aims to be an opportunity for students, recent graduates, immigrants and workers seeking a change in their careers to access a job in the furniture industry.
– Favouring mobility of furniture workers among EU countries by providing them with a tool for learning specific furniture sector terms in foreign languages and for making these skills to be clearly understood throughout Europe.

The project consortium is a combination of furniture sector industries associations (P1-OIGPM, P5-FLA and P7-AMUEBLA) and furniture VET providers (P2-CENFIM, P4-MENDELU and P6-WULS) together a company with experts in sector translations and language education.

One of the main boundaries of the partnership is that it includes furniture-related partners from the countries and languages that represent a very high percentage of furniture production and furniture workers within the EU: Poland, Spain, Czech Republic and Italy. Specifically the sum of the participating countries represents a 40% approx. of the furniture production (2012) and a 45% approx. of the personnel in furniture manufacturing (2010). Furthermore, all partners (except the language expert partner P3 NET) have furniture sector knowledge.

The methodology of the project starts from the study of the qualifications and occupations of the furniture sector in order to select those to which the new curriculum should be related to. Then, for those occupations/qualifications, a set of learning outcomes to be covered by the CLIL curriculum will be defined with the feedback of furniture industries employees. The learning outcomes will be grouped in units and each unit will be described in detail: generic title, ESCO profiles/qualifications to which the unit can be related, reference of the EQF Level, learning outcomes that can be achieved, procedures and criteria for assessment an and ECVET points allocated to the unit. Furthermore definitions for Europass CV and Language passport will be created and annexed to the curriculum, which will be translated to 4 more languages and published in the project website.

Once the curriculum is ready, the contents, exercises, assessments and all the training material for the different units will be created through the collaborative work of partners. The materials will form a toolkit for trainers that will be translated into 4 more languages and will be accessible through the project website.

Then, from the developed materials, an interactive online course will be created, transforming the contents into interactive objects and games with the involvement of final users. These objects will be integrated in an e-learning platform which will be linked from the project website. The online course will be available in 7 languages.

Once all project outputs (curriculum and offline and online courses) are created, partners will hold dissemination workshops in their countries in order to spread the results of the project and to get feedback from stakeholders. The opinions gathered will be taken into account for outputs’ review and improvement.

The project’s outputs together will form an important training tool for. The partners have a strong intention to maintain the intellectual outputs available through open access for the whole furniture sector benefit. Therefore, the project website including the intellectual outputs and the e-learning platform will remain online for public use after the EU funding.

Project Website

http://www.erasmusflame.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 264505 Eur

Project Coordinator

OGOLNOPOLSKA IZBA GOSPODARCZA PRODUCENTOW MEBLI & Country: PL

Project Partners

• AGRUPACION EMPRESARIAL INNOVADORA DE FABRICANTES DE MUEBLES Y AFINES DE LA REGION DE MURCIA
• SZKOLA GLOWNA GOSPODARSTWA WIEJSKIEGO
• CENTRE DE DIFUSIO TECNOLOGICA DE LA FUSTA I DEL MOBLE DE CATALUNYA
• BCNNET TRANSLATIONS, S.L.
• MENDELOVA UNIVERZITA V BRNE
• FEDERAZIONE ITALIANA DELLE INDUSTRIE DEL LEGNO DEL SUGHERO DEL MOBILEE DELL’ ARREDAMENTO ASSOCIAZIONE