KA2 The X-factors; practical use of Skills Competition’s methods and instruments in vocational education and the development of excellence Erasmus Project

Project Title

KA2 The X-factors; practical use of Skills Competition’s methods and instruments in vocational education and the development of excellence

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Pedagogy and didactics; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The Erasmus + KA2 project “X-factors” was initiated and conducted as a ‘strategic partnership for the exchange of best practices’ with the participation of WorldSkills Netherlands, WorldSkills UK, Hame University of Applied Science of Finland and HAN University of Applied Science in The Netherlands.

The project started September 2017 and completed July 2020. The project’s aim was to generate and share knowledge and practices regarding the actual and potential use of Skills Competitions (SC). The project’s ambition was to initiate activities and produce tools and manuals that can be used to stimulate and support the practical use of Skills Competitions and its methods and instruments in vocational education.

In most EU member states, Skills Competitions are strongly related to, yet organized besides the VET-systems. Competition activities for students are often regarded by teachers and VET colleges as extra-curricular activities . Further growth and development of national and international SC in Europe depends very much on the willingness, capabilities and enthusiasm of VET providing colleges and their teachers, as they form an important channel to stimulate, support and guide students to competition activities. Helping colleges and teachers to have a better understanding of the perspectives, possibilities and added value of SC in the overall quality of VET will strengthen the competitions over Europe and accelerate the use of the power of skills. Not only for those who participate in the competitions, but also for ‘regular’ VET-students. This can be done by using SC methods and instruments ‘within’ VET-curricula, assessments and exams. Thus, extra contributions can be made in the structural development of talents and excellence in VET.

In the X-factors project, research and good practices have been shared and discussed to determine if, and how, SC instruments, content and methods can be more integrated in VET. The project team reported their preliminary results in the publication ‘Igniting Education’, identifying four major topics in which SC can be supported and add value at the same time. As a result:
• SC activities are embedded in VET providing colleges,
• SC activities, test projects and challenges and assessments are used in the development of curricula and the creation of education,
• SC activities are used to provide teachers and trainers with extra pedagogical and didactic skills and new teaching and learning strategies,
• National and international SC are used as a hub for further professional development of teachers and trainers.

The partnership valued these four topics to be relevant in every EU member state, and other countries around the world. The publication was presented and discussed during the 2018 General Assembly of WorldSkills International in Amsterdam. The relevance was affirmed in this GA by the appr. 60 participants, representing several SC-organisations, that joined the round table discussions organized by the Xfactors project team. In the round table discussions, the participants raised similar issues of the SC advantages e.g. developing both technical and soft skills in students’ and teachers’ competences and the collaboration with the working life. Due to the outcome of the round table discussions, the partnership was stimulated to further explore these topics, aiming to provide practical tools and tips for VET-providers, teachers and trainers in order to help them integrate and apply SC in their daily work and responsibilities and profit the power of skills as much as possible. In the current COVID-19 crisis, the importance of this can only be felt more strongly. New and great challenges occur worldwide and we face the need for strong vocational skills to properly absorb the economic and social consequences.
With this ambition, a toolkit has been produced as an output of the X-factors project. The toolkit will help promote delivery and further development of European approaches to embedding skills competitions to a wide range of national, European and global partners, through the EuroSkills and WorldSkills networks and with the support of partner Skills Competion organisations.

Next to the desk research and exchange of information on relevant national and international research and good practices leading up to the publication ‘Igniting education’ and generating a toolkit, country audits were done in the three project countries aiming to build the evidence base and collect best practices. In the project teams search for best practices a learning teaching and training activity was held at Trafford College, Altrincham, Manchester, UK. This College was identified as a best practice in terms of applying skills competitions on a school level within a group of 9 colleges and using this to optimize the quality of VET-programs. The project team organized a LTTA together with teachers from the Trafford College to learn from their experience.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 54705 Eur

Project Coordinator

stichting (foundation) Skills Netherlands & Country: NL

Project Partners

• HAMEEN AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY
• STICHTING HOGESCHOOL VAN ARNHEM ENNIJMEGEN HAN
• WorldSkills UK